Accrete's Chevy AWD & Ram Promaster projects

[accrete]

I posted this in context at a thread on seat swivel bases and thought it appropriate in my build thread.

for any new-model chevy owners that may come this way...

I had planed to have Van Specialties put in both driver and passenger front seat swivels. A couple days at their shop and i get a call explaining that the 2010 express now has a large cluster of the wireing harness between the seats in addition to the fuse box they already knew had to be moved in order to get the swivel on the driver side to work (which would have only swiveled a max of 90 degrees anyway so no big loss). After much discussion with others in the shop crew they determined moving the cluster and fuse box would be more than they wanted to get involved with... so we settled for only the passenger swivel. And though i can swivel the seat from inside with the door closed it is a bit of a chore as it's a tight fit.

[zuren]

Good to see your progress Accrete! I'll be interested to see pics of your fender flares once installed. There isn't much available for the Express vans out there.

[accrete]

Greetings Zuren, and all : )

as i type it is 40 and hailing outside, just another day on the coast. but. . .
tomorrow a coworker is letting my wife and i use his big shop to get out of the weather and do the flares and hood wrap.
pics will follow. yippie.

[Silver350]

Originally Posted by accrete

Greetings, December 2010 marks the beginnings of my wife and my van conversion project.

Converting the van will be easy, I don't think you'll have much success converting the other one.

Nice project by the way.

[accrete]

Originally Posted by Silver350

Converting the van will be easy, I don't think you'll have much success converting the other one.
Nice progect by the way.

LOL. Great catch on the verbage. And for the record...i think she _converted_ me many years ago!

[accrete]

CHILLLLLY ! it was in the mid 30's today and we were glad to have access to a nice shop to do some quick additions to the van.

We installed the FlexiFlares on all corners. We used model 195 but did not put the cable into the outer lip area, the flares fit nicely and held their shape around the gentle curve of the well. As stated elsewhere, these flares are 1.75" and honestly, they really are a tad to large if you want to open your slider all the way IF you are keeping the stock interior panel on the door. We are going to take ours off to see if the extra 1/2"?? will clear the flare (see update posted on Thu Jan 06, 2011 below. In a word? YES it clears without the stock panel). We can open the door about 2ft which is about 1/3 of the way into the flare from the front side. We also installed the Vortex mud flaps. Here is a picture of the front:



The real reason we installed these was to keep the dirt flinging to a minimum as our roads are wet most months here on the coast. I hope this helps!

Next on the agenda for today was putting on the 3m carbon fibre hood wrap. The product is amazing. Very tough, flexible, and forgiving during the install process. We also did the chevy emblem. The picture was taken in the shop and really dosn't do it justice. . .next sunny day i'll get a nicer one for the thread.



That's it for now. Thanks for stoping by and any comments.
Thom (& Cari)

[saabman]

Good job! I like the hood stuff the flares look good to and seem to cover the inner arch a bit too... Any pics of the rear flares?

[accrete]

This picture was taken New Years eve-day while playing in the dunes near our home on the Oregon Coast:



The time at my friends shop yesterday was enjoyable as my wife and i made some progress on the outside of the van. We spent about six hours installing the flexiflares, vortex mud flaps, and 3m Di-noc vinyl wrap. We are happy with the results and it is nice to see the van taking on a personality.

Here is a close up of the vinyl wrap. It is a nice finish and even has the texture of carbon fiber:



After seeing the results, cari suggested grabbing enough to do the lower trim area of the fiberine top...might be a nice add-on.

Here is a close up of front and rear flexiflares and vortex mud flaps:

I ended up hand painting the interior sheet metal and screws black with rustoleum to trim up the look.

Below are two pictures taken at the beach access after playing in the dunes for a bit : )





thx again for the visit to this thread. hope U enjoy the new year!

[accrete]

update on flexiflare clearance:
Cari and i took the interior panel off the slider to see if the door would clear the rear curb side 1.75" flexiflare...drum roll...
YES! i can see daylight between the lip of the flare and the metal interior of slider. We plan to create a thin board and place our themed fabric on it with some insulation behind in the door and call it good.



Also, after several days of driving on wet muddy roads here on the coast there is little if any sign of spray/splash on the kick between the wheels...so the flare/flap combo seems to be doing what we hoped for.

We are leaning toward the RB11 style floor plan at this point rather than the RB50 family. I have always gravitated toward the two long benches in the rear with dinette table. Seems like a nice place to chill out during incliment weather. And an easy fix to a queen sleep area at night (we will utilize the Froli sleep system for sofa benches and backs). We would have under-bench storage for the outing's activity (gold panning / kite flying / etc in the rear area) and dry food storage toward front (thinking of building in a inslutated cold-storage area on street side bench). lots to ponder yet.

[Silver350]

"we will utilize the Froli sleep system for sofa benches and backs"

What is a "Froli sleep system" ?