Nick_S's Covid/Quarantine/Winter/#vanlife build

[Nick_S]

I'm cross positing this from another forum but even though it's no E30, I figured you guys might like it. Also Mods, move if you want to.

I'm quite a ways along with this project. TL;DR it went from this:
Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr

To this:
Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr

Read on if you're interested...
Welcome to Nick’s Covid/Quarantine/Lockdown/Winter project. It’s a 2005 Dodge 2500 Sprinter with the legendary Mercedes diesel engine, albeit with 336K miles. A bit of back story first: I started at my current job which is a fairly small, consumer direct, mostly Amazon based bicycle /cycling brand a little over 5 years ago. When I started they had just bought an old FedEx van to use for….I really have no idea why they bought it. For the last 5 years it’s been used mostly to help the half of dozen of us who work there move a few times and then sat for 2 years before someone tried to steal it by ramming a screwdriver in the ignition which didn’t work but rendered it immobile. Then a few months later someone tried to “syphon” gas from it by stabbing the gas tank with a screwdriver a few dozen times. Fast forward to October and I'm in charge of fixing it so we can sell it. I have it towed to a Mercedes repair shop where $6500 later it was repaired. New ignition, gas tank, fuel pump, glow plugs, a tire, a few intercooler hoses and a battery later, it was repaired. The shop noted it was in exceptional condition for its age and mileage and I suppose being a FedEx fleet vehicle meant they fixed any and everything that went wrong.




We get the van back and I start cleaning it up to sell it and my boss walks by and sort of kiddingly says “we should turn this into a camper van!”...my brain immediately goes into project mode and starts thinking of every camper van build I’ve drooled over for the last number of years. I have wanted to build out a sprinter van for YEARS. Living in Colorado and regularly recreating in the mountains means every other car on the road is either a Subaru, or a camper van. We chat about it with the group and he asks if anyone but myself would use it...the other 5 dudes all say hell yea they would! I'm an avid BMX/MTB rider, one of the other guys is huge into backpacking and climbing and everyone ski’s regularly and just loves the mountains and camping. So my boss gives me the green light and a very loose $7500 budget for the build. I’m so stoked, I get to finally build a van! Best yet, is it’s not my money I’m spending and not my own vehicle I’ll be cutting holes all over! It’s a blank slate with a modest budget and learning tool for if/when I do my own as well as something to keep my hands busy in the winter months. I’ve got detailed spreadsheets with links and quantities for everything I’ve bought from the battery to the amount of lumber needed, and the amount of screws I’ve bought. I should also say I’m extremely fortunate in that I get to work on this while I’m at work as well as have 24hr access to the large, heated warehouse space I have to work in. Very thankful for this!




With all that being said let's get to the project!




DISCLAIMER:

I am NOT a carpenter, I am NOT an electrician, I am NOT a professional mechanic...but I do have some know how, an imagination and Google so here we go!




I should note, I started this like a month and half ago but initial progress was slow and wanted to wait till I had a fair amount of progress done before I shared.




Goals of this project is to create a multipurpose, 3...maybe 4 season, all in one camper shared amongst a few people. This isn’t going to be one of those insane vans with a shower, tv, toilet etc. It’s going to be relatively basic with ample solar power to charge devices, run all sorts of lights, a small sink, camp stove, plenty of ventilation and be a warm, dry, secure place to park anywhere out in the mountains. It’s starting out as bare bones as can be. Stout engine/trans but very little in the way of options. No stereo, no cruise control...nothing. Has A/C but probably still needs service.




Blank and I mean BLANK slate. It does already have two 12v ceiling lights installed with a switch at the front and back doors, those will be staying. Being an ex FedEx van it has a hefty lockable bulkhead door that we decided to keep. 1. To make it more secure 2. To help keep the van temp manageable. First order of business I took it to a carwash and washed the outside and the engine. Once back I pulled and painted the grill from a horrible faded chrome, to a nice satin black.




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




I started the interior off by pulling up the floor. It already has a perfectly cut out floor made from some sort of composite wood, masonite or something so I drilled the rivets out and pulled it up to save for later. No sense in throwing away a perfectly cut template.




