2006 118" Sprinter Conversion

[PaulJensen]

I was contacted by Tyler about a month ago about helping him with a conversion of a recently acquired 2006 118" Freightliner Sprinter... Now that we are back from a 21 day road trip in our Sprinter, the timing was perfect to take on the project...

(above) Tyler bought the van from a city in Florida who didn't need it any more... The body is in great shape with some minor repaint issues that won't matter once it gets repainted after I'm done with the interior... It's going to be eventually coated in black bed-liner...

(above) Windows all around... They will be all replaced with ventilating sliders prior to the exterior re-paint...

(above) A very good interior to start with... Clean and not beat up... Before insulating, it will get a rattle-can black bed-liner paint job... This one is going to be different...

(above) I found a scale drawing of a prior 118" conversion and traced over it to have a fresh floor plan to start with... I'll fill it in with components and built-ins later...

(above) Passenger side elevation...

(above) Driver side elevation...

(above) The list of things to do...

 

[Vandit]

Paul, you're back with another van build! Awesome! I so enjoyed your past build threads packed with tons of great ideas and superb craftsmanship. Looking forward to this new one!

 

[1leglance]

Excellent new stuff from Paul, thanks for taking the extra time to document and post, it really does help us lesser folks

 

[PaulJensen]

Before anything changes in the van, I penciled out an electric plan...

(above) Oops, one wire is missing... Enough there to go shopping, but not enough to get confusing...

 

[PaulJensen]

(above) After cleaning the exposed metal that would painted, I put on a preliminary coat of oil based Flat Black paint...

(above) The roof ribs with their first coat of paint...

(above) Next the exterior walls were sound deadened with 3/8" thick interlocking rubber flooring... For the walls a general purpose, water based, trowel-able adhesive works fine...

(above) For the ceiling, I use a solvent based contact cement...

(above) The front cabin ceiling is done and the rear cabin has the starter strips in place...

 

[luthj]

Interesting materials. Thanks for posting.

Did you take a look at the roof seams? I am seeing the telltail rust signs of leaking seam sealer...

 

[PaulJensen]

Good eye... Yes, the rust is being encapsulated with two coats of epoxy... There is one already on there in the pictures

 

[luthj]

Cool, I have found that some 90% of the T1Ns I look at. need the roof seams ground out and resealed from the roof side. Just a gift from Mercedes.

 

[PaulJensen]

Progress has continued inside the rear cabin... It's been mostly a lot of electrical pre-wiring... Shore power, heavy battery cables, standard 12 volt DC... The basics, un-sexy but essential...

(above) With the wiring in place, the insulation could be finished...

(above) Over the foam glued to the steel skin, fiberglass insulation was stuffed into the remaining gaps...

(above) Over the fiberglass, a layer of Reflectix is taped in place...

(above) Ready for wall plywood...

(above) 1/4" plywood is screwed to the metal rear cabin...

(above) Feels good to finally be a carpenter again...

More later...

 

[PaulJensen]

(above) The starting point for the casework is the bed support cabinets... As much as possible, I'll use 1/2" Radiata Pine ply for the lower cabinets...

(above) Same passenger side cabinet, next to the sliding door...

(above) Driver side cabinet... Tomorrow I'll build the cabinet that will be next to the he bed support case that will hold the slide out fridge, and the sink and faucet, maybe the stove too...

(above) The water storage tank will be a ten gallon stainless steel Jerry Can... That, will fit in the cabinet notch out...

(above) An aluminum ATV loading ramp is the starting point for the bed support... It will need filler pieces of 1/8" plywood for more even mattress support...

(above) Still more to do, but today was a good start...

 

[PaulJensen]

(above) The Dometic 38L fridge came yesterday... Today, the first thing I did was build the pull-out box...

(above) 1/2" plywood, with every opening maintaining full access...

(above) The pull-out box will be mounted to the cabinet with 500# drawer slides that will allow it to double as a seat...

(above) Just before lunch, as I was finishing the fridge box, the Camp Chef stove/oven combo arrived, as did the sink... Going to get a lot done today... As you can see, the fridge and the stove/oven fill the limited space available... Fitting all of this and the bed into eight lineal feet is a challenge... I like a challenge...

(above) The sink will be mounted to the far side, to maximize the already limited countertop area... That will allow the drawer underneath to be as big as possible for maximum storage under the sink...

(above) The Camp Chef stove/oven is a luxury item... You give up a lot of space, but you get an awesome kitchen appliance... Fortunately, the wind-screen-top-cover can double as a prep area... I will probably supplement the top with a piece of 1/4" PaperStone to increase it's usability... Underneath will be the propane tank locker, sealed, vented, done right... In this photo you can also see the Renogy 40 amp battery to battery charger mounted to the driver seat base...

(above) Looking forward from the rear, you can see the empty space behind the stove/oven that will be part of the continuous stainless steel countertop... You can also visualize the fridge fully extended to double as a seat...

(above) End of the day, the bed support is put back in and you really can see how small an area there is in a 118" wheelbase Sprinter... Cozy...

 

[PaulJensen]

(above) 1/2" Radiata Pine plywood for the cabinet face... 1/2" ply for the countertop base...

