Thread: 130 Station Wagon with side fold pop top build

Outstanding.

Excellent job I think you should fit a wardrobe in the back corner though so you have somewhere to hang shirts, dresses etc. I find it to be the most useful addition in my dormobile especially when four of us go camping

I have about 2.4 metres headroom when the roof is erected which is great, yours looks to be a very similar height. Does the tent fold as the roof is put down ??

Fantastic job, i especially love your canvas work.

David

What a great innovative idea, sadly beyond my capabilities, cheers and Thanks for sharing, Dennis

Thank you all for the nice comments.

Originally Posted by jerryd

Excellent job I think you should fit a wardrobe in the back corner though so you have somewhere to hang shirts, dresses etc. I find it to be the most useful addition in my dormobile especially when four of us go camping

Thanks for the idea but we honestly don't have any clothes that require hanging! Having the clothes stuffed into the drawers helps to keep them shut. For wet clothes (washing, jackets etc) I will be able to string a line up inside to dry them out. When we are camped this will be above the second row of seats below the kids bed. For the rest of the time I prefer to have more space in the back.

Dormobile link - Land Rover Dormobiles

Originally Posted by jerryd

I have about 2.4 metres headroom when the roof is erected which is great, yours looks to be a very similar height. Does the tent fold as the roof is put down ??

The internal dimensions are 2.3m high from floor to canvas at the centre pole, reducing to 1.93m from floor to canvas at the right pole (in the campervan area). On the kids bed the height goes from 1.2m down to 0.8m. On the flip over fibreglass main bed, the height goes from 1.3m at the centre pole to 1m at the left pole. The total opened area is 2.8m wide x 3.1m long. It is very roomy.

Yes the horizontal poles are held in place by velro flaps sewn down the length of the roof. To fold down - first on the outside I unclip the storm flaps and velcro them up out of the way, go inside drop the two extendible poles on the fibreglass section, back outside to clip up the bed support poles (that go from the ground to the fibreglass bed), unhook two ropes, then push roof up tucking in the canvas at hinge corners, go inside pull canvas in between poles so it folds nicely as the roof comes down, a final tuck in of the canvas outside, then clip the roof down with over centre latches. It is very quick - it probably took me longer to write that than it does to close up the roof.

Originally Posted by Dinty

What a great innovative idea, sadly beyond my capabilities, cheers and Thanks for sharing, Dennis

Thanks Denis - there is only one way to learn and that is by doing. Many of the jobs I did on this project, was the first time I'd attempted them. I always think that if someone else can do a certain job - there is no reason why I can't do it (or anyone else can't for that matter).

How does the saying go? - A journey of a thousand steps starts with a single step.


Some more canvas photos.

Happy "Camping and Exploring" I'm sure you are going to enjoy it

I think I can set up camp and be in bed in about two minutes if need be

Next up was cork flooring. I chose cork for noise and thermal insulation, and it is a nice natural product that feels good underfoot. I rather optimistically bought 3 packs of 6 tiles (305mm square) for the job. Then another 3 packs, then another 2. It took an unbelievable 43 tiles to cover back floor my car!

I used a drill to carefully drill out indents in the tiles for the numerous rivets. The most time consuming part was gouging out the bit for the oblong access panel things on the rear of the bulkhead. I cut out a wedge to allow the tile to bend easier going up this panel. I glued them on with contact adhesive. Which is great as it's quick and easy for vertical surfaces. The other big pain was the tiles were up to 2-3mm out in size, which made it hard to make the tiles flush fitting. This was compounded by the "instant and permanent" bonding of contact adhesive which is really unforgiving. I filled small gaps between tiles with filler and gave it 4 coats of flooring paint. I found a sponge roller worked best.

Then I cut out foam and marine carpet to finally cover up the dynamat on the inside sides and around the windows. I made up paper templates to get the shape, and then used the right side ones reversed for the left side. Wasn't as painful a job as I had been expecting! I had been putting it off. I also put in 3 narva led lights. A small one at the back and two 300mm ones at the front on either side. And finally gave the access box lids a quick sand and squirt of white.

It looks really neat and modern now!

Next was to install the cupboards.

I used rivnuts into the floor, walls and wheel arch boxes. There are 9 holding the left side cupboards in and 12 holding the right side. To set the rivnuts with my tool I had to use a 20mm hole saw to cut out the cork, to allow the rivnut head to go all the way in. This then allowed me seal this cut out with paint then silicone.

The cupboard framing was lifted in and out of the car approximately 17 times over this period. Lucky its light. I glued the wooden cupboard panels on with Sikaflex 11FC. Due to the tight fit I needed to glue some panels in before the frame was put into the car. I then siliconed around the frame on the floor to the cork to stop any spills etc from working its way under the frame.

I also made a little table to go above the fridge. And attached the netting to stop the kids falling out of bed.