Making cabinets for cars
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Car, van and truck conversions from Solid Wood Worx, like this build on a Toyota Tacoma, add versatility to equip the vehicles for any adventure.

Brian Daigneault has combined his loves of traveling, surfing, and woodworking to specialize in custom cabinetry for cars and trucks. His Huntington Beach, California, shop called Solid Wood Worx does intricate and inventive conversions that turn ordinary cars, trucks, and vans into multipurpose camping and overlanding vehicles.

Working closely with the vehicle owners, Daigneault ingeniously fits cabinetry to automotive interiors, taking advantage of every nook and cranny to add beds, tables, and a myriad of storage solutions. He also documents each unique build on a popular YouTube and Instagram channels and on his Facebook page.

With doors and drawers all secured for travel, this Subaru Outback gives only a hint of all the storage it has.

Customers rave about how he works with them to make the most out of the project. “Brian helped me build out the back of my 2016 Toyota Tacoma with a flip top camper,” said Shay Falkenstein in a Facebook post. “I brought him a drawing of what I wanted in the back and let’s just say he went above and beyond. Throughout the build he would call me and give me updates. Sometimes he would say “hey I think you would have more space if you moved this around, or hey I think I can add an extra cabinet here,” always looking out for my best interest.”

With the drawers pulled out, you can see some of the storage in the Subaru Outback. There is a refrigerator, kitchen, bed platform, and even a solar panel on the roof rack.

Some of the features he includes are bed platforms, kitchen cabinets, pullout underbed storage drawers, and slide-out table platforms. He tries to make use of every available inch, shaping the cabinetry to fit, and often using or repurposing special hardware. In a build on a Nissan Xterra, he used RV lift table hardware to extend the headroom for bed platforms behind the front seats. For a Subaru Outback, he found room for a bed, refrigerator, kitchen and solar panel.

Most of the construction is done in 9-ply ¾-inch plywood with a wide variety of specialized and often repurposed hardware and fittings.

 

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About the author
William Sampson

William Sampson is a lifelong woodworker, and he has been an advocate for small-scale entrepreneurs and lean manufacturing since the 1980s. He was the editor of Fine Woodworking magazine in the early 1990s and founded WoodshopBusiness magazine, which he eventually sold and merged with CabinetMaker magazine. He helped found the Cabinet Makers Association in 1998 and was its first executive director. Today, as editorial director of Woodworking Network and FDMC magazine he has more than 20 years experience covering the professional woodworking industry. His popular "In the Shop" tool reviews and videos appear monthly in FDMC.