The Upper Cabinet in This Van Build Fell Off the Wall - What Went Wrong?

I’m so happy with my build. I built my van by myself, with ZERO carpenter and electrical experience. My van has been “finished” for 2 years. Driven across country, and not a single thing has broken in my build. I’m incredibly proud of my craftsmanship as a beginner.

It's nice to see someone that not only understands quality but takes pride in what they do. Interesting video and well worth the watch

To be honest those "mistakes" are really good learning lessons too. It's only by experience and feedback that you could imagine all of those fails could happen. Good video, very informative, thank you

WOW! You did such a great job repairing and reinstalling those upper cabs! Awesome! :face-blue-smiling:

Quality will always be found on the details. Enjoyed watching this reno job 🙃

As someone who has driven thousands of miles trying to get repairs and modifications done on my sprinter, kudos to you for helping the van owner by stepping up and fixing the builder's mistakes. Question: Is this something you do as part of your business, or was it more or less, a one-off for a friend?

Never end nail or screw if it can be avoided. Fasteners should be across the grain not with it. That construction was just waiting to fail. Nice job. That will be better than the original.

6:27 Hello just wondering if there is a particular reason to use long bit on your drill? Just if there is something special to know about this. Thank you

When in motion, the interior of any van, truck, trailer, RV, etc. is experiencing an earthquake while the exterior is experiencing a hurricane. Build accordingly. I build exclusively with aluminum extrusions that are rigidly affixed to structural members of the vehicle using rivnuts. No new holes drilled in the vehicle. Ever. Aluminum extrusions are twice as strong as wood at half the weight. With machine screws fixing the extrusions to vehicle structure, the strength simply cannot be matched by any combination of staples, nails, screws and glue. I affix panels to extrusions using inserts and machine screws. No holes to strip. All hardware (slides, hinges, etc.) are affixed to extrusions using machine screws and captivated nuts. Beyond the obvious strength benefits, my builds are silent (no endlessly annoying creaks and rattles). I'm able to reconfigure if necessary, and panel removal is quick and easy when needed to access systems such as water, wiring, etc. Everyone who's ever witnessed one of my builds has said that there's no way that they'd build that way. The simple truth is that there's no other way that I would build. As for the build featured in this video, the builder used only nails. At a minimum, those cabinets should have been glued and screwed, with crown staples to hold everything until the glue fully cured. Had there been glue this cabinet likely wouldn't have fallen apart. Had there been glue and screws, it definitely wouldn't have fallen apart. I've shitty "craftsmanship" first hand as I've been able to disassemble others' builds with my bare hands! I'd wager that my cabinets, etc. would still be where they were placed, even after the impact of a serious accident. Folks, vet your builder.

You said it- sloppy construction. Appallingly bad I’d say. Hopefully the original build wasn’t done by a “professional van builder”. Nice job fixing somebody else’s mistakes.

Piss poorly assembled cabinets using little tiny itty bitty nails and cheap paper glue.