Black Betty Build

[AmberLamps]

Greetings from sunny Colorado!

So I joined this forum when I purchased my ambulance a bit over a year ago, however due to work and travel I hadn't gotten the chance to really start the work on it till recent pandemic events had me sitting at home with nothing but free time and most everything closed.

This thread will follow the build of "Black Betty" as she's currently been dubbed as I roll my sleeves up and get cracking on this project.

The plan has always been to eventually rent my house out (Denver) and spend a year or 3 living out of the ambulance while doing extensive traveling in North and South America.

Black Betty is a 2003 Ford E-450 7.3l turbo diesel "Wheeled Coach" ambulance that was used in California as a Long Beach Paramedic Rescue with the fire department and has 164k miles. Never officially decommissioned, it has all the working lights, sirens, and I even found a vial of adrenaline in it when cleaning it out...

I picked it up on eBay last winter around Xmas and drove it from LA to Denver and she rode like a dream!

Currently I am doing a full gutting of the interior box followed by a gutting of the cab. Holy wiring...

I WISH it was a 4x4, however I pulled the trigger on this one with the thought that I'm either going to sell it and then do it all over again with a 4x4 down the road, or I'll eventually bite the bullet and maybe do the UJOR conversion kit at which point, one way or another I'll have my 4x4.

Before pics - super clean, and the undercarriage is spotless!

And here is what has been transpiring over the past few days.

I picked up a large can of Goof Off to remove all the spray glue/stuck insulation however upon testing it last night with a rag it didn't work very well at all. Iay pick up some acetone to see if that's better.

Next on the list:
- Remove glue residue and clean/prep surface
- Install FatMat 50 mil (acoustic deadening) - 200sf on order
- Install closed cell aluminum sided insulation (large roll on hand)
- Install final insulation - either rockwool, thinsulate, or solid foam board...haven't decided yet.
- Install Espar D2 12v diesel heater (on order)
- Build kitchen counter and cabinets. Not sure what I'm going to construct the cabinetry out of yet, however for the countertop I have maple semi-truck trailer flooring and a copper sink. I still need to purchase all the tubing, fittings, water tanks, pump, water heater, etc.
- Flooring - I have extra engineered hardwood panels from when I redid the floors in the house. What I'm debating on is if I should remove/replace the plywood floor first, and if so, do I add a layer of insulation, or do I just use the suboor as is.
- LED lighting inside and out to replace original lighting.
- Install stereo system I salvaged from my Jeep that I sold

Further out:

- Solar
- Awning
- Replace driver and passenger seats (got something special for that)
- 4x4 conversion with lift
- Custom Fab bumpers
- Pop the top 18" OR integrate a rooftop sleeping system.

If anybody has a wiring diagram for a 2003 Ford E-450 7.3l Wheeled Coach - please message me!

Having a lot of fun reading up on everyone's builds and learning some good tips. Looking forward to the maiden voyage once she's had some real work accomplished!


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[TheRealPapaK]

Looks like a great start! I'm interested to follow along. Are you going to remove all the wirgin and start fresh just for what you need?

 

[AmberLamps]

Looks like a great start! I'm interested to follow along. Are you going to remove all the wirgin and start fresh just for what you need?

That's a good question. It has multiple amplifiers for things like flashers, tubing for oxygen, the sirens, radios... It's a question of is ridding the extra weight and space worth the headache of chasing wires and potentially causing more issues as some systems may be tied together. It actually reminds me of my days in the Air Force working on cargo aircraft avionics...it's been awhile, but I'm sure I'd make progress if I set myself to the task.


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[Abitibi]

Looking great so far, glad to see you gutting it instead of just trying to work around the existing cabinets. It will give you so much more options!

Try using brake cleaner for the glue, worked great on the outside stickers for mine. But do you really need to remove that glue if you're likely to recover it all anyway? As for the electrical, I've done both ways. On my 1st one I tried saving/recycling as many "circuits" as possible while removing whatever I didn't need. Worked ok but turned out to be more complicated. On my next one I removed everything except for the outside operating lights/signal/brakes & door locks. Basically I only kept what I needed to drive it. I saved all the wires and re-use them as I go along. Makes it way easier to work and to chase issues if they arise. None of the wires going to the box affected the original Ford harness except for what I listed above.

What are your plans for the interior? You got a big box on that ambo, should give you so much room to work with!

Cheers
David

 

[AmberLamps]

David,

Thanks for the input. You're right about the glue, it's never going to be seen again unless someone decides to fully gut and rip out all of the soon to be new insulation in the future...more just a personal think and wanting the cleanest surfaces and prep work to begin. If acetone or brake cleaner doesn't do the job easily and quicky I'll forego that part. I have a couple welders, just a lack of 240v outlets at home so I'm still debating how much wood framing vs aluminum framing I want to work with in the interior design.

I have been tossing around whether I should keep the existing, well built 3/4" plywood cabinetry and just do minimal modifications for a sink, fridge, shower, bed and composting toilet...to save on time and money, however nothing I found or could come up with felt like the right fit. Once I started taking some stuff apart and noticing how much extra space there is that is just wasted, I knew I'd have to fully gut it and start over.

