Sunday, January 3, 2010

Lining Overhead Cupboards

Very little done today, although I did get the underside of the cupboard over the cab closed in. As you can see from the pic below, I have done this in plywood (7mm) because it is going to be covered and it's really light. The ply is heavy enough to mount the obligatory UHF CB radio from. Along the front edge of the plywood, there is a gap between it and the windscreen and the plywood overhangs the frame by about 30mm. I thought this would be very useful for hiding wiring for things like the CB radio etc.

I'm thinking about covering the underside of this cupboard with a carpet that will blend in. This is mainly to prevent damage to people's heads while they are moving from the cab to the back of the bus (when necessary). I guess you would only do this if it was raining or something. Otherwise you'd get out and walk around to the side door. I've trimmed the plywood with timber angle and it's come up quite well.



So far as timber work left to do, it's mainly trimming. I've gone around and found areas that need to be finished. Things like external corners, where furniture joins together etc. Below shows how I've finished one of those awful curved areas. This is not perfect, but will look fine when it's finished.



In my previous post I showed you a pic of the support on the end of the kitchen bench. I've added the one below next to the door because this shelf, although not carrying much weight, will tend to move up and down while the vehicle is moving so it needs this support. I rebated the bottom so it fits on the edge of the dinette seat and rounded the bottom so it looks OK.


I've got to decide how I'm going to deal with these shelves yet. As I said in a previous post I want to pad and cover the underside. I'd always intended using the same fabric as the seats, although it might be easier to cover them with the same material as whats going above the cab. We'll see. I do have to face these shelves yet and make some sort of 'fence' to go around the edge to stop stuff falling off. Nothing worse than the unabridged version of the Oxford Dictionary falling on your head because someone slams the door.

After the trim is finished, comes lots of sanding, then staining the lot. When that's finished it will start to look completely different. I've also got to make the table top so it can have the laminate fixed at the same time as the benchtop. I think fixing the laminate will almost be the last job because otherwise it will end up getting splattered with stain/varnish etc.