intro/build thread and our poorboy attempt at a campervan.

[jage]

Go to search and put bettyford in the search by author. It's salvage tops from smaller than full-size vehicles installed on a full size. Someone else did one, probably search for fiberglass as there was some discussion of repair IIRC.

[bettyford]

Originally Posted by shenrie

oh ya, duh. ive read every page of that betty ford thread. great setup, but we are wanting more head room if possible. heart is pretty set on a ccv top. time will tell if thats a reality or not. ive got a racecar im putting up for sale here twords the first of the year. it should yeild me enough to at least buy the top. then i just have to figure out when and how to get it installed, lol. appreciate the links regardless

i didnt see any info from the last link, but that meet looked like it was to have a great turnout. was there ever pix posted? id love to check them out.

Thanks guys for thinking of me.

Shenrie nice looking van and welcome to the forum.. you have found the place where grown men and women get to talk and spend lot of time and money doing what we love. It's the one thing none of my local good friends understand.

I do have 1 more top and it is for sale, As for wanting more head room the one thing you can do is almost anything you want its your build and then you can change it and change it and change it you get the picture.

The top I have doesnt have a tent to it (it wasnt any good) so you can have as much head room you want. In fact Im having a new tent made now because I dont want a high lift top just enough room to stand up. I think its only $400.00 with 4 windows.
Im in Jackson Hole so your just down the street.
Anyway If there is anything I can help with just let me know.

Have a good one

Ron

[shenrie]

Originally Posted by TomsBeast

You will be amazed at how much easier it is to build and maintain a racecar that doesn't ALSO have to be a street car. You'll also be amazed at how much better your focus becomes, how your driver skills move up a couple levels, now that you are able to 'push the envelope' a little more, not having to worry about getting home

never been fond of race only cars. i like to be able to take them out on the street and enjoy them to the fullest extent. plus theres nothing like handing ass to real racecars in a dd.

the wife and i also never hold back, and at times its been a flaw. we generally only race places where we have some kind of lifeline in case we do run into troubles. we are lookign forward to having the van setup so we can explore some real tracks and a few other hillclimbs around oregon that we have yet to attend.

Originally Posted by bettyford

Shenrie nice looking van and welcome to the forum.. you have found the place where grown men and women get to talk and spend lot of time and money doing what we love. It's the one thing none of my local good friends understand.

thanks ron! looking forward to being knowledgable enough to lend a hand to other noobs in the future, but for now, im just absorbing all i can from the many pages of info here.

and i guess i got it good as most my buddies are really excited for me to get started with this build. Getting lots of offers to help which will help more than they know. got some really smart cookies as friends. ive built 600+hp cars with some of them. watched some of them assemble blm firetrucks and pumper vehicles, and others doing crazy shit like full hydrolic setups in an old accord, and making passthroughs on old pickups, lol.

Originally Posted by bettyford

Im in Jackson Hole so your just down the street.
Anyway If there is anything I can help with just let me know.

im actually going to be staying in idaho falls from dec 22nd to jan 1st. hopeing to be spending some time in wilson making some turns on the pass in that timeframe. if our schedules work, id love to check out the top you have for sale and your van if possible. holidaze = family, but if you could spare an hour or so, maybe we can meetup??

so wanted to post up a few pix of the inside of our van to keep track of progress. the first ones are as the van appeared on the lot.

original owners installed non factory power windows. kinda handy, but not thrilled with where they put the controls (on dash).


the rear.



i asked the dealer if they could remove some stuff for us to help make room for our air matress. they said np and sent me these pix afterwards.



was better, but we underestimated how big our air matress was, so our friend in atlanta helped us remove everything but the very rear shelves. helped a lot and gave us room for our makeshift travel bed.

had a few hours today to actually mess with the van. first thing i did was remove the noiseyass lights off the roof. also removed all the hard wiring associated with them. helped out a ton with incab noise. should have done this before we left georgia, lol.

then took off one of the side panels to see what all the original owners did behind the paneling.


