Nemesisnight - The Van Story

[nemesisnight]

So we have been enjoying our van as much as possible and I still haven't gotten around to updating this thread to present day, haha. So around Jan to finish getting my van ready I ended up refreshing the 7.3l engine since it had 206k miles I figured why not. I did quite a bit a work and mostly myself and I have not ever worked on a diesel engine and Im honestly not much of a mechanic but im good with my hands and figured I would give it a shot. Too much info to post so if you want to read about it the thread is here:
http://www.sportsmobileforum.com/forums/f33/need-help-refreshing-a-7-3l-18837.html

[nemesisnight]

Now onto the project of the week......new flooring before I leave to camp for the weekend at Bear Lake. Like most projects I thought I could bust it out in a day or 2 and its taken all week with every free moment I have had till 2am most nights and I am still not quite done lol. I tore out the old carpet and rediculously thick carpet pad and put down 2 layers of cork padding and some nice thick vinyl plank wood flooring (this stuff seems great for a van, super durable, looks nice and all plastic so 100% waterproof).

Tearing out and scraping all the nasty glued padding (hard to do without damaging the cheap pressed plywood they used)
The brackets were also a pain trying to have my 5yr old son wrench a socket from the top while I was under the van, a couple were also under my grey water tank so I had to drop that and ended up keeping some of the rear seatbelt ones that were under my propane generator that is in the spare tire location.

[nemesisnight]

I had to remove the whole drivers side sink, heater, pantry, bench, etc. Not a fun task but very doable, not as fun to put back together that's for sure. I ended up not taking the drivers side cabinets or bench out due to time constraints and energy. There is all the batteries and electrical boxes, old broken power inverter etc under that bench and I just didn't feel like messing with that at the moment, maybe someday or maybe ill just leave it. The carpet is fine under there and keeps whatever I throw under there in the free space from sliding around. Happy with the results so far, its nice to get rid of that 20 year old dirty carpet.

[BrianBlair]

I've been thinking about doing the conversion away from carpet. Glad to see photos of the process!

Did you wind up needing any sort of trim/moulding to hide the carpet edges at the base of the cabinets/bench or were you able to get it all cut flush/hidden?

Where are you camping in Big Bear? Those are my local mountains, let me know if you need any ideas.

[nemesisnight]

Originally Posted by BrianBlair

I've been thinking about doing the conversion away from carpet. Glad to see photos of the process!

Did you wind up needing any sort of trim/moulding to hide the carpet edges at the base of the cabinets/bench or were you able to get it all cut flush/hidden?

Where are you camping in Big Bear? Those are my local mountains, let me know if you need any ideas.

Yea its so annoying trying to keep carpet clean while camping, doesn't just easily sweep out and any spills make it nasty. I know a lot of people put the plastic coin flooring in but I don't love the industrial look and that seems harder to install as I would have for sure needed to pull everything out to get it stretched and I think this vinyl plank will be more durable as its a harder material. Probably more slippery though too, ah well I also like the look of Cork flooring but a lot of the click together kind had cheap MDF in the middle that would end up swelling when wet (not good in a van). I will have to end up putting some type of molding there along the bench and possibly even the side I replaced because the bench seat doesn't sit back on it completely flat from end to end (maybe a dip in the floor, I don't know). The old padding was so thick that even with 2 layers of the cork padding (seemed like a good idea for sound proofing, some insulation and waterproof) and the flooring it was still not as tall as the carpet. I will either just use some sort of quarter round of am also considering some aluminum L channel butted up and think that would look pretty nice , could be countersunk and screwed in and be a good contrast, that's what I am using on the rear door and side door edges as well so it would all match if I go that route.

I'm actually going to the Utah/Idaho bear lake (seems like every state has a Bear Lake its confusing) But if I ever head that way I will defiantly hit you up.

[nemesisnight]

Decided to trim it off with some aluminum L channel with stainless screws



I also finally replaced the old rusted out 110v water heater. I contemplated doing propane or diesel or a coolant line option but in the end a 3 gal 110v again was just cheap and easy and it heats up fast and stays warm for almost a day so I can preheat at home and have water for awhile then if it's multiple days I have a propane generator that I can easily fire up to warm it real quick so that was the simplest option that made sense for only $200.


Does anyone know if I should have a pipe coming out of the top of my water heater where the expansion tank adds and have it drain to the bottom of the van? My old heater had that and I'm not sure if it's necessary or why they even had that, will water ever come out of that if the vale isn't released....

[lugee]

I am planning to tackle the carpet project sometime in the future. Ugh, I do not look forward to it. Did you just scrap off all the glued padding?

[nemesisnight]

Yup just scraped and scraped and scraped, its a pain and mine seemed extra super thick, must have been a cold weather package or something. Good luck it's a pain but so nice to get rid of, we have been loving the new floors, transforms the van big time by just doing that and it's so much easier to keep clean and sweep out.

[capnkurt]

[QUOTE=

Does anyone know if I should have a pipe coming out of the top of my water heater where the expansion tank adds and have it drain to the bottom of the van? My old heater had that and I'm not sure if it's necessary or why they even had that, will water ever come out of that if the vale isn't released....[/QUOTE]

Yes - you definitely want to replace the relief valve pipe. That's there to route the water safely away if the pressure inside the water tank were to ever rise high enough to open that relief valve. In the unlikely event that were to happen, the water would spray all over inside your cabinetry and ruin a lot of woodwork.

capn

[nemesisnight]

Originally Posted by capnkurt

Yes - you definitely want to replace the relief valve pipe. That's there to route the water safely away if the pressure inside the water tank were to ever rise high enough to open that relief valve. In the unlikely event that were to happen, the water would spray all over inside your cabinetry and ruin a lot of woodwork.

capn

Thx Capn, was thinking my question went unnoticed, appreciate it.