GoLucky buys a big van

100%. I am always looking in your background for a glimpse. The van is so cool too. 

Big happenings: 

Mixed differently this time: 4:3:1 paint, acetone and hardener. This was noticeably thinner and came out of the gun quite nicely. Temps in the high 60's -low 70's and down to 50 overnight. Hopefully the high acetone will help with the flash off.

Started with a light coat then did two more on top of it. 

We switched off and I mixed a second half batch of paint and we ended up discarding some of the extra. Probably should have come up with some other odds and ends to make "OSHA Safety Green" too. 

Feels good to have put some color on the entire van now. 
 

Bonus bicycle content: 

These are the ones that I own and rode this week so far. 
 

Commuter. More miles on it than anything else. Dynamo hub. Furry leopard saddle stripe. Front basket. Pepper gel for unfriendly dogs. Sometimes ridden abusively on "wrong bike rides" Survived getting hit by a car two weeks ago. 
MTB: 

Geurilla Gravity (RIP) Shred Dogg MX. Mullet bike. Manitou Mezzer fork down traveled to 140mm to match the 130/140 rear. I built this to have a full suspension, geared approximation of my dirt jumper. Renolds wheels with Industry 9 Hydra rear for all of the engagement. I laced the rear to a 27.5" alloy rim because at the time of the build they didn't offer mullet sets. 

Nimbus 29" Mountain Unicycle. 

I leave this at work most of the time to make short trips like meeting my Dad today at lunch. It usually makes me smile and other people seem to love it. 

I wanted an alloy MegaTrail so bad for so long, but I just never pulled the trigger.  Now it's too late.  RIP Guerilla Gravity... 

Update from the weekend: 

rode rusty to work for Fixie Friday. Pedaled home at lunch, pulled tape and started reassembling door mechanisms. 

Drove back to work in the van and met some friends for an evening skatepark session. They all met at a roller skate camp in Spain and Friday kicks off a whirlwind tour of some of Montana's concrete parks. 

I rode my DJ after taking off my skates. NS Decade. Hope pro4SS hubs. 
I really wanted to jump straight into the Skatepark and State Parks tour but I had some things to do on Saturday. With my chores done, I put some more stuff on the van. Got the fairing on for the first time since acquiring it. 

did some fixing and moving around of vent window latches to get them all to open and shut acceptably. The springs on several had broken free of their connecting points. I was able to stake a couple and one got drilled and pop riveted. 
It started raining, which let a lot of water into the van behind the tail light. 

Totally explains the caulked in tail lights. I stuck a bucket in there to catch the water. 

There is also a leaking rust spot in the roof between the seats. 

That one got a bucket as well. After the rain I pulled out the tail light and the body vent was flopping around loose. Will fix later. 
Eager to camp in the van we set up a sleeping area and wired the vent fan. This was not as easy as it should have been. Black wire is for power and white is the ground. 

Went up the pass to the top of the mountain and got a campsite. The van pulls strong up the hill just fine in cruise. Had a great nights sleep and I headed out in the morning joining the skate crew for a lot of driving and four skateparks before returning home late at night. 

Van did well. I need a clamp for the exhaust pipe; it can twist and rattle on the body. Broke in the new paint with lots of bugs. 

GoLucky said:

 

 

Absolutely astonishing how well you did on that paint. Cheap hardware store utility paint. Cheap paint gun. Mismatched materials. No primer. Painted in a driveway. Yet it looks fantastic. 

Good. Job. Man. You killed it.

In reply to Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) :

Thank you so much. I'm having such a good time with this project. 

Wow. As Cousin Eddie said, that is absolutely astonishing. It's a completely different van! I'm so impressed. I've always loved that safety green. Looks like it's a forest service van now, which is not a bad thing at all. 

Tell me more about Rusty. What's the top tube arrangement? Looks homebrew. 

I love that shade of Forest Service Green. I hope my paint job turns out that good! I'll be doing a very similar color

In reply to Mezzanine :

Homebrew for sure. I made the frame for myself in 2009. All three top tubes are aircraft 4130. Twins filet brazed; square TIG welded. True Temper butted bicycle tubing for seat, down and head tube. 1/4" 4130 plate dropouts (track ends officially) that I cut out with drill, file and several hacksaw blades. No paint, lots of rain and snow riding with some periods of outdoor storage. 

Picked up an old sign from the downtown sign shop for free. It is aluminum sandwiched over a plastic core. I think it may turn into a door card. 

I felt that it was a compliment that the sign shop owner assumed I got a Forest Service van at auction. 

