How to Design a Car Bed

Calculate the dimensions that the finished bed will need to have, so you can create your drawings with the right measurements listed. In your design, you'll have more than just the height and length of the car, and the details of the appearance to consider. You'll also need to include things like the bed frame, support boards, and, if you're including them in your design, casters. Decide whether to keep and use the current frame, to have a 2x6 and plywood box for the mattress, or to have a wooden frame with slats on the new car bed. Whichever one you choose, account for the size of that frame in your design.

Sketch the outline of the car's profile or side view onto graph paper. You're drawing what you want the bed to be, not the dimensions of the actual vehicle. Make sure you are consistent with the scale you use. For example, if you use one square on the graph paper to represent six inches, use that scale for the entire profile view, for the entire front view, and for the entire rear view. Sketch the car's front and rear views onto additional sheets of graph paper.

Add only the details that you intend to incorporate into the final design. If you don't plan to design a back view on the back of the headboard, there's no need to draw those elements. Just use the outline of the rear view of the car. If you plan to incorporate a back view into the car bed, but won't add pinstripes to the design, then don't take the trouble to draw the pinstripes.

Examine the graph paper drawings and mattress to determine if the proportions seem right, and to determine what the measurements of the bed will need to be. The car's shape will need to be expanded to the needed size. To illustrate, let's say that Mike is designing a car bed. The twin mattress measures 39 inches wide by 75 inches long, and he's not going to use the existing frame; but instead call for slats to be used in the bed. He'll leave one inch for room to change the bedding, so the inside measurements of the car bed need to be 40 inches by 76 inches. Mike determines that as far as the mattress is concerned, the sides of the car will only need to be twelve inches from the bottom of the car to the top. Because he's using a low-profile sports car, that will work just fine. If he were using a taller car in his design, he would make the sides of the car 18 inches, for example, and call for the mattress support rails to be placed higher on the sides of the car. He might also decide to put storage space under the bed since there would be some room.

Draw any storage areas you want to incorporate into your design. Under the bed is one good place for storage areas, and so is under the hood of the vehicle, with a hinged door as the car's hood. If you want to have an under-bed storage area in your design, you'll need to call for a hinged panel to be located on one or both sides of the base of the bed, or make the bed's legs longer.

Decide where the support rails and slats will be on the sides of the car. From the point where you want the top of the mattress to be, add the thickness of the mattress (in Mike's example, the mattress is six inches thick). That is where the top of the mattress support(s) should be placed. Mark these points on your drawings.

Sketch your design onto plain paper, in the form of a working drawing. A working drawing is a drawing from three views of the object: the top, the front, and the side. The drawings are placed in the shape of the letter L, and the top view is drawn at the top left side, the front view at the bottom left side, and the side view on the bottom right side of the paper. You're drawing the plans for building the bed, so be sure to include each board and its measurements, such as the 2x4 boards that will make up the frame to which you'll attach the plywood pieces that are the car's exterior, the 1x2 boards that will be the side rail mattress supports, and the 1/2 inch thick plywood sheets that will be the sides of the bed. Also include the locations of the bolts and screws. For example, you would draw two bolts at each corner of the bed for attaching the 2x4 boards to each other.

Draw the bed from the top view, the front and the side. Not only is this the proper way to create working drawings, this will help you be sure that you haven't missed any considerations when designing the bed. Write down any notes about how to finish the bed, such as paint colors, grooves to be routed into the car's sides, and so forth. When you're finished, you'll have a set of plans for a car bed that can be used to build the bed you designed.