Cargo Van Conversion

  As a base for the interior, I decided to put in a ½” thick piece of plywood on top of ½” rigid insulation board. I started to fill in lengthwise indentations of the metal floor with strips of a thin insulation material, to maximize the R-value.   Subsequently the insulation boards were applied. This…

Now it is time to do some restoration work to the floor.  A few areas had a some surface rust. A little sanding and some fresh paint took care of that. Now I had to fill the dozen or so holes in the floor, that were left after the removal of the bench, chairs and…

The rear passenger side wall panel and the narrow panel that covered the brake lights, were easily removed. They were mostly friction fit with a few additional (hidden) plastic plugs. It revealed a substantial amount of regular home insulation material, except for the narrow panel.      

Lately I am working on the van, whenever I have an hour available. This time I removed the rear door panels. They were mostly attached with hidden plastic plugs.   I’m thinking of slightly enlarging the openings and creating some additional storage area inside the doors.  

First thing I noticed was some water damage to the subfloor, which is to be expected after 20 years of use. It will be replaced with a regular ½ inch plywood panel. The wood is attached with a couple of metal screws to the metal floor. The rear 4 feet doesn’t have any insulation at…

Today’s first is the passenger side, large window frame. A fairly simple job, just a lot of screws. I’ll set this frame apart until I have the correct paint to redo it.   Now we can see a little of the insulation used, some wire of the valance lighting which will be removed, and the…

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…

I have two lights that switch on when the rear doors are opened. They have to be removed, but I have plans to reinstall one or both of them at a later time, so I have to be careful not to damage them. Everything nicely installed with connectors and screws, thus it took me only…

After yesterday’s sofa bed, today I’ll keep it simple by only removing a few small items. Next in line is the inside luggage rack, composed of just a few strips attached thru the carpet to the subfloor. Those were gone a few minutes later. Originally I bought this van as a Mark III conversion van;…

  Lots of planning, designing and redesigning has taken place. Now it is time to do the physical work.     Today I started to remove the sofa bed. A quick look showed it was attached with 4 bolts to the car frame.   Working alone could have been a problem, but I managed to…