My new 2014 e350 eb 4x4 named "big red"

[gh0ztkid21]

So it all started with my first 07 e150 2wd van. After a year of use for fishing and camping, I got stuck on an island that could have cost me 1500$ for a tow. After that moment I went 4wd and never looked back. I bought my 05 e350 diesel quigley van and the easy cheap build began. After 100k miles on the 6.0 with no issues it was time for one last upgrade as ford was doing away with the econoline van as we know it.

That's when "big red" found me. I was searching for about a years time to find a brand new van that I was going to have built through ford with the quigley conversion. I wanted the v10 engine, 2013 or 2014 with no miles virgin van. Well v10 were impossible to find when I was looking throughout the end of 2014 and beginning of 2015 and when I started to decide on just going with the v8 engine I saw big red on Craigslist. Called the seller down in Maryland and within the week I had picked it up and drove it home (and for a bargain)

2014 ford e350 EB quigley v8. Factory 5 year warranty with extended 3 year warranty.

Had fox 2.0 shocks all around, fox steering stabilizer, rigid industries light bar in the stock bumper, aftermarket rigid industries headlights, pioneer nex 5000 DVD head unit, pioneer speakers all around and 5 brand new rims and tires.

Plans for big red include insulation all around, walls ceiling and floor, swivel passanger seat(and possible driver seat) gaucho bed from sportsmobile and possibly a pop top in the future. I like an open floor plan and being able to walk from front to back. My old van had the 3 seater behind the driver and passanger seat which I hated on rainy or cold nights when I wanted to go strait to bed. I would have to jump out run around back and jump into my bed. I am 6'3" so I need a long enough bed for me, and wide enough to sleep myself and sometimes my gf. i like to work out of totes. I have my fishing stuff for surf fishing in one tote, dry clothes in another, then camping gear in a 3rd and hunting gear in a 4th. I can pop one tote in and be on the road for whatever trip I am doing. This leaving the van open for moving stuff, materials for the house so on and so forth. Also the rod rack on the ceiling to store my 12ft surf rods and my 10ft fly rods.



The day big red arrived home

 

[gh0ztkid21]

After working out the kinks in my first van, this is an interior I found that I wanted to base big reds build after.

I wanted the walls to have marine grade vinyl on the walls instead of carpet so they could be wiped down if need be, and wouldn't hold dust or sand or moisture. I originally shopped around trying to find someone to do what I wanted since I didn't have the time to, but ultimately ended up doing it myself since I couldn't find anyone on the northeast coast and sportsmobile north wouldn't do a build like that. They could only offer a paneling kit of carpet for 1500$ that is what the wise industries cargo liner kit is. So for 900$ I bought the wise industries kit and began my build.

The van came with metal shelves and a partition in the back that was through bolted to the floor in about 12 spots. So after removing the shelving and selling it for 600$ I got myself some putty that turns to "steel" and plugged all the holes. Wire wheeled, plugged, primed and painted.



After all that was taken care of I removed the spare tire carrier under the van since I didn't have a use for it anymore, washed the already clean undercarriage and then began to spray duplicolor undercoating on the whole undercarriage. This stuff says its dry in 15-30min for more coats and drys in 24+ hours. Well mine didn't fully cure for about a week(maybe it's bc how many coats I went with. It's thick) but when it did eventually dry it's actually hard like ceramic. It's been 11k miles and no chips taken out of it yet.



And that's about as far as I got in the first week of owning big red.

 

[gh0ztkid21]

Not sure why it double posted some of the pictures where I didn't insert them but this is my first time actually posting pictures and detailed write ups so bare with me.

 

[gh0ztkid21]

After the whole undercarriage was complete I started with the fatmatt 80mil sound deadener. I know it was overkill But I decided I wanted to cover every inch of the sheet metal with it. It adheres very well to the sheet metal and doesn't leave any air pockets or voids to allow condensation to form. I started with the van floor and got I done in a few hours. Then everything came to a vault since spring run was starting and the stripers were running. Fishing started and went throughout the whole summer. Fished the whole northeast up to Massachusetts and the van build got put on hold. It was deathly hot at times just having sheet metal walls. I cooked many of days trying to sleep since I fish all night long.

 

[gh0ztkid21]

The summer came to an end and I was dragging *** on finishing my van. After work I would install some fatmatt trying to finish the walls and ceiling but it was taking forever only working 30minutes to 1hour a day after work. I though it would never be over and that I would never finish it. So what did I do to push myself along? Decided to order the wise industries cargo liner kit.

I completely stripped the interior of the front seats, dog house, front factory flooring and the front cab factory ceiling.
I then fatmatt 80mil the whole interior which was over kill but it adheres directly to the van metal tight and doesn't allow moisture to form against the van walls or floor. then I went over it with a layer of tempshield double bubble spray adhered with 3m 90 adhesive tight to the fatmatt. On top of that I put a loose layer of the same tempshield double bubble which is adhered at the top and pinched under the floor at the bottom this allowing a 1-3" air gap between the 2 layers of tempshield.

