3. She's a very dirty girl- The bunk area.

 As mentioned previously, Lorca was a hard working cargo van for a company delivering food packaging and hygiene goods to their customers for 9 years, and those years have definitely taken their toll. We've already had a look at her exterior, so today let's take a look inside...

Over 4 metres of depth.

Luckily the standard panels and flooring that came from the manufacturer protected her from the kinds of scrapes and impacts she had experienced on the outside, but her general condition was very, very dirty.

The first job internally was to give my roof a very good scrub with a citrus based cleaner.

It was night time when the roof scrubbing was finished.

Next all of the wood panels were removed, and the areas where those panels rubbed against my body and wore away the paint were rust converted and repainted. The floor will be done last, once all the messy jobs above it have been completed. 

Rust converted, primed and painted interior.

I installed rivnuts into the framing in specific areas toward the rear doors, where the bunk area is to be. 

The rivnut tool on the drill.

Detail view of a Rivnut

Then using M5 stainless steel bolts and washers, I attached 6 IKEA Impresa bed frame brackets to the steel framing, then attached 3 IKEA Skorva centre support beams to the brackets.

Stronger than they look!

At a later date I will make some wooden spacers to fit between the brackets and the walls, and drill through the mounts into the wood to add extra support. There is still work to be done in this area, so that will have to wait. The paint was scraped in a couple of places during the installation, so that was redone. Then the rear of the cargo area looked like this:

The drivers side insulation was not yet done in this shot.

I cut some shapes out of 19mm plywood to conform to the internal dimensions to act as a base for the bunk. The foam mattress will be cut to this shape also.

You can see some of the black headliner carpet being installed on the right hand side.

After thinking about it, I decided to trim the base by the doors even more, to make it easy to put up or take down magnetic thermal window covers. 

So using a jigsaw I trimmed off the ends to closer match the curve of the doors.

Then the base was drilled with a hole saw in a grid pattern to allow for air flow to the mattress (which doesn't yet exist). 

I used a 25mm spade bit, which makes very short work of removing lots of material quickly. The recommended way to make a hole with a spade bit is to drill until the spike exits the other side of the workpiece, then switch to drilling from that side. This avoids tearout in the plywood. I knew to do it, and decided I had no interest at all in getting sawdust raining down all over my head, so I did not.

Then, in order to make sure the bedding wouldn't catch on the sharp edges of any of the holes, I used a roundover bit on the router to smooth the edges.

After a very quick sand all the splinters and sharp edges were dealt with. I added a black aluminium edging strip, temporarily fixing it in place with tape. It will be screwed in later.

It's 3 months later, and I've done a lot of work in this area, including some welding. Sparks burned the surface of the bunk platform, so the first thing it needed before proceeding was a good sand.

Then I removed the 3 parts of the bunk platform and painted it with a paint additive mixed in an undercoat that eliminates mould and mildew, keeping the plywood safe from damage. This bunk area will allow air flow from under the floor to enter the storage area under the bunk (commonly called a 'garage'), and then to flow through the holes in the bunk base, through the mattress, and out of an extractor fan at the other end of the cargo area. This means good airflow, and a healthy mattress. 

If you look on either side of the bed base in that second to last picture, you will see a gap in the wall panels where you can see the exterior metal. This area and the vertical supports will be cut out and reinforced at a later stage, and flares (fibreglass pods that allow for more space) added. Flares look like this:

This one has a window, but mine won't. Photo credit- summitmotorhomes.co.uk

There will be a flare on each side, which will allow me to sleep 'East to West' across the back of the bunk area. I am 188cm (6'2") tall, and the available space without flares is insufficient for me to stretch out comfortably. When the flares are installed I will have to extend the bunk out further to go into the flares, but that is a job for much later.

Finally I painted the bunk platform parts...

...and reinstalled them into the bunk area.

See you next time!