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Here’s the part where I have to emphasize that this isn’t a guide, but rather a documentation. Most of the things we did on the van were… experimental. And probably not recommended.
We had to decide how much of the current build we wanted to keep. Walls were already installed and carpet was functional. From the projects that I’ve done, I find it is always much easier to stay motivated and keep things moving when working with a base that you are confident in, so we decided to pull things out and start at ground zero.Which turned out to make sense because everything was held in pretty much with two screws and gravity.The previous owner had already insulated the interior with yellow spray foam partially visible underneath the walls. Here’s where we I started realizing that we’d have some round corners and bent walls that would be more challenging than a sprinter build. Also, is that just pink foam stacked in the rear door?Walls are off. At this point, we’re cracking eggs left and right hoping that the omelet will be worth it.Staring at the holes that the solar were attached through. When you blank-slate things like this it’s hard to decide what to work on first. You don’t want to do too much work that will have to go backward if you forget something.Cutting new base matt for under the flooring. This serves mostly as a bit of a sound barrier to prevent squeaking from wood on metal. I made that up- I don’t really know what it’s for but we bought it for the laminate floor and had enough to cover the whole thing twice, so that’s what we did.I needed to start familiarizing myself with our electrical requirements and the wiring space. Turns out the area the previous owner had put the batteries in would work best after experimenting with placement a bit. You can see the plywood base on the floor here. Many people don’t screw in the base as you’re causing a bunch of holes and therefore rust potential) in the bottom of the vehicle. I later sprayed it with undercoating to combat this. The plywood was slightly warped and shifty, so it would bend and creak when stepped on which wasn’t ideal for our setup so screw away we did!Found the gas tank that I didn’t know I was looking for. In pre-drilling holes for the plywood, I also pre-drilled the plastic tank. This is what happens when you try to push through a project in 105-degree weather. Turns out when you drill into the top of the tank, you need access to the top of it to repair it so I had to drop the whole thing while Kate stood around taking pictures. Not worth it.Flooring status: glad that’s over with, let’s do something more fun.
Kate is the lead content creator for ParkedInParadise.com and has spent over two years living in a camper van conversion. She has traveled through 48 US states and writes about van life, camping and RV living.
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