I thought it would be entertaining to document my "re-conversion" van build project. There are a plethora of camper and overland van builds, but I couldn't find any for a "touring" or "road trip" van, so here's my take on it. This will cover mechanical, interior, electrical, audio/visual, and exterior overhauls.


Some background information:

Our family had happy, if unexpected, news mid 2022 when we found out that our third kid was on the way. Almost immediately after finding out, my wife and I realized that our Fusion and F-150 just wouldn't cut it once we had all 3 kids, dogs, and guests to transport. We started looking at 3-row vehicles and quickly narrowed it down to either a full-size SUV or a minivan. After a few months of fruitless searching, my wife found this large van about 100 miles away for a tiny fraction of the price of the other vehicles we had been looking at. So we packed up and went to look at it in person. After some research and a second look, the van came home with us.



Initial impressions:

First, the van is a 1999 E-150 conversion van with the high top and leather seating for 7. It only had about 117,000 miles on it and has a 5.4L under the hood.

We love how much interior space this thing has. There is so much space to stretch out that even the rear seats are roomy for an adult. Mechanically speaking, the biggest stand-outs to me were how smooth the engine and transmission were, no leaks, and the lack of rust; sure, it has some surface rust on the frame and components, but the body was nearly completely rust-free!

I was already making a list of things to fix, upgrade, or maintain. Right off the bat, I was going to change all fluids and filters and do any other maintenance. My wife mentioned that the van's exhaust was very strong smelling when she was in the car behind me at a stop, so I'd need to give the exhaust system a good look. And I would need to look into the steering and suspension as the steering felt a little vague. The interior was going to need a deep clean and a refresh, possibly modernizing some of the tech, like adding charging ports, etc…

So at this point it is late December, 2022, and our baby is due in a little over 3 months. Let the build begin!

 

My plan was to treat this van as if it needed all routine maintenance done, especially since I had no records of any previous maintenance or repairs. Fluids and filters are the low-hanging fruit of maintaining a vehicle, so that is where I would start.

There's no need to detail a lot of this general maintenance, so I'll include products, part numbers, and prices paid at time of work, mostly early 2023.
Oil change: 6 quarts of 5W-30 Pennzoil Platinum Full Synthetic ($29) and Motorcraft FL-820-S filter ($4)

Fuel filter: K&N PF-2300 ($12)

Air filter: Super Tech 1325 ($15)

Serpentine belt refresh: Goodyear 1080990 serp. belt ($31), ACDelco Gold 38133 belt tensioner and pulley ($34) and Dorman 419-605 idler pulley ($16). The old belt wasn't in dire need to be replaced, but it's an easy job and is cheap insurance.

Rear differential maintenance: 4 quarts of Valvoline Flexfill SAE 75W-140 full synthetic gear oil ($66), Permatex 81182 RTV sealant ($10), and Dorman 697705 differential cover ($27). I went ahead and replaced the cover because unlike the rest of the van, the rear axle had a lot of surface rust (was the van used to launch a boat?) and the old cover had some pitting. I recently had a pin-hole leak in my F150's diff. cover, so thought I would go ahead and replace proactively.

Transmission fluid drain and fill: 5 quarts Motorcraft MERCON V fluid ($44), Motorcraft filter FT-105 ($19), Dorman 65128 drain plug kit ($10), transmission cooler hoses ($23), stainless steel hose clamps ($16). The van's transmission fluid was dark red but didn't smell of burning. I've added drain plugs to the pans on my previous trucks with the same or similar transmissions which makes dropping the pan for fluid and filter changes much easier and a lot less messy. This van had a minor leak where one of the transmission cooler lines attached to the radiator, so I went ahead and replaced the rubber hose sections of those lines and used some stainless steel hose clamps to secure them to the radiator and transmission cooler. A section of garden hose was the perfect ID to slip over these lines to protect them where they routed in front of the radiator to enter the transmission cooler.

