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4 Weeks | Solo Project | One-off Design & Fab
Went to New Zealand in 2016, bought a van.
Ours had a pretty basic bed setup in the back, and we started running into all sorts of custom van conversions...
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Guess I needed a vacation project...
...because I started drawing van conversion ideas for our 1996 Toyota Estima
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So sh*t got real, real fast.
I had my laptop, which had Solidworks and Adobe Illustrator.
And I found a place in Wellington with a CNC router table. Called them up, they said they'd be happy to cut my design out of plywood.
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All the parts fit onto three 4'x8' sheets of 3/4" plywood.
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Out with the old, in with the new.
Human Dynam came through with a quick CNC job. A visit to the hardware store, then a hilltop recycling center parking lot for assembly.
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It totally works.
And it has five modes of operation: kitchen mode, bathroom mode, bed mode, desk mode, and Netflix+Chill mode.
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Kitchen, in action.
2 minute setup, 2 minute tear-down.
Certified Self-Contained.
This was a big deal. We had to get our setup inspected by a government representative. The guy actually laughed in my face when I pulled up to his house, said he'd never approved a van as small as ours. Wound up asking to take photos to share with his buddies.
The cert allowed us to camp in more areas all over NZ!
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Left NZ 10 weeks later, sold our van for a profit.
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