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"First-Fix" Starting the Interior Build


Now that we have the Captain’s Chair mod in and working as expected, the time has come to start the interior build process. The good news is that I am not in any hurry to get the interior of Digby sorted, which is useful as I am also working full time and can only get stuff done when I am free at the weekends, but ideally, I am aiming at getting the ‘first-fix’ done by March next year.

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By ‘First-fix’ I mean removing all the seats and carpeting from the rear of Digby, building and insulating a subfloor, framing out a side unit, framing the bed structure, installing the drawer system, and if possible, creating a foldable rear seating assembly that will convert to increase the length of the bed area. Along with having absolutely no mechanical skills, I also have no woodworking skills either and the last time I touched a saw or a woodwork bench was roughly 40 years ago, yet I am just about to cut and fabricate an intricate camper interior…. This should be interesting….

Anyway, no turning back now so the first item on my list was removing the seats and carpeting which as it turns out, removing the seats was easier than I thought it would be. The carpet looked like it was the original one that came with the vehicle 23 years ago, and under the carpet was a very grotty underlay that was soon consigned to the rubbish bin.



With everything out of the back of Digby, you could finally get an impression of size and space in the back of a long-wheelbase Delica. After a good clean and wash it was on to installing the heat & sound deadening material, to help with road noise and insulation. This was a very fiddly job as we had to cut out a couple of hundred strips and custom shapes to cover the whole of the Delica’s odd-shaped floorplan. I stuck another thin layer of reflective insulation across the whole of the back to act as a vapour barrier, and then the plywood subfloor, which apart from some of the tricky shapes I had to cut out, worked out well.




  


Next on my list was designing & cutting the side unit which would sit over the top of the right-hand rear wheel arch and extend forward about 70cms, in which we plan to store clothes and personal belongings. It was very tricky to cut my plywood accurately to neatly align to the side of the van, but through trial and error I managed to get a rough approximation, (next time I will make templates first), and then I bolted the whole thing together and it fit reasonably well.




The final step in the “first-fix” process was to cut out the plywood for the bed base which also acted as the frame for the drawer system. I have to admit that this was difficult, firstly because a full size (1200 x 2400) plywood sheet was very heavy and cumbersome, and secondly, I didn’t really have a proper workbench or the right tools. Add to this a noticeable lack of woodworking skill, I was legitimately worried that I would be unable to make the 10 or so long straight cuts I needed and that I would waste 
$150 worth of wood.




Somehow I managed to muddle through, making only a few mistakes that needed fixing on the way, to get the job done, and I even managed not cut any fingers or toes off with the Circular saw…!! The “first-fix” is far from perfect, but with a bit of creativity and luck, I should be able to cover up most of the problems with clever use of carpet lining and wall coverings…. We now have the basics in place and we could at a push, use Digby to do some camping over the upcoming summer. I will, however, continue to finish off the interior work in the van over the coming months, while I start saving up some money for the electrical & plumbing work next year….





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