Van DIY

Updated on May 4th, 2025

The scariest part of a van build has to be holes into the body of the van. It isn’t particularly hard, but the consequences of doing it wrong are VERY high. And on top of that, it happens super early in the build and so you haven’t quite gotten into the rhythm of the work yet. We knew we had four major holes we needed to cut and they all should be done before we insulate, but some shipping delays meant that we could only cut three of the holes before we started on the interior.

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Cut 1: Bunk Window Install

Cutting a hole for our bunk window was probably the most nerve-wracking hole we had to cut. Without the bed being built yet, it’s pretty hard to figure out the placement of a window that is supposed to be above the bed and centered. We had to rely on our taped-out measurements, the placements of the ribs in the wall and just a dash of gut feeling.

We decided to go with a Van Window Direct Awning Bunk Window. The awing style bunk window was important to us because we wanted to be able to keep it open in the rain. We’ve had a few thunderstorms catch us by surprise on the boat, and a wet bed is the worst. An awning style window would allow us to keep it open to allow a cross breeze even when it was raining. If rain gets inside with this bad boy, we have bigger problems.

The other positive of the Van Window Direct version was how easy it was to install. Campervan HQ provided us with a very helpful installation video and it was as simple as cutting the whole, painting the edges, and screwing the window in place!

Cut 2: Roof Vent Fan

During our last van conversion, we thought we didn’t need a roof fan and quickly learned that it is an essential piece of kit. That meant that we had to cut through our insulation and ceiling in order to install it much later in the build. We learned our lesson this time and cut the hole of our fan very early this time!

We have also decided to upgrade our fan to a model that is able to operate in the rain, is multidirectional, variable speed and remote controlled. This led us to purchase the MaxxAir MaxxFan Deluxe 7000K.

Our Promaster has a corrugated roof and Vanlife Outfitters actually throws in free shims to fill the gaps and make installation a lot easier! Kudus to them for being so thoughtful!

Cut 3: Cassette Toilet Door

We are installing a Thetford C223 Cassette Toilet in this van build. I’m going to talk more about the decisions we made regarding our toilet for a later post, but we did have to cut a hole for the cassette to exit the side of the van. This was by far the hardest hole to cut because we had plastic trim on the outside of the van in the way and we had to preserve the sheet metal to be used in the door itself. They only provide a frame for the door. Andy did an awesome job with the jigsaw to keep everything clean!

We also had to have the placement pretty exact for the layout of the interior. There was only about 1.5 inches of wiggle room with the design. So we used the tape out we did during the planning to make sure that the toilet would sit in the middle of the cabinet it will live in. We also had to miss the structural support ribs. We even brought in cardboard to double check that there was enough space on either side of the toilet before cutting the hole. This also led to us having to shorten the width of our bed by about three inches to make it all work!

Once we cut the hole, installing the door itself was easy and we are excited that we will be able to empty the cassette without having the risk of spills or leaks in the interior of the van!

Tips for Cutting Holes in Your Van

• Measure three times, cut once! The old saying is measure twice cut once but the consequences of cutting wrong in this case are a lot higher so we typically have one of us measure and mark, the other one of us verifies that measurement/markings and then we measure a third time together. Using multiple sets of eyes has caught more than one issue for us in the past!
• Using a step drill bit to make your pilot holes can be really helpful and will give you more control over the size of the hole than a hole saw might.
• Use a sharp jigsaw blade! We suggest starting with a new metal cutting blade with fine teeth.
• Cut from the inside when possible to protect your exterior paint.
• Use tape to keep your saw from scratching paint if you can’t cut from the inside!
• Make sure you wear safety glasses or face shield and ear protection! It’s very loud! Also long sleeves are a good idea because those metal chips will be hot!
• Don’t forget to debur, sand and paint your cut edges! This is a great way to get rust if you forget!

We will have more holes to cut in the van, including one more large hole for our slider window but shipping delays have us waiting! No big deal though, it will be easy enough to do later on in our build.