(above) When I saw this on the 4x8 plywood sheet I knew THIS had to be some kind of focal point... Later all the wood gets a jet black wood stain... Should be interesting...

(above) Got a real good start on the upper cabinets... All the major parts were cut to size, rabbetted, the doors were cut out of the front panels, and it was all was rough fitted on both sides of the rear cabin... The rear faces of the cabinets will get 6x9 speakers... The underside of the cabinets will get flush-fit LED lights, on a dimmer...

(above) Up front, a filler panel to support the countertop was drilled for maximum oven ventilation and the fuse panel was placed, as was the 120vAC shore power outlet box... I might put a low voltage fan in the hole...???...

More later...

 

[PaulJensen]

(above) With the casework mostly complete, painting the interior satin black was next... Up front, after running the power and speaker wiring (major work, with the radio installed up front in an extremely tight dashboard area, and will be powered from the battery under the passenger seat, and the amp & subwoofer are to be installed on the headliner shelf), the headliner and custom shelf were installed... The headliner over the shelf was painted black with a roller... It took a lot of work to get it to this point... The sound system will be awesome, but getting it all to fit was challenging...

(above) The plywood interior of the cabinets has been painted gloss-white... The fridge slider, black... The propane locker is built awaiting the gasketed door...There is a 1"PVC pipe though the floor to vent the propane locker, in the unlikely event of a propane leak... More on that later...

BTW: There is the upper wall cabinet in the picture...

(above) Starting point for putting the front end together... Yeah, all that had to come out...

(above) Raise your hand if you think this is going to be fun...???... OK, you do it...

(above) The disintegrated like butterfly wings-factory speakers were thrown out and these 4" Kickers are the replacement... To join the unequal gauge speaker wires I like to use these screw-down connectors...

(above) For fixing the speaker to the opening, clear 'Quad' brand sealant is used... Flexible, can take heat and cold, and guaranteed rattle free...

(above) Over on the passenger side... On all of the speakers, front, mid, and rear, 10 gauge wire runs from the amp to the speakers... I read somewhere, that's a good thing...

(above) To get the loom of wires to fit, a strip if the plastic sub-dashboard was cut out... Did I say this was fun...???.... Next up (and done now) figure out the wiring schemes of the Sprinter and Pioneer radio, and marry it to the wiring to-and-from the amp, and sub-woofer... Had to go online a few times to sort out what's what... With that info, it was straight-forward making the connections, but time consuming... Two days of running wires, trimming, making connections, and pushing wires into tight places that hopefully let the radio fit, doesn't really show prominently in progress photos... Oh well, it's done now... I was so focused on getting this phase done and finished before the end of the day (with multiple interruptions, grrrr....) I forgot to take any more pictures of the connections...More photos of that later, maybe...

Next up, finishing the rear cabin... Let the fun resume..!!!...

 

[PaulJensen]

(above) It fits... Waiting for an antenna adapter before testing it and finalize the plastic re-assembly...

(above) The foil tape covered bundle is wiring to and from the amp mounted on the headliner shelf... The foam pillar 'thing' had to be trimmed to get it to fit... Might need more trimming still... It's big...

(above) Been wanting to get this mounted to the roof for a while... Roof fan mounting base... 1/2" plywood, fiberglassed on the underside, then Quad sealant, with screws to the roof... Next, it gets epoxy and fiberglass on the outside... The inner metal gets cut out later...

(above) Next on the list: Stainless steel onto plywood... Weldwood contact cement does the job...

(above) The sink / stove stainless glued down...

(above) Cut-outs done and fixtures rough fit... Don't try this without knowing what you're doing... Stainless steel is HARD, even the thin stuff...

(above) Time to empty some boxes in the shop... Kicker 6x9's in the upper rear cabinet next to the doors... Say BOOM...

(above) The flush mount LED lighting is installed... Press-fit springs on the lights hold them in place... I supplemented that with an interior ring of Quad sealant filling the light / fan hole... Won't drop down...

(above) Front headliner 5" Kickers...

(above) Next to the side sliding door: 12 volt DC and 120 volt AC outlets...

Above that will be a 42" long drawer with undermount 135# drawer slides... Easiest way to get storage access from that space...

More later...

 

[PaulJensen]

(above) Got an early start and insulated the rear doors and the sliding side door...

(above) Waiting to put the panels on, but first I need to make the drop down table that will be on this passenger side door...

(above) Inside, the upper cabinet doors were installed...

(above) Passenger side... More details on how these work later...

(above) Passenger side, lower cabinet, at the rear doors... Latches yet to be installed...

(above) Driver side, lower rear cabinet... Ventilation fan installed... Will be switched on when the propane supply solenoid switch is turned on... There is a matching fan up front... Air flow goes from rear to front... Also a USB outlet is on the face of the edge... You can see the water tank at the bottom... 10 gallon, stainless steel...

(above) Looking down...

(above) Water pump mounted to a mounting block, glued and screwed to the underlying steel frame... The white hose is the drain from the sink... It exits through the driver side wheel well, with the vertical drop just in front of the tire, if you want to capture the drain-water in a bucket...