Coolant flush: 3 gallons of Prestone Universal 10 years/300,000 miles antifreeze ($39), 3 gallons distilled water ($4). I flushed the coolant following FordTechMakuloco's procedure found on Youtube. I settled on the Prestone coolant after a lot of research and talking with my mechanic because the OEM antifreeze that Ford used in 1999 is very hard to find any more. Below is a photo showing the old vs new antifreeze. Glad I didn't skip this maintenance!

Left bottle is what drained out of radiator. Right bottle is the new coolant.I'll go into more detail for the coming maintenance and repairs centering around the steering, braking, and suspension systems, spark plugs, and the exhaust.

 

That is normal, as long as it is smooth and mostly free from play that is about as good as it gets. The steering system on these old trucks came right off the model T.. it is not very sophisticated and will never be as tight feeling as a modern hydraulic rack. Each joint adds a tiny amout of play even when new and you should see the frame flex near the steering gearbox if you have somebody turn the wheel while you watch. There is also a u-joint or rag joint in the steering shaft that can develop wear, so have a look at that while you are at it.

 

Agreed. The van does drive MUCH better now. These posts are documenting the journey and right now I'm about 95% of the way there with the total "re-conversion". It will take a while before I get caught up to the present and there will be a few posts about fixing and fine-tuning the steering and suspension. It's night and day better now than when I drove the van home from the used car lot!

 

Maintenance Round 2 - Steering, Suspension, and Braking

The van's steering was a bit vague and having owned a Ford Ranger with the same twin I beam and recirculating ball steering setup, I knew having and keeping all front-end components in tip-top shape was not an option but a necessity.

After doing some checking, I came to the conclusion that it would be best to replace the ball joints, wheel bearings, the steering linkages, and any bushing that I could. While I was at it, I would also assess the brake components and replace them as needed. It was very apparent too that the shocks would need replaced as the old ones had seen better days and one of the rear shock's top mount wasn't even attached to the van!

Rear shock isn't even mounted on top!

I replaced the existing shocks with some KYB Excel-Gs ($155). They seemed like a good combination of quality and value, though I know the Bilsteins are more commonly recommended on these forums. Maybe I'll go that route next time. Getting the nut on the top of the front shocks was a bit of a pain, but not as bad as some videos I watched. I think those were on E350s, so there may be some differences.


Old shocks were in bad shape. Most took many seconds to go from fully compressed to relaxed

Moving on to the front of the van, I purchased a suspension kit including ball joints, tie rods, and center links ($130). I also had to purchase a ball joint press kit since this was my first time DIYing ball joint replacement. Press kits abound on Amazon and I bought one that was a step or two above the cheapest. I figured it would pay for itself in this one job, and if I could get a couple other future ball joint and u-joint jobs out of it, it would be money in the bank.

Stripping the front wheels down to the spindles is fairly straight forward. Luckily nothing was terribly rusted or frozen up, so most things came apart without too much drama. I decided to take the spindles completely off the van to make access to the ball joints easier and while I had them off I could give them a quick refresh by wire brushing them and spray painting them.

Pressing the old ball joints out

Spindle cleaned up and reinstalled

With the spindles off, I went ahead and cleaned up the coil spring tower and shot it with some more black spray paint.

Cleaning up components when I can. I little elbow grease and black paint goes a long way

With everything off the spindles, it was the perfect time to refresh the brakes and replace the wheel bearings. I decided to replace the rotors and pads. I got Raybestos 66455R discs ($98) and Raybestos EHT632H ceramic pads ($40). The calipers appeared to be in fine shape, so just cleaned them up and greased up the slide pins. I used National A13 inner bearings ($20) and National A12 outer wheel bearings ($18) as well as Timken 4148 wheel seals ($15). I packed the bearings with grease and followed the factory directions to correctly torque them down.

Next on the list was replacing the tie rods and center link, basically everything from the pitman arm to the spindles. Once again, this was fairly straight forward. I removed the old linkage and used it as a template to set the new tie rod positions. I did have a bit of a mishap when the pickle fork I was using to separate the tie rod from spindle slipped and put a small gouge in the brand new brake disc.


