Unimog Camper under construction

[charlieaarons]

I'll be back Feb 20. We may head west towards Alice if it has been wet in the SE; I'll have 8 weeks.
The temps here average -13C in the am, they have been as low as -24C. but not for that long. We just had a warm rainy spell, up to +3C. The days are 6 hrs long, but lengthen by >3min/day.

Charlie

[Iain_U1250]

Loads of progress over the past week. The floods in Brisbane meant that our office was closed, so I decided to make the most of it.

First thing was to cut the aluminium for the floor. I made some straight edges from the spare plywood, then trimmed the plywood templates using a top bearing router bit to the exact size allowing for a 3mm gap for the Sikaflex between the panels. I then did the rough cut on the aluminium using the plasma cutter, then using my router and a edging bit, I trimmed the aluminium to an exact match to the plywood. The result was a nice smooth edge on the aluminium and straight cuts (for a change). The photos show the rear section under the bed and the front section under the seats.

I took the aluminium and plywood templates up to a friend who will turn the aluminium into a composite panel. All going well I will get them back next week and I can fit the floor.

I also built the aluminium window frames - made from 38x25mm aluminium they reinforce the aluminium around each of the windows - just in case.

Next was the storage hatches. First the left hand side, which will also include a fold out table. Then the rear hatch, which is the "boot" of the truck, and will hold a fold out kitchen and it will also have a few shelves, but we will sort all the storage out once we get through the first couple of trip, them we will know what we need and what we don't.

Next was to sheet the rear and the storage hatches with the aluminium. If you think you can use a manual glue gun when applying the Sikaflex, then you have forearms like Popeye. The forklift makes a great table for these sorts of things. Gluing aluminium with Sikaflex is a four stage process. First you have to sand the surface with a course grit sandpaper, then using the Sikaflex cleaner. That has be allowed to dry for a minimum of 10 minutes before applying the Sikaflex primer. Then you have to let that dry for 20 minutes, only then do you get to put the Sikaflex 252 glue on.

The photos show the framing and the finished product looks like - all the panels are on, and the infill panels either side of the rear hatch and above the hatch have been glued on.

I decided to to order in a oil and water line kit from Japan for the GT2860 turbo - I ordered it on Friday last week, and it arrived on Tuesday. I needed a few adaptors to fit the oil drain onto the oil pan, and the oil supply line from the block which I ordered from my local hose shop. . I've got some high temperature silicone hose for the water lines from Autobarn - my local car parts place after the specialist hydraulic hose and fitting place did not know where to get it. I will use that to connect the turbo cooling lines into the heater circuit. It must be Japanese efficiency that enables them to supply a high quality hose kit all the way from Japan for 1/3 of the price and in about the same amount of time it took for my local hose place to order in a few adaptors.


I also decided to get the door fabricated by my local sheet metal shop - the guys that have been doing all the cutting and folding of the aluminium for me. I didn't trust my ability to make the door flat enough, and the curved edges were fairly tricky to make. They did a great job, and it fits perfectly - which means I actually managed to measure something correctly for a change.The photo show the guys from Ryan's Sheet metal in Springwood that have helped me out so much. I hung the door using some heavy stainless steel hinges. I will have to slot the holes in the door, to make the final adjustment to align it so that the seals are all tight, but it works fairly well. When I get it all aligned properly, then I will add a third hinge in the middle.


The final bit of sheet metal work this week was the cladding of the side pods and the mudguards. The biggest Hella led lights fit perfectly in the corner - and the look great as well. I'm back to work tomorrow in a temporary building, so I will continue in the evenings and weekends again. The plan is this weekend to the access hatches frame work to the rear pods, and get all the rest of the cladding done on it at well. All going well, next weekend I will be fitting the floor, then it will be on to the interior fit out.

[Thor]

Wow.

[Iain_U1250]

This week I realised that in a short time, I will be where most people start building their campers, with some sort of a camper box. It has been almost a year since I started building the frame - whilst the last 5 months has more or less been fixing all the mechanical parts on the Mog itself.

The first two photos show the new "composting toilet" that arrived this week. First in the "stored" position, then in the "ready for use" position. You have to use your imagination to picture the cupboard around it, and a sliding platform that holds the toilet itself.

This weekend I called in a bit of help to clean off all the blue paint that is on the steel. It took the three of use most of Saturday to get the blue paint off the steel, some of it almost fell off the moment we pointed the power wire brushes at the paint, and other parts would just not come off at all - until we put a bit of thinners on it and then it melted off. After the cleaning came the painting, and there is a lot of area on the inside of the Mog. It took around 2 hours and 4 litres of primer to get the the inside painted with the grey etch primer. I had previously painted the area near the seat with some left over paint from the underside of the of the truck. That corner is done with both the grey etch primer, and then a coat of the epoxy primer which is much tougher than the etch primer, but to do the whole truck interior would be overkill, even for me. When the floor is in, I will paint the underside of the truck with the epoxy primer in addition to the etch primer.

In between waiting for the paint to dry, I decided to fit the aluminium skin to the left storage pod and plates to the bottom of the the battery and heater compartments. After that, back to the painting, and after another 2 hours and 4 litres of paint - the next few photos show what the rear looked like.

I have another litre of the white paint left, and I'll use that for putting another coat of paint on the various parts where the floor attaches. I'll have to buy a bit more paint this week to finish off the inside properly, but all going well, I should be in a position to glue the floor down next weekend. Talking about the floor, it should be ready by next weekend so like I said in the beginning, then I'll be in a position that most people start off from - with a completed camper box ready to start fitting out.

[Hilmar]

Iain, please could you give some more details about the "composting toilet" (brand, spcifications etc).

