The Tamago

HighPockets

Active member
TamagoVan, I may have missed this but what is the color of your van. Is it related to your logo. Also how did you attach your 80/20 roof rack to the rails on your roof. I know it is with bolts of some type but can you be specific on what or how you get what into the MB rails?

HighPockets
 

TamagoVan

2016 144 High Roof
TamagoVan, I may have missed this but what is the color of your van. Is it related to your logo.
It is a yellow that exactly matches scrambled eggs! We thought the van looks like a particular type of sushi that is made with scrambled eggs formed in to a rectangle with a black stripe of seaweed holding it together. That kind of sushi is called tamago.

Also how did you attach your 80/20 roof rack to the rails on your roof. I know it is with bolts of some type but can you be specific on what or how you get what into the MB rails?
I used these bolts from VanTech, but I wouldn't bother if I did this again. While they would probably help in a catastrophic fail, I couldn't get them perfectly tightened and get the extrusion lined up right. In addition to those bolts I used 8020 triangle brackets on each piece of extrusion that were way more effective at getting a nice strong attachment.
 

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HighPockets

Active member
Thanks much for the explanation of the paint color. I have been following your thread and am planning to copy your design for solar collectors with changes to fit my situation. One other question: was there a problem with the two MB roof channels not being on the same plane with each other.

Thanks again, Gene
 

TamagoVan

2016 144 High Roof
Oh good. I'm happy with the way the solar panels turned out. I'm glad it might be helpful for you.

Our van didn't come with roof rails. We installed OEM rails, and while they do curve slightly, both vertically and horizontally, they did so identically (in mirror image, of course). The OEM rails are in two pieces, which helps to match the arc on each side. But this means that the supporting horizontal rails are slightly different lengths at the front, middle, and back of the van.

Let me know if I didn't answer your question!
 

cevans

Member
Been following this. Also love the color. Impressive vision, direction, planning. Lots of this will be useful for others for years to come.
 

TamagoVan

2016 144 High Roof
Well thank you, cevans! That's so kind of you to say.

I've made some progress on other projects inside the van lately but haven't had time to post about them yet, so I'll try to get to that soon, but as a sneak peek, here's some photos of the ceiling panels (with lights! on dimmers!), and the beginning of the wood faces on the lower cabinets.

We are using Baltic Birch ply on the walls and cabinets (1/2" for cabinet faces, doors, and bottoms that will bear weight; 1/4" for ceiling, walls and non-weight bearing surfaces in cabinets). I've re-built several airstream trailers before and I used a satin epoxy paint for the cabinets, which allowed me to re-use old surfaces where I could salvage them and have them tie in nicely with new surfaces that were added. The epoxy paint is also super durable and easy to clean.

On this build, though, we have (almost) all new surfaces, and the Birch was so pretty. And we were really happy with the wood sealer we used on the counter tops, so we've been evaluating doing the same treatment on the Birch instead of painting it. In general I try to stick to one wood species per space in our designs (vans, trailers, houses) to avoid a busy, competing grain look. But the Birch and Walnut butcher block are so different that we might be ok with it here.... still deciding.

On the ceiling I used Armacost tri-vue lights for downlights and flush-mount L-track for battens.
 

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MsNomer

Active member
Could you give more info on that epoxy paint? My surfaces are painted and I need something more durable than ordinary paint.
 

TamagoVan

2016 144 High Roof
Could you give more info on that epoxy paint? My surfaces are painted and I need something more durable than ordinary paint.
Sure thing, MsNomer! Lately I've been using Miller Acrinamel over a coat of Zinsser 1-2-3, and on this van it's what I've used to paint the Lizard Skin ceramic coating that is still visible on the doors. I won't bother painting the Lizard Skin that's behind the cabinets, ceiling, and floor, but where it's exposed it would get dirty quickly if I didn't paint it with something that's easily cleanable.

I'm in Portland, OR and I understand that Miller Paint isn't available in all locations, so another product that is similar that I would use if I couldn't get the Miller is Valspar Cabinet Enamel.

Enamel paint is a little tricky to apply, and is much easier to paint on horizontal surfaces. It also takes several days (to weeks) to fully cure in to a nice, hard surface, so don't feel discouraged if it feels a little soft at first.

Depending on what we decide to do with our cabinet faces I might decide to change the color of the enamel paint on the doors on this van... still deciding.
 

