The Boston van Build

Over the next couple of days we worked our way through Pennsylvania and the state of New York, to make our way to Boston Massachusetts. As we had not yet started to build the beds, we stayed in relatively cheap accommodation ranging from US$50 to $70.

We were lucky enough to have a friend in Boston with a large enough house and yard to park the van. Complete with a variety of tools that we would require for the coming days, this saved us a substantial cost.

There were a variety of small challenges that we needed to overcome. Seeing as America is stuck in their ways, the imperial system is still in use. The impractical nature is evident by the way most other countries use the metric system and in fact most medical practitioners in America use it for greater accuracy. Having found a tape measure in the house, we set out measuring and logging what we believed we would needed.

Now having grown up with the internet, we believed anything you wanted to do had been done previously and if that was the case, someone had filmed it. Which meant our best friend in this restoration was YouTube. We had found some videos that were predominantly helpful for designing the outer supports which would be secured to the inside of the van, eventually holding the bed frames.

Having a rough idea of what we needed, we now needed to know what was available. So we headed to Home Depot. Home Depot is very much the Bunnings of America and has a large range of wooden products. We purchased US$110 worth of timber, screws and nails, before heading back to the house to start the build.

 Much of the first day was filled with measuring, designing, purchasing building materials and starting to remove an aluminium partition left by the previous owners. This poorly constructed partition took a number of hours to dislodge because we had to drill out the welds. However once removed this allowed us to access the sleeping compartment from the front seats.

To secure the structure to the inside of the van we used self tapping screws. In many of the videos we watched ply wood would often line the walls of the van, this is much more aesthetically pleasing. However, we would only own the van for three months, making this an unnecessary expense and timely process.

The second day was much more productive. We started by installing the main horizontal supports for the bed slats, these were screwed to the timber outer supports we installed the previous day. 

Once those were in place we nailed five slats on each bed spanning across the full width of the van, we made these slats out of thicker timber to eliminate any chance of a top bunk collapse which would almost certainly result in serious injury.

We were then offered plywood off some tables in old carriage houses on the property; so we set to work removing, cutting and installing these into the van.

Lastly we installed curtains and carpet to allow for some privacy and comfort for our new life on the road.

In high spirits after what we considered a successful day, the build was complete.