the van Bill - 2003 7.3 E350 4X4 Build

[furbucket]

Excited to start the build of this van and to share the journey with anyone interested.

Bill is a 2003 E350 with a 7.3L diesel! Formerly a fleet service vehicle for Sysco Foods in Washington. I'm not one for naming vehicles, but this van came with a name- If anyone knows what Bill's might mean in the Washington state area I'd be curious to know.
Bought it in 2019 with just under 260,000mi on it. It's an empty cargo van that we've been using to renovate our house, and now that the house is almost done we get to build a 4x4 camper van!

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2021
Decide to get the oil leak fixed and also the a/c - ended up pulling the motor for a re-seal and a long list of things but now this 7.3 should do another 250k with no worries. Repairs included:
Complete Re-seal
New HPOP
New Injectors/sleeves
New water pump
New oil lines
One new fuel line
and lots more...

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Didn't do much other than use it to haul things for the next few years. Once planning for the camper van conversion started I decided we needed to remedy the drip rails, the only place on the van there was really any rust...

 

[furbucket]

2025
Drip rails had surface rust and the seam sealer had seen better days. Needed to fix this in order before the planned on high top gets installed.





Various wires wheels were used to clean out the old seam sealer and rust. The tool that worked the best though was an old rounded off flat-head and a hammer





Eventually the drip rails were shiny and clean

 

[furbucket]

The bare metal was cleaned with POR15 cleaner/degreaser, then POR15 metal prep, then brushed on gray POR15


After POR15 it was time for new seam sealer. We scuffed up the shiny new POR15 and then used two tubes of SEM#39777 High Build Self Leveling seam sealer (ends above the windshield and the inside bottom corner where the metal edges meet). and three tubes of SEM#39387 Self Leveling seam sealer to fill in the drip rails. I parked the van's front wheels on some wood pads to help level the roof before we started. Apologies, didn't take many pictures of this step, we were stressed trying to get the two part epoxy in before it started to set, and for some reason I didn't take many after.



Next up was two coats of POR15 2K Urethane Top Coat. This was also brushed on (and it was a warmer day). Unlike the beautifully smooth POR15, the 2K urethane ended up fairly orange-peel-y. It only bothers me a little though as this will all be covered when the high top goes on. And eventually one day I'll probably Raptor Line the whole thing and then it will be forgotten.

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This brings us current. In two weeks we'll be taking the van on a road trip north. It will be getting a Tufport hightop and then will be dropped off at Quadvan for the 4x4 conversion. Clydesdale was also a consideration.
I thought long and hard about doing it myself, was talking to Tim at Timberline about the kit (he no longer offers) but decided that my lack of a lift combined with a gravel driveway would be less than ideal. Plus I didn't want to lean [heavily] on a car guy friend as I am definitely a novice when it comes to suspension work... I'm sure I would have [eventually] been successful but there's a lot to be said for warrantied work by professionals who have done these many many times. Not to mention my back and knee...

 

[furbucket]

Almost forgot - the rear end on my van is a semi-float Dana 60, not ideal for taking a heavy van off-road, and there are very few limited slip or locking options for the diff. I went to Hooper Rear Ends and now have a rebuilt 2005 Sterling 10.5 with a TrueTrac that will be installed when the 4x4 happens.

 

[ThundahBeagle]

Bill's Locksmith, Kent, Washington?

Bill's Locksmith Service Inc > Kent Locksmith > Vehicle Locksmithing Services

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billslocksmithservice.com

It would stand to reason.

 

[furbucket]

Bill is much taller now! Courtesy of Tufport Canada

 

[furbucket]

First high top van project completed! Had to install an exhaust fan. I say had to, because I planned on not dealing with the fan until much later when I could decide where solar panels and other roof related things would be located, as well as get a better plan for where inside roof things would be. Unfortunately, Tufport cut out the hole for the fan even though I asked them not to (insert discount). They offered a free maxxair fan but I didn't want one of those (discount got bigger).
Instead we chose the Airplus fan by Nomadic Ark - I like that it functions as a skylight, has an integrated blackout shade, built in led light, and a remote included.

