I feel like I’m making good progress in the bus lately and there are only a few big things left that I need to build inside.
One of these is my upper cabinets, which will run the length of the wall on both sides of the bus.
This week, I built the cabinets on the passenger side.
The basic framework is made from curved pieces that I cut from 19mm plywood that roughly match the curve in the bus roof. These are attached to two pieces of 42x19mm pine that run underneath them.
The notches in the top of the curved bits are so I can run power cables through the cabinets.
The back of the cabinets are lined with corflute, which I attached to the cabinet frame before screwing it into the bus. I chose the corflute rather than timber because it weighs almost nothing and is easier to fit to the curve.
Underneath the insulation, I have two pieces of timber running the length of the bus. One is attached to the wall just above the windows and the other is attached to the ceiling just where the curve starts. These are screwed into the metal frame of the bus so are pretty secure. The cabinet frame is secured to the bus by pocket hole screws in the curved sections that screw into those pieces of timber. I also screwed the ends into the walls at each end.
I then attached some other pieces of 42x19mm pine inside the cabinets at the front. This was so I could attach the plywood face to hide all the screw holes and the gaps between the cabinet sections.
It was extremely difficult to get the sections of cabinets lined up perfectly due to the uneven nature of the bus walls and ceiling, but the plywood face pieces did a good job of covering up the gaps!
Overall, I am pretty pleased with how they turned out.
I still need to put the doors on, but will wait until after the elctrical is is done.
At this stage, I am just trying to prioritise the things that need to be finished before the electrical is installed. The bus is booked in for this in August, so we are getting closer!