some insulation. im actually gonna leave this till i get time/money to buy the real stuff and do it right. thinking it will help with noise and heat for the rest of the winter.

then i started in on the floor. holy hell, this was installed to survive an appocolypse. screwed down all over the place, then slathered with glue and slapped on some type of vinyl. shit was on there good.


got one peice out before it started getting dark. was glad to see the original mat in place though.


for the fun of it being an avid autoxer, i threw some cones on the front. gets some good laughs from my racer buddies and adds to the "work truck" theme.



i dont know if this bumper is worth anything or not, but gonna throw it up on cl and see if i get any intrest. it just doesnt suit my needs. nice peice. setup for winch and all, but doesnt flow with body lines of van.

and to keep with the theme, i threw a ladder up on top.


still dont understand why the original pix i posted were so small, but i found a couple more of the original setup.

[bettyford]

I live in Wilson,

I own Rons Towing here in Jackson 307-733 TOWS (8697) give me a call and swing by the shop, I am heading to SF on the 23rd and will be back the 28th

See you soon.

Ron

PS.. bring that Light bar with you If you dont need it I will buy it from you.

[jage]

Those lights are the best tho. If I didn't have a fantastic fan there I'd be trying to buy them off you!

[shenrie]

lmao, ive grown really attached to the lights myself. thier a lot of fun and its a really nice setup, but i really dont need them and sooner or later they will get me into trouble. our local rally group offered to buy the setup from me for thier zero car. so i gave them dibbs, but im sure they will undercut the end price all to hell and offer me free entry fees to try and pursuade me etc, lol. pm me an offer ron. ill talk to the head honcho with the rally group and see if they were serious, if so, how serious and we can go from there.

got a need for a moosekiller bumper too? i know thats an issue over that way. package deal???

the main switch setup.


all the different functions. sorry for blurry pic, this camera doesnt like closeups.


and i will do my best to get over that way after the 28th too. just hoping for some good snow this year, but not so much that glory lets go and shuts down the fun, lol.

speaking or which. how long have you lived in wilson? my pops was telling me that there was a bridge built across the base of glory bowl at one point. he mentioned this when i told him about some large pieces of mangled metal we found up there riding in the spring one year. ever hear anything about a bridge there. i scoured the nets one year the avi danger was so high we couldnt ride and had time on my hands, but really never found anything concrete.

[kcernest]

That's awesome someone like you got this thing, I almost bought that van off ebay about 5 weeks ago. I was winning the auction until 5 seconds left and got sniped by a deadbeat buyer. I offered to buy it off line but found and bought a quigley e350 ambulance in the three days it took him to get back to me. Good for you I suppose!

Don't know if you got the history on it or not. It was a South Carolina Power company service vehicle. It had a vise and winch on the front when I was bidding on it. Looks like they took those off and repainted the bumper.

Glad to hear it made it all the way back across the country with no probs. Have fun with it!

[shenrie]

^^^ crazy. had no idea it was even on ebay. i never saw it and (i thought) i was looking daily. what did the bidding get up to if you dont mind me asking?

I got it from a carlot in augusta that pretty much only sold work related vehicles. every vehicle on thier lot was fleet white. they told me they got it at a local auction. they also had no idea what it was worth...

ive also tried to contact the company (south carolina gas & electric) who originally owned it to try and get maintenance records, but no callbacks yet.

[bettyford]

Nope dont need the bumper< and I dont really need the light bar, give it to the dudes at the track.
as for the bridge yes they built it finished the day before the big storm and an avalanche took the bridge, oops!

Ron

[shenrie]

thats crazy about the bridge. would love to see some pix of it. any ideas where to look?

finished the "unbuild" of the floor. still have to pull the mat back and fill all the screw holes with some kind of silicone, but what a night and day difference. its super quiet inside while driving now. no more rattles and the road noise was easily cut in half.


can anyone tell me if the cargo vans have the spots to mount rear seats/seatbelts? or how does that work? found a guy here locally with a rolled 15 passenger and all the seats are in good shape. was thinking about picking them up if the price was right for a roadtrip in feb.