bedtime.
/The biggest initial project we wanted to tackle within the Campbulance was building the bed. The current bench seat and pad was too narrow and we eventually want to add a hinged component to make the bed sleepable for two. The first step in this process was to remove the old bench seat and prep the area for the new bed.
If you look at the bottom of the bench seat that Christian is pulling out, you can see the gurney hardware below the bench. We plan to use a similar slide-out metal arm to add support to the foldout double bed option.
Checking out some of the hardware in the bench seat.
Removing more of the linoleum from the wall.
As with every project we've undertaken so far, there's always a further complication. Since the linoleum on the walls and floor are so old, they don't like to come off cleanly. Because of that, we've tried to leave the linoleum everywhere that it's fairly intact and not bubbling up or peeling away from the walls.
The next step was to cut a new bench seat. We did some measuring and decided on 22" wide to provide a deeper seat and sufficient sleeping space without protruding too much more into the living space or being too deep to comfortably sit on.
Our biggest goal has been to use whatever existing hardware we get from the Campbulance to save time and money. We put the heavy duty piano hinge from the old bench right back onto the new one and secured the new bed in place.
It was a perfect fit and after spending all day working on it, was incredibly satisfying to see a project (at least halfway) finished. Since we haven't quite figured out how we want to integrate the foldout layer of the bed, we'll leave the second half of the project for later while we tackle the rest of the Campbulance projects.
A bed!