I read on someone's post about a week ago how they'd finally just gutted all the wiring from the cab to the rear box, and that the mil spec connectors where it all tied into was labeled well enough they just ran everything needed back from there. I've been using a label maker to label every connection that isn't specific and am planning on doing something similar. There is SO MUCH wiring, amplifiers, circuit boards etc for just the flashers alone, and neat as they are it's something that would be used so rarely that it's not worth keeping all the excess mess and weight. I've taken some more photos from last night as I was thinking to myself "what have I gotten myself into..."

Anyone familiar with the Denver area know where you can rent cheap shop space temporarily? That roof is getting raised one way or another...

Took a little break from the rear box and tore into the cab a bit. A pain in the ass removing the driver seat due to space constrictions caused by so much wiring but finally got it done. Marley is the assistant looking in on the progress.

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[Abitibi]

Wow, they sure crammed a lot of wiring under your seat! From what I can see, mostly to do with dual battery setup.

If as you said you're re-insulating then don't even waste your time cleaning the glue. I like solid foam or Roxul myself and both will just squeeze between the ribs.

As for framing aluminum cabinets, complicated and $$$ for the results. Just some good 1/2" multiply plywood will be light and strong. But different is good so go add you seem fit

Now is the time to properly insulated your front cab (heat & noise), go crazy, lol

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[Bikersmurf]

Seeing your progress makes me wish I had more time. I’m happy with my build using existing cabinets. I would still like to replace the plastic inner panels on the passenger side that were damaged by the POs.

I’ll be following along with you build, as with Abitibi, to see what you do.

Insulating the cab is also on my wish list... you’d be surprised how much hotter the cab will get than the box. Unfortunately there’s little that can be done about the window area... but the roof and doors are a different story.

 

[AmberLamps]

I actually opened up the box side door and one of the cargo doors to see what the insulation was like and it had a ton of space that was just opened and unfilled on both. These will be taken care of at the same time as the box interior. I am still debating on if I want to spend the $$ on putting MLV in yet, either just in the cab, or throughout the box as well for the added sound barrier.

I'm still in the process of tearing the last bit of interior out, that being the cab floormat and insulation and the divider wall. The wiring is taking up a huge amount of time as I slowly untangle and remove wire by wire. I've been using my label maker for all of the disconnections to make it easier should I need to reinstall anything.

Now for the wiring I have hit a bit of a time stealing snag, as I've gotten most of the major wiring removed that can be, yet there is a major grouping of these wires that go through the floor and split from there mainly up into the front for the flashers I believe. There's a second grouping that is mainly grounds that goes through the floor in a second spot.

Getting onto the roof to look at how the antennas were installed I got a little surprise - the old painted over stickers from it's previous life. "LONG BEACH FIRE BLS16"

On the front grill it has a little Fire District 9 emblem...pretty neat.

The going is slow and exceptionally dirty. I had 200sf of Fatmat arrive today, going to see how far that goes once I have the wiring more in order.

Question - where is the rear AC/Heat freon tank / shutoff valve located? 2003 E450 Wheeled Coach.

Having fun doing the work as it's been beautiful and sunny here in Denver. I'll give another update once I make a little more progress.


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[Aunt Yaya]

LOVE what you're doing and VERY impressed- jeepers, those wires~egads!!! We're in Denver and working on scoring a rig to follow suit! Would be happy to assist you some to learn, if that would be helpful!

 

[AmberLamps]

Ok so I have a question. Is there some kind of OEM anti-theft or starter disconnect that comes on 2003 E450 Wheeled Coaches? Maybe a known fix for when you disconnect all the batteries for a time and then reconnect them but it won't start? All the lights come on the dash when I turn the key, batt says 12v with fluke but it won't even attempt to turn over or start. I've reconnected 90% of the rear box wiring, leaving out the two amplifiers and wiring for the flashers. It's a temp fix as I'm moving the rig to another location to work on it so just trying to get it to start up at this point.

It has 2 batteries (I've found) - main one under hood and secondary behind passenger in exterior cargo bay. I've tried starting it both with and without the secondary connected.

From my understanding, the majority of the wiring in the box shouldn't interfere much with ignition?


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[AmberLamps]

LOVE what you're doing and VERY impressed- jeepers, those wires~egads!!! We're in Denver and working on scoring a rig to follow suit! Would be happy to assist you some to learn, if that would be helpful!

Haha well at some point you'd be more than welcome to come see it but trust me, the current wiring situation is better left unseen to those not already involved! Right now I'm getting ready to head to Florida with the GF so we can see her family while we work on it...and maybe put her brothers to work a few weekends.

My neighbors down the street have a 4x4 ambo they bought after talking to me one day when I returned from camping, and just this weekend while coming back from Salida area camping, I saw a green ambulance with a white top driving towards the mountains...seems Denver has a growing following!


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[Bikersmurf]

Did you figure out the starting issue?


