Bongo Fury

Hi
Does anyone know who fits bed boards into the roof to make it easier for kids to sleep in ? I have 6 & 3 year olds not yet ready for the trapdoor roof setup. Ive seen the thread on how to do it yourself but dont have the DIY skills ! Im based in London so somewhere not too far would be good.
Thanks
Sam

ClearCut conversions do roof conversions. They're in Bideford, Devon mind.

I can't recommend clearcut enough works really well with my 6 anbd 3 year old, professional finish

Sammie&Kian wrote:Hi
Does anyone know who fits bed boards into the roof to make it easier for kids to sleep in ? I have 6 & 3 year olds not yet ready for the trapdoor roof setup. Ive seen the thread on how to do it yourself but dont have the DIY skills ! Im based in London so somewhere not too far would be good.
Thanks
Sam

I made my own bedboards but kinda cheated as i bought the board at HomeBase and got them to cut it to the right dimensions using their free cutting service. Should be able to find the measurements on here. Then i just stuck some foam on top and painted the bottoms grey - job done!

Sammie I am just in the process of making two boards at the moment ,if it works I will give you all the specs if you want them ,I may have enough left over to make some more ,I have made from 12mm ply with 2 batons underneath of each panel 20 x40mm x900mm long I'm going to put 25mm foam on top (this makes it about the same height as the panel already in the roof )and cover with charcoal carpet haven't got the panels in front of me but I think they were 1080mm x450 ,and 1080mm x350 mm (iwas going to put a lip on the smaller one to stop pillows or quilts sliding down but don't think I will bother with this ,this gives a sleeping area in the aft 1500mm long and just enough room at the rear for the rug rats to climb out , all the stuff (carpet and foam and spray adhesive came from eBay ) will email pics when I get it finished ,I removed the hatch but only to provide enough room to leave the panels in the aft when it's closed

Just made a single Bed board. Took out the existing hatch platform. removed the bolts under the black hinges, reach under the roof lining from the back. means the metal roof is flat and it doesnt damage the hinge by removing the circlip, so in time we can put the hatch floor back in.

We got two pieces of 12mm ply cut to 1100 X 900 (Hardwood at B&Q £24) and Wood glued them together to make one 24mm board. next we bought some grey velvet from a fabric shop (2 metres at £5.99) with a can of spray glue (£5). Covered the board in glue and stretched/ laid the velvet over then popped it in the gumbo...simple. didn't need feet aas the velvet gives it friction or padding as the boys sleep on homemade matress of 40mm foam in a single duvet cover.

Keeping the small original bongo metal panel in place and adding this new board it leaves a gap of about 350mm at the back which i can climb up easy enough (6ft 105kg firefighter !!) looking forward to cornwall next week for the boys (5 and 8.) to test it out.

We're just trying out something new which umbongochris thought of recently and are having our roof "cut" so that only the rear section opens. Here's a link to what we're having done.

http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... 47&t=48367 (it's the post with the photos in)

We're collecting our bongo tomorrow and spending the weekend away with it to try it out, we'll take some photos of it and if you want you could come and see it as we are in North London.

We didn't like the idea of cutting the lifting roof panel, you cant put it back to original when it comes to selling and i fear that the strength of the panel is in its entire structure. cutting it across and bracing it may result in flex?? i dont know ......but for £41 quid we went with the ply panel.

The other thought is be cautious when lifting the back panel up as the gas struts are engineered to the weight of the entire panel...

Bertie Gumbo wrote:The other thought is be cautious when lifting the back panel up as the gas struts are engineered to the weight of the entire panel...

It's been taken to a reputable dealer who have already cut aft a previous one to look into the internal structure and how to make sure it can take the weight. It's a project we've been looking at for a while with them. We're not going to be using the gas struts because as you've said it's engineered to take the entire panel weight... could see it flying up..

To be honest, worrying about the re-sale value was not important to us as we intend on keeping her and I think most people are fed up with the little hatch and would prefer what we have.

We did have bed boards for the kids that were made for their weight, but the for adults we had to have the plywood and it weighed a ton, so we opted against it to go for what we're currently getting done.

We'll post pics up after the weekend and you'll see what has been done

I made simple bed boards, did it a little different to some of the others. I wanted to retain the use of the sunroof for light and keep the original floor in place so made the boards from 3 separate bits. When storing this allows the larger board to sit above the front seats and the 2 smaller boards to fit either side of the sunroof

This was my original drawing, would be advisable to check your dimensions yourself but as others did, I got the local store to cut the sizes for me rather than struggle myself.



I used a bolt with the head cut off as a dowel to strengthen the joins when in place



And a wooden wedge to stop them slipping about



Made from 18mm plywood, it easily supports 2 kids (now 7 and 9 but at the time were about 4 and 6) and I've been up there a few times myself (much heavier than that). I covered them with one of those camping mats but the kids sleep on thermarests too.

So many options on how to get the same result - good luck choosing.

umbongocat wrote:

Bertie Gumbo wrote:The other thought is be cautious when lifting the back panel up as the gas struts are engineered to the weight of the entire panel...

It's been taken to a reputable dealer who have already cut aft a previous one to look into the internal structure and how to make sure it can take the weight. It's a project we've been looking at for a while with them. We're not going to be using the gas struts because as you've said it's engineered to take the entire panel weight... could see it flying up..

To be honest, worrying about the re-sale value was not important to us as we intend on keeping her and I think most people are fed up with the little hatch and would prefer what we have.

We did have bed boards for the kids that were made for their weight, but the for adults we had to have the plywood and it weighed a ton, so we opted against it to go for what we're currently getting done.

We'll post pics up after the weekend and you'll see what has been done

The gas struts look about the right size to me to make bonnet lifting struts if you're not using them for the roof panel

We've had our original roof cut and kept the existing gas struts... looking fab, works like a treat. No need for carting around hefty plywood anymore or crawling through small hatches.

Check out this post with pics of how it can be done using the exisiting roof. 321 Away were great at helping testing our idea out and checking the strength of it all, seems to have worked so far

http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... 7&start=15

You don't need DIY skills. You also don't need 3 complicated pieces that 'interlock'. If you can find my thread, I did it with 2 pieces and they didn't connect, they just sat there nice and snug. I took the measurments to B&Q, picked up the piece and got them to cut them, job done. I stuck yoga mats on them.