Not So Subtle E350 Shuttle - 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
- Thread starter sakurama
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sakurama
Adventurer
I have been waiting on the winch to arrive as it was backordered for a few weeks so I upgraded to the Warn Zeon 12-S. That finally showed this week but in the mean time I finally got around to doing some interior work. Ages ago when visiting MG he offered up the seats from his old van - they're nothing special but they're new. They weren't complete as they needed the tracks and they have been hard to find. At the time I really didn't want them as it was just another project but my sister talked me into them - free she said!
So I finally found tracks through Car-Parts.com and they came complete with seats. Great. I now have three sets of seats!
With the junk yard seats on the table I swapped the tracks over to the new cushions.
Since the seats had to come out of the van I decided to RattleTrap the front but first all the electronics had to come out. Part of why I've held off doing this - the inevitable mission creep.
I'm always impressed by how clean the van is under it's grubby old interior. No rust anywhere.
Once the floor was scrubbed clean I put down the Rattle Trap all over and as far up the firewall as I could go.
Okay, yes, that's a hot mess. But I needed to make that mess to get the layer of MLV cut. Seriously, how does my wife tolerate me?
I had ordered carpet as well but the ebay seller never shipped it on time and I need the van for a job so I just put the mat back in. Jeez I'm not looking forward to pulling it all out again to put the carpet in...
So the big question is - is it quieter? Yes, sort of.
Pickup Idle: 52
Pickup Highway: 71-73
Van original idle: 64
Van original highway: 80-82
Van empty idle: 67
Van empty highway: 84-86
Van Rattletrapped idle: 63
Van Rattletrapped highway: 78-80
Van Rattletrapped/MLV back only: 76-78
Van Rattletrapped/MLV front and back: 74-75
So not much quieter but a little. I will say that in the same way that when I did the back I had this sense of the van being quieter in the back I now have for the front from the floor. When I listen for "noise" the loudest thing I hear now is the wind at the windows. I think right now I'm at the limit of what the van is. It's only a couple of Db louder than the pickup so it's a pretty remarkable change from where it was. We can now have conversations between the front and back and the radio is easily heard on the highway.
So, overall this is a valuable improvement. I'm not sure where'd I'd look now to find more noise. If I take out the interior walls I'd do all the sides and the side doors are still bare so perhaps there's a few more Db's to be found.
So with the new seats and quieter interior I headed off to the coast to shoot for a new development. That ladder was a pain in the ass and that roof was surprisingly strong. Nonetheless it made it clear that I need a good solid roof rack ASAP.
As soon as I got home I ordered up a full custom roof rack!
Some assembly required. I chose aluminum because I need to get better at welding aluminum and because I wanted a beefier tube for the visual weight of the rack. I went with 1.5" for the main tubes and 1" for the stretchers. I went with .120 wall because I'm not that good of an aluminum welder yet and I wanted the cushion of the thicker wall as I build this.
This is my rough design at the moment. I'm going to keep thinking on it. I've already purchased four 12 x 48" sand ladders that will be used as the side flooring and I'm planning on a 2x8' center section of diamond plate. The front will have four round lights because light bars look dumb to me - despite how well they may work. Round lights are cool and I grew up with visions of the Dakar and Baja cars and trucks so that's how I'm going to roll.
In addition to all this I've just picked up my ARB dual compressor so I'll be looking to make a mount for that and then plumb lines to the sides and back. Finally I have a spare 12v house battery that I thought I'd use to run the compressor and interior things when we get there. I'll need to get a separator but right now I'm going to make a new battery box to hold my second starting battery and the house battery. In looking under the van the most logical place seems to be behind the axle in front of the spare - let me know if there's a better place to put two batteries and if there's any good designs of battery boxes I should look at.
Okay, more when I get to the rear tire and winch mounts.
Gregor
So I finally found tracks through Car-Parts.com and they came complete with seats. Great. I now have three sets of seats!
With the junk yard seats on the table I swapped the tracks over to the new cushions.
Since the seats had to come out of the van I decided to RattleTrap the front but first all the electronics had to come out. Part of why I've held off doing this - the inevitable mission creep.
I'm always impressed by how clean the van is under it's grubby old interior. No rust anywhere.
Once the floor was scrubbed clean I put down the Rattle Trap all over and as far up the firewall as I could go.
Okay, yes, that's a hot mess. But I needed to make that mess to get the layer of MLV cut. Seriously, how does my wife tolerate me?
I had ordered carpet as well but the ebay seller never shipped it on time and I need the van for a job so I just put the mat back in. Jeez I'm not looking forward to pulling it all out again to put the carpet in...
So the big question is - is it quieter? Yes, sort of.