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[pugslyyy]

How many square feet of fatmat did it take? Looks really good!

 

[gh0ztkid21]

Idk why my last set of images showed up as text and not pictures but oh well. I will continue my write up tomorrow. Good night everyone

 

[gh0ztkid21]

How many square feet of fatmat did it take? Looks really good!

Thank you, I ordered 6 rolls. I started with the 3 roll bundle from Amazon That was 150sq feet and that did the whole entire floor and ceiling. I then decided to order another 3 rolls of 150sq feet bc I didn't know how far it would go, and for the package price of getting it cheaper I decided to just get the 3. I also purchased it when it was on sale it was 20 or 25% off. I ended up using another roll and a half and still have a roll and a half left over. I did the whole van floor, even wrapped it around the edge of the van into the dog house, and down into all of the door steps(when the plastic step was removed) and only left the bottom undone so that any water that would collect on top of the fatmat would run down and into the step area and I could pull the drain plugs and drain any water out (in theory if it were to every happen, but it would never happen)

 

[gh0ztkid21]

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The floor I put 1/4" foam insulation that I bought from Home Depot just to add a little something and to fill any possible air gaps between the fatmatt and plywood and then I added 2 layers of plywood. I wanted a one piece floating floor. I did not want to glue it down and did not want to screw it through the floor. So I ended up buying 1/4" plywood and 1/2" plywood. I laid the 1/2" plywood out on the ground, and put the stock factory cargo floor and laid it on top of the plywood. I traced the floor onto the plywood and then cut it out. I had 3 total pieces of plywood, one 8x4 from the passenger seat back and from the passenger side wall to the center of the van. Then one 8x2 from the driver seat back and from the driver wall to the center. I then had a remaining 4x6 piece that went from driver to passenger side, and from the end of the plywood to the rear of the van. That was fit and laid in place on top of the 1/4" insulation board. I then took the 1/4" plywood and did the same thing except I flipped the pattern and over lapped all 3 joints and screwed the 2 layers of plywood together with 3/4" flat head screws ultametly making one solid sheet of plywood. I then ripped 2x4 and jammed it between the plywood and that metal lip around the bottom of the van and screwed it through the metal flange, through the 2x4 and into the plywood. After driving around and purposely going over speed bumps and a quick Offroad trip with nothing in the rear to see if the floor would "hop" I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't budge at all. Didn't hop or lift at all.

After the floor was in and complete i then finished off the interior with the wise industries cargo liner kit. I installed the ceiling first, then the wheel well covers and lastly the walls. I did have to trim about 3/4" -1" off the walls because of the added thickness of the ceiling and floor, but with brand new razor blades it was a breeze.

So far I have been on 5 seperate trips back to back rainy weekdays and nice weekends mixed in the van. The Van is noticeably cooler/warmer when needed. Fridged nor'easter nights blowing 44+kt winds at 25degree fishing Montauk NY and had to crack a window from just body heat bc it was so warm. I sleep in boxers and no shirt with just an old comforter from my old bed set. Also on hot days sitting in the van I put the Ac on while driving and got cold. Had to turn down the Ac bc the back holds the cold in. It used to get so hot that while driving the Ac couldn't keep up with the heat coming from the back sheet metal.

 

[gh0ztkid21]

Not sure why half the photos showed up and half came up as text links. Can't catch a break lol.

 

[gh0ztkid21]

For now I have a queen size futon bed in the back and I built a rod rack on the ceiling. The rod rack is still in the prototype faze since I'm altering my old design quite a bit. The Floor will be finished with vinyl cut from a 15x10 sheet I ordered to have one continues floor from cab to rear once it comes in. Meanwhile I have to finish up the doors, and the trim around the edges of the van kit. And then in the near future I will take the van liner kit out and I will upholster it with a marine grade vinyl and reinstall it. But for the rest of this year this will do.

**i have a cooler rack for my 120qt cooler but I havnt had the opportunity to mount my front trailer hitch on my van yet so until that happens the cooler going in the back of the van. It fits perfect between the wheel well and back wall. The picture was taken from my trip to Pulaski river salmon fishing and the van was in shambles when I snapped the pic of the rod rack for a buddy of mine. I'll get better pictures of how big red sits tomorrow now that it's all cleaned out and organized in my tote and the cooler is out of it. The other picture was from a surf fishing trip up to Montauk during a nor'easter/hurricane Matthews 3 weeks back

 

[Jsweezy]

Looking good! I never thought I would like red but that looks sharp.

 

[gh0ztkid21]

Just some pictures of the van before doing the interior. I don't know why or how all my pictures are coming out sideways when they are all regular/vertical on my phone.

 

[dcguillory]

Many people don't know how to rotate pics for posting. Best to just stop taking pics with your phone turned on its side, then you wont have to figure it out.

 

[gh0ztkid21]

Funny thing is I almost never do bc I hate how the pictures taken sideways come up miniature in text messages. So every time I take pictures I take them vertical. Idk strange