Interior cabinetry face lift

[Steve C]

I decided to update my original SMB cabinetry after having my "new" van for about a year. I like the RB50 layout, but the stark white just isn't my taste as I tend to gravitate to a more rustic appearance. I was also pretty disappointed in the MDF panels that SMB built all their cabinetry out of in the early 2000's. Just like others have found, my van suffered from some areas of MDF swelling due to years of moisture and spills.

So late last winter I began with my remodel. I've been building some cabinetry in our house with hickory and decided that would be almost ideal to use for the van. This wood is incredibly dense and strong (think baseball bats), so it would be highly dent resistant and give me the rustic look I enjoy. The downside is that it can be tough to work with and weighs a LOT. The weight of solid wood may be an issue for some, but I think with all the additions to date - it has added about 20lbs to the build. I decided to leave all the original SMB structure and focus on replacing the visible panels (first).

The first project was to get rid of the MDF panel on the rear driver's side door and the plywood panel the PO had installed on the side 40 door.

 

[Steve C]

The first step was to select some wood from my pile and plane it down to a uniform 3/4". Once that was accomplished, I decided to go with light and dark wood pattern for the rear door. So I selected a dark piece of hickory and a light piece.

I wanted the board to be light-dark-light, so I ripped the lighter piece in two and glued the panel back together with some wood glue and clamps. That done, I cut it to my desired dimensions. For both door panels, I ended up sizing my replacement panels larger then the standard SMB versions to give me additional working surface.

After cutting the panels to size I used my router table and a round over bit to round both the corners and the edges. For the side door, the process was similar except I opted for a single color of wood.

 

[Steve C]

The next step was to try and improve on SMB's hinge mounting technique. When they mounted the door hinges, they just screwed them right through the fabric covering the door panels. Over time this caused some wear and tear to the door panels themselves. After days of looking, I found a vendor on Etsy that would custom size and cut some aluminum plates that I could use to mount between my new black hinges and the door panels themselves. For these, I used some liquid metal etching formula and spray painted black before mounting.

 

[Steve C]

The finish I have applied to all the wood in this thread was Minwax wipe on Polyurethane. I just applied this over the bare wood. That way if/when the wood gets scratched or damaged in use, the repair would only involve sanding and applying more finish.

The wire shelf supports were recycled from the original SMB fold down doors and secured to the new doors with #8 5/8" wood screws.

As for the artwork, it's always in the eye of the beholder. However, I gave this panel to a friend of mine to do some wood burning with a basic idea of what I wanted and she certainly made my day

 

[Twoxentrix]

That looks fantastic - I'm sure its very satisfying to make all the cabinetry yourself, and from what you've shown in the Pic's, you're damn good at it. Cant wait to see what it looks like when the entire project is completed. Very nice touch with the wood-burning graphics.

 

[Glen-SMB]

Looks awesome!!! Love the artwork.

 

[Otter-SMB]

Beautiful! What a great idea to do the woodburning artwork. Nice to have a friend like that.

Looking forward to the rest of it.

 

[killacks]

Super clean!

Also, the artwork is awesome. Love touches like that. Takes me to a nice place when I look at it.

 

[Steve C]

Thank you all for the encouragement and kind words 1:

The next item on my agenda was to do something with that space behind the driver's seat and in front of the refrigerator cabinet. I tried to find what others here had used that space for and didn't have any luck searching through threads. My initial thought was to install some kind of magazine rack back there in order to store maps and owner's manuals...

However, after a weekend trip with Mrs. Steve C and dealing with a couple of bottles of wine rolling around for days, I decided to give her a spot of her own. A wine rack seemed like the perfect solution and I figured I'd get brownie points as well... :u1:

First thing I did was mock up a series of side profiles with scraps in order to match the angle of the seat when it's in my preferred driving position. I really wanted the rack to fit in the space like it was meant to be there from the beginning.

After some searching on line (and through our recycling bins), I decided to use 3 3/8" holes for the bottles. While this size hole won't fit all bottles, it seemed to be the best compromise and it also fit a bottle of whisky I had in the van at the time :b1: I utilized a hole saw mounted in a drill press to completely cut through the top two brackets. On the bottom board, I drilled down about 1/4" and used a hand held router with a straight bit to clean out the rest. To more easily slide bottles in and out of the rack, I used a 3/8" round over bit and went around the tops and bottoms of the middle two supports.