Pickup Idle: 52
Pickup Highway: 71-73
Van original idle: 64
Van original highway: 80-82
Van empty idle: 67
Van empty highway: 84-86
Van Rattletrapped idle: 63
Van Rattletrapped highway: 78-80
Van Rattletrapped/MLV back only: 76-78
Van Rattletrapped/MLV front and back: 74-75
So not much quieter but a little. I will say that in the same way that when I did the back I had this sense of the van being quieter in the back I now have for the front from the floor. When I listen for "noise" the loudest thing I hear now is the wind at the windows. I think right now I'm at the limit of what the van is. It's only a couple of Db louder than the pickup so it's a pretty remarkable change from where it was. We can now have conversations between the front and back and the radio is easily heard on the highway.
So, overall this is a valuable improvement. I'm not sure where'd I'd look now to find more noise. If I take out the interior walls I'd do all the sides and the side doors are still bare so perhaps there's a few more Db's to be found.
So with the new seats and quieter interior I headed off to the coast to shoot for a new development. That ladder was a pain in the ass and that roof was surprisingly strong. Nonetheless it made it clear that I need a good solid roof rack ASAP.
As soon as I got home I ordered up a full custom roof rack!
Some assembly required. I chose aluminum because I need to get better at welding aluminum and because I wanted a beefier tube for the visual weight of the rack. I went with 1.5" for the main tubes and 1" for the stretchers. I went with .120 wall because I'm not that good of an aluminum welder yet and I wanted the cushion of the thicker wall as I build this.
This is my rough design at the moment. I'm going to keep thinking on it. I've already purchased four 12 x 48" sand ladders that will be used as the side flooring and I'm planning on a 2x8' center section of diamond plate. The front will have four round lights because light bars look dumb to me - despite how well they may work. Round lights are cool and I grew up with visions of the Dakar and Baja cars and trucks so that's how I'm going to roll.
In addition to all this I've just picked up my ARB dual compressor so I'll be looking to make a mount for that and then plumb lines to the sides and back. Finally I have a spare 12v house battery that I thought I'd use to run the compressor and interior things when we get there. I'll need to get a separator but right now I'm going to make a new battery box to hold my second starting battery and the house battery. In looking under the van the most logical place seems to be behind the axle in front of the spare - let me know if there's a better place to put two batteries and if there's any good designs of battery boxes I should look at.
Okay, more when I get to the rear tire and winch mounts.
Gregor
Last edited:
another_mike
Adventurer
Im about to do my van in MLV also. Did you lay the MLV straight down on the floor? I went through Sound Deadener showdown and ordered Closed cell foam to decouple the MLV from the floor. I also have a cheap DB meter. Ill have to do my own readings to see how they compare to yours.
Mat Mobile
Adventurer
You should consider space for 2 x 100w solar panels (about 22" x 4' if I'm not mistaken). They allow me to run a Vitrigo fridge like this indefinitely with 4 x 6V batteries.
Not necessarily now, but maybe for later.
My set-up.
Not necessarily now, but maybe for later.
My set-up.
sakurama
Adventurer
I just laid it on top of the RattleTrap and then the closed cell mat on top of that. In front I'll put carpet over it when I get around to it.
I'm using an app called DbMeter Pro on an iPhone X - as a point of reference. Mostly for me it's about the changes that I record more than saying that what I'm recording is absolute.
Exactly! I was looking for solar panels that I could walk on and then use them in the middle but what I've found are about a grand per 100w which is out of the budget. That said I have about a 4' square of space in front of the sand ladder/diamond plate which could easily work. I have a lot of reading to do about how to set up the house battery with a disconnect and then also tie that into solar. It's all future planning at the moment but I should probably pick out the panels now so I can incorporate them into the design now.
Maybe it's me or maybe it's Photobucket but I didn't see any photos on your thread. I'd love to see your set up.
Gregor
Mat Mobile
Adventurer
That's weird because I use Google Drive. Anyways... It's the same photos as this Instagram post.
I would personally put the sand rails in the center so you can walk on them and put the solar panels to each side.
sakurama
Adventurer
Quick update on the bumpers. They were mostly done but not finished - I was waiting for the winch to show up which, finally, it did.
The Warn Zeon 12S is a pretty big winch and I wasn't keen on cutting out the top of the bumper to make room for the control unit so I ordered up their relocation kit and then ended up mounting it even farther so I had to remake all the wires anyway.
I also welded in the fairlead bolts as the space was tight and I hate fishing around trying to get a nut on in a tight, blind space.
It was mentioned that the ears aren't exactly very strong so I took a look at them and found they were only held on with a couple of inches of mig bead each which is fine for a bumper in compression but not what I want for a bumper with a 12,000lb winch on it.
I fully welded the ears on and then added a few braces to the ends which should go a long way towards giving the bumper some strength.
