Catch-Up

I've been making steady progress on Ansel, and I'm on track to meet my interim goal of having the conversion ~95% complete by the end of September (I'm planning to take the first big trip with Ansel early October).  

In this post I thought I would just catch everyone up on some things that I've done in the van but that haven't fit neatly into any of the previous blog post topics.  

Note: if interested, you can click on any image to see a larger version of that image.

I. Decorative Door Panels

The rear doors and the sliding door have various recessed areas.  These are either to accommodate optional windows (which Ansel didn't have) or to house door operating mechanisms.  In case of the latter, the areas are typically covered by removable black plastic panels.  The previous owner had replaced the plastic panels in the rear doors with diamond plate that had brackets to hold tools or parts.  Initially I thought about keeping these but they were pretty beat up.

My plan was to cover the recessed areas with stained wood panels.  For the areas that originally had black plastic panels, this was relatively easy as they were designed to have flush panels installed.  The other areas were a little more challenging as there was nothing to which to attach the panels.  So I had to build custom supports.  The rear doors are complete, but I have yet to do the sliding door (I'm not looking forward to it). 

There were also some recessed areas in the rear corners of the cargo area, also covered by black plastic panels (these were really ugly too).  I removed these and replaced with stained wood panels in the same manner.

In the end I think the stained wood panels contrasts nicely with the dark gray painted metal.  What do you think?

One of the original rear doors with the diamond plate over the bottom recessed area containing the door operating mechanism.

 

The same rear door with diamond plate removed and primed.  The red areas are body putty...my feeble attempt to smooth out some of the more banged up areas in the doors.  In the end I just said "It's good enough!"

The door in progress with custom supports for the recessed center panel.

The finished product.

Before & after of the rear corners.  The panels were extremely odd shapes -- and not flat at all -- but fortunately I could use the plastic panels as templates, and the thin plywood easily flexed to fit in place.

 

II. The Floor

 

It took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to do with the floor.  There are several options for campervan floors, each with their pros and cons.  In the end I decided to go with luxury vinyl plank flooring in the main living area.  It was a little more expense than sheet vinyl or laminate flooring, but it's very durable and doesn't expand/contract.  Plus, it's easy-peasy to install!

Originally I was going to install some kind of flooring in the garage area too.  But for now I will just leave as plain wood...it's a "garage" after all!  If I want, I can always install flooring later, though in the meantime I will paint or seal it.

Before laying down the floor, I needed to install the sub-base for the galley cabinets.

...and for the refrigerator and toilet.  I wanted the toilet ready to go for our camping trip to Cheboygan State Park (which I did in fact use one night...it worked fine).  I was able to get the refrigerator temporarily wired up as well...which worked amazingly well.  Eventually it will be permanently housed in a cabinet (the cargo strap is temporary).

The flooring installed.

Another view.

I was pretty happy how the custom cuts turned out!

III. Other stuff

While the battery to battery charger is not hooked up yet, I had to run a pair of 4 gauge wires from the starter battery (which is under the driver's side floor) back to the electrical panel in the garage.  To do this, I had to remove 5 plastic panels, drill a hole in the panel shown above (the gray tubing is called wire loom, which is designed to protect wires from abrasion), run/secure the wires through the spaces behind the panels, and then re-install the panels!

The bed all made for the camping trip.  It was VERY comfortable!  (The plywood panel at lower right was temporary.  We took our dog Roxie with us, and I didn't want her sniffing around all the live electrical components!)

They are not nailed in place yet, but I had to lay in place the wood bed slats lest the bed sag too much.

We needed a place to set our things during the camping trip, so we set up this small folding table.  Turns out its almost exactly the same size as the galley cabinets so you can get a vague sense of the galley layout.

The driver's seat especially was pretty worn, so I purchased some neoprene seat covers.  Not a perfect fit, but they do the job and are pretty comfortable.  I also bought a cover for the steering wheel.

The past couple weeks have been miserably hot, so I've had to set up fans to help stay cool.  Even then I've had to take lots of breaks!  This has slowed me down a bit, but fortunately it appears some cooler weather is finally here!