Van bed slates were finished before our trip and today, we ordered her mattress (6 inch memory foam short queen). We started on the insulation (taped until the walls going in) and ran wiring for the lights, the fan (Maxx Air 7500K), and outlets.

We then started to get the walls and door panels going, we also setup the solar testing on the back deck since these are old re-used solar panels that originally came on our RV and we removed. Turns out they tested pretty well, in direct sun we were pulling 80W/panel and they’re only 100W rated panels.

Lots of goodies arriving in the mail today and hopeful for lots of work done this weekend. Addtionally, she goes for window tinting on Monday.

• Solar Charge Controller: Victron MPPT 100/20
• Batteries: 100Ah LiFePo4
• Fan: MaxxAir 7500K

Flooring going in, insulation between the furring strips, minimal but better than nothing. 3/8 ply on top of that, glued and screwed to the furring strips that are glued to the metal with liquid nails fuze-it which seems to be pretty good. Once cured I attempted to pry one of the strips off and the wood broke before the adhesive, so we’re good there and better than screws given the increased adhesion surface area.

Began to build the bed frame as well. The mattress will be a short queen, we’re a bit tight on space as this is a standard wheel base van. Putting the mattress long ways would cut into the rest of the available space so we’re going width ways which is just about 72″, plenty if you don’t sleep like you’re in a coffin.

• Fuze-It: Amazon
• Zinus Short Queen Mattress 6″: Amazon

So we got after that rust. Welded in ( poorly, because I’m not a welder ) patches where necessary with some 20ga sheet metal. I didn’t happen to have a thickness gauge handy but it was actually stamped on the steps on the body. And sure enough it matched right up.

Then we wire wheeled that all down and hit the spots with some Rust Reformer.

Next we cut fur strips out of 3/8 plywood to go over the floor to kind of smooth things out. The plan is to not actually drill into the floor pan given the age and potential for rust we wanted to limit the amount of entry points. We’ll be using some adhesive to hold the floor down.

• Sheet metal: Amazon
• Rust Reformer: Amazon

Lots of updates here, we removed the old dry-rotted tires and changed them ourself and used balancing beads. Good tire shops are hard to find around here and well again, this is a budget build.

Tire Changer: Harbor Freight

Balancing Beads: Amazon / Counteract

Additionally, we started tearing down the inside and working on rust remediation, this is just a wire wheel and a scraper to get at this and get it down to serviceable steel. Then weld in patches where needed.

Clear coat complete! Now she needs to cure for about 48hrs before she will be buffed out to her smooth shiny self! (Not too much it can be done about the dents and dings, but she’s meant to be an adventure van that’s gonna get messy). There’s a bit of orange peel but hey, this was done with $9 (yea I got them on sale) guns from Harbor Freight. LOL

#VanLife

Primer time! we taped off and primed the van, sanding is up next and then paint! Only issue here was keeping the sun off of it long enough for it to properly flash and the surface to not be extremely hot.