Vehicle
After quite a bit or digging around, my choice of vehicle hung between the Volkswagen Transporter T4 and the Mercedes-Benz Vito 108D. There seemed to be more conversion parts and examples around for the VW, but they were a bit more expensive that the Vito, and the latter came with sliding doors either side whereas on the VW it was an option and so hard to find on a second-hand example. Anyway, I found Autotrader was OK, but Gumtree came up trumps for what I was looking for in the end.

I found my 1999 Mercedes-Benz Vito 108D on Gumtree listed at £1500. It had 118,000miles on the clock, and the MOT and tax had expired. The owner had also failed to complete a SORN. I went and had a look at it and asked the vendor to call me if he wanted to reconsider his price. An hour later he'd cut the asking price by £300, by the end of the negotiation we agreed £900 with a 12 month MOT certificate but the vendor keeping his roof and internal racks. Done.

It did look quite tired. The edges of most doors, runners, and the bonnet were all showing a fair bit of rust; there was a massive dent in one of the doors; a rear headlight had a shooddy repair done to pass the MOT; and the bumpers were all pretty scuffed. But at that price I wasn't complaining. The engine sounded like it had plenty of life in it, and I now had my base vehicle.

Bodywork
Everything for the bodywork came from either Halfords or B&Q. Total spend was around £70. The rust was stripped back with an orbital sander - back to bare metal in some places, and the dent was attacked with a rubber mallet and then some filler. The heavy area of rust were then primed.

Next step was to hammerite the whole thing - matt black.
First time 'round I used a paint brush and put it on pretty thick - as a base coat. Big mistake! Hammerite is heavy and runs very easily, but sets as hard as metal. So I ended up spending nearly two days stripping the whole thing back with an orbital and then applying a new coat - this time using a radiator roller. Much better, just wish I'd done that the first time. The top coat was, I think, genius: matt black
                              blackboard paint. £12 for a big tin (of which I only used half),
                              and I ended up doing 4 thin coats to get a smooth finish.

The bumpers were initially sprayed with halford Bumper paint, which went on well but a can didn't stretch very far. So I got the roller out again and covered both bumpers in Hammerite. I realised the paintwork would look crap as soon as it rained, so I opted to experiment with a good coat of clear turtlewax all over. Half an hour to do, and it did the trick. Better still, whilst it stopped the rain from streaking, it still allowed the surface to work as a massive blackboard.

I finished the look by painting the steel wheels in black Hammerite and adding a set of gunmetal wheel trims from Halfords for £20. It really worked!

Lining, lighting & interior
Before I could line the van, I had to put the roof light in (£40 from my local caravan centre). This had two roles - a source of light, and ventilation for Harvey Dog or the cooking. It was pretty easy to fit - just mark out a 400mm square, drill 24mm holes in each corner, and then use a metal bladed jigsaw to join the dots. The roof gave a lot of vibration during cutting, and it was a daunting feat before-hand. Once in, I sealed it with black silicon and screwed a couple of pieces of supporting timber to it from below (which I subsequently attached to the plywood panel lining).

The van was partially lined to waist height, but I removed this temporarily. I then stuck domestic insulation to the ceiling and walls using spray-on carpet adhesive (£4, B&Q). There was an insulation promotion on at B&Q and I got the synthetic material (made fom recycled pastic bottles) for under £10 (half price). Amdro recommend a sheepswool lining, but this was cheaper and readily available.

I also placed wiring for a 12v LED lighting system, and then riveted the 6mm ply sheeting back on to the steel frame (below the external bodywork). It cost around £15 for the additional plywood required. I then cut the ten 15mm holes for the LEDs. I found a system in a bargain bin at B&Q for £20 (returned). Although it was 240v mains, it used a transformer and the LEDs actually work at 12v - so this was a much cheaper alternative than a setup from a campervan parts supplier.

The interior was finished with foam-backed charcoal chord carpet - £2.99/m from Carpet Right. Again, this was attached with spray-on adhesive. The carpet lining wasn't installed until after I'd built-in the units, though. My former colleague, Gayle, should take the credit for this - I just laboured as her good eye and steady hands did the interior justice. There's a diagram of the lining configuration on page 5 of this pdf.

Units
The units and bed were built from MDF and plywood. I opted for 12mm MDF for the units, which was easy to cut with a hand, circular and jigsaw, and 18mm plywood for the bed. I also needed a few lengths of 12x12mm and 24x24mm pine to support elements of the units and bed. The front piece of the bed has two steel legs screwed to it, which were £3 each from B&Q. The timber cost around £90 from a local mercant using Jonny Semple's Anchorfield trade account, but if it was bought at B&Q it would have probably only cost another £30. Detailed drawings are available in the plans section of this site.

I researched suppliers for the fridge. Rainbow and O'Leary's were comparable on price to my local caravan supplies store for the 3-way 240v/12v/LPG 40litre fridge that I bought, but there were cheaper 12v-only alternatives (see comparison chart). Being top-opening, I fitted this on 2-way runners, so it could be accessed both inside the van (forward of the sink which it is stowed under) and outside (from the side door).

The SMEV sink was second-hand but unused from a car-boot sale aimed at caravaners (Livingston, EH54). At £40 it was a bargain - especially as it came with a 12v pump, and would have cost over £100 otherwise from Rainbow or O'Leary's. I found that I had sufficient domestic plumbing supplies leftover from when my last kitchen was fitted, so again you don't always need the specialist parts to get the job done.

The hob and grill are a standard Royale camping set-up, which I built a special shelf for within the units configuration. I made a channel for the pipe back to the regulator and gas bottle stowed on the outside (door side) of the units. A note of caution though: reading 'the' book, gas cyclinders must be stowed in a special case within the van, so my setup wouldn't be compliant. Amdro get around this by using an alcohol-fuelled stove, but this doesn't have the grill facility.