5 series touring - van conversion!

[alastairwatt]

im new to the e34, im a big e30 fanatic, but i required something larger than the e30 touring so hence me plumping for the e34, to accomodate my gear and more often or not i sleep in the car when go munro climbing in scotland so i can get up and away at first light without the need to pitch tents and camping in sometimes horrendus weather,id rather be inside my bm!! the cars been great not one bit of problem in all the miles and decidily dodgy roads ive taken it on.

the e34 is my second car and prodominantly used for outdoor pursuits i plan to keep it for a while as its got a very low milage for its age,i was going to keep the car as is but im now thinking of stripping out the rear seats, door linings etc, then frame and plywood sheet the full rear area to give the maximum load space, building storage into the existing now redundant foot well area, look at housing a secondary leisure battery, the rear windows are already limo privacy tinted, its got the double sunroof, its not the hilton but would serve my needs for both storage and somewhere to lay a bed roll out, anyone seen of this done done before or did something similar?

regards ally

1995 - 520 touring uk manual.

[RallyD]

why not just get one of these

http://www.spiderenterprises.com/files/RedneckCamper.jpg

http://www.joe-ks.com/archives_jun2007/MobileHome.jpg

[Jon K]

w...t...f

[alastairwatt]

ha ha would do the job, by the way its not my residence!! they way petrol and road tax prices are going here im sure we will see one or 2 on the roads here.

[attack eagle]

IT already has the maximum load space... there si no room to be gained by removing the sidepanels or anything else you have mentioned.

[bubba966]

IT already has the maximum load space... there si no room to be gained by removing the sidepanels or anything else you have mentioned.

That's kind of what I was just thinking. I haven't taken apart my friends '95 525iT in the back much yet. But what I have pulled up makes me pretty sure you'd not gain any room by stripping the interior out of the rear.

And as I believe that AE has pulled that stuff out of his touring for upgrade purposes I'd guess he'd know better than I.

[t.wak]

I think he means just the rear seats so he can fit in there laying down.

[Ross]

As a touring veteran i can tell you headroom is what you want. If you built a platform to replace the cushion you would gain a good amount, probably enough to sit up.
A pop up ala VW combi would be uber kuhl.

[Elekta]

if you took the rear bench and back seats out, I bet you could make a pretty flat surface long enough to camp in...if you weren't 6'4" or something. Check out the stars through your moon roof...pretty sweet actually.

I always wanted to make a camper trailer out of a touring body, and sheet metal in where the windshield would be, and cut the car flat at the firewall and put a trailer tip on there.

it could happen!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/ggil-tx/sideviewtouringhitch1.jpg

[attack eagle]

but when you fold the rear seats it make an even load floor all the way to the front seats... So I'm not getting where there is a problem??? It is long enough to lay back there, cause I've done it.

I can tell you if you take the rear seat bottoms out you'll pass center on the tops when folded, and it is a PITA to get them back up... and if you DIDi remove the backs and load floor, you'd end up building the floor right back up to where it was to get it flat again.

[alastairwatt]

ive had a look and agree, the germans didnt waste much space when they put the facings to the rear and the rear bench folds down well, you do have the bulb from the rear bench sticking up, the advantage in removing the bench would be you could run a platform right up to back of the rear seats and create extra storage box's in where the folks feet went in the rear, im only 5'10''. ive slept in the rear before and can sit up ok as is, the thing is bm's of this age are getting pretty cheap nowadays, it aint a m5 only a lowley 520, its my second car and i use to to put a canoe on the roof or getting a kip before i go climbing.

it isnt a camper van i know and i aint a hobo ha ha, but think it could make something quite useable in the rear that suits the purpose.

watch this space!

any comments appreciated, am trying to upload couple of pics but seem to be too large i will need to look into reducing size somehow.

[alastairwatt]

wouldnt it be boring if we were all the same!

a camper 5 sound cool! i thought there would be someone out there who had did something of a similar ilk? somewhere!!!!!

[alastairwatt]

As a touring veteran i can tell you headroom is what you want. If you built a platform to replace the cushion you would gain a good amount, probably enough to sit up.
A pop up ala VW combi would be uber kuhl.

just spotted this! not a bm anyone got photoshop to see what it would look like on the 5?

[alastairwatt]

rover maestro camper coneversion