LOVING this build.  What's next on the punch list?!

In reply to golfduke :

Suspension/steering part 2. Featuring the hopefully correct HD components. First parts have arrived and the rest are inbound. I might get some wrenching done this weekend but likely not. Next week I am road tripping down to Tucson with my college freshman in his minivan and flying home solo. Unless there is something REALLY exceptional there for me to drive back I guess...

That looks fantastic! Very nice work. Love the bike content also.

A partial parts order showed up today so I'm not going to do suspension work this weekend. Really that is fine since I need to do family stuff anyway. 
 

I am riding my tandem tonight with a tandem gang and then maybe some two stepping. The rear tire has a wicked bulge so I am replacing it. 

Tandem deets: '80ish Pugeot with mixtie rear setup. Fenders racks and two milk crates that we added. Friction shifting. Drum drag brake. 48spoke 4cross wheels in 27x 1-1/4". The pedals were a French only 14mm thread with really awful old school road design. I reamed and tapped for freedom unit 9/16" (normal bike standard) pedals to allow for some plastic platforms. This gem came in on consignment and I snatched it up from the original owners who toured all over together on it. We haven't done any really big rides but it makes regular date night trips through town and gravel paths. 
I like to refer to tandems as "Relationship Accelerators" instead of "Divorce Machines". While riding together the captain and stoker will make rapid progress in whatever direction the relationship is going. 

Sweet van and cool bikes!  Paint job is A+!

The unglamorous side of a big van. Utility vehicle:

Rental for a drain clearing project. Not exactly fun but fun-ctional. 

After completing household tasks in the van I spent a little time on the van. People seem to really get a kick out of it. At both Costco and the grocery store someone commented on it.
I will be road tripping next week in my Son's minivan and my partner will use the big green van to move her daughter into the dorms in Missoula, about two hours away. I want to get a couple of things improved before their trip.
 

The tailpipe hitting the body was first up. 

I got a stainless 2.5" clamp while out getting groceries. The over the axle section seems to swing like it isn't clamping to the forward section. Anti-seize, because I am trying to be good to future me. 

Under the van on the creeper, no lift required, I spotted a hanger that was also disconnected. 

I hooked it back together and had my Dad rotate the tailpipe to confirm fit and allow me to see where it was slipping. 
Clamp installed. 

Should be a +1 in quitetude. I also gave a little more roundness to the tailpipe opening, adds a bunch of HP for sure. Next up was the body vents behind the tail lights. In the last rainstorm they let in a stream of water that led to a bucket being needed. The adhesive foam that attaches the vent was MIA on all but one side. I went ahead and pulled it all the way off. 

Previous repair work was to caulk in the tail lights which I did not like since it makes changing bulbs difficult. My idea is to attach the vent with 3M trim adhesive tape and then seal over the edge with some silicone. Belt and Suspenders I hope. I spent some time getting it cleaned up. Applied the tape to the perimeter of the vent and trimmed to size with a razor blade. I'm fortunate to have this tape as a gift from my recently moved out stepson. 
In and caulked. 

The drivers side was much the same but with a small amount of hammering the bottom back straight and I used a clear marine grade silicone instead of white. This side didn't actually leak last time, but I suspect the angle of the van had more to do with that then anything else. 
The other leak was from a rust hole in the roof over the cab. It will for sure rain and snow if it isn't sealed up while I am gone. There are some future roof ideas that will involve more in depth work. For now I hit the offending area with the wire wheel to get the big chunks out. 
The pinhole got significantly bigger and the next channel over wanted some attention too. 
I stuck some tape on the inside of the roof to keep the repair out of the carpet. 

Got some Fibertech mixed up and blobbed it in place. 

Fixed enough for now. 
Emptied out a bunch of stuff from the van including the sweet free sign board. Sneak peek of two of Mrs. Lucky's bikes. 

This lady on another kind of sign board approves. 

My riding buddy does 50% of his riding on mountain and gravel tandems with his wife.  Watching them ride is a treat, but also because my wife and I wouldn't last a second doing the same.  As he said, 'You need good communication, or else...'

Well I ended up flying home instead of buying and driving something new. There were a couple of possible candidates. The first was a high top '71 van, but I passed since it wasn't the extended van. The other one was a 90s high top, extended van with some rod knock. I am looking at these vans because I would like to have room to stand up on mine. The junkyard yesterday only had one candidate: 

Pretty much wrong in every way: not extended van, busted, missing and broken windows and Mrs. Lucky hated it. There was another van with 4 nicer than mine dog dish hubcaps that I may return for. A serious rainstorm rolled through and we split. The final box of parts arrived in my absence and had the tires balanced today. We are planning to do an overnight trip and then see College Kid3 for her 18th birthday on Sunday. 

