Ford Connect SWB Micro Campervan Conversion Tour
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- Опубліковано 19 сер 2024
- This video shows my completed Ford Connect Micro Campervan. The Connect camper has been converted by myself over the past 2 months or so with every job documented on my youtube channel / thecampervanbuilder and this video shows the final product of my work after it's returned from the paintshop for a respray. Work carried out on the Ford Connect camper include flooring, insulation, carpeting ply panels & metalwork, fitting a skylight & side window, making new headlining and installing 4x LED downlights wired to a remote dimmer. I have made a DIY L shape corner sofa bed which extends to make a comfortable double bed. The kitchen houses a 2 burner gas hob with grill, 25cm sink with external drainage, dedicated gas bottle storage area along wtih a water & electrics storage section. Once the conversion was complete I had to tidy the bodywork so I replaced a rusty rear bumper with a new one, ground back some flaking paint on the sills which have previously been replaced, removed all the common Connect roof rust issues and filled in any dings around the panelwork before sending the van in for a new paint job. The bodyshop were told to surprise me and that they did, painting the van a metallic silver with a textured metal flake finish. The van pops like crazy when in the sun yet and the colour almost flips from silver to lilac and back, a truly one-off paint job for sure. To see all of the above jobs being carried out just visit my channel / thecampervanbuilder
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Excellent conversion, love it!.. this is just the video I was looking for, to convert my SWB connect.. keep up the brilliant work Pal 👌
That's an awesome van convertion fella, great video 👍👍👍
Thanks
A proper micro camper. Superb build and a great reflection to your skills and care and attention. First Class.
Love the layout also when I watched the build videos the amount of care you took when installing the parts, proper rust prevention and making sure windows and such are sealed properly is just fantastic. I am really impressed on the amount of care and craftsmanship that went into a "budget build".
Gonna lend a few ideas and watch rest of your build videos so that if I ever find the right van to do some sort conversion on I have somewhere to start.
Thanks for great videos and subbed!
Glad to be of help, good luck with your conversion when you start
So well planned lay out. Amazing!!👌👌
Buying one of these this week. So glad I found this video was getting worried I should of gone for a lwb. Thank you for sharing this. Looking forward to watching all your videos and starting my own conversion.🤗
Glad I could help!
Great build! I have the same type of van that I converted, a 2010 transit connect.. I also flipped the passenger seat around, which I now use as a recliner. It opens up the space in the van.
Does it not block the view out of the passenger window ?
Very nice job mate I've watched all or most of your vids now and am looking forward to the next project. I have just turned a 13 plate peugeot boxer ambulance into a fixed bed camper I filled in the dvla papers after following your advice with pics and got my v5 back saying motor caravan and to my surprise got all my pics back ( probably over did it with 15 ) after checking the dvla website I was surprised to find it didn't state it needed a sliding side door just a door that provides access to the living accommodation and no rule about an opening window just needs to have a window somewhere in side of van. Great work mate just need to start selling a few , keep up the vids.
Tony.
I love this it’s the exact size I want and he paint job is 😍😍😍
Excellent video and full tutorial for how you did it thanks
Nice Van you have the most commercials in your videos . Y'all have the nicest Van's in the UK
can see the colour change really good
Very nicely done 👍
Very nice. I have a SWB Connect too, planning to do more or less the same thing so im watching videos for inspiration. Very good series you have going on here, lots of good ideas im definitely going to use for my van. A difference will be that Im going to try to make the interior removable or flippable up against the walls so as to make the van usable for using as a van when needed. Instead of a stove or sink, i will just use a portable gas stove and a washbowl to keep things simple. Theres only one thing I want that I see you dont have, though i suspect you just havent gotten around to it yet, which is a privacy curtain against the front and side windows similar to those found on trucks. A good idea might be to get one from an old truck, as they have runner tracks that go around the entire front half of the cab. Should be easy adapting to the Connect. Regards from Norway, cheers Arve. :)
I don't fit curtains in my conversions if they are projects to sell (like this was) as not everyone wants them. I use silver lined bubble foil cut to fit the windows in my own van which work well and don't take up space
I see. How do you attach them, with suction cups?
that, or magnets to the door frame
That apholstery is very 1980's Retro.
