Fitout - Shower

Considered a few options here - The build yourself option using waterproof panels and a shower tray – and I came across a number of schools of thought on this…
Or the complete shower cubicle – choices here as well – plastic or fibreglass? Well my decision was made once I saw the fibreglass shower cubicle installed by a friend in his Hino. Well constructed, strong, no chance of water leaks and great value at about $450 from Beachmere Fibreglass. I had seen shower trays at this price. Of course with everything in motorhome construction there is a hurdle to overcome, in this case, getting it in, and once inside, standing it up.
Step one is to remove a window which turned out to be a surprisingly simple task. Take off the pinch mould around the window frame. Get a friend to hold the window while you cut the silicone bead around the frame. Lower the window carefully to the ground – the frame will sag a bit so be careful you don’t drop a sliding window out.
Step two is to cut the shower cubicle down in height. The window is big enough to get the cubicle inside but because it is a three-sided unit you can’t stand it up otherwise. Calculate the height to cut to by measuring diagonally on the wall of the cubicle to your maximum ceiling height – I had to cut off 210mm to allow me to pivot the cubicle to an upright position. It also helps if you do this before putting other cupboards in because you need the space. In my case it was simply a matter of positioning the cubicle as close the wheel arch as possible [as I needed maximum space forward of that for a single bed.]
I cut the cubicle off neatly with an angle grinder and a fine [for metal] disk. Keeping the cut straight makes it easy to rejoin the cubicle with a plastic joining strip. [It is scary cutting into something you just paid nearly $500 for]
Step three. Rebuild your shower unit with a plastic joining strip (available from hardware stores). As the shower cubicle has a curve on the front edge I used a hair dryer to heat the plastic for bending around the corner.
I chose a cubicle with one diagonal corner [shelves] and a raised front lip. I used the space behind the diagonal corner to position my external water fillers. I also tried to position the cubicle so a cassette toilet would line up with a convenient wall frame space in case I fitted a [external door] cassette toilet later. There would be a fair bit of body frame to cut away to fit one. Always a compromise – I’m happy with my choice – but the plain rectangular unit would haven given a bit more space and made it possible to fit a roll-away door. We are just using a shower curtain at the moment.
To complete the cubicle on the curved top of the bus I bought a piece of 2mm matching fibreglass ($20) and basically pushed it into place, sealing with white silicone.
By the way – because I retained my windows – I fitted a sheet of black painted ply between the window and cubicle to hide it from exterior view.