The Re-Birthing of she who is SAHARA! Part ONE.

Phase ONE - Gutting her like a pig....

Just like almost everyone else who's renovated a new house, or customised a new car, or even redesigned their own bedroom.... we all have one thing in common. We ain't happy with the Status Quo, and just HAVE to imprint our own artistic personality into what ever we own. 

And I'm no different.... albeit a bit less talented than most. 

When I first looked at Sahara, she was decked out for the previous owners lifestyle. This included storage area for FIVE Longboards. Something that's never going to be a part of my plans. They'd had it all professionally designed and fitted, including an all metal frame and shitloads of ply that was to come in VERY handy.

The big hole on the left - Longboard storage.
3/4 length slideout drawer on the right.

Small 10 yr old child for scale

Front section, including the 'kitchen' area.
Actually, this end is going to be reused.

I'd already had a rough idea of what/how/where I wanted to put into whatever van I ended up buying, so I initially saw the fittings inside of Sahara as cheap materials to reuse. It also gave me a good idea as to how much room I'd have to fit in my own design of bed/bench combo and separate kitchen area. One of the BIG selling points was the sliding side windows, with flyscreens AND blockout curtains for privacy. A big concern is the need for ventilation, especially during the night, and without the sliding windows I'd have needed to look into some kind of roof vents. Very costly, and Sahara's bloody tall enough as it is. Plus I'm trying to complete this project without having to worry about solar power and extra wiring.

Also, if you look closely at the above pics, you'll notice just how high the bed is sitting. This proved to be problematic when test driving.... and especially when reversing. Mainly cos I couldn't see jack shit out the back or side windows. Yes, I know there's bloody mirrors, but I'm old school. I like to be able to look over my shoulders. Plus being a motorbike rider.... I like to be able to see shit around me and vans are notorious for blind spots.

Just another reason for me wanting my setup to be relatively low.

Jess learning the basics

After removing all the bedding and table and stuff, I notice all the timber was pop-riveted to the metal frame. Oh God why?!?! There was like, TWENTY EIGHT THOUSAND of the fuckers! Luckily, I had Jess with me that weekend and living with his Mum he's not really had much to do with drills and shit, so it was a great learning experience for him. 

Frame removed.
The heavy duty square framed area, front right corner,
is where the folding table slides in.
The plan is to cut across the frame in line with this
and use this 'kitchen' section separately.

After we got a lot of the excess weight off by removing some of the ply, the next step was to remove the four mounting bolts and try to remove the frame. Three came out relatively easily, but one... and there's ALWAYS one, proved to be a real bitch. It was the one closest to the surfboard storage area, so it was rusted in a bit. No problemo I thought. a bit of WD40 and a bit of time and elbow grease and she'll be sweet....

Nope....

She was just spinning her head in the hole. FUCK.... 

A bit of a crawl underneath showed the issue. A nut at the other end where-as the other three were threaded into the body. No biggie, I'll just reach under with one hand, reach over with the other and..... Can't see shit can I?

Once again.... luckily Jess was with me. He was able to guide my right hand with the socket wrench every time it slipped off while I held the nut in vice grips with my left. 

Now.... I say 'lucky' as he was 'there' maybe.... 60% of the time. Bloody typical of 10 yr old boys. Every time the socket would slip, I'd be like 'Jess?'. And he'd be all distracted with something else like a song on the radio or doing a 'Fortnight' dance. 

Bloody kids, gotta love 'em hey?

So anyway.... we got the four bolts out and I tried lifting the frame out. 

FUCK!!!! 

Didn't even budge!

No.... I can't be THAT heavy? Can it? Another try. Still nothing. Not even a tiny bit of movement.

So a grabbed a big assed 2x4 to act as a lever.... still nothin'.

Then I decided to use my brains and see if there was a 5th bolt somewhere.

Dickhead! 

After removing the 5th bolt, it slid out no problems. 

Just an empty shell.... plus the safe.... since removed.

$25 futon frame. Checking it'll fit.
Not that I'm using it all, primarily the slats,
and the dimensions are pretty close.

So now she sits, all empty and noisy to drive. But that's only a temporary issue. The plans for the side boxes are all drawn up and measured, got my hands on a cheap ass futon for the frame and slats and miscellaneous timber.... She's gonna be a sweet ride.