Quick update as I'm about to start a small next project for the van and could use advice from others who may have been down the road before.
The point of this van was to replace my pickup with something more secure, more capable and of course more awesome. It's done that now on all fronts. In fact a few weeks back we were getting into the van after having dinner out and a guy came running out of the restaurant, sprinted over to my window and I thought for sure something was leaking or I'd run over something and he was coming to let me know.
Nope. He tapped frantically at the window until I rolled it down, "Does this have a 7.3 in it?" he asked breathlessly. "Um, of course it does" I say.
"Oh. My. God!" he turns to his wife, "I told you! This is the most awesome truck in the entire universe! Are you kidding!?!? This thing is freaking AWESOME! Dude, give me a high five!"
I kid you not. If that sort of thing didn't happen about once a week I'd be freaked out. He was perhaps the most enthusiastic person we've encountered and he stood by his car while we started up and when he heard the diesel he jumped in the air and whooped and hollered until we were out of sight.
So, awesome, the van has down pat.
Carrying dirt bikes the van does well and we managed to fit four last weekend:
The small ones are no problem but my 250 is tall enough to just hit the rear bulkhead after it rolls in requiring the bike to be tipped heavily to one side which can then make the bike leak some gas. Not much but obviously it's not ideal. It's really only the last 6 inches are really in the way. How hard can it be?
So my plan now is to remove it and reshape it to set it at an angle so as to gain a few more inches and make loading the bikes a more seamless affair.
Once the fascia has been removed you can see the stock roof is there. There's a 3/4" piece of angled steel screwed into the sides and then into the remaining roof. It seems about as janky a solution as you could come up with.
My thought is to cut out the roof to a few inches short of the doors and add an arched and braced steel replacement bracket that would connect the sides. I asked MG about it and he said to just be sure to keep the door frames intact. I won't get rid of the roof but I'll cut it back 8-10" which should give me a good straight line from the door to the remaining roof. From there I'll build a face and try to come up with some sides that make it look okay. I'll build some sealed boxes for the speakers which should help them as well.
If anyones done anything like this chime in. I'm nervous to just unbolt the brace and have the rear spring apart and break the seal on the roof. I doubt that would happen but the idea of trying to clamp an entire van back into shape sounds like a pretty horrible thing. I think I'd like to make the brace first, bolt it into place through both the roof and the sides, with a spacer to keep it aligned, and once that's in place remove the brace, cut the roof and then make the panels.
Any thoughts?
Gregor
I am caught up now!
