My Transit Connect build so far

So many crazy angles to make things fit! Better you than me. Nice job!

Yeah building things into the inside of a van is a nightmare, but we all know that. And now I know it particularly well.   But it's coming along.

I've been playing around more with the idea of holding the panels on with magnets. I think where I'm at is that they might be good in some areas to keep some corners and edges held nicely in place, but honestly they probably won't do the whole job.

Yes you can buy some strong neodymium magnets, but to use them to hold panels to the inside of the van, first I would want to put some kind of rubber or fabric barrier between them and the metal of the van to keep them from wearing down the paint on the inside surfaces of the van over time, and them you've just severely reduced the power of the magnets. Sure you could move up to an even bigger magnet to compensate, but the whole thing starts to feel a little silly. And I'm not confident that the magnets wouldn't allow the vertically mounted panels to shift or slide down the walls of the van over time, and that's no good.

So I think I'm back to drilling into the body and using bolts and plusnuts to hold the panels in place, along with maybe some magnets in a few places to just hold a few corners and edges in place where it would be difficult or overkill to use a bolt with a plusnut.

Step vans don't have angle problems!

But those magnets could be a good idea. Seen some people use them on panels that may need to be accessed in the future. I wouldn't worry too much about the magnets causing corrosion problems inside the van, unless you expect condensation issues. Although enough condensation would really kill any build...

I think the problem solving and creative process is half the fun of these projects. Looks like you're enjoying yourself and will end up with great results.

Started getting a lot of the interior panels really fit in place and mounted this weekend. The magnet idea took a lot of trial and error, but I think it's going to work. I'm using at least two bolts in each panel just to locate them in place and make sure they won't slide around or come completely off, but from there the magnets do a pretty good job. I also learned that if you need extra holding force in certain areas, you can stack multiple wafer magnets on top of each other to make a more powerful magnet. I'm using these magnets. High temp hot glue holds them very nicely onto the back of the door panels. Better than I expected really, so I think it's going to work.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077D7DQ2H/

The doors were an absolute pain to try to fit the panels onto they curve inwards as they go up, so it took a lot of magnets to hold t(he plywood against that curve. To make it even harder, there is only a very narrow frame on the inside of the doors where this curve happens. This is where the windows would be if the van had side windows.) So I had to place the magnets even just slightly over the edges of the wood panels so they would be able to catch onto the steel "window" frame. In any case, the panels need to hug the curve of the doors almost perfectly. If they don't, they will catch on the door weatherstrip when you go to open the door. 

Next I'm going to move onto fitting panels into the ceiling, then panels along the upper walls. (Had to take the overhead bin out to cut and fit panels for the ceiling, so it's not in this photo.)



(Did I mention how much I hate those bumps in the wall?)

What are those bumps in the wall for?

The top one is the space that the sliding door mechanism seats into and occupies when the door is closed, so there is no getting around that. It comes with a plastic trim cover over it from the factory, but I'm not sure if it's worth the hassle to fit it back on around the panel I already cut.

I have no clue what the bottom one is for. And that makes it bother me even more that it's there. It's built like a tank and it has some threaded fittings in it. It seems like some kind of anchor. Maybe it was used in the passenger wagon versions of this van? But I feel like I've also seen Transit Connects without the bottom one, which makes me wonder about them even more. Either way it is pinch welded in place, so it's not going anywhere. :s

Maybe you can build a cabinet around the bumps.....making a shelf on top for holding things??

That's not a bad idea. But I don't want to give up another inch of bed/seating space to those bumps. :dodgy: At least on the other side they are behind a cabinet.

just an fyi....

I used a ton of neodynium magnets on everything.. I thought for my curtains i could iron a piece of hem tape over them. It worked perfectly or so I thought.... come to find out neodynium magnets are heat sensitive and will lose their magnetism at a certain temperature. They all didnt "die" completely but all were too weak to hold my curtains.

I read up about this and had thought to use hot glue but that was also not recommended. I don't know how hot the glue gets nor do I recall the deactivation temperature but it can be found.

I ended up using superglue....
Works fairly well but those little magnets are strong and in some spots the curtains pulled from the magnets before the magnet pulled from the metal.... ugg

Yeah so the hot glue already started failing.  I never really trust hot glue to do much of anything, I don't know why I did this time.

