repurposed g-3

[jochi]

We had a 03' smb I built in 04. great ride for several years but when things went south in mexico, we went west to Hawaii for our vacations so I sold it 4 or 5 years ago. last year I started thinking about getting a crew cab and a cabover, but clearly its problematic when rv parking around your house is an issue. besides I just wanted to keep whatever truck I got inside my shop, but it has to fit under the 8' garage door. still I have no place to store the cabover.
then one day out of the blue my 12yo daughter said, why don't you get another smb. wow! that's a simple solution! so I started looking last year. having owned one, I knew what I wanted and didn't want. I like the g-3 color. I wanted better fuel mileage. (my first van had the v-10), so 4x4 was out and besides our adventures were gonna be on road. I wanted the slider door because I like the bigger window and I like the bigger opening you get with the one door. and of course an eb 350.
so I started searching. first the dealer for a new 2014. forgettaboutit! sold out. looked for local used vans and built pre owned on smb west. for months and months I looked. that's cool, not in any particular hurry. then one day I looked at a site on the east coast and found this 2007 g-3 5.7 with grey interior (seats and dash) really clean and 16k miles. an ex government vehicle. a few weeks later its in my driveway fresh from florida. perfect!
I was able to have smb in fresno do the electric penthouse earlier in the year. and after I got it back I did a 4' inch lift from action vans and It looks great, handles well and it matches the height of my boat trailer a lot better. I also added an extra leaf kit on the rear from action vans, to help with the extra weight, changed the exhaust, added a rearview camera with the stereo upgrade and I decide to go with the stock rims and covers but upgraded the tires to 275's from hankook.
currently the van is back up at smb fresno getting the interior done.
heres a few pics, i'll get some more up when I get it back.

[daveb]

Glad you found your vehicle...looks good. Glad to hear that SMB still will do interiors now that the Fords are gone.

[Tomboy]

What kind of time estimate did they give you to complete the work? I talked to them recently about the interior of our van and they said 14 months!

[jochi]

Thanks Dave. Yeah, I just assumed they were still doing them. I had a dealer tell me sportsmobile bought the last cargo vans in 2014, so I figured they had some in stock. When I dropped the van off a week ago, they must've had 10-12 sprinters fresh from the factory in the lot. Who knows how many in production and maybe 5-8 in the showroom. In fact, I only saw one completed e-series. Wow! Pretty cool Allen has been able to retool his business to work with the sprinters. Interestingly, I was asking Nick what they did with the 4x4 systems for the e-series vans and he told me they still have enough parts to do more, but only on the 6.8 rides. they can't do the diesels any longer.

Tomboy- I feel your pain. I gave them a deposit for a spot on the assembly line in march for this month and they say about 3 months for a build. So 14 months is about right. It works out good for me. I'm not in any particular hurry. Actually I'm pretty happy that they're working with me on this.

I'm getting the rb-50 plan. I ordered an aluminess spare tire carrier that I'll install myself when I get it back. I also have the ats running boards on an endless backorder.