Propane compartment & door

The compartment door was totally gone due to an accident someone had with it at some point that tore it to hell. Not enough was left to remake it as it was.

A friend has an old junky travel trailer he let me get an access door from that was the perfect width but too tall. However, it had a traditional hinge that was screwed to the door and pop riveted to the frame. I was able to cut it down to fit my van but had to cut it further around the opening to allow for the tanks to fit into the opening. It may allow water to enter the compartment but it's solid metal inside and has a way to drain out somewhat.

Also, I went ahead and gave it a couple of coats of oil based Rustoleum paint I already had laying around and put a couple of flexible plastic signs in the bottom under the tanks to keep the paint nice.

I also put on new modern hoses that requires no tools to connect and disconnect from the tanks. The tank on the right is too old to use/refill as it is. It has the older style valve and connector so I will be swapping it out for another tank.

All in all, I think it came out pretty decent. Not exactly professional but for the cost of about $50 for the wood and aluminum trim for the door, I'd say it came out well. The sheet metal on the outside of the door is from the original compartment door so it looks fairly original.

I haven't put in all the screws for holding the frame to the van yet but that's not too much work. I am having to drill new holes since the frame's holes don't line up with the originals but it's just a little time consuming, not difficult.

The reason the door has funky cut-outs down lower is so the door will be lighter which means it's easier on the hinge. The upper cut is obvious.. for the vent in the sheet metal. If I feel like it, I may go back and put some sheet metal in the inside of the door to make it look a little better.

I will be ordering a new of new matching locks for the various compartments and access panels.

Interior remodeling

The one feature I instantly disliked about this van was that it had a sofa instead of a dinette. This provides no good desk-like place to sit. After much debate over the idea, I decided to put a dinette in place of the sofa.

But I am only going to put one seat which will house the batteries, fuse panel, and converter. I quickly realized that there would be ample space for 2 batteries in the compartment so I pulled the original metal battery box which was badly eaten out from acid in one bottom corner. Thankfully it didn't eat through the carpet or floor.

I am going to build a wooden battery box that is sealed off from the interior by a screwed down lid with weatherstripping and a host using the orginal battery vent on the side of the van. The lower vent is a hole in the floor which I will allow for in the wooden box for cross ventilation.

The space where normally another dinette seat would go is going to be cabinets for a microwave and other storage over the hot water heater.

It's going to take many weeks to build it since I am building it on the fly without much of any plans other than in my head. I took me two days to do what you see below due to taking out the old stuff, reworking it here and there, measuring a lot, cutting a lot (by hand with a mitre box and hand saw).

For the table I will likely be using a pedestal table post and mount and getting a local place that makes cabinet doors to make a custom size table top with rounded edges.

I had to relocate the fuse panel and a 12V 30A auto circuit breaker that was located where the feet area will be. I have to fix a couple wires going to the circuit breaker that are a bit messed up at the ring terminal and one is now too short so I will be replacing it.

Plumbing fixes

I have really started getting the van ready in the past few days.

I pulled the fresh water tank a month or more ago and hosed it out due to it having nasty old water in it. It still needs to be properly sanitized but it's a start. I also replaced the filler hose, air hose, water filler and the line between the pump and tank. It had a clamped on hose which I didn't like.. it looked like a place prone to leaking.

I had to shell out a little bit of money for 2 compatible PEX fittings for the pump and tank, 2 sizes of PEX pipe plus a reducer fitting. I bought the quick-connect style due to the expensive price for a PEX crimp tool. I'm not real fond of how flexed it looks but hopefully it won't leak. If it does, I guess I'll go back to a hose since I kept the old fittings that were on there. I have yet to test them to see if they leak but intend to very soon.

I did hook up a hose to the city water connection and there seemed to be no apparent leaks for the 10 minutes or so I had pressure on the system. What I though was a leak at the water heater turned out to the drain valve wasn't fully closed. After closing it fully, the dripping stopped. So it seems the old water lines are still fine to use.

I also put a new tethered cap for the city water connection and fresh butyl tape behind it.

Update 10/11/12: The PEX crap didn't work. Read more: http://cubey7800.blogspot.com/2012/10/water-pump.html

Progress... finally

I had to get the van towed to another shop 18 miles away ($95) and pay them to do the rear brakes and the rear end. He never finished a single damn thing after 3 months. In the next few months, I may sue him for the cost of towing and half the labor I paid him. It cost me $700 more with the towing on top of what I paid him.

