Van Build: Propane and Essentials

A lot of research and thinking was going on about this time. All the decisions from here on out had to be made, measured and mapped. I had been familiar with different configurations, but never really considered anything other than a Volkswagen layout, since I was already intimately familiar with it. It so happens that layout has been proven and adopted by SMB in their RB50 layout. There were two major decisions that had to be made first. What bed and refrigerator? Other considerations were propane and Solar, water holding and furnace. After looking in the wrecking yards and considering fabricating a fold down bed, I decided to order a 'Princess' manual fold down bed from Discount truck and van: [url]http://www.discountvantruck.com/rvvansofas/Princessvansofabeds.htm[/url]. After much deliberation, and discussion, I decided to go with a 3-way Dometic refrigerator RM2354:[url]http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/rv-refrigerators/americana-fridge-single.htm[/url] It's not the most popular with SMBs, but I decided that a solar array was expensive and I was wary of installing them on the pop top for cosmetic, and functionality reasons. It might be just too heavy to lift the top, and as it was my Girlfriend could barely lift it. That means we're going all propane, which in my experience was extremely efficient. It's kind of old school, but has been a proven platform for decades. We're more of a cook top cookers than microwave cookers at home anyway. The LP fridge will allow us to boondock longer without having to worry about the house batteries dying in the first eight hours. With the fridge and bed ordered, I could now take measurements and begin to to draft a design for the cabinets. In the weeks that followed I started working on the infrastructure. I had ordered this 5.5 gal 'Van' mount Manchester tank [url]http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/lp-gas/rv-propane-tank.htm[/url] and this access door from Sportsmobile [url]http://www.sportsmobilestore.com/propane-compartment-door/[/url].

From my research this is the combination that they install on their vans. After taking tons of measurements I realized there was pretty much one place that the tank and door could fit. The same place SMB installs them. I drilled through the plywood and floor to install the brackets. I used large carriage bolts and nylon lock nuts. I could set the tank up there but without the hole in the side of the van couldn't be sure how well it fit. Time to cut a hole. I used some cardboard to create a template then cut a huge hole with a Jig saw and die cutter in the inner panel. I painted the access door black, and installed that and the tank. I used a thin layer of butyl tape to seal the door frame to the body. Some corrosion protection on the bare metal edges was necessary, plus some additional seam sealer at the bottom sill to further prevent rust. While I was at it I cut the hole for the lower vent for the fridge, and installed it the same way.

Phew, it all fits. A nail biter for sure. As you can also see I ordered some Bushwackers from SMB at the same time as the access door. I really couldn't find them anywhere any cheaper. Up next: House Batteries and wiring

Van Build: Insulation

Thanks for tuning in for the next installment... As you can see the interior is totally gutted, but not ready quite yet to insulate. There was a whole bunch of glue and foam residue from the old carpet pad. The conversion company used copious amounts of spray glue to adhere the foam pad and that had to come off. I used an angle grinder and a wire wheel for a few hours, then vacuumed and wiped off the rest as best as I could. Now I did spend some time here on the forum researching all the different ways to insulate your ride. Lot of different products, and price points. It seemed to me the consensus was that fiberglass insulation was out because of the tendency for it to become laden with water and promote rust, should it come in contact with it. Spray foam, too. (Although it is used in some automotive applications) I decided to use HushMat Ultra [url]http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001VKT9NM/ref=pe_385040_30332200_TE_item[/url]. It is self adhesive, and guaranteed to stick! A mix of aluminum facing and petroleum based product commonly used in restorations for sound deadening and heat prevention, HushMat Ultra seemed like a good product. I bought a 30 piece bundle and installed it in a couple of hours.

I put it all on the floor, and into the step wells. I did run out with a quarter of the back of the van left, so I had to order another 20 pieces. I was then able to continue up and around the wheel houses and fuel filler housing. It was pretty expensive, but really easy to work with. It contoured nicely with any surface it was applied to, and as advertized stuck like a bee-otch. Continuing with the insulation I purchased a couple rolls of EZ-Cool automotive insulation. Its aluminum backed and faced closed-cell foam. [url]http://www.ebay.com/itm/331113135984?item=331113135984&viewitem=&sspagename=ADME:L:OC:US:3160&vxp=mtr[/url] This product was much more affordable, and the roll went a long way, so I was able to add a couple of layers on the wall and ceiling for more insulation. It was applied with generous coats of 3M spray adhesive 90, both sides. I laid Ez-Cool on the floor in one layer, so along with the Ultra Mat, Ez-cool and plywood I felt there was enough insulation there. I stuffed all the crevasses with remnants as well. It looks pretty cool all silver and spacy inside. If I were to do it again, I would use Weldwood Contact Cement for the walls and brush it on. The spray just wasn't enough in spots, and I had to reapply with contact cement anyway. The 5/8" CDX plywood was cut and installed side to side to span the floor ribbing. I counter sunk the self-drilling screws spaced the same as the ribbing.

