Honda Odyssey Camper Van Conversion | DIY Full Build

this is my 2004 Honda Odyssey I have had this thing since it was new and I just now have decided that I want to turn it into a camper so I've got a couple ideas about how to do this as you can see I've already taken out the middle seats and I'm now going to try and take out the furthest back row of seats which is currently tucked away and that is going to be storage underneath the almost uh full size bed that I'm gonna put in here my idea was to bolt the bed post like the leg of the bed into this uh bolt hole but it turns out that this bolt hole which was previously for the seat belt is a really weird size so instead of bolting into that I'm gonna just try and take this rocker arm off which requires a hex socket which I had to go out and buy okay [Music] I have the first bits of the frame uh in I got these bolted in here and I had to get kind of creative and cut some angles out to accommodate for the trim yeah we got these pieces now and then the beams across the middle and then call it for a day I think [Music] after getting everything all installed I realized that I didn't really account for height I want to be able to use the space as a couch so I actually dropped it down three inches [Music] oh [Music] all right the frame is in starting to get kind of these little areas notched out for where I'm going to cut where I'm going to put my hinges and things this piece is going to lift up to have access to the trunk storage this piece this middle I won't do it now but this middle piece is going to come up to be a backrest for uh when you're sitting I don't want to have any supports underneath because once you flip it over onto the top it's just going to raise that height up even higher and I'm already close to hitting my head on the top so this piece is thicker this is all half inch plywood oh [Music] just finished adding some braces to the bottom of this back hatch here I've cut out little notches so that should slot right into there when I am in the car if I don't want to open the whole thing up and climb over it and have a little mini hatch that'll open here and then these braces will support that I'm going to have a little either washers or something that sticks out here to catch this when it's down to just provide a little bit more support all the way across the back this is the middle panel [Music] we've got everything stained up one cool thing I wanted to share was I added these big washers on your side here that actually connect with the panel here so that when you fold it down it rests right on top and actually adds a whole bunch more support there [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] just like that third panel is in I've got temporary legs down for it that are going to fold in once those are stained and ready and this whole thing is just gonna fold right on over and turn into another bench here's the legs for the sort of foot part of the bed and here's the hardware for that which I will show you once this is all stained and assembled so as one extra safety precaution so you don't like kick the leg or something while you're sitting on it and take the whole thing down I just added these locks and then when you're done stow away like that I just added this little bar and I'm hoping this will do three things one it'll keep the cushions from sliding off the end this way two it'll add more structural support and three when you fold the whole thing over it'll add a little bit of a gap in the middle so that the hinges aren't uh smashing together and causing these little divots my initial plan was to have gas struts hooked up from here to here but unfortunately I found that the struts that are sized correctly for how much this panel weighs we're way too weak to let you sit against it without it falling back and going flat and the ones the struts that could hold you up while you were sitting down were so strong that when the panel was closed it wouldn't stay closed it would just pop right back open every time I'm gonna put these Marine hooks here and then I'm just gonna use paracord tied to where the seats used to go into and then hold it up this way like that I just have these pieces of paracord that just uh fasten right up to these little hooks so now I have one couch type arrangement yes and I got the sort of two rows of seats set up the cushions are in and they fit and these covers that I got are pretty solid for the price I'll put a link to where I got them on Amazon [Music] thank you this finished up gluing the wool to the reflectix looks like from the outside much just like [Music] tint I came up with this sort of creative idea for a curtain hanger this is going to go up and stick right onto here and it'll be my little curtain rod [Music] [Music] oh it's night time so the lighting isn't great but I just wanted to show you those uh little S hooks that I made clip just right into the bottom there I'm making my curtains right now I'm just uh using the leftover wool that I have and I got these little button sort of snap buttons here to attach the side of the curtain to the side of the car [Music] Fastener on the other side you got yourself a little snap button Here's the final curtain there we go so that snaps in the middle to keep it a bit more airtight and then when I'm driving this actually folds quite nicely over to here just talks behind the passenger seat just finished doing some camping and I want to give you a rundown of the finished camper it's still a bit messy inside because I just woke up but uh let me clean up the window covers and put the sleeping bag away so I can show you how it looks all right so here's the that all cleaned up and uh again lift this up with my gas strut and here's all my stuff my supplies my skateboard things like that and I can uh tie that guy off and there's one more on that side I can do too this is now a bench and that's kind of cool let's bring that back down and then from this side I can move these cushions up and then this guy comes up and back down this so now he's got a couch set up and I've got all my storage underneath my cook stuff and my table usually goes under there and so this is where if I were to either cook inside or maybe do some work or something I could do it right here and then of course my curtain which I found that it has gotten a little crumpled over time of leaving it over there but so we just slept in here last night it was super cozy the uh window cushions keep the condensation down this little fan I got keeps the wind moving around it's pretty convenient all USB chargeable and then yeah I just keep my food and stuff and water up here I keep my cooler up in the front seat and uh yeah it's easy helps me get around um yeah oh I guess there's one more mode to set up I'll show you that one all right and then my last mode comes up from here a little cord pulled and then these ropes just go back and clip on like that which looks like this and that actually can have heat belts strap on so this is technically still seat that can be used while you're driving so yeah that's the setup thank you for uh watching along and seeing the process I'm very happy with how it all came together it's super comfortable last night was very nice to sleep and yeah I look forward to taking this thing many more places so yeah pretty happy with how the build came out

Channel: ButterBear

Views: 33,603

Keywords: camper, camper van, diy, van build, minivan, camper conversion, honda

Id: YHFxbD4tm2U

Length: 14min 17sec (857 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 25 2023