11. The forward bulkhead.

 There already exists a metal bulkhead at the front of the van, and I intend to keep it there. But I also need to make a wooden one that I can screw panels onto, and an area in between the two for running plumbing and electrical.

Being a van, the walls aren't vertical, so framing needs to take that into account. I built a basic frame, and screwed it into the wall panels and one of the wooden roof beams.

Then I painted it with the anti-mould/mildew treatment from the last entry.

When I bought Lorca, the floor was absolutely disgusting. Before continuing with the bulkhead, I needed to clean up the floor behind it.

This was after vacuuming.

And this was after scrubbing with citrus cleaner. You can see the metal under the paint, and even though Renault's are galvanised, I didn't want to risk anything, so I hit it with the rust converter as well.

Then I primed the metal to keep it rust free.

By this time, the paint on the framing was dry, so I was able to extend it out to meet the sliding door, leaving gaps for the sliding door hardware to safely travel through, and another in the middle so the door handle could still be accessed. I also stuffed the bulkhead with Earthwool insulation to keep moisture off the steel bulkhead.

Then I painted it like the rest.

Here's a closeup of the top, with the indent for the door hardware to move through.

I also added two long bolts through the bulkhead and primed holes in the floor, to hold down the bottom edge firmly.

I cut and temporarily screwed in some MDF panels. These will act as a template for the wet room wall and the paneling on the left hand side of the bulkhead, as well as a backer for whichever tongue and groove boards I decide to use as wall panels.

I cut and screwed on some additional panels off the left side of the bulkhead near the door. I'd love to install some hidden cupboards in there somewhere, but I'm way too overwhelmed right now to think about it. It can wait until later.

Then I took all the panels off and painted them on all sides with some primer I added mould and mildew killing additive to.

The primer was quite cheap and has been lasting me ages.

It looks quite messy painting it all without a roller, but none of these panels will be visible when I'm done.

So many panels!

Once they were dry I put them all back up.

There are gaps between the corner panels. I didn't bother trying to get them perfect because while they have gaps now...

...they will all be covered by aluminium angle soon (like this):

But first I need to glue up some headliner carpet on the outside surface to neaten it all up. I use a piece of paper to quickly mask the door rubber.

Then I spray the headliner adhesive on the first section I want to glue up.

This is the product I use.

I let the glue sit for a minute before placing the carpet at one corner and spreading it across the glue surface.

That's the result after I cut away the excess. I'm happy with the way it turned out, it looks so much better than before. I will fit the aluminium angle profile as soon as I can, and post an update here.

Finally I added a stainless steel knurled grab bar to the bulkhead to help people with 3 prolapsed discs in their spine and bursitis in both shoulders (me) to get in and out when the weather is cold. (Ignore that aluminium angle, I will cut some proper ones soon.)

I added some painters tape and drew markings on them to show where the framing is behind the MDF sheet.

I joined the markings with lines, and made a few mistakes that I crossed out. Now I had an idea of where I can mount my folding sauna-style jump seat. (To be clear, I put the framing exactly where it needed to be for this).

I'm using some serious screws to mount the seat.

Here it is screwed in, in its up position. 

And again in its down position.

It's so tiny and cute!

It passed its stress test (me sitting on it).

All folded away, ready for the next upgrades...

(Weeks later)... I marked up some areas on the bulkhead where I'd like to make some cubbies to keep things like shoes, an umbrella, a little first aid kit, and whatever else I can think of in.

I used a step drill to make a hole in the corner of each area so I can cut out the openings with a jigsaw.

All cut! But there's a problem...

When I made the bulkhead framing, I didn't pay enough attention to the horizontal bracing, so they are all pretty wonky. I can fix this, but me from today is angry at me from a few weeks ago for not paying more attention.

This should give you a pretty good idea of how much room is available for storage, and (spoiler alert!) I installed a shower niche in the wet room.

When I put the MDF panels up, the priority was to just get them up. The screws are protruding from the MDF because I couldn't find my countersink bit. So I bought a new one.

Then I recessed all the screws properly.

I plugged them with wood filler.

I sanded off the wood filler.

And repeated the process for all the screws and gaps. Before I repaint the areas I sanded off, I wanted to template the cubbies,.

These are the bottom ones. I can use these cardboard templates to trace onto 7mm plywood to get the finished panels for the cubbies.

These are the middle cubbies. I can shim under the ply panels to get them all sitting parallel to the floor, which is my point of reference for everything I make in here. The transition between the MDF panel and the plywood cubby inserts will be covered by more aluminium L section.

This shows the bottom, middle, and top cubbies, and a bit of the wet room area.

Next step is to label each piece of cardboard, and lay them out to work out how many sheets of plywood I'll need.

I can fit all of the cubby pieces onto two 1200x700mm pieces of (7mm) ply. Or one sheet of 1200x2400mm with plenty to spare, depending on whether I want to pay a truck for delivery of a large sheet (I tend to bundle all my large orders together to save on delivery), or just buy a friend a coffee and throw a couple of smaller pieces in the back of their car. The jury is out on that front right now, but it feels good to have all the little cardboard templates tested and made, so I can just trace around them to get the right shapes to cut with the jigsaw.

Fresh coat of anti mould and mildew paint to cover the areas I sanded away. 

I added the same adhesive textured vinyl to the forward bulkhead that I used on the passenger side wall. It doesn't photograph well, but in person it looks really good.

It's so affordable, and most importantly, it saves so much weight when compared with actual wooden panels.

Looking nice and clean, ready for cubby construction!

See you next time!