After that I sealed the plywood with some left over polyurethane I had on the shelf.

Van Build: Q&A

There are some questions out there from others that are attempting to install a Westy top. The first question was: What were the exact dimensions and measurements of the opening, bolting positions and fabricated reinforcements. I'm not going to say these measurements are exact, so I encourage you to perform your own measurements and double check. Measure 15 times, cut once. This is the opening diagram measured from the opening of the Donor Eurovan roof. Note the measurements are in Standard, rather than Metric. This will help with cutting the opening.



This next image measured the bolting positions of the bolt holes in the donor Eruovan roof. This will help to know where to drill and install the nutserts, or nuts to bolt the pop top to the van.



This next image is of the inner reinforcement used to span the floppy roof and reinforce it to the top inner van side. The metal was 1/16" thick. Note the measurements, and angles written on the metal mock up. The passenger side piece had to be cut and re-bent to take in consideration the un-uniform angles over the side cargo doors. This was done during the installation. Some other tidbits of information: Not pictured here is a mock up of the bed reinforcement. It was a z channel 8 feet long, and 2 inches wide at both sides and one inch tall. The striker for the front latch had to be lengthened to fully extend down to the latch. I lengthened the striker by cutting another bolt, then sectioning the striker bolt. This was done by cutting a notch in the length with a die grinder, and welding the seam down the notch. You can then adjust the length of the striker by screwing it in or out. There are seat belt anchors in the upper reinforcement. I drilled holes in the roof reinforcement during the installation, and bolted the fabricated pieces up there to hold it while I welded it. I also left the bolts in. The front seat belts had to be bolted through the metal as well. Hope this helps.

The Pop Top Story Part III

I removed the headliner, which was installed in three pieces. Removing the first piece was interesting. A rodent had stored juniper berries up in there, and as I began to let the piece down, they started to fall. I yelled to my girlfriend to grab a trash can, and filled it up with hundreds of those berries. Glad I had the dust mask on, who needs a hantivirus. I took a bunch of measurements off the donor roof. I measured the mounting holes, and all the openings. I marked on the outside of the roof the measurements. Next what I did was remove the inner roof bows. I heated up the structural foam and used a thick scraper to separate the bow from the roof of the van. They then came off with two bolts on either end. I then began to cut a smaller hole from the inside. This way I could make the final cut standing in the hole.

Used the Sawzall... No going back now! Woot Woot!

Okay now there's a big hole!

Guess I better cover it up.

It's on there! I drilled holes and bolted the top down based off my measurements from the donor roof. Sweet. It pops up and down no problem.

Except there's a problem.... It's just bolted to one piece of sheet metal. It flops around, and puts a lot of torque on the metal when it's open. There's no way to put the bed back up there. I don't remember reading anywhere about this issue. Time to get out the thinking cap. :b3: I tried every way I could think of to use the old VW bed reinforcements, but they were way too narrow. I used some blanks and bent them to diagonally bridge the roof to the van side panel. I then used another piece to make a z channel. The idea here is to layer the inner reinforcement, the roof panel and the z channel. The inner reinforcement will provide stiffness up to down, and the z channel front to back. I then had a steel fabricator place I work with cut and bend the stock to the exact angles from my mock up made from the blanks.

One of the most important components to this project was going to be the front reinforcement. This was salvaged from the donor van, and housed the latch assembly. It also had welded nuts to bolt the front lifting bracket. Here's where all the measurements I took from the donor van roof come into play. I bolted it up, got the top working then welded it all up together. Here you can see the reinforcement, and the bed panels installed.

Here we have the top on, and the canvas secured. It's tight, but there are no wind or water leaks!

Wooo Hoo!

Price rundown. $850 for the top, $300 for gas, hotel and meals to drive to Denver to get it, $100 for the metal, $500 for the canvas, $400 for the paint (est.). $2150. Not bad. A couple of important things I failed to mention on the top installation. Firstly I used the VW rear roof reinforcement. It's a galvanized z bracket of sorts that holds the bed panel at the rear. It's curved on the top, which matches the curve of the pop top. Installing this beneath the roof metal raised the curvature to match the VW top at the rear. This helped close the gap that was back there. Another issue I came up with was: what to do about the roof ribs at the front. I had seen some people trim out the top to match the convoluted metal. I chose to install 2" body side moldings in the channels to fill it level. That way the pop top gasket could be used and create a seal. Okay, now lets put the cart back behind the horse. Time to gut the interior and find out what were really looking at. I knew there would be some rust, just not how much.

Yikes I can see the ground. Two huge rust spots and holes, just inboard of the rear wheels. The rear body mounts are detached on the reinforcement too.

