Day #52 Van Build – 8/5/25

It was a rainy day and I decided to work in the garage on the lower bunk bed. It had been a while since I’ve worked on the lower bunk, and I had to use the shop van to remove all the sawdust that was all over it. The first part of the day, I worked to create three boards that went in to the lower bunk fabrication.

The first board I made with 3/4″ Baltic Birch plywood. It went into the end of the fabrication near the driver’s seat. This board will be used to mount the Lagun table, so it needed to be sturdy. I cut the board to fit, then applied Minwax Paste to finish the surface. I had to put a notch in the upper left corner to accomodate some hardware in the lower bunk frame. Then I attached the board to the frame using three screws from the back side (so they don’t show). Once the board was securely attached, I mounted the Lagun table bracket. Here is a picture of the board before and after the Lagun bracket was installed.

The next two boards were made with 1/4″ plywood. One of the boards will be used to attach the exhaust vent from the heater. It is the board on the right side of the picture below with a big round hole for the exaust pipe. The other board I put a 4″ x 6″ screen in the middle to allow air to enter the inlet of the heater. That is the board on the left in the picture below.

Both of these boards fit into the slots in the AL extrusion. For both, I applied Minwax Paste and on the back I glued some Landau foam to prevent them from rattling. To attach the screen in the one board, I cut out a backing plate to put behind it, then I glued and screwed the screen between the board and the backing plate.

Unfortunately, to install these two boards, I had to partially disassemble the frame. It was a big pain to do so, and it took a lot of time to take it apart and to reassemble it back together. But the result was good.

I then configured the pieces for the base of the lower cushion. I brought out the lower cushion and attached it to the part of the frame that will slide out. With the lower cushion attached, the lower bunk was getting rather heavy. So, I got Artie to help me to help me lift it off the worktable and place it into the van.

I then measured and attached some J hooks to the back to the top cushion and installed that on the lower bunk frame. Eventually, this top cushion will have a slight angle to it to make it more comfortable to sit on, but I need to figure out how I want to create this angle. Anyway, here is a picture of what the lower bunk looked like at the end of the day.

There is still some work to be done on the lower bunk tomorrow morning, but I made significant progress on it today. With luck, I’ll be able to secure it in the van tomorrow.