hey Smedg, after you sikaflex those holes if you're after a permanent rust free floor, you can try this... a mate of mine who is more into beach driving than he should bought a spook sierra, and to avoid rusting out his floor he bought a tin of resin and used just enough hardener to give it a 2 hour set off time, then just poured the whole tin onto his floor. left a nice thin film across the floor, and let the excess flow out the drainplugs.

voila, same floor.... no rust.

Smedg said...

My usernam, I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "I would put two vertical stringers under the floor for support." Does that mean two sheets running the length of the bed standing one their edge between the floor and the underside of the bed instead of using legs? yep that's the way i would do it


( I don't know what stringers are. PS should have read your reply before talking to a mate. I got laughed at.. haha. Apparently its obvious that marine ply is expensive and only needed for marine purposes. haha.



PPS I'm hoping not to need to put wood across the floor that gets in the way of taking things in and out. tobes platform may be a hassle to get kite stuff in and out of all the time as the boxes you you put stuff in would have to be smaller than the openings at the back. I was dreaming of having enough height underneath the bed to fit my surfboard on its side. (to save space) This would make the bed base quite high but I'll need to measure more closely as I think I can do it and still have a foam mattress sit just below or in line with the bottom of the windows. Also, how long does fisholene stink for and are there alternatives? Thanks again.

If it was me I would just use ply with one or two vertical lengthwise support underneath. (i reckon 2 no stiffeners underneath, 1 with ribs underneath. would also act as dividers - like others have said. If you don't want any vertical supports then i reckon you could still use 12mm ply but with angle iron ribs underneath to stiffen - screwed to the ply. prolly easier to make a steel subframe in a big rectangle and then fasten the ply on top. Just be mindfull of the weight. You could build it too heavy and be constantly lugging around hundereds of extra kilos even if your van is empty.

Smedg said...

A little different to some suggestions, but I'm hoping this will best suit my needs. Please give last minute pearls of wisdom as unless I get some major fault pointed out i'm probably gunna give this a go in the next couple of days. (maybe ready for long weekend.. fingers crossed). Judge away.. I been thinking heaps about it but have close to no experience with this sort of thing... Hope I don't make a mess of it..





The 2 ply pieces will be strengthened by screwing runners to it. these runners will sit on top of two, four legged frames. The ply and runners are not joint to the frames. The frames aren't joint to each other or to the van. The four frame pieces that span the width of the two frames are bolted to the legs (not screwed) so they can be undone and everything can be taken out if necessary.

Excuse my poor drawing skills. What do ya's think?

looks pretty good. use liquid nails when you screw the runners to the ply. (glue and screw - much better)

Rescued this topic from p. 3.. just in case anyone was interested. I ended up not making it anything like my plans after testing the strength of 17mm form ply... The bed is two sheets of 17mm form ply 1540 wide (minus curves to fit side of van) and the back sheet is 1m long. The front sheet is 104 long. (exact size of a queen mattress 1540 x 204) it is held up by one bearer across the van in the middle so both sheets of form ply can rest on it. (not glued or screwed or nothing) The bearer sits on two short legs that are curved on the bottom to sit on the wheel arches. The legs sit tight up against the wall of the van and are held in place by right angle aluminium wood screwed to the leg and self tapper screwed to the walls. (these are the only thing joint to the van) Two legs against the walls at the back and two legs inside the steps at the front. A really long bolt is dropped down thru the ply into the legs to keep things in place. of coarse in the middle the long bolts are dropped thru the ply, thru the bearer and into the legs. (8 long bolts, six legs.) The form ply sags about 4mm in the center if I put all my 80 kg on one knee in the center of the back. (It is totally unnoticable) all 12, 15, 17, 22, 25mm ply doesn't compare in goodness to form ply IMO. way saggier and nearly as heavey anyway. heavier once you support it probably. Everything sits in real neat, nothing is holding it down except the neat fit against carpeted walls, the shape around the partitions in the van walls and the bolts that are just dropped in to keep it square. I couldn't be any happier with how it turned out. Its high but still with heaps of head room, it doesn't rattle or bounce. Its supper comfy and sag free. Its real simple and only two small legs on the wheel arches are joint to the van the rest comes out easy to move a fidge or whatever. I went to my old mans house to use his tools and the design is pretty munch 90% his doing.. I was super sceptical at first as he's getting pretty old. I couldn't imagine it not jumping around and staying on legs that are sort of not really joint to anything.. I thought I would need to join more once his Idea didn't work that great but liked his idea as its so much simpler and less work and less materials than mine. And exactly what i wanted space wise. Man I'm so happy with how it turned out. Bought a mattress straight away and am about to upload images here then leave for a long weekend in Yamba. (thunder storms forecast worst luck.) What do ya's think.

