Show us your DIY interiors!

Hey all,

Now we all like a great resto thread....nothing better than seeing Good (welder and paint) overcome Evil (rust and grime) but I do think this forum needs a thread dedicated to DIY interiors (if I've missed it, I'm sorry).

Anyway I'm about to build up my interior, I have a 3/4 bed, a sink, a cooker already but am interested to see what DIY interiors are out there and importantly what I should consider before building.

So....show and tell.

Have you got any top tips?
Materials to use/avoid?
Must haves?
Do not have in a million years? (Useless things that you may have put in your van and never needed)
Soundproofing and ICE?
Wiring tips?
Diagrams and dimensions.....if you got em!
Electric hook up positioning?
Curtains?
Heating options?

I know its miserable outside so lets start thinking 'Summer' and lets start sharing the epic transformations that have taken place inside our vans as well as what we have done on the outside! ;D

Woolly

 

ahh i have no pictures or tips for you.. as my van is still in the welding stage.
but i cant wait to start making an interior!

will be interesting to see what others have made.

 

Im carp with wood which is embarresing as my father was a carpenter and joiner :-[

At some point im going to have to build my own interior as i cant afford a custom one
So good idea for a thread and ill pop in to see if i can pick up some tips

I dont think an interior made of ally angle and 5 bar treadplate pop rivited together is ideal for a bus lol

 

mine is cheap and cheerful




Must have - a decent R&R bed - mine's a Rusty Lee full width.
Flooring is the vinyl you tend to find in lifts - hard wearing and only £20 for the amount I wanted
buddy seats are Ikea shelf units that I turned on their sides, added an inner lip and a door and cushion. Theres a square frame under each to hold them in place and which allow me to remove them if need be.
Storage unit is a Ikea shoe cupboard that I cut down to fit.
The panel in front of the bed is the side of a cupboard from Ikeas bargain basement.
The table is the top of a coffee table from Ikea that I found in the bargain basement - took it apart, cut it down, bought a table leg and attached it to a mount- the table just lifts out.
Finally - curtains from.................................. Ikea.

Total cost for storage, two buddy seats, table and curtains = £82. Not a traditional inner but I like it.

 

That looks smart and functional mabel well done

 

Thanks Para - I'm not too great at the woodworking stuff either but was very happy with how it turned out. Mrs Mabel can use a sewing machine as well which helped. Ikea have loads of offcuts such as wardrobe side panels or other slightly damaged bits of furniture that you can dis-assemble cut down and rebuild and they look like new. The coffee table that I made my table out of was £137 new, £40 in the bargain basement but as I picked it up to have a look, the joints all gave way and so they sold it to me for £7 - the leg only cost £2.

 

Result with Ikea bargains, cool well done mate

 

The 1st interior i put out bus was made out of b&q units and Ikea doors and worktops with a big piano hinge to make the swing out unit and a bluebird rock and roll bed. any panels i had to make were just 6mm mdf with vinyl glued to them or a tall kitchen unit end panel cut down to suite.









It was quick cheap and east to build and fit.



Then the MK2 interior

All 18mm mdf carcasses, with 3x6mm (laminated together) flexible mdf doors all made by using a former and then veneering them, very time consuming and still a long way from finished, but its getting there,

the former



Carcass trial fitted with doors



special odd shaped draw under rock and roll bed, it goes over the propex






Starting to fit




Swing out cooker unit, this is actually very handy for cooking on as we don't have a poptop. and the sunroof isnt always open, and somtimes its just nice to cook outside :




And in:



And out




Fridge



Lighting





Finished (not actually finished loads of little bits to do and i'm half way through making some proper worktops and a flip up tv thingy but nearly there)

 

Very very nice Major !

 

That's excellent - are you a chippy by trade or just very good at DIY

 

Thanks folks


I'm a lowly garage door fitter by trade, and building this wasn't hard work (though Mrs MH will disagree as i built quite a lot of it in the living room, its the joys of living in a flat ) but it was quite complicated. But if you start off with just an idea you cant get it wrong as there is no plan, just make it up as you go along

 

thats awesome MH, looking forward to seeing it in person

 

nice interiors look great with curves

 

not complete yet

 

Finished off two arm rest/ storage units today for the rear seats! What do you think?

Will be fitting a lid ready for cushions soon!

 

Everybody's interiors look great! Hopefully mine will do too! Major, I reckon there may well be an order for one of those cooker cabinets coming your way as that's exactly what I want to do

 

Major - that interior is superb, what/how does the swing out cook fix/lock in place? On a concealed shoot bolt by chance?

K+

 

Thanks for all the kind words, I just want it finished now!