Finally, I had new polyurethane bushings for the radius arms and the front stabilizer bar. The stabilizer bushings were the easiest to replace, just unbolt the bar and drop it and replace the bar-to-frame bushings (MOOG K8690 - $15) The bar-to-axle bushings (MOOG K80222 - $5) were more work. I managed to get the old bushings out but the metal sleave was still pressed into the beam. I watched several videos on how people were removing them and ended up carefully cutting them out with a reciprocating saw. I then beat the new ones in using one of the dies from the ball joint press kit. One side went in easily, the other I had to fight with for a bit. While the stabilizer bar was off the van I cleaned it up and quickly repainted it.

The radius arm bushings were a bigger pain. I removed the radius arm brackets, which were bolted to the frame. This made this part of the job much easier than the ones that are riveted to the frame. From there, I replaced the bushings with MOOG K80005 ($22). So far it was easy going. The hard part was getting the bracket to line back up with the holes in the frame. I'm guessing the axles shifted slightly when the radius arm bracket was removed, so I ended up having to using a long pry bar and a jack to finally get things lined up. It took several hours and a lot of frustration. I didn't get any photos because I was just trying to get it done at that point.
So with the front end almost entirely rebuilt (I didn't do the axle pivot bushings because they seemed fine), it was time to reassess where I was with the steering. Right off the bat, it was apparent I would need to do a quick "driveway alignment." I was planning on getting new tires soon and a professional alignment, so just needed to get it "in the ballpark." Here's how the front right tire looked when the steering wheel was pointed straight ahead!

A toe adjustment was desperately needed!

 

Nice efforts on saving that Van.
From what I've read, the new Ford modular engines are a workhorse.

 

With all the front-end work done an alignment was in order. My plan was to do a DIY alignment in order to get it in the ballpark, then get a professional alignment when I was getting new tires. Getting new tires was in the plan when the van was purchased as the current ones were serviceable but were different brands and showing signs of dry rot. Plus, one of the wheels was the steel spare and the other 3 were the factory aluminum rims.

In preparation for new tires, I found a matching wheel on eBay for about $100, so with that wheel in hand, I started adjusting the toe on the front wheels.

I used the "string method" to adjust toe. In brief, that method goes something like this:

1. I used a couple of jack stands set parallel with the van and tied a taunt string between them. The string should be about mid-wheel height and be close to but not touch any part of the van.
2. Measure the distance between the string and the back of the rear wheel (not the tire). Then measure the distance between the string and the front of the rear wheel. Making sure to measure from the same part of the wheel, compare the two measurements and adjust the jack stands until the measurements are identical. Now the string should be exactly parallel with the rear wheel.
3. Now, so the same with the front wheel. You are measuring the distance between the string and the back and front of the front wheel. You want the front of the front wheel to be no more than 1/16" greater than the back of the front wheel. This will be "toe-in".
4. In order to adjust the front wheel measurement, loosen the tire rod adjusting sleeve and turn to move the front of the wheel in or out. Once you get the measurement you want, tighten the two bolts on the adjusting sleeve.
5. Repeat for the other side. Once done, you should have a slight toe-in and the steering wheel should be properly aligned. Before my DIY alignment, the steering wheel was pointing to about 10 o'clock while going straight down the road. Now, it was fixed.

The DIY alignment wasn't hard at all and I was feeling much better about the van and how it would drive. Now it was off to get tires and a "proper" alignment.
I put on Michelin Defender LTX MS tires on the 4 aluminum rims and had them put the best of the "old" tires (also a Defender LTX MS) on the steel wheel which would then be put back into spare tire duty. When I got the van back they gave me an alignment read-out and I saw that they didn't even touch the camber or caster and they barely changed the toe (I had gotten it really close). In retrospect, that shouldn't be a surprise since I've heard most of these chain tire stores don't know how to deal with these twin i beam setups and the van's bushings did not have much adjustment to be made.

I was eager to drive the van now and see how much better it drove. Much to my disappointment, it was only marginally better! The van still felt like it wandered a lot, especially at interstate speeds, and required both hands on the steering wheel at all times. This was going to become a project within the greater build for me, a quest to "fix" the van's drivability. More on that to come (spoiler: the van drives great now, so I did manage to fix it!).