Time to grind and cut it out

I had to cut the body bolts, because they were in the way and rusted in the mount. I then had to weld an inner piece on to the reinforcement. This also held a sleeve between the plate and the reinforcement. The sleeve allows the body bolt to be tightened without crushing the floor down when tightening. Instead of trying to replace the body mount, which has a threaded sleeve, and is installed with the body off (no going to do it). I cut the threaded sleeve, got a grade 8 bolt and washer and nylon stop nut, and slipped it back through the hole and tightened it down a the end. The photo above shows weld through primer on the area to be welded. I then had to find a donor part to fill the floor with. It happened that there was an old pick up bed out back with no rust in the floor. The convolutions matched up pretty well and made short work of patching the floor.

Fun with a welder! A little primer and some under coat, and we're done. I checked the front under the front seats, and there was a little rust there. It had very few perforations, and they stopped before the inner floor reinforcements. Some seam sealer, rust stopper, and a coat of paint took care of that. Up next was to remove the driver's side window and weld in a whole new piece. Most body techs would opt to replace the whole quarter panel, but I figured welding in metal would save more money. I was lucky to find an old Subaru hood that had roughly the same contours. I just had to pound the metal on a piece of strapping to fabricate the body line. I then used panel adhesive and spot welds to permanently affix the hood in the opening.

I installed self adhesive sound deadening pads from 3M to stiffen the metal and keep it from oil canning. Some bondo, and lots of elbow action.

Here we are in primer

I left the drivers front window in, and as it turned out was a mistake. At this point I hadn't made a decision on what refrigerator I was going to install. Not having the fridge, I had little idea what was necessary for it to work correctly. We'll get to that, and how I corrected it later. Also as you can see in the following photos, I installed some used running boards from a Crew Cab pick up. I cut and welded the brackets directly to the inner rocker panels.

Here we are getting ready for paint.

My Girlfriend helping masking... Damn I love that woman!

Ta da!

The Pop Top Story Part II

But first, before doing any cutting I had to dis-assemble the old top from the donor van.

I set the top upright on a rolling stand, then popped the top. I wanted to keep the bed functioning so I carefully removed the vinyl covered plywood by drilling out the rivets, and popping off the glue. I set the bed pad and plywood aside. I then focused on removing the fifty screws that held the bottom track to the canvas. It was still stuck pretty well with butyl tape. I used a reciprocating blade to separate the track from the sheet metal. Taking the ten bolts out that bolt the brackets to the sheet metal was the easy part. I then flipped it over and removed the top track. This was just screwed to the top, without any butyl. I removed the old canvas, hinges and bracket and set them aside. I then went after the inner reinforcements of the donor roof. There were two side brackets that held the bed front to rear, a rear bracket that reinforced the rear roof bow side to side, and a front bracket that reinforced the front roof bow. That bracket looked the most important because it held the latch. It also held the nutserts to bolt the front pop top folding bracket. With that all disassembled it was time to set the pop top on the van to see what I needed to trim. I used a chain hoist and some ratchet straps so just my girlfriend and I could manage the process. And a process it was. On and off, trim a little, on and off, trim a little...... the back of it didn't sit at all flush with the roof. Doing it with your eyes closed didn't help either.... Okay now the front has a big gap, have to trim the front down.

We finally got it where it looked even around the whole outside. Up next ... painting.

First up is to paint the underside. It was a gray vinyl. The interior is tan, so gray wasn't going to work. I used a paint specifically for plastic, beige in color. It worked well even on the front folding bracket. Sorry for the iPhone pic.

Now on to sanding & priming the top.

Finally base coated and clear coated.

Up next: The canvas The old canvas was rotten and worn, and gray. I ordered a beige canvas top to match the interior.

Now is the time to install it, at least to the pop top and lower retainer. Much easier than trying to do it up. Fastening it to the pop top was the easiest part, just a matter of screwing the retainer to the fiberglass sandwiching the canvas in between.

Getting the canvas, and gasket installed in the lower retainer was nearly impossible. I had to use a nylon type of paint stick to force the gasket into the retainer. The bottom of the canvas had a rope around it, with that and the gasket it installed like a window screen, except one inch at a time. It took several hours to get it done. Also note the bottom retainer has a bunch of sticky butyl tape stuck to it. I used masking tape to protect the top from the black sticky stuff. I didn't use a wide enough tape so it didn't protect the top well enough. So I got a bit of the black stuff on the top. If I had to do it again, I'd use a thick, wide packing tape. With the canvas installed the top is ready to go. No more beating around the bush, it's time to start cutting the hole.... :l1:

