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Tools I got. Spare parts? Well, I always have a backpack stowed away, a water bottle, and a good pair of hiking boots. Figured that can always get me spare parts, in a much more adventurous way! ?

I just got a van and currently outfitting it to live in. I hope I'll be alright! I guess you'll never know until you try it right?

Since the axle is all back together, it would be a good time to get the fuel tank back in the rig. Got the tank all cleaned up and painted. The fuel sending unit crapped out about 11 hours into the ride home when we bought the vehicle. So in goes a new fuel sending unit. Hopefully this does...

While we wait for transmission parts, some other things can be done. The heater box was looking a little rusty, so time to look at that. It all works great, but rust is like cancer. Once it starts, it grows fast and can quickly become overwhelming. I wanted to just scrap off the peeling paint...

Tearing into the rear axle. Might as well since the fuel tank is out! It's been many years, and many coats of paint since these axle shafts have been taken out. Gotta love the 14 bolt axle. Makes it easy to modify, especially for those that don't know what they are doing! Out with the old...

Some more painting and prep work. Cleaned and prepped all these body mount spacers now that the body is off of the chassis. Went easy on this. Just decided to screw some screws and through em up to paint. Just a few coats of spray paint, nothing fancy, nobody will even ever see them. And...

Time for chassis paint! Got the Rust Bullet and ready to go. I'm like a real Michelangelo! This stuff looks pretty good. I't's a little bit thicker than POR-15. Did the rear bumper, and it all seems to work fine. And finally did the chassis. Wow, what a difference.

Tore into the transmission. Oh boy, lots of questions and head scratching. The 2wd versions of the NV4500 are fixed yoke, and have no nut holding the 5th gear on the main shaft. So that will never be a problem. Looking carefully around the other side of the tail shaft area I notice some odd...

Yea, I have no idea how nothing got damaged. Older vehicles are just built better. ?‍♂️

Waiting for chassis to dry and such. Got plenty more to do. Ordered some new jack stands. I don't think the old ones are salvageable. While we wait, lets see what's in here. Ah, just as I suspected, an open differential. We'll have to remedy that with something a bit more fun! We can...

Well, hurricane season is coming to an end, but it got us this time... Wind was gusting, didn't think it was that bad, but was apparently bad enough. Blew the rig off the jack stands! Nobody got hurt, and the collapsing jack stands added cushion to the falling mass of metal. Only damage...

Haha, this rig ain't all that bad. I'm pretty sure it was just used as a delivery van for a bakery all it's life. But boy, the piles of rust and debris underneath is piling up on the driveway the more we clean and prep for paint. I can't wait until I get to sit inside the back and start...

Bumper is good, but we're thinking the van chassis could use some reinforcement. Welded up these diagonal brackets in hopes that it will stiffen up the bumper mounts, which are just 3/8" steel plate welded vertical to the chassis rails. And then it started raining, a lot. So good time to...

Lots of welding going on while we wait for chassis paint. Did a few cover passes to fix those booger welds. Little bit of reinforcement here. More welds there. Even a hot spicy one for good measure! And voila! Got ideas for a hitch receiver and I ran with it. Just had to weld in a...

To save the chassis from any further doom, we decided to clean and paint it. Ordered a product called Rust Bullet. Got 3 quarts and their cleaner they call metal prep. While we wait for paint to get here, lets give this rear bumper some attention. Pulling the rubber bumper condom off came...

The undercarriage carnage continues. The chassis between the shackles for the rear leaf springs was reinforced with smaller c-channel inset into the main chassis rails. Moisture got in there and did terrible things. Needle scaler and air chisel worked wonders on removing the flaking rust...

Haha, when I get in and under these old girls, I always hope for the best but plan for the worst. It seems the rust is only really bad around where the fuel tank is. Guess a lot of road crud got caked up in there and it never dried out and stuff. Curiosity drove me to dig deeper into this mess...

Ok, so the real work begins. Lets see what we got under this girls skirt... These wheels are super safe. They lug safety keepers! All jacked up and ready for work. One of the exhaust hangers is pretty rusty. That needs to come out and get painted. With all this out of the way, it will be...

More cleaning. Boy this thing was dirty! Years of grease and crud in on the cab floor. Power washer does great on the outside too. Looking from a distance, you really couldn't tell how dirty this thing was. Once clean, we made our first delivery! Because that's what you do when you own a...

Hmmm, not sure if she's ready for the open water. Tested her seaworthiness and found a good leak. Might be a deal breaker. Who wants to drive a canoe that leaks?