But this steering quest would need to take the back-burner for a bit. I had exhaust work, interior cleaning, and several smaller upgrades and fixes to tackle.

 

The van had a very strong exhaust smell which led me to believe there may be a leak somewhere in the system. It was time to sort this out, especially since the wife was complaining a lot about it.

With the van off and cold I hooked up a shop vac's exhaust to the van's tail pipe to pressurize the exhaust system. Then, with a bottle of soapy water, I sprayed all over the exhaust system, looking for bubbles. And did I find some! There were leaks in the welded seams of the muffler, in several connections, and at the exhaust manifolds where they connect to the engine. Another thing I noticed was that there was no catalytic converter! I'm pretty sure Virginia, where this van came from, has inspections (correct me of I'm wrong) so I'm not sure how this passed. Luckily (IMHO) KY no longer has inspections. Nevertheless, I thought having a cat would help with the smell.


Where's my cat?

So at this point my plan is to replace from where the catalytic converter is supposed to be all the way back. I found an inexpensive cat on eBay and had that at my door for $196. Will it work as well as OEM? Most definitely not, but it should help clean the exhaust at least a little. And yes, I'm aware that I could have left it straight piped, but I'm more concerned with my family's lungs than what little power increase in this family hauler. I then got a cat-back system from Rockauto, Walker Kit 1792644 with Quiet-Flow muffler ($160). A few extra clamps and exhaust system sealer and I was prepped to replace most of the system.

New exhaust ready to go in

As expected, getting some of the old bolted joints free was quite a task as they were completely seized. I ended up cutting off as much of the bolt and nut as possible, then punching the shank out. The new cat was slightly shorter than the existing section of straight pipe, so I had to use a small piece of exhaust tubing to connect the cat to the muffler. Other than that little hiccup, the rest of the install went smoothly, especially since this was the first time I've worked on exhaust.
With the new exhaust in place the van didn't have a strong smell anymore. I still had the exhaust manifold leak to consider and this was one thing I would be willing to pay to have fixed. I took the van in to my mechanic to have him do an inspection. When I brought up my concerns about the exhaust manifold, he told me he wouldn't work on it because it didn't need it. He pointed out that there was no black carbon deposits anywhere around the manifold gasket and none of the studs were broken off, so he told me that would little leak there was would quickly seal once the engine had some heat to it. He also complimented the van and was impressed with how little we paid for it, so that was encouraging! At the end of that inspection, there were no new repairs discovered.
Disclaimer: this build thread isn't in strict chronological order. For example, this post about the exhaust happened before most of the previous couple of posts.

 

It was time to do some more routine maintenance, a couple of small repairs, and one upgrade.

The first maintenance item to tackle was replacing the spark plugs. I had read up a lot on how to perform this on these vans since access is much more limited than on my other vehicles. I purchased 8 Motorcraft SP-479 spark plugs ($29) and some nickel anti-seize.

In preparation for working deep in the engine bay, I gave everything a good cleaning. It makes working on the vehicle more enjoyable when it is clean and it also helps keep dirt and particles from getting into the repair area, so it is something I try to do anytime I really get in there.

Engine bay cleaned and ready for spark plugs

I blocked out an entire day to do the plugs and assembled all the tools I would need. Having a variety of socket extensions, swivel sockets, and a stubby ratchet with flex head were really helpful. I also had a set of spark plug sockets that had built-in extensions on swivel joints. Then I proceeded to remove all the air cleaner housing to gain access to the front of the engine. Plugs 1, 2, 5, and 6 were fairly easy to reach from here. For the back four plugs, I removed the dog house and front seats. Some of the cooling hoses and fuel lines were in the way, but overall it wasn't too bad. I worked on one plug at a time and started by unplugging its COP and any adjacent fuel injector's electrical connections. Then I would gently remove the COP bolt (making sure not to drop it) and the COP itself. I'd then shoot the area, especially the spark plug well, with compressed air to clean the area. Finally, I would find the right combo of spark plug socket, extension, and ratchet, to best get to the plug. This was usually done by feel.

