When we first bought ‘Astrid’ (Our Toyota Hiace, home on wheels) she was already roughly converted, but had more potential to be fulfilled. The exterior and interior were spray painted black by the previous owners which made it unsuitable for the high temperatures we’d experience while travelling North.
We decided to make a few changes to tailor it to our needs by employing more hardware and re-painting it. These were in the form of various hooks, clips and storage systems to make use of the wall space and the space under the bed as well as window coverings for privacy.
We were fortunate enough to be able to stay with my aunt upon landing in Perth which meant that we were able to use her space and equipment to renovate the van.
Neither of us had undertaken such a project before so we didn’t know how long the project would take but made a rough estimate of two weeks to complete the renovation (Which ended up taking a month between spending time with family and a few nice outings).
Tackling the interior
We sanded, stained and varnished all wooden surfaces with a rich cherry varnish and topped it with a glossy resin finish to make it easier to wipe clean. We decided to paint the interior white to give the illusion of more space by making it lighter and brighter.
After this, I tackled the electrics. The previous owners had left the wiring of the LED light mounted to the roof bar incomplete, so I finished the job to give us extra light for night driving. I changed the 12v connector for the fridge over to an Anderson style connectors, as I find them to be more robust than traditional 12v connectors.
The battery that came with the van was a 120AH (Amp Hours) deep cycle lead acid. I bought an additional 115AH battery to give us a total of 235AH of battery life, which I linked with Anderson style connectors as well.
Upon opening the battery box, I realised that the van already had a permanent resident. I had to take a moment to evict the Red Back spider that had made a home of our battery box.
As I worked on the electrics, Jess worked on sewing curtains from fabric that my aunt had designed in her college days, back home in Zimbabwe. She attached velcro strips to the curtains to keep them tight to the windows to maximise space and reduce light seeping through.
After brainstorming, making lots of measurements and compiling lots of lists, we did a few shopping trips to grab things that we needed to make the van viable for off-grid use. We bought plastic storage boxes, cooking and cleaning utensils, magnetic clips, hooks and water containers.
Upon completing the interior, we began the arduous task of repainting the exterior. This included the first and most lengthy process of removing the black paint.
Sanding the paint off took two solid days. We mostly used two Mikita electric sanders. However, for the sections inaccessible to the electric sanders, we used sheets of sandpaper with our bare hands and a lot of elbow grease. You’d never really begin to conceive how long two days can feel like until you’re knee deep in a pile of crumpled sandpaper seemingly wearing away at your own fingertips more than the item you’re sanding, or so it seemed (But if you’ve seen the ‘After’ pictures it was definitely worth it!).
After this experience I don’t think I’ll ever sand such a huge vehicle by hand again, that’s for sure!
We spent the better part of a day covering everything we didn’t want to paint with masking tape and bin bags.
After this, we sprayed the van with a few coats of primer as evenly as possible and began painting. We started off with the roof which we chose to paint white. We used five cans of white paint for this section. We carried on with the rest of the body which we chose to paint a nice mellow ‘Creation blue’.
We had no idea how much paint would be required for a job like this. As I said previously, we were going in blind!
But two visits to Super Cheap Auto and 18 cans of spray paint later we finally finished the job and got all our satisfaction removing all the coverings and packed the vehicle in preparation for our trip!
THE IVY TRAIL 