I don't know Wheeled Coach, but on my '97 E350 with a 7.3 there is a starter relay mounted to the fender behind the right headlight. The wire between that relay and the solenoid on the started was damaged on mine... I'm sure it was the source of some of my mysterious intermittent starting issues that haven't recurred since I replaced it.

 

[AmberLamps]

Did you figure out the starting issue?


I don't know Wheeled Coach, but on my '97 E350 with a 7.3 there is a starter relay mounted to the fender behind the right headlight. The wire between that relay and the solenoid on the started was damaged on mine... I'm sure it was the source of some of my mysterious intermittent starting issues that haven't recurred since I replaced it.

I searched for a starter relay but wasn’t successful in finding anything. It ended up being a combination of a bad starter and just really bad battery terminal connections. Even though it would power up when turning the key, the connection wasn’t allowing the starter to get enough juice to crank apparently.

What I hadn’t taken into consideration - is the vehicle hadn’t been started since I’d removed the rear box ACHU. I’d had to cut the rear tubes as they were essentially cemented onto the fittings and wouldn’t twist off after removing the lock rings. What I hadn’t done, is figure out what needed to be done to those tubes prior to starting and driving it. There is a secondary radiator under the chassis on the driver side midway back. I thought this was a separate radiator for the ACHU and once disconnected wouldn’t operate, however it turns out the main engine radiator feeds both this secondary radiator as well as the ACHU directly. The result was a shower of steaming antifreeze fluid spraying from the rear passenger side upper corner all over the immediate interior area of the rear side doorway and where the exterior storage opens into as that cabinet was removed.

Since the ACHU was removed, the plan as a temp fix for now is to get an adapter tomorrow and just run the intake/return into each other vs it running through the ACHU radiator. Once I’m in Florida I’ll see about removing what’s not necessary in regards to the extra radiator tubing, or taking advantage of it being in that location if there’s anything I could use it for...

Currently I have the following parts on hand to install:

- Engineered Sequoi Wood flooring - it’s the extra from when I had my house done about 5 years ago and I have 3 boxes...more than enough for the Ambo.

- Dometic 95x Fridge/freezer

- Maxxair vent roof fans w therm and remote (2)

- Nature’s Head composting toilet

- Class 4 trailer hitch

- Eccotemp L5 LPG water heater

- Ramblewood 2-Burner stove

- 200sf Fatmat

- 100sf MLV

- 100sf closed cell insulation/vapor barrier

- 24’ Reclaimed maple flooring from semi truck (countertop material)

- Deep copper sink with copper faucet

I need to purchase the actual insulation for the interior still and will do that next. I have been debating what I’ll use. It’ll likely be a mix of both foam board and loose insulation to best get all the crevices as much of it is flat/square spaces to fill.

I have an Espar D2 diesel heater on order, however it turns out it was shipped from Russia, and the last postage update was April 29th when it departed Russia. I’m afraid I may miss it before leaving for a few weeks to work on the Ambo elsewhere, so that may not get installed until July (if it arrives).


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[AmberLamps]

Finally made it down to Florida. Had an array of electrical bugs, obviously due to me removing so much of the mess. All said and done, I ended up picking up an old military M200A1 trailer and used it as my motorcycle trailer. Future use will have toolboxes built for it.

It came with a 10” homemade tow hitch with a pintle hook. When connected, this had it sitting about 6.75” too low, however it towed home fine.

As I’d promised my girlfriends brothers that I would wait on the buildout until I got to Florida, I focused on what was needed for the trailer and other items of importance recently. I had to build a tow hitch that was capable of towing this 2.5 ton axle trailer with anything I could throw at it. What I came up with was a little sketch of what I considered a suitable replacement.

I ended up going to a scrap metal yard and picked up some 1/4” x 6” for gussets and 5/8” x 4.5” steel for the main plate. A stop at a trailer store netted me a 12” 2” square solid steel hitch shank. All said and done it was $50 in parts.

Sanded down and pained the pintle hook, welded everything together and painted it all enamel black. Fitted it up with new 1/2” hardware to attach the hook. This raised the trailer to pretty close to level, and with the motorcycle on it, it towed incredibly stable and straight the entire 2200 mile drive to Florida. I strapped the bike down over the tires/wheels with 4 10k straps and used a pre-made motorcycle tire chock I bolted to the bed of the trailer.

This brings us to present moment. I brought a bunch of my tools and parts with me and have a garage for my use as shop. Unfortunately, it’s not tall enough to park in, so I’m still looking at options for raising the roof. I’ve found this place you can rent a space by the hour and day www.garageyourself.com that charges $25/hour up to $200/day and max $750/week. Trying to crunch the numbers and see what the costs of materials and rental would be vs asking a shop to just fabricate what I want. I’d much rather do the work, however time is an issue.

The other issues are the electrical. The gremlins have been busy and I’m trying to get ahold of the service department at www.revgroup.com as they are who did the Wheeled Coach conversions. Hopefully they’ll still have the wiring schematics or some information if I give them the VIN.

If anyone knows of cheap warehouse/tall garage spaces for temporary rental in South Florida I’m open for options!


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