From here the van was down to bare sheet metal so I swept it out and wiped all the walls with a heavy concentrate of simple Green to get rid of 15 years of cargo van duty dirt.




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




What I’m left with is a few wires for the old crappy fan that's getting replaced with a MaxxAir and the backup camera I’m replacing as well...so I pulled them all out and pulled the fan out.




I decided to insulate the floor with 1in owens corning foam board. To do this I ran a few 1X2 boards front to back in the van to give it some sort of frame to build off and attach things too. After checking under the van to make sure I wasn’t about to screw into the fuel tank or a brake line, I ran a handful of self tapping metal screws through the boards to secure them to the floor.




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




After this I cut the insulation to fit between them and finished it off with some insulation tape

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




With the floor insulation and “framing” done, I put the original floorboard I mentioned earlier back in and screwed it to the wooden boards now on the floor. With that done, the floor is complete unless I decide to put a laminate down or something. Having this perfectly precut floor saved me hours of trimming and cutting. It’s probably 1/8in thick hardboard so I may end up just painting it and calling it a day.




I was really eager to cut some holes in this thing for some reason. First up was going to be the opening for the rear fan. The van is going to have two fans, one intake, one exhaust. The rear is the top of the line MaxxAir remote controlled fan with auto open and close and a like 12 optional speeds. I wanted it to be as far back as possible to create as much air flow as I could since this currently has no windows… I marked the template and cut the 14in opening from the inside. Although the only place to cut in the rear was over one of the ribs on the roof so I put a 2X4 under it wedged to the floor , heated it and pounded it flat. It was also around this point I realized I had basically no idea what I was doing.




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




One of my best friends converted an almost identical van a few years back and another friend lives full time in a van in Steamboat Springs, CO so I had some long chats with them before I went much further...even though I still have little clue what this will actually entail….







Floor complete I moved to the walls. For these I bought 2in, R10 rated owens corning insulation boards and a dozen cans of expandable foam. There’s a lot of debate on insulation but for the needs and budget of this project, this will hopefully suffice. I made a simple cardboard template and started to cut out the foam to fill the large voids in the walls. Once those were cut I used basic 1 X 2 Pine boards and matched them up to the supports on the ceiling to hold the foam boards in and also start to give some structure to the final walls that will go up later.




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




With the foam insulation in I set about filling in any voids with spray foam. I could for sure have cut the foam boards more precisely to fit but again, this is a learning project. I tried to fill any void I couldn’t reach with foam and create some sort of barrier from the sheet metal to the walls. Cutting and filling this took much longer than anticipated which is starting to be a theme in this project….




Now that the basic shape was starting to come together I decided to start on the bed platform in the back. I wanted to build a platform that was elevated for ample storage underneath for bikes and gear and will also house all the electrics. The driver side stand measures 20” deep and the passenger side 10”, this should leave just enough room for a twin inflatable mattress under the platform for added sleeping for a guest.




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Also starting cutting insulation for the ceiling.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Wall insulation done and basic framing in, I turned my attention to running wires for the electrics I plan to use. This is going to be a fairly basic build with mostly USB and 12V cigarette lighter style charge ports so most of the wires ran are for lights, USB ports or the fans.

My plan is for the drivers’ side of the bed platform to house the electrics with the massive 120lb battery sitting directly over the axle. I have a marine grade fuse block with 12 fuses up to 30amp each that will power everything as well as a 1500 watt inverter that will sit on the passenger side to run or charge anything else.




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Wiring ran it was time to start putting the walls up. I decided to go with 1/8in birch plywood because it bends really easy and light weight. I found out later it likes to splinter a good bit when you cut it with a jig saw.




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




NEXT POST.....

[Nick_S]

With the walls starting to go up and knowing I wanted the walls to overlap the ceiling a bit for a clean look I decided to attack the ceiling. I'm using 1X6 tongue and groove beetle kill pine board. It's mostly locally sourced since colorado was ravaged by pine beetles a few years ago and it had a really cool blue hint to it.




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr







I have 6 LED lights going in the ceiling and had to cut around the fans and the existing lights already in the ceiling.




