Materials/Spend:
- 2 sheets of 6mm ply - £100.66
- 2 sheet of 9mm ply - FREE
- 8 lengths of 3x2 timber - £92.83
- 1 sheet of 50mm insulation - £42.24
- Spray adhesive - £7.54
- 4x40mm woodscrews (ply)
- 5x80mm woodscrews (frame)
TOTAL: £243.27
Before even starting the bulkhead, I wanted to make sure that I wanted one at all. I've seen a lot of van designs, where instead of a bulkhead they've had their passenger seat on a swivel, particularly when people are short of space. I'm really keen on having an L shaped kitchen spanning the width of the van, so I was happy to hide the cab away. I was also considering adding some form of hatch, but for security reasons and also heat saving reasons, I decided to completely seal off the cab.
Bulkhead
Very similar to the flooring, we started by making the timber frame. We used 3x2 lengths of timber and first measured out the top and bottom beams that span the width of the van and then made pencil marks every 30cms along them so we knew where to screw in the upright pieces of timber.
One thing to bear in mind is that Sprinter roofs are narrower than the base of the van, as the walls bow in slightly. This meant that the top beam was shorter than the bottom beam.
We then cut 6 lengths of timber, all the same length, for the upright beams and screwed them to the beam spanning the bottom width and then screwed the top width in place making a nice rectangular grid.
Because the bottom length was slightly longer, there was a bit of overhang either side which we kept so we could screw the ply to it.
Back on the workbench, we measured out some 6mm ply to cover the entire timber frame, making sure it was flush with the edges of the bottom beam and then overhanging at the top where the frame was narrower.
We placed the frame in place in the van and then scribed along the curved wall on either side and then cut along the newly pencilled arc with a jigsaw. I’m pleased to say that it fitted flush after the first attempt at cutting!
Once the ply was in place and shaped, as that section of ply would be the cab-side, I wanted to add some fabric to it to make it look a bit nicer. We managed to salvage some square sheets of fabric from a local church, so I stuck these to the ply with some spray adhesive and then for the curved edges, used a sharp blade and a jigsaw to cut them flush with the edge of the ply.
Once all carpeted, we positioned the bulkhead into place and screwed it down into the wooden floor.
Again, just like the flooring, I measured out the gaps between the timber in the frame and cut some insulation board to match and stuck it in the gaps. Insulation board is super easy to cut, you could even use a butter knife!
There’s no point in plying the other side of the frame, as I’ll cover it when I come to clad the interior of the van.
Overhead Shelf
For the shelf above the cab, we cut one sheet of 9mm ply to fit the width of the van and then the furthest depth between the new bulkhead and front edge of the van. As the corners of the van are curved, we used a jigsaw to curve off two of the corners so the ply would fit snugly in place.
To make the shelf a bit more sturdy, we decided to double-up the ply, so we used the first sheet as a template to cut a second sheet. As the front of the van’s roof is angled, we cut the top sheet of ply a bit narrower so it would fit flush with the side of the van once it was placed on top of the other sheet of ply.
We cut some small sections of timber, around 9mm in thickness, and glued them to the edges of the ply, then sandwiched the second sheet on top with glue again. Once dried, we screwed in some woodscrews too for added strength. This made the overall thickness of the shelf around 3cms.
We then carpeted both sides of the shelf, the same way as before - sticking them down with spray adhesive and then trimming the sides with a sharp knife.
The last stage was to fix the shelf in place. We positioned it in the van and screwed it down into the top of the bulkhead.
At the front of the van, I have two strips of metal extruding that we could screw the front-side of the shelf into which holds it nicely in place.
If you have any questions at all, feel free to ping me an email or drop me a message on Instagram!