The whole job took between 3-4 hours but went smoothly. I made sure to torque the plugs down by feel to as close to 20-25 ft lbs as I could. I used nickel anti-seize on the plugs (just a tiny dab) and some of my "regular" anti-seize on all of the COP bolts. The old plugs were well worn but in good shape and there were no signs of any larger issues.
Since I gave the front brakes a thorough refresh, I thought I'd also inspect the rear drum brakes. It has been about 15 years since I've dealt with drum brakes, so it took a bit for things to come back to me. The rear brakes were in good shape, plenty of material left on the shoes, no leaking cylinders, and nothing frozen up with rust. I went ahead and replaced the self adjusting mechanisms with Motorcraft BRAK2667A ($7) and cleaned everything up before reinstalling.
Now on to a couple of small repairs.

First, on our first test drive of the van, we noticed that no windshield washer fluid would spray. When parked, I checked under the hood and saw that there was fluid, but when my wife tried to spray, all the fluid was pouring onto the ground. Now was my chance to address this issue. I found, after removing the windshield cowling, that the sprayer hoses were rotted away. A simple universal kit of hose and fittings ($7) were all that was needed to get this fixed.

The next repair was the very common "HVAC not blowing through all vents" issue that it seems every E-Series van suffers. Since this is so common I won't go into detail, but like most people, I relocated the vacuum reservoir to the passenger foot panel. I rerouted the vacuum line through the fender and reused an existing grommeted hole near where the fuel cutoff reset switch is. Parts required for this fix were: Vacuum reservoir - Dorman 47995 ($23), vacuum checking switch - Motorcraft YG193 ($10), and some 1/8" vacuum hose ($7).
Maintenance and repairs are coming along nicely and at this point, I can see light at the end of the tunnel. To have a change of pace, I decided to do something "fun" and not fix anything, but give the van an upgrade. The headlights on the van were lackluster at best. So I found some headlamp housings with built-in LED light bar that I would use as daytime running lamps and I would use some LED headlights. I found the headlamp housings on eBay for about $100 - Autozensation F8UZ-13008-AA, and the light bulbs were Sealight 9007 HB5 ($46).

Headlamps before and after


LED strips wired up as DRLs (done later in build)


New headlamps and LED bulbs - bright, but not annoyingly so

 

Great progress!

I highly recommend adding grab handles to both A pillars (I don't see any in your photos)

https://images.app.goo.gl/Z6epK

But the handles from Pick and Pull. Use rivet nuts to install.

 

Stay tuned...

 

The time to pivot from doing mechanical work to interior work was quickly approaching, but I wanted to take another stab at fine-tuning the steering and handling of the van first.

This next round of the Great Steering Quest involved installing a steering stabilizer and working on removing some of the excess steering wheel slop.

While researching steering issues with these vans I inevitably came across the popular thread on these forums a real econoline steering fix!

I thought this was worth a shot and was able to find the following parts: Steering damper from Rockauto - Monroe SC2955 ($24), Frame bracket from eBay - F2UZ3E652A ($47), and some bolts, u-bolts, nuts and washers ($18). The one part I could not find was the Center Link Bracket, so I ended up fabricating my own.

I made the Center Link Bracket by taking a piece of angle iron and drilling 4 holes in one side for u-bolts to secure the bracket to the center link. The other side of the angle, where the steering damper would attach to the bracket, got a large hole drilled in which a larger bolt would fit through. I then welded that large bolt to the angle iron. Some black paint finished everything off and I had the Center Link Bracket made for a couple of bucks.


My DIY Center Link Bracket

To mount the Frame Bracket to the frame, I had to tap the pre-existing holes in the frame. I don't think I had to drill any new holes, but it has been a couple of years so I could be mistaken. Any time I touched the frame I would either add some spray paint or some Fluid Film to protect any freshly exposed bare metal.


