03 Express 2500 AWD - FerVANdo

[christ0pher_m]

I havent posted a lot in the 6 years I’ve been lurking on these forums, but have followed so many trips and build threads, used so many ideas for my past and present vehicles I’m glad to have such a resource. Now that we’ve got the full van build bug, it feels like time to share and ask questions as we go.

How we got here - A spur of the moment camping trip to Acadia NP in early Aug showed while being a comfortable ride and great on gas, my daily commuter Altima wasn’t cut out to be a comfortable camper. We thought about taking our 99 Yukon, but he’s tired and a 7 hour trip was more of adventure than we were probably up for. My wife thought we wanted a RV, but as luck would have it, one wandered in to the tent camping area of the campground we were in, and seeing it take 6 people with flashlights a good 45 minutes to get him turned around, it proved my point that the space wasn’t worth the hassle while traveling. On the way back, I heard the magic words, “how about a van”, I thought of the Sportsmobile pictures I’d seen here thought that would be perfect. When we got back, I showed her the pictures and I heard more magic words, “ I like the vans with the bigger tires”. Then we started looking at the prices of the used Sportsmobiles and 4x4 vans in general, and those hopes faded fast. But then I found the AWD GM build and info threads here and got excited, we live in New England, how hard could it be to find a AWD cargo van?

Van hunt - We found 2 likely candidates not far up in VT to look at the next weekend, I emailed about one and found it was already sold, the other one we just went to take a look. It was still there, but just being prepped for it’s new owner, the sales guy laughed and said if we found another AWD in nice shape to get out the checkbook, be prepared to pay and do it fast. We returned home thinking this was going to be harder than we thought, especially since my wife had a business trip up to Northern NY the next weekend, so we wouldn’t get to look a any more local vans for a week. That’s when she had the idea to look at Craigslist up there, then we saw it, a AWD express, but not just any AWD express, a 2500 with a pop-top installed. I called them Monday morning first thing with a deposit, the guy on the other end was so nice, that I had to insist on the deposit to hold it, he sounded willing to hold it without, but I knew it was only a matter of time before the rest of the van hunters closed in, 2 days later my wife saw it on the Sportsmobile forum, with a mention it was seen here:

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/80916-FOUND-Vans-For-Sale!?p=2153443#post2153443

I spent the rest of the week checking in with Pete at Twin Work Vans, I have to take a minute to say how great the whole experience was working them. We ended up agreeing on a price and them saying it would be all ready for us Saturday at 10, having dealt with used car dealers before, I was cautious, especially going 6.5 hours away to pick it up sight unseen. But they were as good as they seemed, Tony “Twin” himself was waiting with the keys and a plate for a test drive. Less than an hour later we were on the road back to our hotel 2 hours away in Syracuse, it performed perfectly and we made it safe and sound.



More to come, less words more pictures, I promise.

 

[christ0pher_m]

On Sunday morning we packed up and drove home the remaining 4.5 hours. Once home we dug in, cleaning it out and getting a real good look at what we are getting in to.




The good:
The canvas and top are in great condition. I was expecting to have to do some work there. I was also surprised (and happy) to see it is a real Sportsmobile top, I was picturing something pieced together by the previous owner.
Tires are in great shape, look brand new. They are already 265s.
It already has a house battery with a Sure Power isolator.
It has cruise control installed.
The floor and body panels don’t have any real rust to speak of.

The not so good:
As pointed out in the vans for sale thread, northern NY is a rusty place, he’s rusty underneath, but worth saving. Already put a order in with Eastwood for a gallon of the “rust encapsulator” and a couple cans of the internal frame coating. I also spoke to a local place that does fluid film undercoating, we may throw that in for good measure.
The shiny chrome wheels are actually wheel covers, I didn’t even know that was a thing anymore.

So day two wrap up, went from this:



To this:

 

[Pinnacle Campers]

I had seen this on one of the "found vans" threads.
Nice score, I was wondering what the curtains/previous use was?
Mobile dressing room....?

 

[christ0pher_m]

The next week I filled the holes from the old broken battery box hold downs with JB weld, put a good coat of paint over the floor and replaced the battery box with a new one. Also spent the week reading everything we could find on insulation, who knew that was such a matter of debate? Finally it was settled by a friend that had some unused pink foam board, we’ll put that up, cover with reflectix and call it good.

I got up early Saturday to take the van in for the state inspection, things started bad as there was a awful squealing when he first started, but it smoothed out before I got to there. But then my day got worse, although the steering felt fine to me, the inspection guy thought there was too much play.



This is where the Twin Work Van folks came up big again, even though I’m 6.5 hours away, and there is now way I’m returning the van, I called them up, explained what happened and they took care of the bill for new inner tie rod ends.

After that we started the insulation. 3/8 foam board, with the sticky foil backed duct insulation over the wheel wells, I couldn’t find the thread I borrowed that from but thank you to who that was.



That’s where it sits now, I’m waiting on the rust coating and a new belt tensioner. Next up is subfloor, decide on floor plan and wiring.

 

[christ0pher_m]

I had seen this on one of the "found vans" threads.
Nice score, I was wondering what the curtains/previous use was?
Mobile dressing room....?

I think that's going to be one of life's great mysteries, along with the 3 coax outlets and 3 paper towel holders.

 

[christ0pher_m]

Updates. Installed new belt tensioner, annoying squeal noise is gone. Also had the check engine light come on again, Scangauge said it was PO137. Suspect bad O2 sensor, replaced that but since I cleared the code, I'm getting a "not ready" obd code, so still can't get a new inspection sticker till it resets. Been reading up on drive cycles, but still haven't managed to get it to get all it's checks done, anyone know a shortcut?

Interior is coming together, walls are some kind of thin white plastic Home Depot had in 4x8 sheets, we did most of the cutting with scissors and just stuck it up between the braces on top of the insulation with spray adhesive. Floor is 3/8 foam covered with 1/2 plywood and peel and stick tiles.



Also started attacking the rust, haven't finished painting it all and was too covered in "rust encapsulator" to take pictures of the progress, but here is the before picture.

 

[naterry]

Thank you for not calling it Alivandro. :costumed-smiley-007