InssssssssVANity!!!!!!!......or ****** did I just fly to Maine to by a Sprinter!

[Cole]

Either I have a tool fairy or I'm just getting old and can't remember things.:Wow1: Pretty sure I never bought this! Thought I must have borrowed it from my father in law, but he has his:coffeedrink:.

Oh well, I needed it today to cut the rear plastic side panels.

Originally the plastic was mounted behind the cargo rails. Which meant it needed these 4" holes in it so that you could reach through and install/remove the cargo rail, to then access the panel. I know lots of people use wood, but the stock plastic panels are already here. I just needed to make it so that the cargo rail blunted behind the plastic. This way I can upholster/carpet the plastic and mount it on the walls independent of the cargo rail. This will still allow it to haul stuff and I can secure things to the rail while still being able to remove a panel in the future.

 

[Cole]

I also tried out a little experiment I mentioned earlier in the thread. I tore up the seat cushion leftover from my VW Eurovan project that nobody wanted. I stuffed the chunks into this upper rail cavity.(manual expanding foam:coffeedrink It's totally enclosed except for these little access ports. It was pretty obvious while stuffing the rail with foam that this area harbors cold air from outside and acted like the open cavity on a guitar or drum. Not enough alone to insulate and sound deaden the van, but this rail now had a noticeably different sound when wrapped on than the rail on the other side. Once everything else is done these tiny mods might make a notable difference.

My buddy Chuck demanded I take these heated Audi S4 seats off his hands for $50:coffeedrink:.....seriously!

Since the Sprinter has fully adjustable heated seats already, I think these may find their way into the Eurovan.

 

[Kole]

Dang! $50? I can't even find used cloth seats from a kia around here for that price.

 

[Cole]

It was more of the friend, get it out it my house, type of deal!


I'm considering changing the single rear seat set up now to duals that surround a table(fronts on swivels). Which was my original plan, I just needed to get a single child seat set up done so we could drive the van around a bit to even see if it was going to work out.

 

[Jb1rd]

It was more of the friend, get it out it my house, type of deal!


I'm considering changing the single rear seat set up now to duals that surround a table(fronts on swivels). Which was my original plan, I just needed to get a single child seat set up done so we could drive the van around a bit to even see if it was going to work out.

Check out those Sienna seats they look amazing, and I would imagine you could fab up a mounting plate pretty easily, I think Chris @ UJoint makes them for the fords?

 

[Cole]

I've looked at them and it may still happen. There is a set for sale locally I might go look at.

 

[Cole]

The weather here just has not cooperated with my schedule lately.

I was able to finally make a bit of progress. Need to sort out some of the foundational work still. Working on heating and cooling now that I have the main climate controls working. Unfortunately the AC seems to need charged.


1. Installed a wire from the 7 day furnace timer to the furnace so that the timer will display diagnostic trouble codes. This wire is normally there but for some reason Dodge decided it should go to the "dodge tool only" port and not just display the codes on the timer.

Ran the single wire, tried to fire up the furnace and got a #30 error code showing that the Espar fan was stuck. Which lead me to #2.

#2. Removed the grill, headlight and furnace. (this heats the water using diesel fuel from the tank and then turns on the air vents and sends the heat to the cab). Took it out, took it apart. Fan was indeed "stuck". Broke the fan free, cleaned it, lubed it and reinstalled it. Furnace worked great for an hour or so until it tossed another code for the aux-coolant pump. I was pretty sure I was going to need one of these anyway since its a common trouble spot. Ordered a new one that should be here tomorrow.

#3 As much as I'm trying to keep this van on a tight (low) budget, there simply are things that are a must. One of those things is keeping my dogs and my daughter cool in the summer. I tried to find a good used camper vent with little luck. So I ponied up and bought a Maxxair Deluxe fan. It can be used in the rain or while the van is moving down the highway. More importantly it has a thermostat that can turn the fan on when the interior of the van reaches a pre programmed temp. Which means it will help keep the dogs cool if we have to leave them in the van sometimes.

I'm thinking of adding some floor vents that open/close so that the top vent can draw air through the van from the shaded underside. Anyone know of a good solution?

#4 I also finished installing all 12' of Yakima rack rails on the roof! This should be good for a cargo box, solar, etc.

I just can't seem to own a van without cutting big holes in the roof!! :coffeedrink:

My assistant screwing around!!:coffeedrink:

You can see the rails much easier this way!

Finished picture from today.

I didn't get it wired up yet. The fan has a minimum 1 1/8" install depth. So spacers need to be made. This was fine, by making a 1.5" frame the fan is now flush with the ceiling ribs. So when I insulate and install panels on the roof the fan will mount flush.

Time to have some sushi and a margarita!!!

Tomorrow I will probably install the craigslist dash speakers I picked up for $10:coffeedrink:

 

[mgmetalworks]

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...:coffeedrink:

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You drink a lot of coffee don't you? :sombrero:

 

[Cole]

You drink a lot of coffee don't you? :sombrero:

Life is about balance. I try to run a 1:1 coffee:margarita relationship.

..... No margarita emoticon!

 

[bknudtsen]

Life is about balance. I try to run a 1:1 coffee:margarita relationship.

..... No margarita emoticon!

Here's a pic. Not sure how to turn it into a smiley...

 

[Cole]

Sweet........

 

[Cole]

A little more work today.

-Installed the aux coolant pump. 10 min of work. Apparently it can be rebuilt with new brushes. So I think I will save the old one to maybe add another furnace/heater unit at the back later.

-Installed my $10 Craigslist speakers where the factory ones w ere trashed. Oddly, the passenger side had a 3.5" Kicker speaker in it that didn't fit the hole and wasn't even hooked up.

Sound great for the price!! (with a Toddler in the back I don't exactly get to turn it up the way I would like anyway)

Some of you may remember from the beginning of this thread that when I picked up the Sprinter none of the speakers were hooked up. I yanked the stereo out and wired in the two Bose home speakers that were hanging from the cargo divider, before even driving the van off the guys property in Maine. The stereo was barely installed and slides out of the dash. It also had a horribly hacked wiring job!!Why not just buy a $12 wiring adapter people????!!!

So I cleaned up the hack job wiring and properly secured the head unit today. The dash kit was scratched to hell so I covered it in some Ni-Doc Carbon Fiber Vinyl I had laying around from another project. Figured since the van already had a fakey carbon dash overlay I'm afraid to take off that this couldn't hurt.

Properly secured, wiring cleaned up, 4 speakers now. Will probably add some real speakers to the rest of the van when I find a deal.

Wired up the Maxxfan Deluxe, mounted the remote up front so we could control it while driving. Seems to work really well! One nice feature is the remote gives us the inside temp on the display!

Had an extra water bottle cage laying around so I added an extra water bottle holder to the side of the passenger seat.

 

[poriggity]

Im loving this build. Keep it up bro!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

 

[Jb1rd]

coming along nicely, the roof to roof photo shows just how much real estate opens up with the track system:Wow1:

 

[89s rule]

I look forward to your report on the Maxxfan deluxe. I have wondered if iit was a justifiable option instead of a higher model fantastic fan.