After endlessly showing pictures of vans to my wife for several years, the right opportunity came along. Hopefully this doesn't count as advertising as the wrap came on the van and is about half removed at this point.
A 1996 e350 cargo. 156,000 on the apparently invincible Ford 4.9L. Yep, an inline 6 ford with something like 170hp. Still an upgrade from my last camper which boasted 36hp.
Like most in the DIY van group, I have dreams, and there are necessities.
Necessities:
Remove the wrap job, this van is white. It's like the world's hardest gift to unwrap.
Add some thoughtfully placed windows... I teach high school, so I don't want this thing too creepy for too long.
Misc blemishes and wear and tear junkyard repairs.
Dreams: (ordered by likely priority)
1. Super sized westy/EB51 layout. Including plumbing and electrical. Plenty of carpentry/sewing experience to DIY.
2. 4inch lift w/o 4wd. Make new elongated radius arms(welded DOM steel), bump stop drops, have custom springs made, sway bar drops, relocate axle pivots, blocks and bolts out back. Anyone know of any compatible pitman arms with a drop?
3. DIY fiberglass top - I shape and repair paddleboards (not much surf since I left CA) so I have a vac press and glass experience to lay up my own top. I think?
4. DIY canvas and bunk.
5. 4wd swap. Maybe someday, who knows?
And and introduction:
As a teacher, DIY is a financial necessity. Since I have summer's off, I have more time than money. Hence digging, building, plumbing, and wiring my own 25,000 gallon inground pool two summer's ago. I teach physics and like math, so the engineering of the upgrades is as exciting as the build itself.
So I have an odd skill set, but am a master of none of these skills. I am sure to learn a great deal from this project as I already have from seeing so many of the builds others have posted. Thanks for the inspiration.