TamagoVan

2016 144 High Roof
I'm sorry I haven't posted more updates! I'm in the process of finishing everything up, but here are a few photos, in the meantime, of how the cabinets turned out.

The frames are all 80/20 and the faces, doors, and structure are all baltic birch ply.

More photos to come!
 

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Very nice build. I am going to go back and read the entire thread once I have an evening with more time. On first look, your Airhead appears to be on a slide out drawer, which is exactly what I am in the process of designing and soon to build in my refitting. I would be interested and greatly appreciative of any details that you could share on that installation.
 

goinoregon

New member
Nice work on the van, and nice work on the writeup. I am in the 'thinking about it stage', so not pulling trigger on a buy and build just yet. I am in pdx also, so I bet I have seen the tamago around, as I am checking em all out :). I am a fan of the color. living in the pacific NW, I am all for brighter colors - for their safety impact. people see them. especially in urban areas. its one thing to have a silver gray van out in death valley, and another thing in the dark and rain in an urban environment. keep up the good work.
 

TamagoVan

2016 144 High Roof
Thanks to you both for the kind words! More photos will be coming soon. It is *almost* done! I need to attach the couch/bed frame to the wall and then I will take a bunch more photos.

In the meantime, Robert: here's a few photos of how I did the slide out on the airhead.
At first I tried using a locking drawer slide, but I found that in order to engage/disengage the locks I had to rest my head on the toilet seat. Not what I was going for. :) So I swapped it out for a heavy duty-non locking drawer slide. The cabinet I put it in is over the wheel well, so I could only use a short slide (16"? - Ill have to check), which didn't allow the airhead to come out as far as I wanted it to, so I sistered up some more sections of 8020 with some sliders (from the 8020 website - I can look up the part number if you want), which works well.
The door cabinet has a latch, but I also put a foot-releasable latch on the toilet base for extra security. you can see the latch hanging out on the floor (not installed) in some of these photos, but I'll post some that show it installed soon.

And: goinoregon, this van will be for sale soon if you just want to buy this one! DM me if you're interested.
 

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Thanks for posting all that TamagoVan

That foot releasable latch looks high quality-a quick search didn't turn up anything as nice, can you direct me towards that latch ? I'd like to keep my head out of the toilet too. Does it both push to latch and push to release ?

Your slides and the 80/20 extensions look very robust. How's the deflection when your hanging out fully extended reading the Sunday paper while sitting on the toilet ? What slides did you use ?

I see the fan hose exiting through the floor to the left of the toilet bay. I've been wondering if I will need to create some sort of spring loaded tether so that the hose retracts back into the cabinet nicely as I close the toilet drawer. Did you do anything like that or do you manually push the hose back into place while you're closing the drawer ?

Thanks.
 

TamagoVan

2016 144 High Roof
I tried a few latch solutions before I landed on that one. It's surprisingly well made and inexpensive. $11 at amazon: https://amzn.to/2wH8eax Yes, you press down on the top to latch and push the tab in on the side to unlatch (spring assisted).

I had to fiddle a bit with the tension on the sliders to get the right balance of easy to pull out and not much deflection when in use. I haven't measured the deflection, but I'm not very far off the floor and it doesn't rest on the floor, and you can't feel any wobble. It feels nice and sturdy.

I also thought I would need to put the hose on a spring or a bungee or something, but after playing around with different arrangements the hose geometry that I ended up with is amazingly self-managing. It tucks itself up over the wheel well when the airhead is pushed in and extends out comfortably when the sider is out. I tried to take a photo that would show how this works. If it's still not clear I can take a video.

(Please forgive the sawdust and rough edges!)
 

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Thank you for taking the time to post all of those pictures TamagoVan...very helpful. Your hose situation does look very self maintaining, which is awesome-hopefully mine will work out similarly as well as the zero deflection in the slides-not sure which ones I will use yet. The foot latch is a nice looking piece of kit. I'll probably go ahead and order one to have on hand.
 

TamagoVan

2016 144 High Roof
She's done! Of course, I intended to post more in-process posts, but if anyone has questions about anything here feel free to ask.

And if anyone is looking for a pandemic escape vehicle / mobile office / camper van, it's for sale: www.escapecapsules.com1.jpg2.jpg3.jpg4.jpg5.jpg
 

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