Big Bertha's Make-Over
This was our beautiful Bertha when we first got her. She had some stickers and decals from a school that had previously owned her. We did our best to remove them.
And check out the rack on this one!! I do believe that will come in super handy along our way, even if it does add a couple inches to our overall height.
Now when we got Bertha, we were told that there was some floor damage. What I didn't realize was that the subfloor was actually completely rotten through. Not ideal. So, my first big project began. We removed all the seats, and started tearing out the flooring. This was a disgustingly messy job. We did find a number of small holes all along the bottom of the metal, either from screws or rivets. A lot of these had some mild rust around them. We filled in those we could, and treated every speck of rust we could find with some rust treatment. I then painted the entire floor with a waterproofing material, laid down a plastic foam board, and finally rebuilt the subfloor with water resistant chipboard, sealing the seams as I went along. The legs of the seats were a bit rusted, so those got a nice scrubbing and coated with the same rust treatment and metal paint beforeI then laid down a thick linoleum flooring and rebolted them into their new configuration.
A little thing, that makes a big different in the usabilty of the van for camping, is the window tint. On the sides in the back I did a Limo level tint. I believe that's a 5% tint. From the inside it does make it darker, but only about as much as wearing sunglasses. However it makes is much, much harder to see anything inside. This makes sleeping in the van feel more secure, and changing in the van an option. The back windows can't be tinted quite as darkly, and I wouldn't want them to be, as it would make visibility more challenging, but they are tinted to 35%, I think. We use a sarong to separate the front from the back, to block light and visibility at nights or when privacy is preferred.
One of the many concerns with traveling with this many people, is "Where do we put all the stuff?" That's a great question. Luckily, when we removed a row of seats, it left extra room in the back. I made a shelf that, with the mattress (This makes an amazing comfortable bed as long as you're under 5'6" or so), still sits low enough not to interfere with visibility out of the back, and there ia a surprising amount of space back there. The first picture here was the original attempt with just Riana's family. When we all go together, we won't be taking the stroller, but will have a big tent and a lot of cooking supplies, clothes and just random necessities. Hopefully, we can make it all fit!
If you look closely, you can see the shower curtain that can be pulled to block out light, and water. A second cutain can be hung by some hooks on the doors, and with the addition of a solar shower hung from the top rack, you have a shower stall! This is super handy when you have kiddos who have been to the beach and you reeeeeally don't want all that sand in the vehicle. The lines can also be used to hang wet clothes and towels.
