WOR DS & P HOT OGR A P HY : R I C HA R D B A R K E R

Part 7: Retrimming the interior, having cloth stuck to

your overalls and getting a professional to do it
Serenity: The Build Diaries
Remember that essentially youll be
sleeping in a metal tin with glass in it; not
the warmest arrangement available
F
romthe beginning I wanted
the interior furnishings to
echo the exterior design
of the bus but didnt want
everything to be the same colours. It
had to fit in with the being amongst
nature theme so my good friend
Rich at Interior Wizzard appeared
with a whole load of samples of
various materials for us to trawl
through. Nowlet me tell you a bit
about this guys work. Impeccable
is the word. 1920s Bentleycheck.
Private helicoptercheck. Custom
showcarcheck. Rich has worked
with me on several projects over the
years and he is the only choice for
upholstery as far as Imconcerned.
Anyway, nowthat his head has been
suitably expanded, lets get to the
seats. I bought two bargain SAAB 95
convertible seats, as they have flat
runners which will fit in place of
the originals, and had Rich recover
themin a modern light beige PVC
with a fern pattern feature strip. He
Restoration
available and if you dont have an
internal leisure heater things are
going to become pretty nippy unless
you fancy delving into some under
duvet shenanigans. So I started
by lining inside every panel with
Thermawrap which looks like
silver bubble wrap but is a dirt
cheap loft insulation and easy to
fit. Just spray your Trimfix on to
the panel and the insulation, leave
it to go tacky and stick it together.
Simples. Being a thorough, and nesh,
kind of bloke I decided this wasnt
enough so I bought proper British
Standard fire retardant, one inch
1. The inside
compliments
the outside.
2. Light smoke
gives privacy while
keeping it light.
1
It was meticulously measured
and planned to get every
single piece I needed, then
cut, one at a time
motorhome insulation and stuck that
over the loft insulation. Needless
to say it isnt cold in our bus!
Nowits time to line the internal
metal bits that will be on view. After
some research I settled on ten by two
metres of four way stretch material
in a light smoke grey which was
available fromfleabay, including ten
tins of Trimfix for 120; a bargain.
It was meticulously measured and
planned to get every single piece
I needed, then cut, one at a time,
until all the necessary areas had
been lined. Its worth noting that
this stuff really does stretch so as
long as you leave a little bit of give
in the material you can even work
it around the boot latch recess. It
also joins up pretty well if you align
two straight cut edges together, and
if youre short by a small amount,
whip it off, pull it and reapply it.
Time for a change; door cards. The
originals were in a pretty bad way
and had obviously seen a shower in
the past so we decided to replace
themwith new. The old ones still
had their perfect edges, shape and
cut-outs so when remanufacturing
themfrom3mmhardboard, I simply
drewaround the necessary areas,
cut themout with a small jigsaw
and then lined themwith the
material remembering to work
fromthe middle out so not to
get lumps. The glue is pretty
good for one or two remove and
adjust sessions, but after that
its adhesion is poor so check
twice and apply once. Unlike my
approach, you may want to make
sure you havent unwittingly
caught your overalls under a
piece of trim, glued it down and
walked off with a sliding door
card attached to your leg.
3. Looking cosy.
4. Take two carpets
into the shower?
Not me, I just
spray and go.
5. Richs attention
to detail.
6. Double
insulation.
7. The nished over
cab cupbaord facia.
8. Thermal
insulation at a
fration of the
usual cost.
An original Dehler roof had a
small rear facing TV in a cupboard
above the cab area which also
housed two storage compartments.
Unfortunately that didnt survive,
so I made a replacement framework
to house three storage areas, the
breaker box and the Zig unit. The
best way I found was to make a
cardboard former for the frame and
front before chopping up the 5mm
ply. It worked fabulously well but
looked ridiculous with lots of little
pieces of card stuck together to make
the shape correct. Once the pieces
were cut I made oversized doors for
the facia and lined it all using the
same material as the interior of the
bus. Using flat hinges and spring
clasps I mounted the doors to the
facia and lit the cupboards with top
quality* LEDstrip lights fromIkea.
Next time: Rebuilding and retting
3
2
4
5
6 7
8
carried this theme on to the custom
rocknroll bed and into the Dehler
roof bed cushions. The reason for
PVC over leather is that PVC is wipe
clean. Oils wont stain it, neither
will sun creamor cleaning products;
just grab a baby wipe and Bobs your
uncle. Leather isnt so forgiving, and
cloth can be just as tricky to keep
clean when youre cooking, eating,
sleeping, or even dancing in your bus.
After the seats were wrapped
and stored it was time for lining.
Remember that essentially youll
be sleeping in a metal tin with glass
in it; not the warmest arrangement
Suppliers
Reupholstery
Rich @Interior
Wizzard,
North Yorkshire.
www.interior
wizzard.co.uk
Mob: 07771 921692
RESTORATION
www.volkswagencamper.co.uk
RESTORATION
www.volkswagencamper.co.uk 44 45
RESTORATION
THE BUILD DIARIES