Meet Drax
Doing a van conversion project has been an interest for a long time, so when we were in the market for another vehicle, one that we would only drive occasionally and needed to haul lots of stuff I talked the boss into getting a used cargo van. This is 2006 Ford E-150, originally in passenger configuration (hence all the windows). It also has a built in port for shore power and lot of plugged holes so I'm not really sure what it was used for. The last owner used it in cargo configuration for his contracting business.
My idea is to have a van that is still mostly open inside so we can haul camping gear, furniture, or what have you. But also has a built-in bed and features that make it handy for camping at a trailhead or in the mountains.
Stuff I want to do to it:
- Clean, insulate and refinish the interior
- Custom (DIY) paint job
- A roll over bench/bed combo
- Add a passenger seat or two
- Swivel mounts for the captain's chairs
- Fold away table between captain's chairs and passenger bench
- An outdoor cooking table that folds out from one of the doors
- Some kind of awning over that table
- Some amount of storage for tools and the usual camping equipment
- Convenient and secure spots for cooler, battery, and solar panel
Stretch goals would include permanently installed solar/battery, freezer, and radios. Maybe outdoor lights, a winch, and recovery equipment.
Even without anything done to it I've slept in it twice, just throwing the cot, camp stove, and cooler in it and that worked great! It was also super handy for hauling our camping gear up to the lake and for taking my wife's craft booth to the renaissance faire.
Progress is slow. Despite watching tons of conversion videos there is still soooo much to learn. So far I've ripped out the built-in cargo shelves, cabin divider, and plywood floor. I've scrubbed, vacuumed, sanded and painted most of the floor with automotive primer. I'm considering buying a cheap sprayer but for now just using rattle cans.
This neat Freedman folding bench seat showed up on craigslist. A really nice guy was doing his own van project and bought two of these and decided he only needed one. It's older but in great shape. This will give the kids a safe spot to sit if we take it to the beach or the lake but I can still fold it away if I need the room. Because this van began life as a passenger vehicle I have the original threaded mount points for the bench seats. All I need to do is adapt this bench to those holes. The only down side is that it sits a bit high. I'm 6 foot and when sitting in it normally my head is basically touching the ceiling. The bench seat would take a cutting torch and welder to modify (which I don't have) or I could install a hightop on the roof (which is expensive and way more work than I was planning). At this point I'm leaning towards just leaving it the way it is. The kids won't mind and they're 90% of the use case.
Next steps are figuring out how to remove the rear A/C unit and installing sound proofing. Also need to figure out the intermittent ABS indicator (weird). And I've got the dash torn apart from fixing the 12V outlets. I kinda want to put in a custom control panel. Hmmmm... I wonder if the laser engraver will do aluminum?