GoLucky said:

Sneak peek of two of Mrs. Lucky's bikes. 

Bonus points for the old school Oury waffle grips on the bike with blue alloy handlebars.

This past weekend I did suspension things. This little Harbor Freight removal tool worked great for the tie rod ends. 
Unfortunately it was not up to the task of removing the ball joints. Neither was my pickle fork. I ended up renting a "Pitman arm wedge" which is a bigger pickle fork. With an expected amount of struggle the passenger side suspension came out. 

Previously, I ordered complete lower control arms. They did not fit since the van has been changed to the HD suspension. I couldn't find complete lower control arms that fit so I got press in lower ball joints and new bushings. I rented a ball joint press for this job and it went less than smoothly. First off, the tool would not accommodate the height of the ball joint and the receiver tube. I cut it down with the angle grinder. 

With this mod, the press was able to push the ball out of its cup. I then reconfigured it and was able to press the cup out. Time consuming and difficult? Yes. 

To remove the bushing I grabbed some threaded rod and various round things, including bits from the ball joint press kit. I gave it the squeeze. The stamped control arm really wanted to become narrower so I cut a piece of angle iron to brace the two sides while I turned the nut. With the help of a cheater bar and some PB Blaster I got it out. 
I tried to press the new one in with the same setup, but it didn't work and after too much time and effort I decided to try to use the shop press at my friends house. I thought I would try to install the new ball joint though. After all, I had a ball joint press. 
The fittings included did not quite work, but I added some thick steel flat stock to keep the joint safe. I got it about half way in while bouncing up and down on my 1/2" breaker bar with the clamp in my vise. It felt like something bad was going to happen if I kept it up. I decided to just wait to use the shop press the next day. That morning I removed the driver side suspension with slightly more struggling. The lower ball joint nut did not loosen; the taper would spin in the spindle arm instead. I cut through the nut with my angle grinder being careful not to harm the arm. 

All the heat from the cutoff wheel somehow let the nut unthread and both pieces came off. The shock also got some angle grinder action. 

Since I had some time before I could go use the press I did some undercarriage rust management. I scraped and wire brushed the rusty parts near the front end. 

Brushed a slightly thinned Rustoleum rusty metal primer on. Finished the areas with some Rustoleum gloss hunter green. The strut rods on both sides had cotter pins that failed to remove. Those got drilled out. I didn't take press pictures. It went mostly smoothly, the only exception being when my angle iron brace shot out and didn't quite hit me. I used a strap to hold it in place after that and it worked great. Reassembly was the reverse of disassembly. 

With weight on wheels I tightened the upper and lower control arm bolts to the "much tight" spec with my breaker bar. 

All my new suspension goodies were in their new homes except for the rear shocks so I wheeled the creeper under and promptly stabbed my self again on the brackets for a previously removed running board. Angle grinder time again! 

The four bolts total to do both shocks would make it seem pretty quick and easy, but it still took a bit of fussing with brackets and getting stuck nuts loose. I did at least install the top eye and THEN cut the strap keeping the shock compressed, allowing it to extend into the lower mount where I had a bolt waiting. I only had to slightly open up the bracket on the driver side. 
 

Cleaning up the garage, found the last of my uninstalled parts. Windshield wipers. I'm happy to say that they were quick and easy to change. 

Drove the van to the tire shop down the street and it is getting an alignment today. 

That post brought back some serious ptsd memories of removing/replacing all of the suspension bushings on the race car... I feel like it took 2 weeks and more bloody knuckles and sketchy press-rigging than any other mechanic task I've ever done.  So frustrating, but also so rewarding to feel the difference afterward. 

In reply to golfduke :

Type 2 fun; it is fun to remember how terrible the actual process was. Hahaha. and yes, fun to feel the improvements in handling. While still not a race vehicle, the van is no longer terrifying to drive across railroad tracks. 

I did some hauling in my van last night after work. One of my skate pals has a garage in need of a skate ramp. FB marketplace had a great candidate 1.5 hours away. We made the trip after work yesterday and a deal was made. The sellers were great, FULLY disassembled the mini ramp and labeled the pieces. They also helped with the loading. 

I turned off overdrive; not sure how much exactly a 15x24' miniramp weighs? A lot I think. The ride back was uneventful. It was way quieter too. It was pretty late when we got back so the ramp is in temporary van storage until we arrange unloading.