where da fark is the sink?

Just got back from 2 nights in Yamba. hot thunderstorm humid weather forecast... Turned out pretty perfect. Pippies beach was averaging between 16 to 26 knots SE for hours on end both days. No crowds. Slept in the van both nights with no rain. Had an awesome time. Think I'll be doing weekends much more regularly now.

@ Nickloop. That looks stylish! Nice job.

@ kitecrazzzy. Its my everyday car. I didn't want any sink or anything other than a ready made bed to crash on and a permanent home for all my kite gear. Mine is perfect for me. I'm stoked.

Cheers. Was thinking about a fan. But pretty keen on seeing how a whirly bird thing goes in the roof first. They are real hard to find around here though. I been to super cheap, auto one, auto barn, repco, boat shops. Found one at waco (a caravan place) but it was $50 bucks and not really perfect as i think some of them can be closed to stop heat escaping in winter for example. This one was just always open. Guess I could just stick something over it.

Graceful. Mine is a '99 2.4L petrol Express. Fair to say that they don't have the reliability reputation of a toyota or the coolness and quality of a vw IMO. I was originally looking to buy a lite ace or tarago or similar. I wanted a smaller engine so it was cheaper to run. I live near Tweed heads northern NSW and looked at so many vans. I did 3 trips up to Brissy as well as looking at everything that sounded good within about 200km of home. I looked at so many vans and got lied to sooooo many times by salesman and privates.... There were two f@rkers in particular who told me "no rust what so ever" I told them that I've been lied to lots lately and don't want to drive to north Brisbane to find nasty surprises. I told them that if it had some rust or rust work done I was interested but just wanted to know before driving up and finding it myself... After inspecting one at a dealership and finding massive painted over holes everywhere and doors ready to fall off due to rust, the salesman says 'oh i hadn't noticed that rust, its still a bargian though...' Another private guy replied (after I pointed out all the masses of rust) 'oh, that's not rust, that's just 'cause of how old it is' haha farker. Anyway I guess my point is that there are **** loads of these types of vans around but the vast majority have been trashed by tradies or freight businesses or similar. I would hold out for a private one that has been looked after as a family van (pull seats out yourself) or a private camper that may have very low kms. Expect to pay less for a mitsubishi than a toyota of similar kms for sure. And I reckon around 240 000 km is scary time. It seems to be when eveything starts to need replacing. There are plenty of expensive things to replace on these vans apart from the engine and transmission, and they are often hard to get at. If you are looking around $2000 dollars you may want something that has a long and thorough list of repairs (engine, gears, timing, starter motor, etc etc.) rather than one that is almost due for it all.. Eg. If you are really keen for air con. It pretty much must be working when you buy the van otherwise it may cost up to $2000 to replace just that...I reckon keep your eyes open for all breeds and thoroughly check out heaps and sooner or later a goody might pop up. They tend to move quickly around Christmas especially if you consider all the one that will be or have been teuro campers. (seabreeze taught me that word. ) Best of luck. Once you find one you like, I hope you fall in love as I have with mine. Its the greatest.