But the job is done and I got it back home but the brakes are STILL not working 100% right so I gotta figure out the problem. The front had air in the lines which I bled out which helped a little but not totally. It may be the master cylinder, booster or the proportioning valve. Ugh.

The tires were so bad off, I had to rush out and get new ones before I could even drive it home so I went to Sears and bought a set of 4 Dunlop Rover H/Ts in LT225/75/16. Was just under $800 with installation, road hazard and tax.

I went and bought a new gravity water filler from a local RV place yesterday since the one it had was partly broken from someone forcing it open when they didn't have the key. I had intended to install it today but changed my mind..... read on for the reason why.

I forgot there was water still in the fresh tank so I had to drain that out by removing the broken drain valve and putting a piece of tubing into the rubber hose and feed it down the drain hole. I pulled the whole tank out so I could clean it's compartment better and have better access for replacing the lines around the water pump. The tank is in fine condition with no cracks. It just needs to be sanitized which I will do when I go and reinstall it. For now, it's now sitting in my garage up off the floor.

The hoses around the water tank and plumbing in the van overall are so old and the condition is unknown that I have also decided to re-plumb all the fresh water lines. It appears to currently have Poly-B (very unreliable, leak-prone tubing) for the fresh water lines. I will put that on hold for a while since I can get by at RV parks/campgrounds without using the plumbing in the van for a little while. I will do the job myself since I am good at plumbing and shouldn't take more than a day to do.

Awesome retro vans & RVs

I found an awesome page featuring photos of some pretty awesome vintage vans and RVs. Some on the road, some in museums!

Here is a sample of what you'll find there:

Doing laundry

Some people out there try to devise ways of doing laundry by hand by various methods. I truely wonder if they have ever tried to do so. I have... and it's NOT easy! The easy part is dropping the clothes into soapy water and sloshing it around. The hard part is getting the water OUT of the clothes! Clothes, when what... become very heavy and hard to handle it is also very hard to squeeze out the water as well as a washing machine does.

My plan for laundry will cost a little but it makes practical sense... use laundromats! From camping experience, the best way I find to store laundry is with duffel bags and/or cloth laundry bags such as the one shown below. A duffel bag is great for clean storage and laundry bags are great for dirty storage. Being soft-sided storage, they take up less room when they are less full.. which is vital to vehicle and RV dwellers who must make use of every inch if space. Avoid plastic laundry baskets if possible due to taking up valuable space when not in use.

3 months later... still not done

It has been almost 3 months now since I took in the van for the brake job which turned into a differential rebuild. I have ended up having to buy $250 worth of tools today on ebay for the mechanic to be able to do the job. In the next 7-10 days I should get them in.. and he'll have zero excuse for not completing the job.

I will be staying there watching him when he uses the tools as things have a way of disappearing in his shop. He has lost parts to the van a few times... as well as parts to other people's vehicles such as someone's alternator out of their truck. He had to go get one from the salvage yard to replace it. He tends to leave the shop wide open and people just walk through and steal things. The old differential shims are gone despite being in a hiding place in the van. I think he moved them and forgot that he did. I think one of the van's rim+tire is gone. If it is stolen, the person who stole it was an idiot. It's a 16.5" rim with a 20+ year old tire on it that I wouldn't trust very much. But I guess if that's the case... he.. or I.. will have to go get a used 16" tire and put on one of the 16" Ford rims I got.

So anyway.... yes. 3 months now and it's still not done. He's had all the parts to do the brakes for a month now... and it's still not done even.

I was about to have him do the brakes and pay for towing to get it taken to another shop but buying the tools are a better way to go. That way he can do it, it'll be done.. and I can resell the tools on ebay and recover most of the money I paid for them.

But.. he did do a ton of work on my old beat up daily driver car for me for only $50 to fix the leaking oil pump. So he did give me a good deal on that at least. He's not dishonest so much as scatter brained and over worked having to do all the work himself. Although... I had to go put the exhaust back on the car... my arms are skinny enough to get in there where his weren't. He said he fought with it for 30 minutes and couldn't get it. I walked over and had it on within 5 minutes. But it took him a week to do it.

After a week of riding my bike, I was happy as a clam to have the car back. I found myself NOT complaining about no AC in the car because I was so glad to have it back.. and.. without any oil leaks now.