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Ceiling in front to back, lights ran and tested via a drill battery




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Quick coat of stain and we'll call that done!

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With that all sorted I wanted to finish the walls so I could start building the rest of the fixtures in the van.

Pulled all the wires through the wall where the fuse box will go.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Also I ran the wiring for the solar panels through. I will have some cabinets here and this is where the solar controller will go as well as a small bank of switch for a few of the accessories going in aswell as a bank of USB charge ports and a 12V cigarette charge port.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Starting to look like something!

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Couple coats of white paint later...

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NEXT POST.....

[Nick_S]

Walls up, ceiling done, stained and painted I started building some cabinets that will go above the "kitchen" area. Super basic and again....I have no idea what I'm doing but this is starting to work.




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




The far left small area is where the solar controller and switches will go. Something like this..

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Quick coat of paint. I filled the holes in later.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




At some point I started the basic structure of what will be the "kitchen". It will have a small two burner stove top ran off propane and a sink with 5 gallons of cold water and a water pump. I started to loose track of when I did things...anyways, here's the cabinets loosely installed.



Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Started on the kitchen top at this point. Cut out for the stove and loosely installed. Sink just came in today so I'll get to that soon.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Kitchen cabinet in place, cabinets installed.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




NEXT POST....

[Nick_S]

In the 30in gap between the bed frame and kitchen cabinets, I wanted to have a small bench to sit on with a flip up seat for storage...so I made one.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Going to build a small angled back on this thing too. Planning to build a similar bench on the passenger side and there will be a "table" that slides out from under the bed frame.




I got distracted and went to the back of the bed frame. I wanted to build a few storage shelves in the back for gear, tools, whatever. I cut a few sheets of 3/4 ply and put a shelf on both sides. I painted the whole thing white and then added some 1X3 pine board for both aesthetics and also to keep things from flying off the shelves. I'll probably put some mesh nets up to keep things from flying all over too.




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




With things starting to come together I wanted to make sure all my wiring was good since...well I don't to pull the walls and ceiling down again so today I grabbed the 150lb 200amp/hr battery and plopped it in place and started buttoning up the electric panel that sits under the drivers side bed frame. I realized I only ordered 8ga wires and a 30amp fuse so I'll need to replace those but wanted to test everything to make sure I ran it all correctly. Off the battery I have a main power shut off switch that goes into what will be a 100amp breaker switch (accidentally ordered a 30amp for now). From there it runs into a 12 bank fuse box that will run most of everything.




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




On the back side...

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




After hooking it all up I tested everything and thankfully.....it all works, thank god. I started to get pretty lax taking photos of my progress since I hadn't posted anything but I suppose I'll get back on that. Coming into slow season at work so I should be able to make good progress in the next month.




I'll keep this updated as I go!

[Nick_S]

Found a few more photo's I forgot about.




This is cutting the hole for the front fan. There was already a small exhaust fan in the van I contemplated keeping but the bearings were toast and it made horrible noises. I ordered another Maxxair fan but this one is a low end one that only has 4 speeds and is exhaust only. Since the rear one is intake, this should create a nice flow of air through the van.




Template marked.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Apply violence via an angle grinder and cut off wheel and a minute or two later you have a hole for a fan

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Apply a liberal amount of sikaflex or some kind of lap sealant under the mounting frame.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Built a small wood frame for structure on the inside. I put plenty of sikaflex on here aswell. Run some self taping screws in and that's about it. I also ran a couple beads of it around the base once in and you can see one of the roof seams I sealed up too.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




And there's that. Two fans, two solar panels on the roof.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




The solar panels are attached with some 3M VHB tape. It damn near creases the sheet metal if you try to pull them off. I have screws holding in the mounts on the front edge of the panels but opted to leave the rears off only because I wanted to drill as few holes in the roof as possible. My buddy who did a similar build has been going a few years on just the 3M adhesive.




Solar wire pass through. Have to get the wires from the panels into the van so I drilled a few small holes, ran the wires in and then used this cable pass through mounted with 3M tape as well and then eventually ran a bead of sikaflex around it to seal it up and did the same from the inside.




