My first attempt ex AA van

[damo1023]

Well I thought it was about time I maybe did a build thread myself.
I'm one of those usual stories in these crazy times. Haven't had a van before but enjoyed several campervanning trips including a month in australia for my honeymoon.

I spent a fair while looking at Griffin and Diamond emblazoned vehicles (closest I'll come to swearing on this thread).
With covid tax rife it was at the point where the jump in cost to get a Transporter didn't seem so bad anymore.
I'd been looking about for absolutely ages.
Between the wife not liking colours of the vehicles or the vans selling before I could even get a look at it. Eventually an ebay search turned up something ideal.

Jopo Customs a short some 250 mile trip across country had an ex Aa van up for sale. After not a lot of back and forth and 10 hours driving, I came home the proud owner of this.

 

[damo1023]

So after a decent drive home and a bit of thinking time I had some sort of a plan mapped out. I've had a few hints and tips along the way between here and also a brother who has worked on Air cooled vans for a very long time.
General plan is quite a generic 3/4 rock and roll bed and furniture down the side.
Nothing over the top but functional and achievable I think for anyone to do.
First steps were the usual suspects, deadening and insulation. I've used the deadening shop before to sort out a particularly noisy Toyota gt86 so an order was placed for their van deadening pack.
I left the bulk head in for a while while cleaning out and deadening the rear of the vehicle.
My logic suggesting it would be nicer to keep it separated for a bit to save of the echo of a big empty space.

 

[N1ck]

Looks nice

 

[damo1023]

Looks nice
what’s your plans for the convertion

As it stands I've been using the van since May it was picked up in March and converted over the weekends In that time.
I thought it'd be nice to have a record of what I've done

 

[damo1023]

So anyway things nicely in progress, I should say the van was purchased in March and converted by the start of May using my weekends to do it.
Deadening moving along nicely it was time to start thinking about getting the bulkhead out.
Obviously I couldn't leave any of the nastiness in afterwards and ruin the lines so it was time for the angle grinder (fun times)
Also a bit of investigation showed the original kit for an auxiliary battery under the passenger bench. Sadly this isn't being used but more later on.

 

[damo1023]

With the bulkhead out it was definitely starting to feel like something was happening.
Sound deadening continued steps being a good degrease and clean of the panels.
Lots of heat via a trusty little fan heater and a heat gun with the ambient temperature being less than ideal for the Dodomat. The foam layer is a different matter that stuff seems to stick like nobody's business wether you want it to or not.

 

[damo1023]

So a quick side track and the insurance company (Brentacre) needed a few photos of the modifications for the vehicle report.
Some of the Eagle eyed amongst you may notice a difference in the wheels at this point.
Side story and resolved at the time with some prompting to the company selling the van.
This is a T32 edition and im pretty sure it's well documented about them and tyre / wheel ratings.
Before purchasing the van I pulled up the mot history and found a failure for underrated tyres 2 days before I was heading over. Cue a pissed off phone call and given the option of those wheels or swap for another set. What I ended up with was a set of bk racing bk170 wheels instead of the originals.
There's still a bit more to add on to this story down the line.....
Spoiler for anyone bothered to zoom in on the tyres. Spot the issue

 

[Paynewright]

Is that a GT86 on the drive?

Nice work on the van - what is the final theme?

 

[damo1023]

So onwards with the progress it was all feeling pretty full on being a whole 2 weeks in working on the weekends only.
Thoughts moved a bit more towards the other bits I was going to need.
I had a quick play with making up a couple of panels and looked at the price of ply at this point. In the end I copped out and ordered a set of full height panels from ply worx. Along with one of their Halo roofs, saw them and just had to have one.
At the same time I placed an order with harrisons trim supplies for lots of carpet, glue, clips and some suede.

 

[damo1023]

Is that a GT86 on the drive?

Nice work on the van - what is the final theme?

It is indeed Paynewright. Toyota Gt86 blanco edition number 57. Wife really wanted one as we both have a spot for Japanese cars. Her since I built this fto for her as her third car. Me as a former Honda tech.

 

[damo1023]

So sound deadening check, carpeting and panels underway. Next stop electrics, I went like so many people with Travel volts. Martin eventually got me sorted out with a few hiccups along the way. Credit to him how you handle a problem is sometimes more important than the original issue. First rate in this case especially with all the supply issues happening at the time.
After my wallet taking yet another blow I had another delivery to explain to the wife
Definitely gets harder to say you aren't spending a fortune when delivery's are turning up on an almost daily basis.

 

[damo1023]

So it was time for that bit I am told everyone loves. Getting some carpet fitted. Definitely helpful if you have someone on hand with some patience. 100 percent more helpful if you have 2 pairs of hands to do the job.
We made a start by doing the panels first, despite having watched several videos on carpeting the metal work this seemed like the best place to start.
Invisible trim clips used typically after the first lot I found somewhere much cheaper than Harrisons to obtain these from.
A nice weekend was upon us (on a side note what the hell happened with summer?) So we took to the garden with masks and our supervisor and just went mad with the glue. I should edit that last bit but read into it what you will
















Top tip on this is loads and loads of blades. We kept changing out as soon as the cut wasn't dead easy and perfect.
Also a decent trim tool helps tuck the carpet under the back of the trim clips and keep it looking really neat. Totally unnecessary as it's on the back end but I like the work even when you can't see it to be done nicely.

