The great white fun hog (another white GM awd build)

[boardrider247]

I was able to break free for a few quality hours out in the shop with the fun hog.
It was enough time to swap out the front shocks and torsion keys. That took about 2hrs.I was able to use my ball joint press as a torsion bar tool.

Then I set her back on the ground to take measurements and see how we ended up.

Front wheel arch before

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Front wheel arch after(sorry about the blur, it's harder then it looks to hold the tape and take a pic)

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Right now she sits about 2" higher in the front then before. Which is right where I thought things would shake out. I do still have some adjustment in the bolts so I could crank it a bit higher. But I'm going to save that in case she settles.

The rear had about 1" of rake before

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The blocks that came with the rough country kit are 3". It should end up with 2" of rake. I think I'm Ok with this as I still am going to be installing interior features and I tow fairly regularly. I'll deal with a little bit of extra rake to keep things level with a trailer on.

My wife is working nights rest of the week leaving me free to work in the shop.
Tomorrow after work I'm going to attack the rear and hopefully get that all buttoned up and ready to get back out on the road.

 

[T.Low]

So, you will be able to get the van out of the garage once you install the lift, right?😆

 

[boardrider247]

So, you will be able to get the van out of the garage once you install the lift, right?��

Haha! Yes it will drive out of the shop,10' door.
But she won't be going back into the regular garage any more,7' door:friday:
Plus the pop top is going to add another 4-5"

 

[boardrider247]

I ran into a small issue with the rear shocks.

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As you can see the upper mounts are different. The bar in the stock shock is too large to fit through the metal sleeve in the new shock. From my reading others who have done this lift were using skyjacker H7017 shocks in the rear, these are listed as a eyelet on both ends as well.

Anyone who has done this lift that may be out there, please chime in on how you fit the upper shock mount on the rear.

Thanks!

 

[boardrider247]

After mulling it over all day I had a few ideas in my head how to fit the rear shocks.
When I got back into the shop though and looked at all the parts laying around I saw that the stock shocks had all of the parts I needed to fab adapters for the new shocks.

First a few cuts

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Then clean with the grinder

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Dab a little weld on with the tig machine

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A few coats with the rattle can

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And final product ready for install

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I apologize for the blurry pics again, trying to one hand these and hold parts is not working out so hot.

Here is the rear wheel arch after all is said and done.

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She definitely has a bit more rake then I would care for. We will see how she sits after a few miles I may yet swap out the 3" blocks for some 2"ers.

Some more pics coming tomorrow out in the sun.

 

[t-rex grrr]

Looks great! How is the bubble wrap as an insulator? Also, do you get any rattling with it, and do you think it reduces noise in the cabin?

 

[boardrider247]

Looks great! How is the bubble wrap as an insulator? Also, do you get any rattling with it, and do you think it reduces noise in the cabin?

For the cost and weight of the material it's great. It really helped keep the van cooler in the sun. It may provide some sound barrier but I can't really say, I installed the CLD tiles at the same time and my guess would be any sound deadening I experienced was from those.

The wrap itself doesn't rattle. However the tape I used to secure it isn't holding up, it is starting to come loose of the van in places and dos make some noise. I talked with the insulator I work with and he said that tape needs to have a completely clean surface to stick correctly. A guy would probably need to clean the van walls with a alcohol based cleaner if you wanted to only use the tape.

The next round of interior work I am going to use spray glue to re install the current layer of foil bubble wrap. Then I am going to add a layer of 1.5" fiberglass foil faced wrap then another layer of the bubble wrap. Before building the wall panels.

 

[boardrider247]

Here is the Fun Hog after the lift.
About +2" in front and +3" in the rear

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[boardrider247]

Wall paneling?..