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




I've got these panels wired up in series vs parallel. Anyone with more solar knowledge than me care to chime in and tell me why one way is better than the other?




That should have the build up to date.

[Nick_S]

Hectic few days at work so haven't had much time to work. I did get more of the electrics wired up. Switch panel that will control the water pump, fans and main lights wired in and working perfectly.




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




That little black box is a blue tooth module to monitor the solar controller on your phone.




And speaking of solar. We're charging!....well not right now as its in the warehouse still but its working!

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




I should have checked first but the solar cables are very stiff and the way they mount into to the back of the controller means they come straight down into the switch harness. I put a 90 degree bend in them coming off the controller but still not super keen on it. Might rethink this a bit as I don't want to have issues down the road but for now. It works!

[Nick_S]

Bit more work getting the kitchen area done. Added a slide out drawer for the cooler to sit on and cut the hole for the sink. Not much counter space like. Thinking of redoing the counter top and rotating the stove 90 but I don't want any sort of open flame that close to the wall..




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr

[Nick_S]

Slow day at work = Productive day on the van.




First I mentioned a few posts back I wasn't super happy how the solar cables were coming into the controller. The cables are very stiff and the controller requires them to come from the bottom and they did not want to bend much. I found some guitar terminals that are very secure and go in at a 90 degree angle so no more harsh bends for the wires.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




With that sorted I was able to finish off the switch panel and controller and call that done.




Turned my attention next to the kitchen cabinet and the little bench next to it. Couple coats of paint cleaned them up nicely. Added some Pine trim board to the bench to keep the theme of white and stained pine going.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




While working on the kitchen cabinet I mounted a 12V socket that will be the power source for the 'iceless' cooler to run off. I had planned for this and one of the wires coming out of the wall will connect this although I want to get a switch so it's not running when not in use.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Added a few pulls to the cabinet doors.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Added some under cabinet LED strips for some extra light in the kitchen area too.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




These will be on a dimmer switch for some added ambient light or if youre sitting on the bench they won't be quite so blinding.




Used some of the remaining t/g board from the ceiling and cut a piece to go under the counter.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Realized I had a few t/g boards left I decided to carry the theme of the roof and the trim and make a nice little back splash behind the kitchen counter which came out well and will serve to hide any other wires I might need to run.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Also gave the main electric area some attention and cleaned up some wires, ran the remaining couple breakers and fuses needed including the giant 150amp one for the 1100watt inverter I have and ran another set of 8ga Pos/Neg lines to the other side just in case I want to add something later.




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Ended here for the day since I needed to get some work done.




At this point I could have this functional pretty quickly but I'm trying to figure out a solution for an added safety belt seat in the back since a few of the guys here have kids. The front will have either two captain chairs, a 3 person bench or ideally, two captains chairs and a fold down jump seat. I really don't want to put another seat in the back since it'll take up a bunch of space and also, I'm really not keen on being responsible for added safety equipment to a vehicle where there previously was not one. Front seats all bolt in, I'm hesitant to add one in the rear though.

[Nick_S]

Little update today. I did a bit of work on the countertop since last week. Not being one to leave simple things alone I wanted to ad some character so I used one of my favorite hobby techniques called the Litchenburg method of burning wood. Basically I use a neon sign transformer with a nail or in this case, drill bit attached to each end, spray a bit of water with baking soda in it and then turn it on. The electricity will try to find itself and in the process burn these really unique designs into the wood. Once burn I use a fine wire brush and clean out the grooves.




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Whole counter done.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Once cleaned out I fill all the voids created by the burning with epoxy resin with a pigment I love called Ghost Copper Pearl. It's a dark but subtle fill.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Brought it back to work, couple passes with a planer takes hours off the finishing process although does occasionally remove some of the finer details. Sanded with 180-240-400-800 and then 1000. Hit with a bit of stain...

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




After I test fit it I pulled it again and it's currently got a nice layer of polyurethane drying on it.




I have some fun ideas for the aluminum bulkhead door coming up too.