Thanks Hilmar

[Iain_U1250]

Hi Hilmar - it is a "Nature's Head" - http://www.natureshead.net/

It has been recommend to me by a few people - time will tell if it works well or not but in theory it's a great idea.

[Iain_U1250]

After weeks of rain, the weather was too good to waste, so we have been spending some time on the beach. South Ballina is now our favourite beach, we can drive down to it in about 2 hour, drive right along and park up for the day. The isolation and distance from the everyone else makes it great - no people near us and only the occasional 4x4 passing along the beach.

The good weather didn't last long however, and it was raining again soon after. The next weekend was a spent re-organising the workshop - the hi-rail train gear has been sold at last. Now all we had to do was get all the pieces together and pack it all ready for shipping. We had to clean the workshop up enough to get the truck past the camper box, then move everything around, clean all the parts and pack them into a container. The photo shows the end result of all the work.

We also got the first part of the floor from Christopher Tuck (the fabricator) last weekend. The first thing to do was to sand down all the interior cross members where the floor is going to get glued on. Then to prime them all with the Sikaflex primer.

I also sanded down the aluminium side of the the floor, and masked off the parts which the glue is going onto, and painted the underside with the etch primer. After putting on large amounts of Sikaflex on the cross members, and then the 3mm rubber spacers, I manoeuvred the panels into place. It took a lot of clamps and 80kg of weight to hold down the floor to keep it level.

Whilst I was waiting for the rest of the floor panels to be made, I finally sorted out the hatch looking mechanisms. I bought all the locks for the the various hatches etc. After much thinking, trialling and finally installation, I finally got the locks working properly. The last thing I have to do is to weld on another attachment point onto the main disc to give it three points of locking. The outer part of the lock is stainless steel and fit flush on the outside. The rear hatch is basically the same as the side panels. Similarly I need to weld on the third locking point to make it really secure.

I also fitted the Land Rover door lock into the entrance door. That will make it fully ADR compliant as the door has to be the same as a car door. The Land Rover lock is designed to work off road, so it should last, and it being typical of all thing Land Rover, it's a fairly simple.

I fetched the last of the panels first thing on Saturday morning. And after a whole day of sanding, painting, priming and gluing, finally, the floor is in - no photographs as I had too much Sikaflex on my hands for most of the day to even think about picking up the camera. All the pieces in the floor are a very tight fit due to the various pieces of cross bracing etc.

In order to get the pieces in, I had to leave a 3-5mm gap between the panels in the middle - and even then it was very difficult to to get things to fit - it was like a jigsaw puzzle, and all the pieces had to stuck in a specific order - and once the Sikaflex has grabbed hold - it was almost impossible to move or lift up. Luckily I got it right, and everything fitted properly with no hammering but there were some worrying occasions when it looked like I would have to do some trimming just to clear a bracket or strut.

I'll sand down the Sikaflex in a few weeks time, when it is properly cured. The final floor that we walk on will be another layer of teak. The rest of the floor will get painted with a decent epoxy paint. The two hatches open to allow access to the battery compartment ( on the right) and the heater compartment on the left.


In less than a month, the camper box will head north for fitting out the interior. This means I have a fair amount of work to do before I can send it up. Christopher is already making the lining panels. The lining is another composite like the floor. It's made from 1.8mm plywood, 4mm of foam and and other 1.8mm of plywood, all epoxyied together on a vacuum back table. First thing is to make a mock up interior out of craftwood - to make sure everything works and more importantly that the things like the fridges and the toilet all fit and work.

Once the craftwood interior has been made, then I will send the whole lot up to Christopher who will made the real cupboards etc out of the plywood composite. I also have to get all the fittings, like the door hinges, the roller sliders and even things like the sink, the shower unit, even the stove. I need to have everything that is going to fit in the interior, so that I don't have to remake things.

[Iain_U1250]

This weekend I started on the mock up of the interior - photos are pretty self explanatory. There are sliding drawers under the seat, and another behind the seats accessible when the backrests are tilted forwards. The seats still have their electric motors for the back rest angle, lumbar support etc, and are very comfortable.

There are more drawers under the the bed (the futon mattress is temporary - we will have a sprung mattress). There will be another cupboard over the top of the bed - just need to figure out how deep to make it.

The tall full height cupboard houses the main electrical panel - hence all the conduiting going into it. The cupboard over hole through to the cab will house an air conditioner. The heater will be housed in the same cupboard as the toilet, but totally sealed off from the toilet compartment for obvious reasons. I was thinking of mounting a large bilge type fan that starts up automatically when the toilet is pulled out. There is a small fan built into the toilet, on the inlet to the toilet and a larger solar powered fan on the outlet of the vent tube. This week I'll make toilet slide out.

The cupboard on the door side will house the sink, with a tap that doubles as a hand shower. The compartment under that cupboard houses all the water gear - pumps, filters, houses, calorifier etc. The cupboard opposite the door will hold the fridges. The fridges slide out giving access to either the 35 litre freezer or the 55 litre fridge. We went with the chest type fridge and freezer as even with two it is more efficient than a similar size upright and we can have a decent size freezer - nothing like having an ice cream in the middle of the desert . The rest of the cupboard houses the diesel cooktop, plates, pots and pans etc. There will be appropriate venting etc for the fridges to put the heat outside.

That's for the inside cooking. There will be another kitchen at the back of the truck that houses the gas stove / barbeque etc. That's still in the too be constructed basket.

[Billhilly]

Hey Iain,

Been watching your build and things are certainly starting to take shape. You must be well pleased to be at this stage now. The composting toilet looks good. Will be interesting to see how you like it. I see JRhetts has just reported back in on his one. I think he liked his! Keep up the great work.

Bill.

[PKDreamers]

Iain,

We think your truck is great, enjoy reading your build and would like to see it on the road one day.