We first had to remove the silicone from around the hole (tufport adhered a square fiberglass off-cut over the hole with silicone). Combination of the little orange plastic razor blade scrapers, and a product called Goo Buster actually worked pretty well.



We used 3M 4000 sealant since it sticks to everything, stays flexible, and doesn't discolor under UV.


The tufport top has wood reinforcement in the roof where the fan goes, but the overall thickness of fiberglass and wood is about 3/4". The Nomadic Ark fan really wants a bit more material than that for a clean install so we made an inch thick wood frame to build out the underside of the roof. We put the same 3M sealant between the frame and the fiberglass, I changed the four screws in the corners of the fan's exterior flange to 2" long bolts that went all the way through the roof and the frame in order to clamp it to ceiling.


Fan is temporarily wired into 12v from the start battery and works great! Really happy with it.

 

[ExpoMike]

Nice install. I bought one of those fans (black cover as tinted or white was out of stock at the time). Reviews seem to like them better than MaxAir and I like they are brushless, so should be a little quieter. Haven't installed mine yet, as I need to figure out where I am planning to put things first.

 

[furbucket]

[mention]ExpoMike [/mention] I’m pretty sure I would’ve put it off to one side so I could fit a small solar panel next to it, but that ship sailed when they cut the hole out for me… oh well, it was a hefty discount.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[furbucket]

That is my van earlier today- left in the very capable hands of John at Quadvan!!! Very exciting times, can’t wait to see 4x4 Bill on 35’s!!!

 

[furbucket]

4x4 Bill!! The van is back from Quadvan. It’s huge- rock sliders/steps have moved way up the list.

I forgot to do the before tape measure, but now the top of the wheel wells are just above 42”. Total height is 9’7”

It drives better than it ever did, turns way tighter, and is awesome! Did 65mph the hole way up the grapevine and the temp barely moved. I need to go find some dirt and test out the four wheel drive.

Some specs:
35” KO2’s
17” Method 701 bead grip wheels
Bushwhacker fender flares
Transmission rebuilt/upgraded/converted to 4x4 at Transmission Exchange in Portland
giant trans cooler added
NP271 transfer case
Front axle is a Dana 60 with a Detroit Locker and manual hubs
Rear is a Sterling 10.5 with Truetrac
4.10 gears

John at Quadvan probably knows more about these vans than anyone anywhere. He and his wife Adisa were fantastic to deal with. Highly recommend.

Can’t wait to get started on the inside! First task sneak peak: PRP heated and cooled seats in Baja serape and Ironcloud Metalworks swivels

 

[furbucket]

After much trial and error, cutting, drilling, grinding, and a bit of welding I'm happy to say that Bill is now sporting twp PRP seats on two Ironcloud swivel bases. In hindsight it would have probably been easier to reupholster the factory seats (and add heating and cooling) than re-engineer things to work the way we did- but it's done now and it's awesome!

I'm not sure how useful a full write up will be, since I can't imagine how popular the combination of PRP seats and Ironcloud swivels in an e350 will be, but for posterity here it is in brief (and pictures).

PRP will sell you sliders but you will quickly realize that in order to make those work you would need to devise a bracket to retain the seatbelt buckle/pretensioner assembly. Better choice is to re-use the factory sliders in between the PRP seats and Ironcloud swivels, they are way more stout anyway. You will need to cut off the flange opposite the seat belt. Cut out a section of the slide handle and weld it back together to shorten. Clearance the plastic trim, cut a hole for a switch. Grind out a couple rivets, drill/elongate a few holes and buy some nylocks to use on the existing screws. Some pics with notes:

before


assembled


plastic trim




Bask in the double swivel glory!!

(baja serape was a bold choice, but we love it more each time we get in)

Still need to run power so the heat/cool can work. And there's a chance we'll need to cut the feet off the driver's side and re-weld them to lower the seat about an inch. But they're in, they swivel, and there's no airbag lights!

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Up next will be replacing all body mounts, fixing a bit of rust in the floor (basically surface rust), welding up the many old holes in the floor, and getting the windshield replaced so the floor doesn't rust anymore (if anyone is wondering why the driver's side footwell in every old econoline is rusty it's because the bottom of the windshield leaks just behind the steering wheel).