October update

Been very slack updating the blog. Lots of progress but also it doesn't seem like much, as I am only working on the van alternate weekends while spending time with mum.

Any way here goes:

So I started working a fold away table. I took ideas from a few online sources, especially this excellent video - https://youtu.be/owluWNKs7dU
I had some 25mm tube lying about, it was from a disused breakfast bar, and I tried to use this. Following advice I bought some bits for galvinised pipe (scaffold really), this is slightly bigger than the tube I had. This caused an issue as did the weakness of the tube. See below

At this stage I was optimistic, I had spent some time crafting some 18mm marine plywood to be the table top. This is a bit heavy, so the next stage caused a problem...

Oh dear, so I shortened the 'horizontal' section to stabilise it, this is only partially successful.

A bit more tweaking and its usable.

I did improve on this by replacing the 2 top pieces of metal tube with stronger steel, that was attached to the original ugly table. You can seethe final version in thevideo below. I am pretty happy with it now, it is easy to assemble and disassemble and sturdy.

I got some coloured elastic to make nice ties for the glasses and mugs.

I started on the widowsills with flexi-ply but there is lots more labour required on this.

A few weeks later, I just recorded a video to show progress, but iPad battery died half way. Anyway  now I've accidentally deleted it...

In few words, I have finished the upholstery on the difficult folding part of the mattress. I bought large curtains to cut down for the top faces, and some quite cheap plain material for the rest. I bought a Singer sewing machine from Argos and have been learning to use while bizarrely choosing the most difficult section first. It's surprisingly OK and sturdy, even the zip went in quite easily. For the whole project I have bought a 5m continuous zip. I used this tutorial to help - https://jennyswizzle.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/campervan-mattress-cover-tutorial/