Polar Bear 1

[REF]

Thanks, yes, drive it almost daily. Done a couple of mods since that pic, but more or less looks the same. Was out of town for 2 months this past summer, made it back in time for the epic floods, was nice to have the rig for that. See you around....

[Yodavan]

Originally Posted by Zaskoda

I would definitely dig that!

Meanwhile, I caught a nice shot of the bear as my Apogaea base camp last week:

Hey Zaskoda we may have a mutual friend(smooth)who sent me the pic of your bear at Apogaea. We were there in 2012.

[Zaskoda]

Originally Posted by Yodavan

Hey Zaskoda we may have a mutual friend(smooth)who sent me the pic of your bear at Apogaea. We were there in 2012.

If it's the "Smooth" I know, he's our Quartermaster! =D

[Zaskoda]

So it's been a long time since my last post. I moved to Seattle into an apartment complex and had to park in the parking garage. I wasn't able to do any work there. Recently I've relocated to a house an I'm able to actually work on her again. Hooray!

Here's a pic I took in Yellowstone on the way from CO to WA:



The heater I got from Nomadcat worked GREAT. It was way into the negative double digits and we stayed toasty warm all night long. =)

This has been such a long running project. More than a few times I've thought about selling her and cutting my losses. But things have changed so maybe I can actually get this done?

I just put the very first board int he van since moving here well over a year ago! I've started in the overhead shelf for the front. I needed a solid surface to anker to. I came up with this:



I decided to take the radio down as I think I want to put a screen for a backup camera there instead. I might put the radio behind the driver or just get a handheld.

I also started thinking about the last cabinet, the one behind the driver. I decided I didn't want to hinder my reclining front seat if I can help it. A few scraps of wood balanced in place suggest it's totally reasonable:



Otherwise, mostly I've been fixing stuff that's broken in the last couple of years. That's a lot of stuff. I gotta say, there's a lot about Washington that makes it worth having a van:



So maybe next time I post I'll have something interesting to show off.

[86Scotty]

Good to have you back around Zaskoda. I've always enjoyed your creativity and contributions. Glad you can get back in to it again.

[Zaskoda]

Thanks98Scotty =)

My biggest news with this post is the addition of a battery charger. I cut the sidewall and dropped a 110v plug through to the inside that connect to a power strip and a genuis 4amp battery charger with a lead heading back to the house battery. I now have the most basic form of on-board power.



I also previous posted photos of lights attached to my rack using some complicated brackets. I thought I over-built them, but but they didn't last long against branches on the trail. I took them all down and today Jen helped me install 4 new flood lights. I put 3/4" plywood down on the rack as a temporary platform for Burning Man (yeah, I'm taking her there again). So we just bolted the flood lights right into the platform. I'm trying to find that sweet spot between having the lights out far enough that they are still useful yet set back enough that branches won't harm them. We'll see how this iteration does.

[Gh0ztkid21]

Just wondering how you bent the aluminum angle iron around the step area? I am in the process of finishing off my side step area and want to do the same thing and want to make a nice smooths curve to the angle iron to follow the smoothie curve I put in the plywood. I didn't want to make a 90* corner and cut and bend the angle iron bc I like the curve of the step. Just can't figure out how to do that curve myself lol

[Zaskoda]

Originally Posted by Gh0ztkid21

Just wondering how you bent the aluminum angle iron around the step area? I am in the process of finishing off my side step area and want to do the same thing and want to make a nice smooths curve to the angle iron to follow the smoothie curve I put in the plywood. I didn't want to make a 90* corner and cut and bend the angle iron bc I like the curve of the step. Just can't figure out how to do that curve myself lol

Do you mean the front door steps? I used the factory metal for trim on the curve. I may have even had to find it in the junk yard. Here's a shot:

Finish Door Well

[Gh0ztkid21]

Ok great. Thank you I didn't know that was the factory trim edge like that. I guess they did away with that style and went with the plastic molded step. I want to build my edge like yours in aluminum and have seen guys take 1"X1" angle iron and bend curves in it just not sure how. That's what I thought you did there.

[Zaskoda]

I thought I would make an update and it turns out it can really be summed up in two photos.

There's been a little of this happening:

Enclosed Heater and Sub

And a whole lot of things like this broken dipstick. It was a real trick to retrieve the piece still in the tube.

Broken Dipstick