To attach the wine bottle supports I decided to route dados in the sides and glue them in. For the top and bottom mounting boards, I drilled pocket holes into the backs and screwed them to the sides (sorry no pictures of that).

To help limit rattling bottles, I also added some weather stripping around the inside of three of the holes (the whisky bottle fit perfectly as was). So far, that seems to have prevented any noise from occurring. Attaching the wine rack to the front of the refrigerator cabinet was accomplished by using four #8 3/4" washer head screws. Two on the top and two on the bottom mounting boards. Eventually these screw heads will be covered by SMB provided black press on screw covers.

If anyone decides to make their own, I think that just about any bottle shape and size could be accounted for. You'd just need to make the holes a little differently.

In the completed picture, you will see that the mounted rack sticks out like a sore thumb. That will be remedied in a future post when the other cabinet fronts match.

 

[BrianW.]

^^ Smart use of space! Consider gluing felt in the bottle slots for sound dampening and a bit of cushioning for the bottles. Also maybe put a piece of dense foam to cushion the bottom of the bottles.

 

[Twoxentrix]

I like the concept - we use neoprene wine bottle sleeves for each of the bottles, and they also work great for liquor bottles. The Benifits is you don’t need to remove them until the bottle is empty. Use them mostly when we are down by a river, protects the bottle when we place it in the water between a couple rocks (Chardonnay).
https://www.amazon.com/Carrier-Neop...e&qid=1582915384&sprefix=neoprene+wine&sr=8-9

 

[Steve C]

^^ Smart use of space! Consider gluing felt in the bottle slots for sound dampening and a bit of cushioning for the bottles. Also maybe put a piece of dense foam to cushion the bottom of the bottles.

:g1: That's a good idea and incorporated into the rack (as of an hour ago)... Just used some extra tool box liner material.

 

[Steve C]

I like the concept - we use neoprene wine bottle sleeves for each of the bottles, and they also work great for liquor bottles. The Benifits is you don’t need to remove them until the bottle is empty. Use them mostly when we are down by a river, protects the bottle when we place it in the water between a couple rocks (Chardonnay).
https://www.amazon.com/Carrier-Neop...e&qid=1582915384&sprefix=neoprene+wine&sr=8-9

Now that you posted that link, I remember seeing those sleeves from an earlier post of yours? (when I was looking for a solution on the forum). I like that idea and those in conjunction with a slightly larger cubby would expand the range of containers that could be carried with no rattle... Wine rack version 2.0!

 

[86Scotty]

Excellent upgrades and nice woodwork!

 

[Steve C]

Time for a new door pantry...???

I really wanted to copy someone else's plans on a door pantry, but just couldn't find anything that would work for me. My SMB pantry had seen better days and I didn't want that to be the first thing I saw every time I returned to my van. In planning, I wanted to keep it as relatively simple and lightweight as I could. I also wanted to maximize strength and aesthetic appeal (again in the eye of the beholder). I was concerned about hanging a lot of weight off the van door, so decided to keep the dimensions close to the original by SMB and didn't want to complicate things by adding extra folding extensions from it. However, I do completely understand why those features are desirable...

There are infinite ways to make a door pantry and mine is but one...

My old SMB pantry

 

[Steve C]

I decided to utilize a frame and panel construction for this project. I thought this style would add a little more visual appeal as opposed to a slab style (where the sides would have been a solid piece of wood). Of coarse with the right piece of wood a solid side would be cool...

First thing I did was select a relatively rustic (complete with a few worm holes) board from my selection of hickory - this board was mostly sap wood and therefore lighter in weight than typical hickory. I planed down the wood to a uniform 3/4" thickness and ripped it into a series of strips to be used for my panel frames. It was important to me to make sure I had enough of this particular board so that all the frames in the pantry would match.

The next step was to cut each one to length and make sure that they would visually match with their neighbor.

I then utilized my router table with a set of style and rail router bits to make a profile and a groove to receive each insert panel.

Then a test fit to make sure I didn't mess anything up. Once I was assured that everything would fit, I selected a board in a contrasting shade and placed it under the panel to identify exactly where it was going to sit when completed. I find that using a single board and matching the grain from one panel to the next adds a nice touch.

The next step involved cutting the four panels to size. Actually about 1/8" undersized to allow for proper expansion and shrinkage due to seasonal humidity changes. After sizing, I planed them down to approximately 1/2" in hight. I kept mine thicker than needed to increase the strength on the side panels, otherwise you could size them to fit exactly in the groove cut by the style cutting router bit. By leaving them thicker, I also had to cut out a rabbit along the underside to allow them to fit in the frame groves.