Next up I turned to the rear bumper. I wanted to make an integrated motorcycle mount that had two points so the bike wouldn't tip, bounce, sway or move like the typical hitch mounts.
Move uses a lot of 10 degree angles in their designs so I cut some receiver tubing to mount flush in the opening they cut for back up lights.
Got them both square and even and welded in the tube and the blank plate. Then got to work on the spindle for the rear tire carrier.
The idea on the spindle was to brace the living daylights out of it so that I wouldn't have to tie into the door hinge like the Aluminess carrier. This spindle kit is made by 4x4Labs and is quite beefy.
Next up I wanted to brace the receiver tubing to the bumper so that I can carry a larger dirt bike or full size BWM on the bumper.
I also made some braces for the bumper mount as well as adding weld to the stock bumper ears. The goal being to make this as strong as possible.
I cleaned up the frame with a wire brush and coated it with POR 15 and then primed the bumper with it as well. My choice was to paint the bumper in spray on bed liner so that, if in the future, I want to modify the bumper some more I won't have to strip it and repowdercoat it. I used Duplicolor spray bed liner and I really like the textured finish. It has a good reputation and I think it will last well. I like it's satin finish so much I think I'll spray my flat black wheels with it and then do the belt line.
I haven't had the chance to finish the rear tire mount but hopefully that will happen in the next few weeks when I get caught up with work. Right now I've got a mechanic that is going to install the U-Joint coil update on the van and I'll report on that once it's done.
Gregor
The Warn Zeon 12S is a pretty big winch and I wasn't keen on cutting out the top of the bumper to make room for the control unit so I ordered up their relocation kit and then ended up mounting it even farther so I had to remake all the wires anyway.
I also welded in the fairlead bolts as the space was tight and I hate fishing around trying to get a nut on in a tight, blind space.
It was mentioned that the ears aren't exactly very strong so I took a look at them and found they were only held on with a couple of inches of mig bead each which is fine for a bumper in compression but not what I want for a bumper with a 12,000lb winch on it.
I fully welded the ears on and then added a few braces to the ends which should go a long way towards giving the bumper some strength.
Next up I turned to the rear bumper. I wanted to make an integrated motorcycle mount that had two points so the bike wouldn't tip, bounce, sway or move like the typical hitch mounts.
Move uses a lot of 10 degree angles in their designs so I cut some receiver tubing to mount flush in the opening they cut for back up lights.
Got them both square and even and welded in the tube and the blank plate. Then got to work on the spindle for the rear tire carrier.
The idea on the spindle was to brace the living daylights out of it so that I wouldn't have to tie into the door hinge like the Aluminess carrier. This spindle kit is made by 4x4Labs and is quite beefy.
Next up I wanted to brace the receiver tubing to the bumper so that I can carry a larger dirt bike or full size BWM on the bumper.
I also made some braces for the bumper mount as well as adding weld to the stock bumper ears. The goal being to make this as strong as possible.
I cleaned up the frame with a wire brush and coated it with POR 15 and then primed the bumper with it as well. My choice was to paint the bumper in spray on bed liner so that, if in the future, I want to modify the bumper some more I won't have to strip it and repowdercoat it. I used Duplicolor spray bed liner and I really like the textured finish. It has a good reputation and I think it will last well. I like it's satin finish so much I think I'll spray my flat black wheels with it and then do the belt line.
I haven't had the chance to finish the rear tire mount but hopefully that will happen in the next few weeks when I get caught up with work. Right now I've got a mechanic that is going to install the U-Joint coil update on the van and I'll report on that once it's done.
Gregor
Farfrumwork
Well-known member
Fantastic as usual.
Man... I need a welder!
Man... I need a welder!
sakurama
Adventurer
I'm holding off doing "final" shots until I get the rear tire carrier built. I'll try to grab a shot of it as it sits when it's back from the shop.
Thanks! I came real close to buying Mig welder to do these bumpers but decided I should just keep getting better at Tig and learn to do multiple passes and weaves - good skills to have for the big stuff. But, to your point, a welder is one of the most useful tools I own. It fixes things, it makes things and it can even make tools to fix things. Pretty amazing device.
Gregor
douglawrence42
New member
Looking good. I’m really looking forward to your experience moving into the aluminum welding on the roof rack. I’ve been playing with it for a while now, and I’m curious what tips and tricks you will come up with. Like I think you admitted, I struggle with controlling heat input. With aluminum, managing heat is even harder. I tend to ruin the temper so badly that while creating a pretty weld that sections well, I will fail a bend test by tearing the weakened base material at the weld toe. You always do a good job explaining your struggles and your problem solving, I hope you can shed some light. Thanks for putting all this out here
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