Running Cost Breakdown

Note: All Costs are as of April/May 2024

• Bunk Window: $269.00
• Maxxair Roof Vent Fan: $309.00
• Thetford C223 Cassette Toilet: $728.23

New Costs: $1306.23

Total Cost: $14,655.67

Updated on May 4th, 2025

I am a big fan of the planning phase of any project. Prepping? Not so much. Planning is the dreaming and organizing, two things I’m great at. Prepping is just all the little stuff you have to do before you can actually start on any of the fun stuff. It’s tedious and in most cases it is stuff that you’ll never see once the build is complete. Lame.

In the interest of transparency, please be aware that the following may contain affiliate links and any purchases made through such links may result in a small commission for us at no cost to you. We appreciate you shopping from these links!

Who Doesn’t Love a List

List making is one of my favorite hobbies and the beauty of building a van means there are a lot of lists to make. Wants and needs lists. Things to purchase lists. Things to do lists. Videos to film lists. Andy does not get the same thrill from this part of a project which is why it usually falls to me. We are good at playing to our individual strengths.

I started with our “needs and wants” lists. We try to do something similar to this for every project because it helps us prioritize the most important parts of a project. It is the “big picture” dialed down to bullet points. I thought I would share with you all a bit of those items here:

Gwen Needs	Andy Needs	Gwen Wants	Andy Wants
Queen Size or Bigger Bed	Roof Vent Fan	Oven	Trailor Hitch
Hot Water Heater	Shower	A/C	A/C
Stovetop	Enclosed Toilet Space	At Least 25 Gallons of Water	Electric Appliances
Refrigerator Bigger than a Dorm Fridge	Overhead Lighting	Spot for Trash and Laundry	Space for foldable bikes
Toilet	Two Computer Work Stations	Space for Camera Gear	Indoor Shower
Heat	Space to Sit up in Bed
	At least 76 inches of bed length

Now that we had our van, and our priority list I could start dreaming up layouts.

Planning Layout(s)

Andy had quite a few projects going on with work and boat projects so when we were ready to start putting together layouts we decided that I should do the initial planning and then he would take my “draft” and put it in CAD so that we had a better model for planning how much wood and paneling we would need.

I started out with pen and paper but quickly grew frustrated with visualizing what it would look like. Until I found Vanspace 3D. A program that is relatively user-friendly for someone who doesn’t know CAD but still allows me to create three-dimensional models. I took our list above and started playing with how I could fit as many items as possible into the build.

It became apparently pretty quickly that an indoor shower was going to take up a lot more space than we were willing to give up for a “nice to have” item. We are no strangers to showering outside, we primarily shower outside on the boat and we only showered outside for the first eighteen months we were cruising. So this was not a huge compromise and one that is going to make a lot of the other items on the list possible.

The next problem was figuring out how to have an enclosed toilet space without it taking up the same space as a shower/toilet combo. Andy had the brilliant idea to use something similar to what we had on our Alberg 30 and utilize the “hallway” as part of the bathroom. The door that will hide the toilet will double as one of the walls of this “bathroom”. With this idea we are also able to use some of the space above the toilet as a cabinet! Win-win!

Taping Out the Design

The last part of planning was to tape out the design on the floor of the van. This allowed us to check widths of walking areas and the bed. It also gave us a great visual to realize that our original plan for a banquet behind the driver’s seat wasn’t going to work. We reworked that idea and are actually more excited with our new plan but I’ll share more on how that will work later on!

Once we were happy with the tape out, Andy took our dimensions and made a CAD model so we had a working model to plan materials purchases and to reference as we build!

Prepping for the Build

The last thing we needed to do before we could actually start the build was to remove all the old contractor equipment and do some touch-ups to paint on the interior.

Our van was previously an electrician’s vehicle so there was some interior shelving that needed to be removed. We also removed the ladder rack from the top of the van and the divider from the driving compartment.

Once everything was cleaned out, we wire brushed all of the surface rust on the interior, primed and painted those spots so that we don’t have to worry about them getting worse!

Cost Breakdown

• Vanspace 3D (One Year License): $27.00
• Paint: $49.44

New Costs: $76.44

Total Cost: $13,349.44