Then it was on to assembly. I installed some 1/4" foam backer rod in each grove so the panels wouldn't rattle added glue and a bunch of clamps.

 

[Steve C]

With the sides gluing I moved on to the face frame (front of cabinet). First I cut a dado in the stile (vertical strip) which will go over the cabinet sides. This feature will greatly add to the overall strength and insure that the sides are exactly parallel to each other. You can cut these dados after the frame is assembled, but that scares me since I use screws and I don't want to take the chance of running expensive blades into them. The dado is 1/4" deep and 3/4" wide set 1/4" in from the outside edge.

I choose to use pocket holes to assemble the rails (horizontal strips) to each of the stiles. Kreg makes an affordable jig that makes this supper easy to do. I drilled two pocket holes on the backside at each end of the rails (a later picture will show this).

Then I applied a little glue to each end and screwed it together.

 

[Steve C]

Then on to the overall carcass assembly...

The first thing I did was to cut two dados on the inside of each of the cabinet sides. These are sized to accept my 1/2" plywood shelves and were set 1/4" deep.

I also cut to width and height the mounting cleat that will hold the back of the lower portion of the cabinet together (along with the plywood shelf). This cleat is only 1/2" thick to assure I would have clearance between the cleat and the filled in wheel well of the van. This will be used to bolt the cabinet to the van's door. I also ran a dado in this cleat to wrap around the back of the lower shelf. This will give the mounting point more overall strength.

I drilled three pocket holes on the bottom of each forward edge of the shelves. These will be out of site and will be used to further strengthen the cabinet by screwing to the backside of the face frame.

Forth picture shows how the bottom cleat will wrap around the lower shelf. Notice that the cleat is 1/4" shorter than the shelf on each end. This is because 1/4" of the shelf will be inset into the dado on the cabinet side.

The next picture shows how the cabinet sides, shelves and face frame all go together. In the end product, that bottom shelf receives pocket holes on the forward edge.

Before the final glue up, painter's tape was applied adjacent to the dados (to prevent squeeze out from getting on adjoining wood surfaces. I applied ample glue to all the dados and clamped everything together.

Last picture shows how I attached the upper mounting cleat to the inside of the cabinet. Again, I used two pocket holes facing towards to van's door. Before screwing the cleat to the cabinet sides I pre drill with a 1/8" drill bit to make sure none of the wood splits.

 

[Steve C]

Then on to the cabinet doors...

For my cabinet doors I wanted a slim profile without sacrificing a substantial feel. So I decided to go with a partial inset overlay style. This allows some of the door to be recessed into the cabinet and some to overlay the outside of the face frame. I choose to go with a 3/8" inset and a 3/8" (I think) overlay. Taking out the additional wood from the rabbit also saved a little weight.

Both doors were constructed in the exact same manner as the cabinet sides. The only difference is that they each only have one panel and no center divider.

I used a rabbiting bit in my router table to create a rabbit along the inside of each door.

The third picture shows both how the door will fit within the cabinet and also the round over profile I used on the face frame edge.

I also wanted to try utilizing magnets as a latching system (thought it sounded cool). Here is my test door mounted on the side of my garage. I used this set up to figure out how many magnets would be required for a stout connection that would never open on its own, and still be relatively light... I utilized some rare earth magnets that were 1/4" diameter by 1/4" high. By using one on the door and one on the face frame it roughly doubles the strength? I found out that three (six) along the front edge gave me the desirable resistance I wanted.

I used a forstner bit to drill holes in both surfaces. On the face frame, I positioned the magnet so it would be a tiny bit proud of the surface. On the doors themselves, I left them a little more proud so the door gap would be the same all around the front (The hinges leave a gap at the bottom by design, and I had to match this with the magnet placement).

The magnets were carefully marked for polarity with a marker. While researching this I read stories of people gluing them in so they would repel instead of attract. I them glued them in using a 5 minute epoxy. Note: they stick best if lightly sanded on the sides and bottom before installation.

 

[Steve C]

The new pantry was installed over the original SMB door cut out with no modifications. I used two bolts on both the top and bottom mounting cleats and added the press on SMB black caps for the lower visible bolt heads.

I copied the SMB style coated wire rope door retainers as they are light, durable and handy.

In the end, this pantry was 2 lbs. heavier than the original SMB product.