Day 3-4: Scavenging and Tinkering (30 Day Car Living Challenge)

Day 3: 9/10/2018

The last couple of days went well. I actually used the (Day 2) emergency restroom bin on purpose just to test it out. It worked, I feel like nothing can stop me now!

There is a spot at the apartment complex where people sometimes throw away broken furniture. There was a metal bed frame with wooden slits. I scavenged those, who knows how much those would cost if I bought them at Home Depot! I accumulated more than 28 pieces. They are the perfect size for making furniture, shelving, or tables for my car camper!

Day 4: 9/11/2018

This morning I spent an hour on making a table for the inside of the car from the scavenged wood from day 3. This table is in the front portion of my car, the passenger side where my legs are when I lay down. I used a knife and cut out parts of my foam bed. This was to make room for two pieces of plywood so it can stand strong on its side as shown below:

pile of planks in car

The pressure from the memory foam, the door, and the middle console keep the plywood standing straight. When you put enough weight on these two pieces, they will never budge. After setting up the two “legs” supported on both sides, I stacked two planks into rows as a foundation for the rest of the table. This is what it looks like:

Wood stacking in car

Lastly, we place the remaining planks into columns:

Car table

This setup is flexible

The cool thing about this is table setup is that I do not need any nails or glue or duct tape to keep it together. All I need to do is just let gravity do the work. I can hear the objection: “What if you put weight where the planks hang over, will they fling and tumble?” Because the planks dig into the glove compartment, you can place as much pressure as you want. They will not budge! The greater the weight on the table, the greater its stability. In addition, I can take it apart and store it somewhere else whenever I need more space. I simply stack up the wooden planks, open the trunk from the inside with my back seat, then I can slip the planks totally out of sight.

What I learned today is that I can even make modifications to my car on the road. I do not need to go back home to get the power tools. I can build and experiment right here where I am! Building stuff in the parking lot is a great way to let go of your self image, because there’s a lot of people that could look at you scavenging and tinkering. Today I am proud to be an official hermit!

Click here to continue to day 5 – 6.

Join the discussion:

  • Other than my table, what car furniture do you have in mind?
  • What are the possibilities for this table?

Share your insights with us! – Justin

 

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