Looks great :) you have a lot to keep you busy too, nice one
also a bit of sparkle looks great !!!
You've gone to all that trouble but left the dents in on the left hand side !??
Yeah I took care of all i noticed but not all dings stood out when the van was white
great conversion !!!
Thanks
Another great job mate you'd better start selling a few or your going to run out of room lol. Keep it up, I like your video's.
Too late, the driveway is jammed full so yes, time to get some turned over to free up some space
How much are you selling them at?
I only have a bus conversion completed at the moment which wouldn’t be cheap
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4:28 ...that lived in the house that Jack built!
"Plenty of foot room" 🤣
Just a tip mate, after filling and priming try spraying a guide coat then when flatting it’ll show you all the high and low spots and you’ll get a much better finish when the topcoat goes on 😀
Yeah the bodyshop have already been giving me similar tips for the next one I do to make things even better next time round
Great bed. Jumpy video
I like your builds very stealth you could park downtown London,no problems..
Thanks, because it's registered as a camper, it should be emission charge exempt too
I’m considering a conversion with the same van, however, it crossed my mind that I could maybe cut a swinging door into a van with a bulkhead so that my feet could stick out through the bulkhead door. I also thought about removing the passenger seat. If the bulkhead door opened forwards like a cat flap my feet would remain hidden from view. This would allow me to stealth camp in my van. I’m not sure the DVLA would like this idea though.
The passenger seat should fold down and forward to give larger space, have a look at the bed build for this van on my channel, might offer further inspiration. It's not the dvla you need to worry about as they are't registering anything as campers at the moment anyway, its insurance if you convert and don't tell them you need to worry about incase something went wrong
Thanks I’m churning my way through all of your Connect videos. They’re excellent.
I wish I could carpet as well at that
Any links or measurements available to lend 🤣 just bought the sake van and wanting to convert it and this looks absolutely perfect
I have full more detailed build videos for all my vans on my channel, but no measurements as such to share as I build everything to the space available
I seen yeah they are brilliant think I will do the same but will make the kitchen unit removable
Where was the fridge? Nice
Well done.!
my aunt has a 1996 vw t4 camper van and it has a new motor in it now
I recomened camper builds should always have light colored walls and furniture. That way lights refects off the surface, and causes the interior to glow. Makes it feel far less clausterfobic.
Nice conversion although a flush built in hob would have really finished it off nicely, just my opinion
Thanks, I fitted a smaller hob in my last conversion, I just wanted one with a grill fitted in this one
Hi buddy just a quick question how did u remove the panel clips from the side door step
Can I ask for the dimensions in the back area?
Would be nice to see such conversion on my 2007 LWB Tourneo connect...
;-)
Love the storage room under the bed and the little walk-thru around the passenger seat!
Do you need a fixed stove for the DVLA? This double burner takes up much space...
Nice work, thx for the vid!
:-)
You need either a fixed stove or microwave, portable canister ones aren't suitable for DVLA. There are smaller hobs that this, I just got this as it had the grill too
Love your videos mate. I was wondering where you sell your conversions or if its more commission based? I have a few ideas that might interest you lol
I build one, use it a couple of times to be sure it’s all right, sell and move on to the next project, I don’t do private work
@@TheCampervanBuilder aw right. Thanks. Keep up the builds mate. Love them
Great work to squeeze all that in. Is that high roof transporter in the background being converted? I am working on a high roof t5 at the moment. Using the same design you done for your other t4 conversion with the side pull out bed. Not many people with that design but seems a lot more practical to enjoy views out side door and lots of storage underneath.
I prefer side beds as it leaves a lot more useable space on the van than R&R beds etc. I’ll be starting on the T5 once my second hijet is finished, hopefully within the next few weeks at most.