I had no idea about the temperature issue, thanks. However, I doubt I got them very hot with the hot glue. They barely got warm to the touch when I stuck them on with the hot glue. Granted the side against the glue might have gotten hotter, but I think the magnets soak up and disperse the heat from the glue pretty fast.

Does super glue really stick onto the slick surface of the magnets well? I dunno, I'm leery about super glue in this application too.

I'm thinking I might try using some of this stuff. I have most of a tube of this left from something else, and it's only a few months old.


https://www.lowes.com/pd/LOCTITE-Pl...Adhesive-Actual-Net-Contents-10-Fl-Oz/3658268

yes, the superglue sticks very well to the magnets. The couple wood things I glued magnets to I had to use a hammer and chisel to pop them off when I changed my mind..lol

At first I was holding each magnet, applying the super glue then placing the magnet... resulting in superglue all over my fingers.... very annoying.

I figured out it was best to put a drop or 2 on the wood or fabric THEN set the magnets onto it.

I think on wood the gorilla glue is great... for nearly every magnet I placed... (hundreds)... the neo were far to powerful...lol

It looks like I am a few steps behind you on my 2nd rig build out... if i have to use magnets again, I think I will try just a piece of duct tape over each... at least on surfaces that are not visible.

Your rig looks great by the way... Its great to be over the hump.

Apparently Gorilla glue works pretty good. I was never a believer until I saw someone put in in their hair the other day. That stuff is pretty good!

I'm having second thoughts about the whole glue thing in general, and I think I'm going to try sticking the magnets on with the double sided sticky tape pads they came with. I dunno why, but I kind of didn't trust them to hold at first, but they are made by 3M, so maybe they will work ok. We'll see. I'm not sure if it will work because unfortunately I have to hang the magnets off of the edge of the panels to get them in a position where they can latch onto the metal of the door frame. If that doesn't work, I think I will try some 3M VHB tape.

Good adhesive velcro strips/squares maybe?.. I used that for a few things as well... put on the bottom of my fridge and counter top and it is very solid. The rig could flip and i bet it would still be attached.

Vannautical engineer said:

That's not a bad idea. But I don't want to give up another inch of bed/seating space to those bumps. :dodgy: At least on the other side they are behind a cabinet.

Click to expand...

I totally get that, but it's dead space and you don't want to roll over and hit your knee on them.  Building a curved face, covered with carpet, would make it a little less intrusive.  The top is a great place for glasses, keys, or small flash light.

Yeah I just dunno about trying to build something to hide those bumps. I don't even know what I would attach it to. I guess the non-moving slats of the bed? I dunno I think it would be just as out of place as those bumps already are, but even bigger. I'll see how I like the van using it with just the exposed bumps. I can always add something later.

So anyway trying to attach the magnets to the plywood with the sticky pads they came with was an even bigger failure than with the hot glue. Over about a day a whole lot of them separated. Fortunately I got some Gorilla Glue and tested gluing one magnet to a scrap of plywood, and it seems to hold very well. I think I'm going to do this with all of the magnets on the door panels. Nothing else seems to hold. It's very difficult because in a few spots the magnets are actually holding the plywood in a curved shape against the door, so the plywood is constantly fighting to pull itself back to a flat shape. I think the Gorilla Glue will hold though. :thumbsup:

I have never been a fan of hot glue. I am into gorilla glue, but you have to wait for it to set up.

I don't mind having to wait for something to set, I just need something that will hold. Gorilla Glue seems pretty good.

Anyway, making progress. I fit the ceiling panels in place today, which was no small task. The wooden beams to anchor them on either side of that crossmember in the middle of the ceiling were a PITA to make. Lots of precise drilling had to be done. I bought a cheap drill press just for it. Right now, the very rear of the ceiling is not well supported, but I think I'm going to figure out a way to support it on the top of the frame of that overhead bin.

I am a professional in the construction business, and I tend to shy away from using glue, unless it's something like repairing a broken furniture leg. I have done a lot of repair work in my decades in this business, and repairs are made a lot more difficult when the assembly was done with glue as opposed to nails or screws. I tend to think of those who construct with glue as perhaps overconfident that there will be no second thoughts, no need for modifications or alterations down the road. I like to build in ways that are easily dis-assembled, in case changes are desired later on. Screws and bolts are best for this. Admittedly construction in a vehicle is much more challenging than standard construction, but with sufficient creativity, there are usually ways of doing it with screws and bolts.