Introducing the Van-That-Can- 2000 E350 V10 EB Passenger Van

[desertspeed]

I got a lot more of the interior finished up and put back together this weekend- I am done with the Quiet Ride install except for the rear doors and trimming the holes for the seat mounts.

I am going to leave my opinions of the Quiet Ride kit until I drive it, but I will say that the installation process for a passenger version is very time consuming- I think that a cargo van would go much more quickly. Trimming all of the holes for mounting the interior panels was a huge pain in the *****. I am hoping that all of the work is worth it- I have about 3 full days into it.

I did pick up a new front carpet to replace my old vinyl floor, and a VanRug to go in the back. I laid out the VanRug to test fit it, and I have to say I am very impressed with the fit and quality- the only thing I had to do was trim around the rear A/C- other than that it fits perfectly.

 

[desertspeed]

I got the seat mounts done and the VanRug installed today.... huge improvement over the old floor.

 

[desertspeed]

Just goes to show you never know what you are going to find when you buy a used vehicle.......

I have noticed a loud "clunking" sound from the rear of the van whenever going over sharp bumps since I bought it- originally I thought it was my storage platform making noise before it was totally bolted down, and then I thought it might be the rear A/C hitting the side of the van.

That is until today.... while putting my headliner back in, I heard a weird sound coming from the panel above the rear doors. After playing around with it for a while tying to figure out what it was and how it got there, I got smart and pulled the thrid brake light off the back of the roof.....

And pulled this out:



It was left over from the hydraulic lift that was in the van when I bought it. Hard to see in the pic, but is is a 10-12" long piece of 1/4" steel with some blind nuts welded to it. It must weigh 2-3lbs, and was just clanging around inside the body every time I hit a bump. If the Quiet Ride kit doesn't make things better, at least removing this will :sombrero:

 

[bknudtsen]

Nice work! Looking forward to your driving impressions.

 

[CrabbyMcNab]

Great job, very clean install

 

[hobietony]

View attachment 153076

It was left over from the hydraulic lift that was in the van when I bought it. Hard to see in the pic, but is is a 10-12" long piece of 1/4" steel with some blind nuts welded to it. It must weigh 2-3lbs, and was just clanging around inside the body every time I hit a bump. If the Quiet Ride kit doesn't make things better, at least removing this will :sombrero:

Equal measures of "Ah-ha!" and "******?"

 

[desertspeed]

I was able to drive around the van a little yesterday, including a short trip on the freeway, and the reduction in road and engine noise is huge. I could easily hear my kids in the second row seat without them having to yell, and I could keep the stereo volume at a much lower level and still hear it clearly. Instead of a big jumble of rattles, echos, squeeks, humming, etc, I can clearly hear a couple of small rattles from individual trim pieces, which I will track down and fix.

The installation of the QuietRide kit was a lot of work, but I think it was worth it. As stated earlier, a cargo version would be way easier, and I think make an even bigger difference as I am still getting some road noise from the windows.

I can't recommend the VanRug enough- great quality, perfect fit, and it is thick enough that you could easily sleep on it without any addtional padding. The only downside it that because of the thickness, it makes putting on some of the trim pieces difficult- I am hoping over time that it will compress in those areas.

I aslo finished up a couple of small things on my storage platform and dropped it off for powdercoating- hopefully I will get it installed this weekend and post some pics- I ended up having 2 aluminum drawers made for my tools/spares/recovery stuff and I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

Once that is in I will be pretty much done with everything I wanted to do for the interior- I plan to finish up the 4WD conversion this summer.

 

[bknudtsen]

Good info, thx.

I shaved some of the foam off the back so that the side door footwell trim fit better.

 

[desertspeed]

Good info, thx.

I shaved some of the foam off the back so that the side door footwell trim fit better.

Yeah, the side footwell was the most difficult piece to get to fit- I think I will try removing some foam off the back as well- good tip

 

[desertspeed]

My wife and kids never liked the name "Van-That-Can", and came up with this....



I got everything back from powdercoating yesterday and started putting it all back together.

First is a rack I made for one of my xmas presents, a Trasharoo. Not having any bed to throw trash into while camping, a Trasharoo was a perfect solution. However, I don't plan on having my spare tire mounted on a rear rack, so I built this out of some 3/4" tubing I had laying around. I will probable figure out some way to mount bikes to it as well.









My single DIN stereo kept breaking the mounting kit since it wasn't supported very well- a double DIN fits much better. I also mounted my ScanGuage.

 

[desertspeed]

Some pics of the rear storage platform

 

[desertspeed]

Mounting and plumbing my air compressor, remote connector, and water container. The hole in the aluminum plate is for accessing one of the mounting bolts.







A/C compressor is mounted on rubber isolating spacers to keep the noise down.

 

[desertspeed]

These are the 2 storage draws I had built, on 250lb Accuride slides. During my last long Baja trip I realized that pulling a very heavy Action Packer loaded with all of my tools and spares/fluids in and out of the back every time I needed anything was a huge PITA. This was one of the main changes I wanted to make, and luckily I live about a mile away from one of the best aluminum fabricators in the country, www.crbalumifab.com

Curt has done all of the aluminum work on my prerunner, so I had him build 2 drawers for my tools, etc. They are built really strong, since I will have heavy tool bags bouncing around in them. They turned out amazing.

I still have not figured out a latching system yet, and the partitions in the drawers are not welded yet until I figure out how I am going to organize them.

 

[desertspeed]

Finally, I mounted a small shovel to the rack above the wheel well with 2 Quick Fists. It can accessed easily from the side barn doors, or from the rear.

 

[bknudtsen]

That powdercoat looks great! I like the addition of the drawers too. You've been busy!