I have started preparing the wood for the bed in my workshop, which takes up one half of my garage. I’ll have to glue up thinner boards to get to the right thickness for the wood in the frame of the bed.
In the meantime, I am getting the rear belt systems out. Removing the valance resulted in access to the top connector, which is primarily a big bolt connected to the frame.
The belt roll-up mechanism had to be accessed both from the inside and under the van, which as the only person working on it, posed some problems, but after several attempts, that worked out fine.
This opened up the wheel casing. Time to get rid of the carpet glued to its surface. Careful peeling revealed the casing and reinforcement plate; after removal of the latter, I temporarily taped up the resulting hole from the belt mechanism, until a more permanent solution is applied.