Hi everyone! Here's the story of building something like a camper out of old MMC Montero in Siberia. All construction works are done by me.
English isn't my native language so I bet this topic have a lot of mistakes. I really sorry for that
So... we have a 1996 MMC Montero with a 3.5L gasoline engine, body-lifted to fit 33 inch tires.
Our trips are usually 2-3 weeks long and we like summer trips as much as winter trips. The temperature range is pretty wide — from 40 °C to -40 °C \ 104 °F to -40 °F.
Last few years we travel solo with my wife. We sleep in the car and we like hiking Our favorite region is Altai mountains.
My previous system was a standard drawer sleeping module which requires to fold rear seats to make a bed. It was strong, cheap and worked fine but it had a major flow — a poor headroom. it's impossible to get inside a vehicle and just sit and relax after a day of hiking when weather condition is harsh or, let's say... cook a meal when 25 m/s (55 mph) wind outside is trying to crush everything in our camp. The only thing we can do in the vehicle is sleep.
This spring I decided to build something new.
I've started with removal all plastic trims, carpet, etc. and 3D-scanning the interior with my Wifey's iPad. The precision of this method isn't great but it works fine for basic design.
After 2 weeks and several ok-let's-start-from-scratch iterations (and several different build technics) I came up with this.
Left-hand side of the vehicle is occupied by let's say... a kitchen module with sliding doors and a sink. Kitchen module has a frame structure made of rectangular aluminum tubes from Leroy Merlin interconnected by steel brackets and stainless steel rivets. I cut tubes by myself using a custom made chop saw. A countertop I cut out from a sheet of solid pine furniture board with a jigsaw, rounded edges using sandpaper and, varnished it with Tikkurila acrylic matte varnish. Sliding doors are made of 3 mm (3/32") plywood varnished with the same Tikkurila varnish. I cut out doors by myself since they are just rectangles. Other parts I've ordered to be manufactured from 10 mm (3/8") plywood. A local company milled all parts using CNC milling machine by my blueprints and varnished them with matte polyurethane varnish. To be honest... I wouldn't be able to do this job better using my cheap jigsaw
Right-hand side is a place to sleep - extendable bed a top of a drawer system. The drawer system is made of 3 mm (3/32") laser cut and bent aluminum alloy АМг3М (AA 5154) sheets. It took 1 week to find a local company who can do the job and they did it perfectly! It was a thrilling moment when I got all the parts which I'd seen before only on a screen of my laptop. All parts of the drawer system are connected with stainless steel rivets and bolts (where were impossible to put a rivet). The bed made of 10 mm (3/8") plywood by the same company which made kitchen parts.
Since it's impossible to upload more than 5 images I'll continue in comments.
English isn't my native language so I bet this topic have a lot of mistakes. I really sorry for that
So... we have a 1996 MMC Montero with a 3.5L gasoline engine, body-lifted to fit 33 inch tires.
Our trips are usually 2-3 weeks long and we like summer trips as much as winter trips. The temperature range is pretty wide — from 40 °C to -40 °C \ 104 °F to -40 °F.
Last few years we travel solo with my wife. We sleep in the car and we like hiking
Our favorite region is Altai mountains.My previous system was a standard drawer sleeping module which requires to fold rear seats to make a bed. It was strong, cheap and worked fine but it had a major flow — a poor headroom. it's impossible to get inside a vehicle and just sit and relax after a day of hiking when weather condition is harsh or, let's say... cook a meal when 25 m/s (55 mph) wind outside is trying to crush everything in our camp. The only thing we can do in the vehicle is sleep.
This spring I decided to build something new.
I've started with removal all plastic trims, carpet, etc. and 3D-scanning the interior with my Wifey's iPad. The precision of this method isn't great but it works fine for basic design.
After 2 weeks and several ok-let's-start-from-scratch iterations (and several different build technics) I came up with this.
Left-hand side of the vehicle is occupied by let's say... a kitchen module with sliding doors and a sink. Kitchen module has a frame structure made of rectangular aluminum tubes from Leroy Merlin interconnected by steel brackets and stainless steel rivets. I cut tubes by myself using a custom made chop saw. A countertop I cut out from a sheet of solid pine furniture board with a jigsaw, rounded edges using sandpaper and, varnished it with Tikkurila acrylic matte varnish. Sliding doors are made of 3 mm (3/32") plywood varnished with the same Tikkurila varnish. I cut out doors by myself since they are just rectangles. Other parts I've ordered to be manufactured from 10 mm (3/8") plywood. A local company milled all parts using CNC milling machine by my blueprints and varnished them with matte polyurethane varnish. To be honest... I wouldn't be able to do this job better using my cheap jigsaw
Right-hand side is a place to sleep - extendable bed a top of a drawer system. The drawer system is made of 3 mm (3/32") laser cut and bent aluminum alloy АМг3М (AA 5154) sheets. It took 1 week to find a local company who can do the job and they did it perfectly! It was a thrilling moment when I got all the parts which I'd seen before only on a screen of my laptop. All parts of the drawer system are connected with stainless steel rivets and bolts (where were impossible to put a rivet). The bed made of 10 mm (3/8") plywood by the same company which made kitchen parts.
Since it's impossible to upload more than 5 images I'll continue in comments.
(official welcome)
