I spent the three day weekend insulating the van, making Reflectix window shades, modifying and mounting a stock spare tire winch and cross member, and painted my hitch receiver. The tire carrier was a berkeleying nightmare. Pics and details to follow.
I read that as "insulting the van"
Mad_Ratel wrote: I read that as "insulting the van"
The van did most of the insulting, I did the insulating.
Picked up a spare tire winch and subframe/cradle thing since this is where the wheelchair lift was located. Only $75 from the local junkyard. They don't let you pull the items yourself anymore, so one of their people decided that the fastest and easiest way to remove the piece I needed was to sawzall the whole rear frame off. Yeah, OK I guess that works.
When I went to the junkyard I also grabbed a different center console with better cupholders. It has less storage space, but the smaller size down low make it easier to get into the back of the van from the driver's seat, which I really like.
Before
After
I also found out that these consoles are selling for a ridiculous amount of money on eBay. I bought this one for $25 and they are going for $150 or so on eBay. Crackpipe.
Ok, back to the tire carrier. They cut out the whole frame instead of attacking all the rivets. That left the rivets for me to do. If there's a better way to do it, please share. I don't have an air chisel. This is what I did.
Angle grinder to notch the rivet.
Hit it from the side with a chisel
Then smack the other side until it's gone.
Grind away any remmnants. The frame didn't matter to me so if I ground down too deep it was no loss.
Punch out the rivet and move to the next.
The rivet punching was easier with the help of a propane torch and Twister penetrating spray.
Fire season has slowed down, but I flew this fire on Friday so they decided to keep me on call all through the holiday weekend.
This was awesome, because it kept me shackled locally and forced me to get work down instead of running away to go camp and ride. It also meant that I got paid overtime on Sat and Sun, and double time on Columbus day. All while working on the van.
I went to remove my trailer hitch Saturday morning so I could start to fit the spare tire cross member. Inattention led to me removing the last bolt and the (heavy) steel hitch falling and landing on my left arm. Cursing ensued. It landed on my forearm, just next to the inside of my elbow. This pretty much incapacitated my arm for anything heavier than a pound or two. I'm still on call to fly an airplane so I can't wash down the Ibuprofen with whiskey. The other big task for the weekend is to sound deaden and insulate the walls and cut Reflectix window shades so I switch gears.
This may not be the best material, but I have a discount at Lowe's since my girlfriend works there, and it's available and easy to work with.
I cut chunks of it and slapped it to the inside of the exterior skin.
The first roll of material went pretty well, so I decided to keep going. I went back to Lowe's and bought the rest of their stock.
Another key point I learned from Sound Deadener Showdown was to seal off the holes in the walls. So I did.
I forgot how much wasted space there is with these plastic panels. This would be useful if I stuffed it with Thinsulate.
I also removed the other 4 shoulder harnesses now that I was certain I wouldn't be using them ever again.
You can see in the last photo the giant tire spoon I was using to press the insulation to the surface in hard to reach areas. Something with a little flex would have helped get into position but this worked fine and I couldn't find anything else handy that would work better.
On the driver's side there is significantly less access to the outer skin. There are less holes in the metal inner structure and the heating and A/C unit is in the way. I slapped bits of insulation all over the ductwork and fan unit to dampen vibration and insulate. I didn't think this was going to have the best return on investment so I didn't get very detailed with it.
I decided to put more insulation on the inner plastic panel since I couldn't get much on the metal. I should have done this to the other side too, but I had already put the plastic back on and I think I got pretty good coverage over there anyway.
I did the inner structure of the rear doors, and then a solid layer to seal off the holes in the structure. This solid layer also helps the black interior panel fit tighter. Win-win.
I ran out of the foil backed foam, so it's now Reflectix time. While working on the van in the sun, I touched the outer skin of the van. It felt about 120*, the glass felt like liquid hot magma. Much more heat is gained and lost through the windows than the rest of the structure. Best bang for buck come by way of the window shades.
These are notched around the latches so they stay in position to block the sun while letting air circulate.
Here you can see that my f LED dome lights quit working. I posted a question about it but didn't get a single response in the GRM forum or the ExPo forum. 
The Reflectix is hard to notice at night, but in direct sunlight it sparkles.
I bought more foil backed foam! On to the side doors.
