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

[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!

[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.