I picked this van up a few weeks ago with the intention of turning it into a little weekend getaway camper. its a 2003 with 180k.
it was owned by a retirement home that would take the residents on day trips up to the mountains. it came with 2' lift and some brand new hercules off road tires - i guess because it would be bad for business if they got a van full of old folks stuck in the snow and they died. also probably because old folks like to feel like bad asses too.
at first glance (at night, in a parking lot) it was in great shape, body is clean, everything was said to 'work great'. drove it around, engine runs perfect, agreed on a price, good to go.
next morning, upon closer inspection, i realize it has all sorts of weird gremlins.... the power locks don't work, the turn signal fuse blows every time you put it in reverse, rear ac fan switch doesn't work, the transfer case had less than a quart of fluid in it and and the AWD fuse was blown (not sure why) despite all that, it looks cool. and the tires.... thats kinda what counts right? cool tires?
so that morning, before it's even registered, i rip the interior out. it's always amazing how quickly things come apart.
of course afterwards i thought to myself.... 'maybe i should have waited to register it first'. particularly as the bill of sale was in a woman's name, the title was in the retirement homes name, and the guy i bought it from was neither a woman nor a retirement home.... sometimes i can be impulsive and foolish. did i mention the awesome tires though?
(i had no problem registering it btw)
after the tear down, next step was to insulate everything with a mix of foam and that silver bubble wrap everyone uses. I put down 1/2' foam on the floor, then 1/4' ply on top. walls and ceiling got the bubble wrap and 1' foam. i then made cardboard templates, traced them to luan, then cut out the walls. since I'm impatient i immediately covered them with this fake suede material i had. since I'm building a camper for the desert and the woods, suede is the obvious choice right? (wrong).
so i cut out the walls and i decide that instead of completely covering the windows, i'll leave small holes in the wall. roughly 13x20". i then covered the back sides of the windows with black vinyl and covered the portion you can see out of with that perforated vinyl they use to cover the sides of busses with advertisements. after installing the walls, i made little 'plugs' that fit into the window openings to completely block the light out. the plan is that they'll just look like a headrest for the couch when in place. also gave me a chance to double down on shitty fabric choices and throw in some white vinyl, cause why not.
so after installing my suede walls, i then decide to make a bed frame out of 1" square metal tubing, which i'll just weld right in the van - next to the suede walls and white vinyl. before starting i had a bit of a plan for the bed, but then as i began to build i completely abandoned them and just made it up as i went along. somehow it totally worked out great. the metal is way lighter than wood, takes up less space structurally, and is far easier for me to work with. i made it so during the day, it would be a 24' deep couch, then a panel in the front (which will be covered in more white vinyl) flips up, supported by fold out supports underneath. the main couch section also has a hinged panel that will be covered with wood and fashioned with gas struts so it stays raised while accessing the storage inside it. the back rest of the couch will combine with the seating part to make up a full twin sized bed. i also decided to build a slide out stove area into the back of the bed. the 'door' of which folds down to create more 'counter' space. all cooking will be done in front of the suede paneled rear door, because... yeah, you get the picture.
ummm... what else have i done..... oh, i installed a ceiling fan, but thats boring. i also accidentally broke the sliding door off by leaving it open then driving into my cement porch. oops. instead of fixing it properly, which would have required getting a new door, i decided to make it a gullwing, which was kind of easier than i expected and also way harder. it would have helped if i didn't smash the door in the first place and bend it all up. theres also very little information online about how to do them. at some point i'll do a write it up if someone would like. there's kind of a lot of annoying things you have to figure out. extra latches, struts, angles, etc.
doing things is way easier if you have instructions.
tomorrow i plan to make a shelving area across from the bed. also need to decide on a spot for a secondary battery and an inverter then build a housing for that. after that will be a bitchin stereo, because black sabbath made records and i need to be able to play them. ummm, floor is going to be some sort of hardwood from home depot. whatevers on sale and not ugly as hell. passenger seat will get a swivel so it spins around. there will be color changing LED lighting through the whole thing, because women are really impressed by stuff like that. a buddy back east has a 236 transfer case that he needs to send out to me, so i can make it full 4x4. crash bar up front yadda yadda yadda.
i didn't take a lot of process pics, but nothing I've done is super complicated anyway, so who cares. any questions, feel free to ask. if anyone has any advice, i'd love to hear it.
cheers!
