New member from Vancouver

phalteman · Post by **phalteman** » Sun Mar 05, 2017 7:32 pm

Hi All,

I just yesterday purchased my first Delica. 1994 Starwagon, already with a built out bed and storage in the back. Looking forward to the upcoming (ongoing?) camping season!

: IMG_0304.jpg (72.25 KiB) Viewed 7243 times

Looking forward to picking your brains, and these forums, when I need help doing some work on it!

Philip

north54 · Post by **north54** » Sun Mar 05, 2017 10:48 pm

Sick! Was this the one for sale up in Whistler? I was eyeing the elusive all black delica. Nice looking van!

phalteman · Post by **phalteman** » Mon Mar 06, 2017 2:51 pm

Thanks! It was in Squamish. And yes, as soon as I saw it, I knew it was the right one. It was too pretty to pass on!

robd · Post by **robd** » Mon Mar 06, 2017 4:17 pm

Welcome!

Nice to have another camperized Delica around!
Do you have any photo's of the setup in the back?

Rob

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » Sat Mar 11, 2017 2:25 pm

I'm keen to see the sleeping/storage setup too. We just got our Delica, a Space Gear which Mardy brought in for us. Sweet ride, even with the glitches getting started (he's switching it to manual glow plug for us which should make it easier to avoid flooding), and we're really excited about our first camping-capable vehicle. Hoping to sleep 4, though obviously it's going to be 'friendly' space-wise, so getting something happening above the wheel wells seems essential. Anyway, we'll be poking around the forum archives and looking at everyone's solutions, and of course sharing our setup once that's done.

phalteman · Post by **phalteman** » Sun Mar 12, 2017 2:46 pm

Hi robd and Gerard, sorry for the delay in responding - was out of town for most of the week.

Here are a few photos that should give you the idea. The design is simple - basically just a box made of some beefy 3/4" ply, with a central support. The dimensions, as you can see, basically max out the available space. Height is just shy of 40cm, which provides some space over the wheel wells. The whole thing is held in place with some metal strapping bolted to the wheel wells. Sleeping 3 I can imagine - 4 would be pretty tight.

The clever bit of this design is the table that flips out, providing a table that is outside the van but still under the gate. Not as nice as a side awning, but better than nothing.

If you're not interested having the middle row of seats, then it seems like it would be hard to make any significant improvements over this kind of idea. However, I'm contemplating giving up some of the length of the box and hinging the whole thing so that it folds for the possibility of putting a bench seat back in, but I'm not sure how well that would work.

Let me know if you have other questions, and Gerard, I would be keen to see what you come up with.

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » Sat Jul 15, 2017 10:46 am

I ended up settling on a rather minimalist sleeping platform, not worth photographing. Used three pieces of 7/8" plywood 2' x 4' each, two strips of piano hinge and a bunch of round headed screws, making a tri-fold platform 2' x 6'. Rounded the corners with a jigsaw then rounded over with a routing bit, sanded and varnished. We wanted to keep the bench seats in the back, having nowhere to store them in our little place, and in case we needed to give anyone a ride. This folding platform can tuck in behind those. With the passenger captain's chairs reversed and laid flat, and using all four passenger headrests as shims under the board at the very back (because the bench seats go down too far when laid flat), it makes a very solid and almost dead-flat surface. I may one day do something more elaborate but for now this makes more sense for the wide range of uses we have for our vehicle. An inflatable Coleman mattress and matching pump make it a quick bed setup.

ynwa · Post by **ynwa** » Mon Jul 17, 2017 9:53 am

Beauty doin' eh!? This is very similar to what i have in mind, although I'll have drawers in the back with heavy duty sliders.

Anyway, how did you handle the ridges when building up the flooring? I was thinking of trying to keep the 2 rear seats but might just setup a simple sliding seat w backrest a-la westfalia.. Anyway, having a brain fart on the flooring while wanting to keep weight down as well.

Cheers!

phalteman · Post by **phalteman** » Wed Jul 19, 2017 5:01 pm

ynwa wrote:Beauty doin' eh!? This is very similar to what i have in mind, although I'll have drawers in the back with heavy duty sliders.

Anyway, how did you handle the ridges when building up the flooring? I was thinking of trying to keep the 2 rear seats but might just setup a simple sliding seat w backrest a-la westfalia.. Anyway, having a brain fart on the flooring while wanting to keep weight down as well.

Cheers!

ywna,

Your plans sounds very similar to what I ended up making. Just put the last couple pieces in the other day.

It's basically a box, about 33" x 40", which fits snugly between the wheel wells, and is about the distance you can get something in and still fold the middle seat down flat. Sliding shelves are on 22" locking rails that are rated to 40kg. The sliding slats are 1"x4"s attached to a 1"x1" pole. The last piece is a 26" x 48" sheet of 1/2" ply, which I thought might be too soft, but actually seems to work just fine (i.e., stands up to a decent amount of weight and rolling around. The expanded bed frame rests on two sets of supports that are hinged and fold up nicely - the first support sits on the seat, the second on the engine block. full bed frame size is 48" wide by 80" long or so.

The system of slats also has the added bonus of supporting itself when I slide it out, so it can be used as a table with the seat facing backward in a pinch.

Mattress to go on the top is a 3" foam mattress, also tri-folding to match the dimensions of the box. Additionally, the entire bed frame part is hinged at the back to allow top entry to the shelves.

ywna, I'll be curious to see what improvements you come up with! this is a rough draft, but it works well enough for my purposes, at least for now. It does make me want a high-roof model, though...