Jupiter- The Pop Top story

Finally after months of mechanical repairs I can take it safely on a road trip. About this time I had been scouring the internet on myriad ways to spend money on outfitting the van. I knew I wanted a poptop.  We loved the poptop in the Vw, and we loved sleeping up there. The cost of taking the van to California and having SMB install a top was more than half of what I paid for the van. Plus I knew I could install it myself for less. I also had considered getting a top from Colorado Camper vans. But, remember, I'm cheap.  I had seen build threads that had old conversion van high tops customized to pop.  I had also seen where Spurious of this forum had installed a Eurovan pop top.  His didn't have sleeping up there, it was mostly for headroom. I knew I wanted to be able to sleep up there, so I started making calls, and searches.  There's not much here in Flagstaff as far as recycling yards, and not one Vw Eurovan with a top in the state. I found one in California, but it was sold.  There was another one outside of Denver, but they won't ship!   They sent me pictures.  It was the one piece Westfalia conversion with a bed! (I think it was called the Weekender)   The two piece Winnebago for the full camper conversion I didn't think was going to work.  Perfect. Erie Colorado....Road trip!  So the plan was to take the dog, drive through Moab, up over Vail pass, and down into Denver,  pick up a Uhaul trailer, go to the junk yard, pick up the top, and drive back home through Albuquerque.

I grabbed this pic from Moab. I didn't do much off roading, but  the van rode really well, and handled nicely going through a snow storm over Vail pass.  When I got to Erie, Google sent me on a wild goose chase trying to find the wrecking yard for two hours.  Here's what I found when I got to Blake's Auto Salvage. The ideal Bat-campmobile! 

No no not what I came for...... but it's sooo coool.

This is what I came for:

[url=http://agassizimaging.smugmug.com/Other/Personal-Vehicles/n-nRXBJ/i-nWNJQnf/A][img]http://agassizimaging.smugmug.com/photos/i-nWNJQnf/0/M/i-nWNJQnf-M.jpg[/img][/url]


A poptop off a 93 VW Eurovan Weekender. I rummaged around to see if there was anything else I could salvage from the van. It was pretty junked. 

Here they're just about to cut the roof off at the pillars.  It took us three guys, but we were able to stuff it in Jupiter with the passenger front seat out. Roof, bed, sheet metal and all. I didn't need the trailer! Good saved me another $300 bucks!  Super nice people there at Blakes.  I got it home after 2 days of driving and used an engine hoist to pick it out of the van.

Up next....  slicing & dicing the roof....

Meet Jupiter- a Camper van Build

Then there was that ad on Craigslist. As soon as I saw it I called the guy.
"Hey wanna go look at a van?" She was in.
I met the guy by the Museum on Northern Arizona and took it for a ride. The four wheel drive works, but he couldn't identify the conversion company. The brakes were a little wonky, and it leaked fluids from every seal. He wanted $8500.
 "I dunno. It needs about three grand in repairs. Hows about $8000?"
"Hows about 8200?"
"Sold." She says. 
I wasn't done haggling, but whats a couple a hundred bucks, when I'll be spending all my discretionary income to a hapless project with out ever any hope of remuneration for years to come...... or eternity!

Here she was:

There we have it A 95 Ford Econoline E150, 4wd, Dana 60s from a 3/4 ton, 5.8l gas engine. 187k on the clock. It was a conversion van done by Waldoch. It has two Flexsteel captains chairs. No back seats, but a cheesy bed frame made by the previous, previous owner. Rear Pro Air AC/Heat. CD player with Aux input, groovy flashing LED lights that pulse with the music (first to go). Those standard CRLawrence windows with shades. The brakes and the AC were both weak. Oh, and some hippy funk. It lived up in Durango, and made someone a really nice ski van. The salt on the road there wreaked havoc with the body and they Rhino lined the rockers to cover it up.

I'm not afraid to roll up my sleeves, and am pretty handy with a paint gun. I kinda detest heavy mechanical work though. So the first stop for the van was the mechanic. The first order of business was to fix all the leaks. Radiator, hoses, belts, oil pan gaskets, valve cover gaskets, tune up, and distributor. The manifolds were both rusted out and the EGR tube. Those were replaced. There runs purrrfect now. ($2000) "Well I don't know about the tranny, the fluid looks clean but it shifts hard 1,2 and slips 3,4." "Yeah the previous owner just had the fluid changed." "I wish I knew if there were metal shavings in the pan." "Is it going to leave me stranded?" "Maybe." Well that's not what I wanted to hear. I didn't think it shifted all that bad, but true, there were no service records except the last oil and transmission fluid change and alignment. That was done within the last year. Hmm hem and haw hem and haw. "If it aint broke don't fix it." She says "Maybe." He says Then I think back... that time we got stuck in the sand in the Vw Bus at Lone Rock. She freaked out and almost needed a valium. At least there my cell phone worked and could call a tow truck.... (long story). "Okay put a tranny in it." "We only use Jasper Transmissions." Cha ching. $3600

Here we go.......