Camper Day 6: Cab Clearout

If you haven't been following from the beginning, this camper build starts with Camper Day 1: The adventure begins, or if you just want to see the previous post, have a look at Camper Days 4 to 5: Clearing the decks.

Ah, caught up at last. I have been meaning to blog this build from day 1, but only got my blogging site setup today and have spent the time catching up on the previous days posts.

I did also manage to do a bit more prep work on the camper. I removed the rear seat from it's base. I must still remove the base from the floor, but that will require assistance as they did not use captive nuts and it goes through the floor, so someone needs to be under the vehicle. This means that the 'living space' is now virtually clear and ready for planning the build.

As the final step of the clearout I wanted to strip out the roof of the cab and the area above it and it definitely seems that the original builders did not maximise usable space. I also want to cut out some of the bulkhead on the driver's side of the vehicle as I want to put a dual bench seat (facing forward) where the rear seat is (this'll be the seating for the kids when 1.5 becomes 2).

This evening I managed to do the stripping of much of the cab roof and storage area above. This has allowed me to see the structure behind it and will help for planning the changes. The biggest hurdle that I discovered is that the fibreglass pod that covers the cab has a recess which is panelled over on the outside. This means that there is a lot less space inside than would be the case otherwise and to make matters worse, this space is not usable.

Next time I visit Milton Keynes Pete and I will 'interrogate' the area and decide on a plan. Currently it seems that this will be cut out and fibreglassed up in order to maximise space. This could either be a small bed or storage depending on how much space we make.

Either way, Lorraine and I will now be able to plan the interior as rear is now empty. That'll then mean that assembly can begin.

Today's pictures show the above cab space and the amount of wires that are up there. It would appear that they have run seperate wires from the fuseboxes for each outlet, and not out multiple outlets per circuit as would be the norm. I guess this makes sense considering that lives were at stake in the vehicle's previous life.