I would like to get some wall paneling installed before the new year in the old fun hog.
Does anyone have some pictures of how they paneled their express/savana cargo van?
Also what is the best procedure for attaching them to the "ribs" of the van? I see most people just use sheet metal screws directly into the ribs. And while this is ok, it doesn't provide much serviceability should the panel need to be removed as the holes are likely to strip out being used more then once. Rivnuts seem to be straight forward though the bolts will transfer cold into the van and frost up also introducing moisture. Has anyone used the super HD Velcro for wall panels?

I'm probably over thinking this issue.
Suggestions and pictures would be greatly appreciated.

 

[boardrider247]

Ugh.....the last couple days have been very frustrating working on my van:ar15::ar15:
Lots of trial and error on my part attempting to panel the walls. Mostly error....
Right now the $1000 that Adrian steel charges for their wall kit doesn't sound so bad. There isn't one square, straight, flat or even surface on this damn van.

If anyone is still reading after my rant here are some pics.

I decided to build ribs of wood which would be screwed to the vans steel ribs. This is supposed to even out some of the variations in the factory ribs. The holes you see are meant to hold tee nuts that will attach the wall panels.

First attempt at the wood ribs was done with some 1/2" cdx I had leftovers of. The cdx was worthless and broke almost immediately when trying to bend it to the vans walls. No real loss as it was already leftover rips from another project.

Second attempt was with 1/4" luan ply. This seems much better. Though I have my doubts on its durability.

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On the back side of the luan I ran a strip of gasket material. This will do two things. Hold the tee nuts in place while drilling the wall panels and hopefully stop any rattles from developing between the steel and wood.

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Here is a shot of where I re routed the factory wiring. It was originally on the outside of the upper roof brace, placing it directly in the way of type of wall panel.


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I will take a couple more tomorrow of how the wall panel turns out. Right now I'm not very happy with it and I am thinking about taking a different approach. I need to sleep on it and try to finish up the wall panel so I can get a real feeling of how it's going to end up.

I'm glad I decided to do a test subject before installing the rest of my insulation. As the final wall decision will impact how I work the insulation.

 

[bdog1]

It will all come together.... I used tile board for my interior panels, plain white, adds a little light inside. It's flexible enough to conform to slight curves .... And yes.... There isn't a straight line anywhere! I attached board with plastic rivets to the bows to stop condensation. For headliner I used a composite insulation board meant for siding I think, R6, light and easy to work with, it's installed wrong side exposed. All was between $6-9 a sheet. I'm no craftsman but I'm happy with results.

Sent by wing, prayer & ATT

 

[boardrider247]

Thanks for the encouragement bdog

Right now I am trying to use a wall panel product called plastex.
http://www.menards.com/main/paint/p...roof-interior-wall-panel/p-1497834-c-8173.htm

I like that it is ultra flexible, white, cleans up easy and impervious to wetness.
However it has proven to be a real bear to work with. It is so flexible that you almost need to stretch it to make it look right.
I'm going to finish up the section I started and see how it looks. I may end up gluing the plastex to a sheet of luan to give it some strength. Though I have my concerns about the luan being flexible enough to make some the compound curves it seems I will need.

 

[boardrider247]

I forced myself to finish up the section of panel I started.

Failure.......


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I have another sheet of luan and more plastex. I think I'm going to glue up a fresh sheet of plastex to the luan and use this test piece as a template to drill holes (using way less fasteners).
Hopefully that process will yield better results.

 

[bdog1]

It's hard to tell in pictures.... Is that rigid? Is there insulation value? The headliner has less radius, might be easier to work with there?


Sent by wing, prayer & ATT

 

[boardrider247]

I would call it semi rigid. The sheet won't stand up against the wall on its own.
There is no insulation value, I will be putting 1.5" fiberglass duct wrap behind the paneling.
I wanted to get the paneling figured out first before doing the insulation. So that way I don't mount insulation where I may need to do something with the panels.

I've looks around on CL a bit and there are some used cargo vans for sale cheap with aftermarket walls in them.
Considering contacting a couple sellers about selling me just the panels.
But I'm going to try gluing the plastex to the luan before I totally give up.