A complete view of the steering stabilizer system

This mod helped when driving over uneven pavement or when hitting bumps or pot-holes, but it did little for keeping the van driving straight on a smooth highway.

Next, I went to address what I would consider excessive slop in the steering wheel. With the van turned off, you could move the steering wheel about 5" or so without any input to the wheels. Compared to my other 3 Fords, this was way too much. I also did not remember this much in my old 1996 Ranger which had the same steering setup as this van.

So I set out to find out where in the system this slop was primarily coming from. First, I had a volunteer move the steering wheel through its range of "slop" while I firmly grasped the steering shaft where the shaft connects to the gear box. This determined that the slop was not taking place in the steering shaft; the shaft's u-joints seemed to be in good condition.

Next, I carefully observed the pitman arm to gear box connection. I had read that sometimes the slop could be here if the teeth or splines on the connecting shaft or pitman arm were even slightly worn. I noticed no slop here. So this left the steering gear box itself. I looked into adjusting it, but after much consideration, I decided to have mine rebuilt. So I sent mine off to Blue-Top Steering (model 2764) and $320 later, I had a rebuilt gear box.

First, when I had my gear box out of the van and on the bench, I didn't detect any slop in the input to output shafts, but what I did observe was what I can only describe as a non-linear effort in order to turn the input shaft. It would be easy to turn, then get hard, then easy.

When the replacement gear box came in, it felt more "linear" in motion. So I installed it and found that the free-play in the steering wheel had decreased to maybe 2-3" of movement. So that was an improvement!

I should point out that I flushed the steering system prior to any of this work. I did this by disconnecting one of the lines from the reservoir and moving the steering wheel from lock to lock while keeping the reservoir full. When the fluid draining out went from near black to brand-new looking Mercon V, I reconnected everything.
So with both of these mods and repairs done, how did it drive? Better… but still not as well as I knew it should or could. The quest would continue, but not for a while. I had an interior to deal with and the baby's due date was less than a month away!

 

We were cleaning and assessing the van's interior during all the mechanical work I was undertaking on the van. We originally were thinking that all that was needed was a good deep clean and a few upgrades and repairs. However, the more we got into it and the more it was on my mind, we came to the conclusion that a full tear-out and new interior build was the proper way to go.


The pre-existing interior:

The van came with a dirty green interior with greenish-grey headliner on the ceiling and walls. The carpet was a badly stained "pistachio" green a few shades off from the headliner material. I'm sure when it was brand new it looked fine, but boy was it in need of some help!

The seats were after-market faux-leather bucket and bench seats commonly used by the conversion companies. Seating was for seven, two buckets up front, two in the middle, and a bench that folds flat into a bed in the rear. The seats are quite comfortable but the leather material has seen better days. The two middle seats are easily removed without any tools which is very nice. The two front seats use the factory mounting holes, and the rear bench seat has minimal adjustment forward-back.

The van's entertainment setup was a product of its time and a lot has changed in the 20+ years. A CRT TV and VCR were mounted in the upper compartment above the front seats. The sound system was hooked up to a cassette player.

Finally, there were a few cubbies, but I noticed that there was a lot of unused space - something that I would fix with the new build.

Here are some photos (most with seats already removed):


Looking forward towards front while showing ceiling


Looking towards back (middle seats removed)


Middle side and media center cubby

The initial plan:

I've always been a big fan of tan or brown interiors, and thought it would compliment the Deep Jewel Green Metallic exterior paint of the van, so that would help define the color palette I would be working with. We decided to keep the flooring carpet. My wife wanted a deep pile carpet, one she could take her shoes off and be comfortable in bare feet.

I would update all the electrical for the interior and was working on a plan that included layered lighting, charging ports, and entertainment systems.

Finally, I was concocting plans for some livability upgrades.
Now it was time to start stripping the interior!

 

Seats
The first step in stripping the interior was removing the seats. As mentioned, the two middle seats are easy to remove, there are two star-handled bolts that can be removed by hand, then the seat slides out of the base.

The rear seat required removing 8 bolts that secured the frame of the seat to a bracket mounted to the floor via 4 clamps.

