Van Conversion POC

[ahh_me2]

Well, I can hear it already!  POC does not stand for piece of crap! It stands for Proof of Concept! lol

Some background info...

Ok, so I started this conversion last summer, before I knew van-dwellers and their counterparts, cargo-trailer-people existed haha.So I was on my own!

I'm also way up north in a cold part of Canada, so good insulation is a must.

The van:
1986 Ford van semi extended top
8 cylinder 351 cu
Purchased in 2008 for $1500 with 44,000 original kilometers
Put 70,000 km on it so far
$600 total repairs over the 7 years

Made a boo-boo on it last summer(another thread maybe , real funny story actually) thought it was on it's last legs, so I bought another van for my daily-ride and figured I'd scrap the Ford.

Got notice in June the place I'd been in for 16 years was about to be sold and I had to move.

Since the Ford was standard length, and the new van I got was a short-box with a slant six engine, I figured I'd keep the Ford on the road and use it to move.

Living in oil country rents are already high, and I'd had such a sweet deal over the past 16 years, I was looking at having to pay double or triple my rent, and that's if I could even find something as the vacancy rates in the city here were at an all time low.

Thus the seed was planted for the idea to live in my Ford.

 

[ahh_me2]

The materials...

In the place I was renting, I also had the full double garage set up as a shop, worked in it year round.
I had built a small room in there, 6 walls insulated(floor and ceiling) to hold my lathe and mill and to be able to keep it at a constant temperature so I could work in the winter and not have condensation issues wrecking my machine tools.

I kept 2-100 watt light bulbs on in there from fall till spring, and it kept it at a comfortable 60 F and I used a lil electric heater when I was in there working.

So anyway, I had to dismantle this structure and didn't want to throw out all that wood and insulation, so I stored it at a friends shop for a few weeks.

Here are some pics of that....



A few weeks go by, I'm running out of storage space and spots for all my tools and stuff and I have all this wood and insulation that I don't want to throw out, what to do... what to do...

Light comes on in my head!  I know...I can build a six walled enclosure inside my van just like the machine shop but smaller!

I'm a friggin genius I tell ya!

I know it will be warm enough in there so I could even live there! Yeah, screw the sky high rents out there!

Well, let's see what we can build...

 

[ahh_me2]

The build...

I started with the floor, insulated, vapor barrier and decked.



The walls of the van were quite curved, I was in a hurry so I built half walls.



For the front, I knew I would need to be able to see out the back window for driving, plus one never knows what you might need down the road, so I framed in a large window opening at the front.
I figured coming in from the cold and rain, or worse yet cold and snow, I'd have dirty/wet shoes/boots, so I figured a little 'mud-room' was needed. Thus the box opening in lieu of the passenger seat.

 

[ahh_me2]

Upper walls and ceiling framing

Here's what the upper walls looked like:



The ceiling of the van was curved, and I needed a truss system but couldn't just drop it from above, so I kinda just built my own:



The back section was framed to allow a large opening so I could put in a large door that would also have a back window in it:

 

[ahh_me2]

Sheeting and side door

This is the sheeting in progress:



I decided  I needed a side door and decided to make a sliding door on a rail:

 

[ahh_me2]

End of part 1. Time for a well deserved break!

 

[flying kurbmaster]

that looks like it is going to be a warm van...looking forward to part two...

 

[ahh_me2]

A warm van? sure....
But I have put a lil AC unit into it, and that would make it a .........

Cool Van!

lol

In the summer of course!

 

[Wabbit]

Nice! Thnx for the pics!

 

[KayakGirl]

Wow, that's really nice!

 

[ahh_me2]

Hmmm.....

Tried writing a follow up with some more pics, it doesn't seem to let me attach any pics.

 

[One Awesome Inch]

I like what you are doing with your rear door entrance. I will likely try a variation of the same.

 

[Wabbit]

...Tried writing a follow up with some more pics, it doesn't seem to let me attach any pics....

Start your post and then "Preview Post" and you can add attachments there.

 

[ahh_me2]

I tried that, I browse my pics, click on "add attachment"  then nothing happens , no pics upload.
Looking in the "view attachments" shows my pics aren't uploading.
Firefox updated yesterday, so I tried with Chrome, did the same thing.
Just tried a few minutes ago, still can't get it to work.

Strange

 

[LeeRevell]

I simply use a photo hosting site, load the pics to it, then copy the URL into the website I want to show it on.
Some use PhotoBucket. I prefer Tinypic.com. They are free to use, and you can make separate 'albums' for different subjects.

 

[ahh_me2]

I'm heading in to work soon, will try from that computer.
I try avoiding photo hosting sites
Thanks for the input!

 

[flying kurbmaster]

I tried that, I browse my pics, click on "add attachment"  then nothing happens , no pics upload.
Looking in the "view attachments" shows my pics aren't uploading.
Firefox updated yesterday, so I tried with Chrome, did the same thing.
Just tried a few minutes ago, still can't get it to work.

Strange

try again you have to add them twice, they go on standby until you add them into your post the second time or something like that have another look  

 

[MikeRuth]

I'm heading in to work soon, will try from that computer.
I try avoiding photo hosting sites
Thanks for the input!

After you chose the file on the right hand side there is a button to add attachment, quirky but it works. 

 

[ahh_me2]

I did that, it simply wouldn't upload.
akrvbob tried earlier and it didn't work for him either.

But it seems it is sudddenly all working again!

When I get home later, I'll continue this thread with more pics/info

 

[ahh_me2]

Nice! Thnx for the pics!

Wow, that's really nice!

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed!

A few more pics, progress on the sheeting just a few different views, it's starting to feel a bit "closed in".



This next one is of the rear hatch, as you can see I have a length of power cable that I have coiled around some brackets. I have a hole the rear left door to feed it thru, so I can pull out however much I want/need.
With the rear doors closed, you barely notice that anything is strange/different in the rear of the van, the cheap spraybomb brown paint blends well through the rear windows.