Friday 15 June 2012

I managed to source a new back door, as well as a couple of the other missing bits from a guy who breaks ambulances! (a pretty random business to be in, but he seems to do OK from it!)


So, door's fitted, cracked roof light is temporarily fixed with gaffa tape, the engines been removed, and the oil scrubbed off the floor. Time to crack on with the conversion!


Last weekend I started stripping out the old ambulance fittings, keeping the cupboards and anything else useful that I think I could re-use. I've removed the bulkhead between the cab and the back, and it turns out it was just plywood = non-structural, which was a relief. There is however a Steel frame that provides anti-twist support to the body, which is going to need modification...no problem there though.


I've worked out a plan too, after a trip to a campervan sales place with the new wife, we've decided on a layout very similar to the AutoCruise Ascent, which allows us to make the most of the existing features (windows etc) and still get everything in that we wanted.


We felt that since we're using it for our honeymoon, we don't want to be having to make the bed every night, so a permanent bed would be nice, but that means we need a separate seating area too, and then obviously we want a toilet & Kitchen in there too. We decided that the plan below allows the rear seats to be left made up as a bed when we're away as the two of us, but if we want, it can be made us as seats when we're away on climbing holidays with our friends.




So we've got two forward facing seats on a raised area, the same height as the cab, we're going to put seatbelts on them too so we can have passengers, then a WC, fridge and kitchen in the centre of the van. At the rear, we're raising the floor by about 8" so we can easily run the services under the floor, and also have some underfloor storage, and then we're having two bench seats which turn into a double bed.


I've managed to buy a Toilet, Bathroom sink, Fridge, and wall mounted heater off Ebay, and I'm planning to get an underslung gas system from GasIt, so I've got 116litres of gas filled from petrol station gas pumps.


This weekend I'm planning on finishing off stripping out the redundant wiring loom (now we're removing the lights, sirens, defribulator etc... there's a lot of excess wires!) and building up the raised floor areas, so that we can crack on with building the furniture etc.


I'll get more photos of the van empty, before we start putting in the new floors.

2 comments:

  1. Cant wait to see what you do with this ! Will keep a link to this blog. I am converting a Renault Master Ambulance too ! In fact its coming up to a year since I got it. Take a look if you are interested. Www.damosambulancecamper.blogspot.com.

    Good luck ! :)

    Damon

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  2. Hi
    Interested in your project as it is something I've been planning on doing for a long time. The bulkhead removal is interesting and I'd be grateful to see a photo of the steel structure beneath.
    Hope your project is going ok
    thanks
    Tom

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