Hi all,
First of all I want to say a big THANK YOU to all those who have posted the progress of their conversions, we have learned a lot, some great ideas from reading through the topics here.
We thought it would be a good idea to post the progress of our own conversion, not only to share what we are doing, but also as a diary for ourselves.
We are renovating a very old farmhouse so we have priorities ... must haves and nice to haves. The camper conversion for us is a nice to have but not priority on spending so it has to be done on the cheap using what we have left over from other projects, buying as little as possible.
Our Mk3 swb 11 passenger minibus is now a 9 seater large car, a long story, but it's easier on the regs in France. The vehicle has to be a people carrier when family visits, but most of the time it's a 'builder's van' transporting all the materials we need for our renovation. So we decided that the units must be take-outable. I'm sure there are some insurance and registration issues, but, emulating the French, we will just shrug our shoulders and look stupid if we are ever questioned about it
Of course, we will make everything as safe as posiible.
We decided to have a 6' bench seat behind the driver that pulls out to make a 4' bed. Porta Potty behind that with a bulkhead for privacy. Hob and sink on the other side.
Anyway, after sketching out a few drawings, and scratching about in the barn for left over timber etc, we finally made a start today. We only did an hour or so but will post some photos as these will show where our bus lives and what we are trying to do.
Another camper conversion on a budget
Debbie...
OK, this is where it lives.
Our ex local council minibus, now registered in France as a 9 seater large car
Side door view showing the chipboard floor that protects the passenger seat belts and fixings.
As we've camped in the van before there's already a curtain that separates the cab.
The rail is one of those expandable spring loaded shower curtain rails you can get
from the DIY shops, we cut it down to fit width of the bus
Temporary bench set up in the garage for the project.
And at last we started to make the bench seat front!