The Best and Easiest DIY cabinets for your custom van conversion
Welcome, van fam! If the dream of lightweight, strong, and genuinely professional-grade cabinetry for your mobile adventure seems out of reach, prepare to have your expectations redefined. Vamonos Vans is revolutionizing the DIY van build world by transforming what used to be a frustrating, labor-intensive process into a simple, confidence-building project.
With the Vamonos Vans aluminum cabinet kits, builders can take a simple pile of sheet aluminum and quickly turn it into cabinetry that is lightweight, strong, durable, and completely waterproof. The best part? The process is designed for ease, ensuring every build achieves a professional finish the first time.
This is how Vamonos Vans empowers builders to create stunning, high-quality results without the usual headache.
Precision Engineering Delivered to Your Door
The foundation of this effortless building experience lies in the preparation. When a builder receives a Vamonos Vans kit, the sheet aluminum components are already pre-cut, pre-drilled, and pre-bent. This level of precision, executed off a plasma or CNC machine, is what eliminates the complexity and ensures that every piece lines up exactly as it should.
For assembly, the necessary hardware is supplied, and the builder needs only to provide a handful of common tools. The key tools for carcass construction include a 1/8 inch drill bit and a counter sync bit, which are essential for the final preparation of the holes. Builders will also need a rivet gun, with options ranging from an affordable fully manual version to pneumatic or cordless electric options, making the project accessible regardless of budget. For those who plan to do extensive riveting, a pneumatic rivet gun, perhaps acquired affordably from a source like Harbor Freight, is highly recommended, as it minimizes the strength and energy required for the task.
An optional, yet highly recommended, tool is the cleco. Clecos act as temporary rivets, allowing the builder to put the entire cabinet carcass together without permanent fasteners. This means builders can test fit and confirm the alignment of the panels before committing to a permanent rivet. This extra step builds trust in the process, guaranteeing that even though the pieces are accurately cut, builders have the peace of mind to confirm that everything fits perfectly before securing it.
Assembling the Cabinet Carcass with Confidence
The basic cabinet carcass consists of just four main pieces: a back, a bottom, and two sides. These panels feature specific design elements, such as pre-bent flanges and numerous pre-drilled holes, each serving a specific purpose in the assembly and attachment process.
The assembly typically begins by connecting a side panel to the back panel. Because Vamonos Vans has provided holes drilled on both pieces, alignment is simplified: the builder merely lines up the holes between the panels. The assembly process is designed so that a flange always meets a side without a flange. For example, the bottom piece, which has one flange, will meet the non-flanged bottom edge of the back panel, allowing the builder to send rivets through and connect the components efficiently. By using clecos for a dry fit, builders can quickly assemble the full carcass in just a couple of minutes, ensuring accuracy before they move to permanent fasteners.
The Key to the Professional Finish: Counter-Sunk Rivets
Once the dry assembly confirms the fit, the construction moves to permanent riveting. The first step involves clearancing the holes using the 1/8 inch drill bit. This is necessary because the holes are slightly undersized coming off the CNC machine, ensuring a precise and tight fit for the rivets.
Following clearance, the crucial step for achieving that signature high-end look is counter sinking. The Vamonos Vans kits include 1/8 inch counter-sunk rivets. Counter sinking involves using a countersink bit to create an angled edge inside the rivet hole. This allows the top face of the counter-sunk rivet head to sit flush with the material surface. This detail is essential because a smooth, flush finish allows cabinets to be mounted side-by-side or mounted to the floor without typical domed-head rivets getting in the way. By taking this little bit of extra time to counter sink, builders are guaranteed a smooth, clean professional quality finish. Once the holes are prepared, the builder simply uses the rivet gun to compress the rivet inside the hole, breaking off the tail and leaving a rock-solid, flush connection.
The resulting cabinet carcass is remarkably light.
Effortless Drawer Slide Installation
Perhaps one of the most common headaches in traditional cabinet building is drawer slide installation, which demands precise parallelism, alignment, and level placement of each drawer slide. Vamonos Vans removes this headache entirely through the inclusion of press-fit threaded inserts located on the inside of the cabinet panels thus making installing drawer slides foolproof, even for the complete amateur. Using 6-32 machine screws, the builder simply aligns the front edge of the drawer slide with the front edge of the cabinet and secures it into the threaded inserts.
Once the slide mechanism is attached to the cabinet, the next step is connecting the corresponding track to the drawer box itself. The slide runners easily detach from the main slide body by manipulating a small tab. Just like the cabinet panels, the drawer boxes come with pre-drilled holes that act as markers for alignment, eliminating any alignment issues when attaching the slide runner using #6 counter-sunk wood screws
After both halves of the slides are installed, the builder aligns the tracks, slides the drawer in until they hear the satisfying click, and the soft-close drawer is ready for action.
Final Touches
To complete the assembly, the last structural element is the installation of the drawer faces. Again, Vamonos Vans ensures alignment is never an issue by providing pre-drilled holes in both the drawer box and the face panel. The builder merely drives screws through the back of the drawer box until they poke out, then aligns those points with the holes in the drawer face, screwing them securely into place.
The finished cabinet is rigid and ready for the road. To ensure ultimate stability, the final step involves attaching the cabinet to any adjacent cabinets, adding a countertop and bolting the entire unit into the van. Once everything is secured to the vehicle, the entire system becomes rock solid yet light as feather and won't be going anywhere.
Vamonos Vans offers professional quality DIY cabinets that allow van builders to achieve a high-quality result at an affordable price point, providing fun without the traditional frustration.
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Your Adventure Starts Now!
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