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.
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.”
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.