Surf van. This was my very first coversion and she’s my lil baby.
She’s a very basic but very smart day van with just the basics, a bench seat that converts into a Double bed, lights, insulation perfect for surfing and short stays ect, 100 percent more comfortable than a tent and worth every penny.
I wanted a van thats cheap on fuel that I can head around UK/Europe surfing so I got this 55 plate vauxhall combo. Ive been making plans for over a month before I got the van a lot of the plans changed, new ideas & problems occurred. more a mental strain than anything else.
in hindsight it was due to my own excitment that made the mental strain. take time out to think everything through, you’ll make your life easier in the end… 😀
Carpeting
Hi,
am working on a similar job with my combo, but was wondering where you got the interior carpet from? have found sheets on places like ebay, but £50 for a few meters seems over priced…..
Cheers
Alex
Combo Update
I haven’t Totally Finished the conversion with electrics etc but is great as a day van. reason being I’ve brought a Ford Transit and am doing the full job on that one, Cant wait. but heres the end result for the combo
great van
There was me wondering if other people had made surf vans of combos and I stumbled upon this. I’m about 2 thirds of the way through my project, I’ve been working on itit for a couple of years now, have artwork on the ceiling carpeted walls and floors, artwork here and there elsewhere, I’ve built a fairly easy to assemble leatherette sofa bed that stretches to 6′ long, I’m only 5’8″, but bigger is always better!! I’ve had to make everything so that it’s easily removable though as I have to use it to transport my drums which created an interesting issue to overcome, but I got there. I’ve putting the electrics in soon and am trying to acquire an awning to hook up to it too, I’ll try and upload some pictures soon, it would be cool to see a few other converted combos and see what other ideas people have had. But the main point of this whole thing was to point you’d made yourself a great van there, really really neat job, good to see it on here, well done!
Si
awesome van! I have a simple
awesome van! I have a simple conversion of a combo at the moment but your idea is similar to mine, very inspiring!
Ceiling
Hi i have just started a combo conversion and stumbled accross this post witch has been very helpful. One thing im struggling with is how to secure the roof? How did you manage to do this in the end?
Thank you
Sorry about the late reply
Hi
umm on the ceiling of the van theres the three beams that run across and in each beam theres three holes one in the dead centre. I used some roofing bolts ( http://www.screwfix.com/p/roofing-bolts-bzp-m6-x-20mm-pack-of-10/53925 ) from screwfix that came with square nuts and dropped the bolts down through the holes ( be careful not to slice your finger open as i did) i then put the square nuts on to hold them in place. so im then left with threads sticking down from the ceiling. i then took the measurements for where the holes where to be cut for the ceiling and with a lil help pushed them up into place and then put some penny washers & dome nuts to hold in place i used this option as i wanted the ceiling to be removable for future fitting I.E lights
if your having some doubts about the room in a combo there surprisingly comfy abut i am only 5’7″
Regards Kris 😀
Regarding the ceiling
Hi I know its been a long time since your post but im on my second conversion now (Transit Van) and was looking for a different solution to the previous for fixing the ceiling in place and I came accross something called rivet nuts or rivnuts just thought id share some info 😀
I still have a lot of work to
I still have a lot of work to do. i had a lot of inspiration of forums and i am just returning the favour (and im proud and want to show it) if any one would like to ask questions about anything i.e materials, measurements, costs etc I am more than honoured to help….. 😀
Legs
now these legs are amazing value they cost £2.50 each (i seen them on somebody else’s build) they can hold 50kg and they sit fairly flush just saw them down to what size you need there called vika adils from ikea they come in all sorts of colours. I bought 6 for £15
nice legs
Thanks for this brilliant idea! I was going to make a double hinged support thing to support my folded out bed, but this idea is just so much better, neater and easier to fit as well as use. Pleased I found this!
Fitting
I didnt like the look of a piano hinge so i thought i would go for 11 steel hinges. Now i can imagine it seems simple but the measurments took ME ages to figure out ( length 1675mm – first edge offset (10mmX2=20mm) = 1655 – hinges (11x 50mm = 550mm)=1105 ‘/. (amount of spaces between hinges=10) 110.5mm from edge of hinge to the next.)
Spacing hinges etc.
There is an easy way to space things out like hinges. Fist fix the outer most hinges, about an inch or two back from the edge. Then divide the length between these by 2 and attach the other hinge at the mark (centre of hinge on centre mark). Then divide the length between this and the outer two and put hinge on centre mark again. Keep repeating until you have the desired number of hinges attached 🙂
More Bed 😀
The other side of the bed i put some 9 mm ply down as liner which i had to do in 3 separate pieces (money Tight) and got to work on Shaping the other side. Carpeting the fold out bed side was hard as it needed to look good on both sides i eventually managed to figure it out.
THE BED
The bed was a work of art in my eyes, alot of the ideas were of forums and a bed support system on a ikea bed. i used 18 mm structural ply wood. My Brother had the brilliant idea about adding the subwoofer to the front of the bed. Cutting the ply to fit perfectly against the wall was done by taking measurements from the centre of the van at the hight i wanted the bed to the van wall at every 5cm along i would then mark the measurements on the ply and do a dot to dot 😀 ( took ages )
The bed
Hello,
Can you tell me how long the bed is?
How much space doe you have between the seat (driving position) and the bed?
Cheers
The Bed Continued
Carpeting the bed had to be done in 2 separate parts to get a neat job the front panel & the rest make sure you account for the thickness of the compressed carpet (about 2-3mm) when fitting carpeted panels to each other i used L brackets to secure the front to the bed as i dont want any screws on show.
Ceiling
I wanted a ceiling that was Carpeted & removable so i can add lights ect in the future, finding a way to secure the 9mm ply without drilling or glueing to the ceiling was a hard one for me to figure out as was shaping the ply to fit seamlessly to the roof! But when theres a will theres a way…Eventually i figured it out :D. Also thought i would add some rear speakers.
How did you figure out the
How did you figure out the shaping of the roof?
Insulation
Purchased this insulation of eBay £30 for 10m X 0.7m X 35mm thick,