 

[damo1023]

Ok so panels tick, all pretty straight forward and looking good for a first attempt.
Now the real fun started with doing the metal work inside the van.
There are a couple of bits we messed up on. For a first time I'd have been staggered if it had gone perfectly.
Top tip is this stuff is forgiving and it's quite easy to make a cover up if you need to.
We were probably a bit wasteful all in all as we used a lwb carpet kit and glue plus a bit more to do a swb van. Sure we could cut down on some of the wastage doing it for a second time around.
Still after taking the best part of about 8 hours and nearly a divorce later we have carpet on the inside of the van.
Celebratory drinks requires at this point and we couldn't resist just offering the panels up to see what it was going going look like.






















Edit I missed the step where I'd treated the floor. 5mm gold standard insulation used on the inside of the van. Rather than go crazy with dodomat then the under side of the van was treated to a thick coat of bedliner. Will need to get photos of this at some point didn't think to at the time as it was a pop into brothers workplace fast and do it

 

[damo1023]

On with the glue fest with some insulation. 100mm recycled plastic insulation from b and q made by diall if I remember right.
In the areas without as much space 50mm dodoliner was used. Again quite a nice quick process to do.
Highly recommend the diall insulation its exactly the same stuff and half the price of the dodofleece. Every penny counts after all

 

[damo1023]

Things well underway inside it was time to think about covering the halo roof and getting some of the other stuff ordered.
I'd already picked out my suppliers for the rock and roll bed and the furniture.
Leds all fitted up into the Halo system, I'm going to change these at some point. I'm not a fan of seeing all the individual leds and I have a solution to it now. The effect when you are sat in there at night watching a film is brilliant however.
On a side note windows, I stayed away from them. With the way things are now with registering a vehicle as a motorhome it seemed somewhat pointless.
Negatives to me are that I can't travel at 70 besides on the motorway.
Positives:
No leaks
Privacy
Insulation effectiveness (think greenhouse)

In all honesty i stayed away from fitting windows as when I talked it over with my wife we decided actually if we want to look outside we will either open the door or actually be outside.
This is always a personal thing to anyone building but for us it had to be the windowless option.

 

[damo1023]

Finally time to make a start on the electrics. This is actually something I enjoy doing anyway.
Orders had been placed by this point with Keverics in Peterborough for seats and a new rock and roll bed trimmed up.
Van furniture for a floor, kitchen units and a wall panel.
First job to me was making a tray to store some of the equipment required and also the battery.
Drivers seat was chosen as the place for this. I like the storage space under the bench and also had a swivel base / suborder in mind for that space further down the road.
Little bit of time used at my work to knock a quick equipment tray up. This will be taken out come this Xmas to make version 2 along with a plug and play wiring loom.

 

[damo1023]

Van furniture contacted me to say my floor was done (hooray) sadly the rest of the furniture was going to be quite some time (boooo) more on this to follow.

A bit of osmo oil later and a layer of ply under it. My floor was finally fitted and removed several more times before completion.

Keverics got in touch to say that my seats and bed were ready for collection. After bit of a tidy up and putting the carpeted panels in I drove over there to collect my much anticipated seats and bed.
Lights had been hooked up for a test fit and a few cables run by this point. More electrics coming up....


















Still love the seat trim to this date however I might change the bed going forward to something a bit easier to operate. At the price paid for the whole set they were excellent value and also tested with certification.

 

[damo1023]

More electrics....
While waiting for van furniture to finish my order I got on with some more electrical work.
Socket for Ehu installed under the bonnet in the usual location. I've currently got my eye on a kit to relocate this elsewhere.
Cable all put into conduit and clipped as per the edition 18 guidelines. Note I'm not a certified electrician although I have had it looked over by a work colleague who is afterwards. Supply runs right the way through to the back of the van. Rather than try and jam everything under the bonnet/ drivers seat I chose to place the Ehu to the back of the vehicle.
Double earth fitted to the chassis one at the socket end and one at the unit end. Belt and braces as it were.

 

[damo1023]

Switches......
While at Jopo customs I took note of their installation of switches into the b pillar and liked what they had done.
I eventually found some switches that would suit what I had in mind. Much similar to rooms in your house I wanted effectively a Master Slave switch arrangement so the lights could be turned on and off from the door but also while laid in bed.
I found a set of so called smart switches online. Annoyingly enough when they arrived they were the wrong colour illumination and a less than helpful seller. However the switches look and feel great
Loom plugs ordered and tidied up a but before installation.
This was a 2 parter as I had to wait for the unit to arrive before I could fit the second set of switches.
The switches are ultra low consumption about 0.1ma when illuminated just a shame they were orange instead of yellow.

 

[damo1023]

Excuse the mess actually I need to get back in and rephoto the electrics. I was more preoccupied with installing them instead of photographing them.
Floor taken up a bit and the ctek installed. Cable runs for my lighting circuits and power.to the rear of the van done.
Since this I've done away with the hobble crimp connected and replaced them with wiring loom connecter plugs.
I plan on making a full wrapped loom during the winter time. At this point time was of the essence. There was a looming holiday on the horizon to have the van finished for.