The front seats, although using after-market bases, still used the factory mounting with two T55 Plus bolts and two 18mm nuts, then unhooking electrical for the power bases and seat belt sensors.

The driver's seat came and went as I sometimes needed to move the van or take it on an errand, so I got plenty of exercise moving that thing repeatedly.


Rear bench seat ready to come out


Most seats removed and ready for demo

Trim
With the seats out of the way, I moved on to any trim that was easily removed. One of these was the plastic shroud that covers the rear HVAC system. Having access to this unit would be very handy as it would need some work and diagnostics done later in the build.


Rear HVAC unit uncovered and rear door trim removed

Other trim pieces included weather stripping, window valences, and speakers. The idea was to get the walls ready to come out.


Walls
I wasn't sure how the interior walls and ceiling were constructed but I was about to find out! I was a little surprised that they were constructed of sheets of 1/4" tempered hardboard with a few pieces of plywood for support and shape, wrapped in foam-backed headliner material. It all seemed a bit flimsy to me and this reinforced my decision to tear it all out and start new.


One of the wall panels removed. Saved in case needed as template later on

There was sporadic fiberglass insulation (and plenty of trash) hidden behind the wall panels. The windows had their own headliner-covered trim.


Behind the wall panel


Behind wall panel exposing more of rear HVAC

Ceiling
Finally, the ceiling panel had to come out. The middle section with wood and lights came out easily enough, but the rest was one panel and a bit heavier than expected due to more substantial plywood backing. It was a bit awkward getting it out without prematurely tearing out wiring or hitting my head, but I finally got it down and out and exposed the underside of the fiberglass high top.


Ceiling panel resting on floor exposing underside of fiberglass topper

During all this work, I was taking mental notes of how it was all put together. I wasn't planning on using the same methods, but sometimes insight can be gained by seeing how someone else did it.
Things were coming along nicely, but there was still a lot more to rip out.

 

April 2023 has come and with it our third child was born. Work on the van would ebb and flow with the demands of life, but in general it would slow down.

The van's interior was partially demoed, but more work was to be done. I started by removing the TV and the entire upper cabinet. I found that the conversion company had cut out the roof but left from the b-pillar forward alone. This lines up with a reinforced section of roof for roll-protection, which begs the question, what would happen to the fiberglass topper if the van ever went over? Some things are probably best to not think about.

I then moved to the rear cabinet area and found that beside the two air ducts, this section was completely empty. That's a fair amount of unused space - something I would rectify later on.

Now I could start tearing out all the after-market electrical. At first I was trying to keep track of what wires ran where and all that, but quickly decided to just get it all out as I was going to replace all of it with my own design. I did leave the factory wiring behind the driver's seat that includes the RKE (remote keyless entry) module. I also left two wires for future use, one is hot when the key is in the ACC or ON position, the other is hot when any door is open.

Most of the electrical removed

Everything from the floor up had been removed at this point, so it was time to turn my attention to the carpet. Luckily for me, it came out very easily. It was glued down in a few spots, but came up without much force. I removed the carpet in one large piece and set it aside to save it as a template for the new carpet.

The gross, old carpet removed and set aside as a future template

I found that there was foam padding under the carpet from the back of the van to the back of the front seats. The foam padding was built up to match the ribbing in the stamped steel floor. I removed this and set it aside, unsure if I'd be reusing it or not. By now, my garage was filling up!

Foam under carpet padding

There were a couple of rust spots, but nothing too bad. The worse of it was under the driver's left foot area - apparently a common area. I cleaned the loose material and applied some POR-15 over the rust areas. I was overall happy with the condition of the steel hiding under all the finishes.

The worst rust spot in the driver's foot well

So here it is, the van stripped down to bare metal. Now that I could see exactly what I was working with, I could come up with more concrete plans for how I would rebuild it and wire it up. This is when I was doing a lot of research to get ideas and soon found out that virtually nobody was building a van as a road trip and passenger vehicle, everything was about turning them into campers or "van life" vehicles - which is fine, but not what we wanted.
The interior is completely stripped down