@@TheCampervanBuilder That's great! I'll be tuning in for sure. Cheers.
pity didnt take the dent out of back right hand quarter panel lovely job.apart from that well done
yup I missed a couple of bits of bodywork before sending in for paint that just didn't stand out while white, once painted it showed where I missed straight away
Awesome :)
Hi, great job, how thick is the ply used for the bed to hold body weight. Thanks
I usually use 9mm ply and cls timbers for the frame. I have another of these vans coming soon so stay tuned
Great, thanks for the reply, will stay tuned 👍
What material did you use for the gas locker door and how did you make it air sealed? Thank you for the video
The locker isn’t 100% air tight (close though) but it does have the safety of a drop out hole so if there were any issues, gas would just drop out the hole rather than build up and leak out the cupboard
Where’s the side window from please pal?
Its a window from a caravan door
Why the kitchen? Why not the living room entrainment room:TV sound system with a comfortable make chief sofa.
Nice conversion. What's the mechanical side of this van like?
It’s a solid van, it needed brakes service & mot when I bought it and I’ve had all that done, no advisories too
these vans are fairly bullet proof good for at least 250'000 miles the only issues are if u buy a older model they rust badly regular services ad your laffing
Nice van needs curtins round front and how does leisure battery charge when you use it
I wasn't fussed about fitting curtains at the time and the battery needed a charge before use or a split charge relay fitting to keep it topped up
How does gas hose fit to the cooker? How is the cooker fix to worktop? Does it have a gas engineers report?
Just a standard gas hose direct to the bottle below, with the hob being screwed directly to the worktop, no engineers report as there was nothing to report on with just a hob connected directly to the bottle regulator
Looks great mate. Well done. Have you been anywhere good in it.
Thanks, it was done as a project to sell and the new owner said it'll be heading into the hills with his dogs for long weekends etc with it
@@TheCampervanBuilder nice one. me and my brother go kayak camping. we thinking of doing the same.
Hi! Great video and conversion, what sort of leisure battery will you be using? thanks!
This had a 110ah leisure battery fitted in it
Hello very good video. How do you managed that the passenger seat folded like you show.Do you made it yourself?
It is part of the passenger seat mechanism in this van
im a carpenter by trade the only hard bit will be the electrics do u have your leisure battery hook up in another vid? just subscribed love the paint job how much did it cost
I have electrics videos on my channel from different builds, the paint job was discounted as I did all the bodywork prep beforehand otherwise it would have been £1000-1500
What are those spring mounted brackets officially called? Could do with sourcing a few for my van regards Jez
They are exactly that, spring brackets, search on eBay or google, Screwfix do them but cost a lot more
couldn't help noticing the dent on the back nearside quarter...was this done after the van left the body shop?
No I did all the bodywork prep before the paint job to save money but I missed a few small dings here & there
Do you do vans? Im
After someone doing this what you have done to my vauxhall combo. Love the conversion
Hello, yes I’m willing to take on work for other people, I’ve thought about doing a combo already but did the connect instead. If you would like to discuss your requirements and if I can help, send me a private message on here or ideally via my Facebook link on my main channel banner logo
Would you like to discuss if I can help with your conversion?
Why does it need to be DVLA registered campervan ? is there a beneficial reason.
Different speed limits on motorways, cheaper insurance with a higher valuation and sometimes lower tax class too
were did u get the window from mate? i have a 2006 connect that iv just started to convert
This was from a scrapped caravan door, sometimes find them listed on eBay
What colour you say for DVLA ?
Silver
👍👍👍
Nothumberland accent? Geordie?
about 30 mins from either
What part of England is your accent from?
North East England
how much did it sell for?
I let it go cheap under 2k as I had other things to start on
Dvla ok with that gas hob?
as long as its in a fixed position any 2+ burner hob should be fine
Camper Conversion ahh didn’t realise 👍🏻
They will even accept a microwave as an alternative to gas hobs, yet don't ask for proof of 240v hookup or inverter, go figure...
What is the name of skylight please? Also side window? Where do I get them?
I’ve previously mentioned the skylight are mpk skylights, the window if from a caravan door, eBay or google will help locate some
Plenty of room hahahA
It’s called a micro camper for a reason.
@@TheCampervanBuilder so why keep saying it ?
Because I’m 6’3 tall and can lie down flat so although it’s built as a micro camper, there’s a surprising amount of room considering it’s the swb low roof version. I was surprised myself with the room it offered but obviously it’s not big as it’s a small van in general.
Are
you on Instagram
Yes, username Camperconversion