If Plan A didn't work, don't worry, the alphabet has 25 more letters.
Since I bought Willi in July, the festival and summer vacation season 2015 was not going to happen for him. My dad and I started to think about and plan the conversion throughout the winter 2015/2016. We had complete freedom in the design of the interior except these components had to fit in:
- table and seating accomodation
- bed (foldable or fixed)
- built-in stove (no camping stove)
- storage space for personal luggage and camping and car equipment
We needed to plan these components in in order to meet the requirements to re-register the van as motorcar, but I will make a detailed post on the whole registering process here in Austria.
I am sure throughout the winter we scrapped almost as many ideas as we came up with and it became a struggle between creativity, feasibility and actuality. Although my father's and my suggestions and ideas of the bus weren't too different, of course being two individual persons we did have our disputes over some things. Here is an extract of the ideas we had - some of them more utopian and absurd some less ;)
- top cupboards above the bed
bed across the back of the van- bed along the back of the van
foldable bed to fit a motorbikeleave out the kitchen, only use camping stove- build in a window in the living area
build in a window in the slide doormake the passenger bench seat rotatable- install a sitting area with two benches facing each other and a table
no need for a portable toilet- we need a portable toilet
- install a kitchen cupboard with gas stove and sink incorporating gas cylinder, water and wastewater canisters
incorporate the cooler under one of the dining benches- leave the cooler standing behind the passenger bench seat
install the bed at 100 cm heightinstall the bed at 39 cm heightdammit if we can't figure it out we won't have a bed at all!- install the bed at 60 cm height
leave the headliner and side panels as they are- rip everything out of the van except the floor board
In the end we kind of dealt with everything as it happened and just started with constructing the box beneath the bed and the bed itself. Building the cupboards above the bed was the next logical step and from there we kind of improvised with only planning one component ahead - the window, one additional cupboard, side panels, headliner, the hatch in front of the space above the driver's cab, flooring, the dining area, kitchen and other small or large accessories.