Confused

[Davesbackbone]

Hi all, im about to tackle my units in my conversion and am puzzled as to what to use to cover my units in, i was going to use cherry coloured conti board but think it will be too heavy and not realy good to work with, so thort to use soft wood as frames and thin ply then cover it with a finish board, same with my kitchen worktop however i cant find what the finished dressed coloured whatever ya call it boards name is and where to buy it, any other ideas on how to finish my units would be great, im not a fan of painting anything in colour as a finish, woulld idealy like my units to.look like a proper bought job if you know what i mean, thanks in advance

[TIMO]

Personally,, if i was building a camper,, id be using a caravan for donor parts for the interrior mate.. its all lightweight stuff and pre assembled

[speedystew]

have a look at magnum motorhomes http://www.magnummotorhomes.co.uk/ most of our stuff for the van came from them and also look at o'leary motorhomes http://www.olearymotorhomes.co.uk/ both very good and very helpfull

[whitemice]

Personally,, if i was building a camper,, id be using a caravan for donor parts for the interrior mate.. its all lightweight stuff and pre assembled

Getting the foam saves a chunk of money too.

mostly 1/8 AND 1/4 ply with a sticky back vynyl is used in a lot of caravans, like these.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Classic-Vinta ... 35c7ccea85

[limitedblack]

Travis Perkins do a range of wood grain decoration mdf, think its 4 or 6 mm. Saw it on Saturday when I was getting some ply. Think it's on 8 x 4 sheets.

[weseeyou]

There are several choices for a wood effect finish.

I made a video showing the construction of my bed /seat base for my Transit Mk5 campervan which might be helpful
http://youtu.be/w48QqVXiTEw
1. Use 12mm sheet Ply,Contiboard,mdf,etc for the frame and finish. Screw and glue the frame together and use plastic jointing blocks. Use self finished 12mm Furniture board with a wood effect finish ( Wickes )only where it shows like on the front face . This will be an extremely heavy base !

Furniture board comes in various thicknesses but 12mm would be the optimum thickness if you are using the board as the structural frame.

2. Build a lightweight softwood frame 32mm X 18mm (or 25mm x 18mm) and cover it with 3mm Plywood sheet ,using 3mm wood effect finish Furniture board only where it shows .The framework need only be 18mm x 32mm maximum provided the frame is glued and screwed and the 3mm furniture board is glued and screwed to it to make an extremely strong box frame.

I made my frame out of 25mm x 18mm covered it with 3mm Ply and faced the box with 12mm furniture board and it takes my 18 stone with ease . I had to use 12mm furniture board as I couldn't find 3mm in the size I needed.
The top is a hinged lid made of 9mm Plywood so you can stow stuff inside .

3. A third option is to use vynal wood effect which you buy on a roll to cover all your cheap sheet wood again where it shows. This is how the majority of caravans and coach built campervans are made . Once the vynal is fitted you cannot tell it isn't real wood .http://www.amazon.co.uk/Effect-Self-Adh ... B005K7ZKDA

Wood effect melamine faced furniture board supplier who is happy to send free samples they supply in all thicknessess at 8' x4'' sheets and will precision cut to your measurements http://www.bridec.co.uk/swatches_wood.php

[suffolkboi]

You can get your self a nice 2nd hand wardrobe, and cut that up to make your various units. That way everything matches, and much cheaper than pre cut cupboard doors.
Just use some iron on edging to cover any bare ends.

See mine here.
Ive even got enough left over to make doors for my over head locker. All from a £20 wardrobe
viewtopic.php?f=58&t=104595&start=30

[weseeyou]

using a wardrobe is an excellent idea for a cheap solution with matching wood face I never thought of that even though I have done exactly that with antique wardrobes to repair antique furniture . Great idea!

Of course constructing a seat or a bed is not like making a wardrobe and a kitchen unit as a bed has to support a much heavier load , up to 18 stone in my case so it requires a different sort of construction.
It would also be very heavy if its all made of thick melamine faced compressed fibre board but the extra weight might not be an issue.

Your units look really good by the way. Is that a Moggy I see peeking from the garage ?

[whitemice]

I used 7mm varnished birch ply for all my exposed wood finish facings and hinged bed sufaces, Travis Perkins get it @ 3x 1.5m and used their 12mm 'furniture' ply for bulkhead load bearing and 25mm softwood glued/screwed for fixing.
Exposed dark stained 12mm ply is painted in Dulux satinwood yellow

[suffolkboi]

Yep thats my dads Morris in the garage. Good luck with the units