The spare tire winch cross member was a berkeleying nightmare. It was originally riveted in place as the frame was assembled. I couldn't just slide it back in place. I had to cut some chunks off that I deemed unnecessary. I sprayed the cut surfaces with black spray paint to slow down the rust.
It's in place! Now I just need to remove a few rivets that are left on the frame of the van from when the wheelchair installers removed the original cross member. I hate overhead grinding or drilling and getting covered in metal shavings.
Bolted in place! Woohoo!
Uh oh.
Is my hitch still going to fit in upside down? Am I going to have to flip it the way it's supposed to go to clear the tire? Am I going to end up with a E36 M3ty departure angle off road?
No. No, it doesn't fit upside down and no it doesn't fit right side up either. The whole spare tire needs to move 2.5" forward. berkeley.
Decided to knock the flaky paint and rust off the hitch, as well as the upside down U-Haul decal. Got some hammer finish black Rustoleum.
Ok, so the rear bolt pattern is almost 3" apart. I'll just move it forward and attach a bolt through the other hole and use the cradle as a template for the 6 holes I'll need to drill. I hate overhead drilling. Guess what? If you move the cradle forward, now it hits the body cross member because the cradle isn't supposed to move 2.5" forward. Ok, the bolts that attach the winch to the cradle/cross member POS thingy stick up pretty far. Zip the front two off with the angle grinder and berkeley. The cradle got turned 180* when I set it back on the garage floor. Fine, you're all getting cut off. Sprayed with left over hammer finish Rustoleum (good stuff BTW) Roll back under the van to test fit. Some clearance gained but still not enough. Out comes the mini sledge. Making a lot of noise but not much headway on the body cross member. Ooooh I know! Propane torch! Heat until paint bubbles and then hammer. Now we're talking. Test fit again. Not quite there yet. More torch, more hammer. Test fit. Not quite. Lots of torch and lots of hammer. Test fit. Bingo. Hammer finish Rustoleum. Boom.
Now I get to start mounting the cross member cradle thing. My favorite thing to do is drill holes in the frame overhead at night after many setbacks. 8 bolts are now holding the cradle in place, the bellcrank still lines up well enough with the stock notch in the body and bumper to winch the tire up and down. That's a small victory. The tire is winched up, the hitch fitted in place and bolted to the frame.
Victory.
Departure angle suffers slightly because of the tire, but the space gained inside is totally worth it.
On standby at work waiting for a call to go fly another fire, hiding in my dark and insulated van. I love it.
You can see the sticker Mazdeuce custom made for me in exchange for some wall paper I sent him for the Grosh.
FYI, only half of the pictures show up.
Mad_Ratel wrote: FYI, only half of the pictures show up.
Stupid Google photos, I give up.
In reply to Petrolburner:
Try imgur? I've had pretty good luck with them, they're also free.
Not what you want to hear, but none of the pictures on page 6 work.
I also host via imgur, fwiw.
Google photos works great for some things works horribly for others.
Prior to starting this thread I researched the different image hosts and decided on Google Photos. I'm disheartened to have to start all over. I'll go back to the drawing board. Why do all the photos still show up for me?
Petrolburner wrote: Prior to starting this thread I researched the different image hosts and decided on Google Photos. I'm disheartened to have to start all over. I'll go back to the drawing board. Why do all the photos still show up for me?
Probably because your the owner. It may be a bandwidth thing, as they get viewed more and more they disappear. I use flickr, its free and pretty easy also.
I love this place, but I'm probably not going to move all my photos to fix the issue and edit all the posts. However, here's a link to my Motovan album. Let me know if that works in the meantime.
Nice! I love your van. I trying to figure out if I can get a hammock to work in my limited space. Keep up the good work.
I can lounge in a hammock, but I can't sleep in one. I dozed off for a few minutes yesterday, but they're just not that comfortable to me. Maybe I need to get a cotton one with a little stretch to it. The compact nylon ones are great for travel, but they have so much surface tension that they just aren't cushy.
Here is the link to my Motovan album. https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipOdvQqroc_xS9chWV9crT8E0ICEBVrcHI6L_oFL I've abandoned Google photos though, pics will be hosted by facebook from now on. It seems they only last for a few months, and then facebook changes the image address and then you'll just have red Xs. Cherish the photos while they last I guess. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100774030768643.1073741841.71201345&type=1&l=b6141c3feb
How do you like the Puma? Its been on my radar for a long time now.
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