[Nick_S]

Not much to update, didn't have a lot of motivation this past week to work on it. I did finally put the bed frame up. I plan on it being removable so we can still use the van for some light cargo duty if needed. Also wired up the power inverter on the drivers side. Should be a slow week at work coming up so I'm hoping to get a bunch done.




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Started messing with the bulkhead door. Used my angle grinder and a flap disk to swirl it up. Thought it would look neat with a dark tinted clear coat over this.




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr

[Nick_S]

Work was slow this week so I was able to spend a good bit of time on the van.




Started boxing in the passenger wheel well/bed frame area. The cut is there because I had ran some 8ga wiring through the walls for a second fuse box on this side. There is nothing hooked up currently but it's there in case I decide I want to add more electrics later. This will serve as another storage spot. Getting some mesh bungie nets to hold all this in place.




Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Added a few more LED strips in the sleeping area. I'll have these on a dimmer switch since they are very bright.

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Smoke detected or and Carbon Monoxide alarms. Better safe than sorry.

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Did some work in the kitchen area. Test fit my propane tank and water storage. Happy I can fit a full 5 gallon propane tank under here. Didn't want to be switching 1lb bottles all the time. This will have a split off the tank for another line to run a small indoor safe propane heater for those cold nights.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




I also plumbed the sink all up. Back bottle will serve as the "grey" water from the sink dran. Front will be the fresh water. The water pump I bought grenaded itself within 5 min so it's going back to amazon. It was super cheap so I'm not super surprised. I'll spring for a nicer one this time.




Speaking of gas...

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We're cooking!




Installed the cover on it even though I think it looks cleaner without it. It's nice to have some more counter space to use when the stove isn't in use and to have a shield from heat and grease.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Wired the iceless cooler up and gave it a test run. Cools nicely after a few hours.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Oh and the drawer I made came out nice. Not perfect but for having never made cabinets before I'm pretty happy with them.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




You can see in the back I started cutting the boards that will be the top of the bed frame here.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




The center section is removable and I'm still tinkering with the fitment of it so I didn't get to it this week. Planning on a having a few large sliding pins you can pull out and release it. It'll then slide right out the back.




That's it for now. Really happy to see the results of it at this point. It's really coming together.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr

[Nick_S]

Works been busy so haven't had a ton of time during the week, but it was 4 degrees today and I had nothing to do so I went into work to do some work on the van.




Added a quick LED strip on switch in the electrical area. After talking with a few of the guys who plan on using the van as well as my boss, I'm going to ad an additional battery just in case. My boss seems to think his kids will want to be on their lap tops constantly and bring all sorts of other electronics so figure better safe than sorry..although god knows why you bring lap tops to go camping but whatever. The light looks good and it'll give me a reason to tidy up the power/ground wires.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Wanted to get the bed frame all sorted this weekend. I had planned on making a pull out table from the bed frame for the seating area. Started on that the other day...




From the underside, doesn't look like much.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr




Also added 3 barn door latches to the bed frame since I want to be able to remove the center section if needed.

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Layer on of ply on the top..

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Stoked how this came out. Need to stain it still but looks good.

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Moving on from the bed frame...added a T connection to the propane tank so I can now run the stove and a small indoor safe heater at the same time.

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Put a small light in the door well of the sliding door on a small switch.

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Oh yea and made some doors to cover the electrical area. Need to paint all that and the bed frame then paint the floor and tidy up the sink and the build is basically done.

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Hoping to take this for a test run soon as the temperature is above zero.

[AWDBOB]

Into this- my good friends in Indy converted a newer Freightliner and have been living in it for over a year now... a van build for MTB/Camping/Travel has always been on my mind.

[Nick_S]

Leaving me here today, February 19.

Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr

Everything works in the van. I have a fold up queen mattress on order, seat covers for the benches and a few other randoms. Most of the actual build out is done. Now I need to finish wiring in the back up camera, wiring in a stereo, installing an actual passenger seat, new wheels and tires and then trying to paint it. Hoping to take it for a test run in Utah in month or so!

[Nick_S]

Still have my E30 if anyone was wondering...
Untitled by Nick Smith, on Flickr