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Old 12-13-2015, 09:15 PM   #31
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Hello SMB People,
I got my van back from the fabricator and he did a great job with the seat mount. The seat is in, I've usable seat belts in all three positions, I may do something different with the seat belts later.

He welded in threaded pucks into the van floor for the mount bolts so it is secured similar to the way the factory seats are done. We installed silicone washers in the plywood floor so the mounts aren't compromising the plywood flooring over time.

I was able to get all of the base flooring cut and installed. The final step will be to remove it all, clean the floors and walls, seal any holes in the floor and install the vinyl or loncoin flooring. I'm also at the point where I'm ready to purchase my electrical components (battery bank, inverter/charger, solar and controller, frig, etc.) so I need to get that done and planned out before I finalize. I'm planning a different post to ask a few specific questions about the components I have in mind. I"m also planing to pull the headliner and upper walls, install insulation throughout and build some custom panels and likely change up the headliner some too.

Here are some photos from the seat mount and base flooring.

Seat is from a 2014 Chevy Tahoe









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Old 12-13-2015, 09:18 PM   #32
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More photos:













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Old 12-13-2015, 09:24 PM   #33
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More photos again:






























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Old 12-13-2015, 09:55 PM   #34
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That looks great! And super functional. Who is your fabricator - that looks like nice work.
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Old 12-14-2015, 05:22 AM   #35
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Very nice work indeed---feels great making progress huh?

it seems the Denali seat is almost a perfect fit----an interesting option for others thinking along the same paths as Mr JBoles.
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Old 12-14-2015, 08:08 AM   #36
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The fabricator is Ray Sines out of Pikeville, TN. He is wizard with a welder. I'd be glad to get folks in touch with him. Please PM if you want his contact info.

JWA,
I wasn't able to physically see one of these seats before I bought it. When it showed up I first thought it was too big. You can fit three fat Americans in this seat for sure. But after getting in and assuming I may eventually have kids seats on it, I think its about right. Any smaller and it wouldn't be comfortable for three seats.


At first I was also looking for a seat that folds to a bed, but had to conceed on that for all the other options I needed; fold and roll forward, safe seatbelts, etc.

Justin
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Old 12-14-2015, 08:09 AM   #37
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*two kid seats
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Old 12-14-2015, 12:03 PM   #38
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Thanks for the info. I'm nowhere near Tennessee right now, but if I ever am I'll PM you! Seems I always have a list of things I'd like to do "if I knew of a good fabricator."

I used to do a lot of whitewater kayaking "back in the day," and the way you have your van set up was the classic kayaking/traveling van setup (with old school Fords or G20 Chevies ). Only difference being we just had typical three-person bench seats, so no clever flipping, etc. But for road tripping with gear they were a great setup! Comfortable seating for five, a huge (high) bed behind the bench seat, and TONS of open/versatile gear storage under the bed, accessible from the back doors. You've refined that considerably with the new seat arrangement.
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Old 02-28-2016, 07:48 AM   #39
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Roof rack and Roof Vent

Progress has been very slow however I've done quite a few big items in the last couple of months. I purchased two sets of Vantech utility racks. I had to size them up in regards to where the roof vent would be installed. After that I had to get a section of the steel roll cage cut out and rewelded to make room for the roof vent. That was nerve racking letting someone grind and weld inside my van.

After that I was able to permanently install the roof rack. I plan on installing a full length/width platform. I'd like to do a steel fabricated deal but my just do decking boards for now as a cheap option.

Once that was done I made the plunge and cut a 14" square hole in the roof. The MaxxFan went in very well. I may write up some more detail later but I thought I'd try to post up some photos of all this now.

Here is my album on this site with a bunch of photos. I thought I'd try this route, I've been using photobucket and posting links to each photo in the past but don't have time to do that right now.

http://www.sportsmobileforum.com/for...albums927.html



I wanted to post up a photo of myself so you all could see what I look like. LOL.



Here you can see the steel roll cage piece that goes straight down the center of the van. I had this one, the front section, removed and placed one on either side, leaving the middle section open so I could cut in and install the roof vent.



Here you can see where the middle section was cut out. And where the two sections were welded in. This is looking back at the center cross member with the four corners of the 14" opening drilled in.


















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Old 04-21-2016, 10:59 AM   #40
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I've been moving forward with some build items. For a while I was waiting to purchase my batteries, wiring, separator (ACR), etc. but the funds aren't there right now. I moved on to installing the final flooring and I have a plan to install the battery wiring through the floor after I've got my final plywood and flooring material installed.

I have also removed all the panels in the headliner area and installed reflectix throughout. My plan is to install two layers of reflectix and also some unbacked insulation in the areas of the roof/headliner that will have deadspace.

I purchased a 6' x 12' piece of Loncoin to put over my plywood flooring. The specific type is called Lonpoint Moonwalk. I looked at several different types of flooring including what is available locally at Lowes, etc. I almost went with a cheaper garage vinyl type flooring available for about $200 from Home Depot. In the end the wife and I wanted to add some color to the van so we chose the Lonpoint in primary red. The van is sea of gray so we thought it would be fun to mix it up. We plan to add some wood stained cabinets and some other fabric colors/patterns on the wall panels and headliner. Here are some photos of where I'm at now. I plan to re-install the plywood flooring once I have all the holes sealed up, etc. I'm excited to get the lonpoint installed, put the seat back in and reinstall the bed for a few upcoming trips.

The Moonwalk has rough raised coins, somewhat smaller coins that other Loncoin products. It comes in primary yellow, blue and red as well as assortment grays, tans, etc. With shipping to TN, 1/2 gal of epoxy and a trowel I paid right at $450 for the flooring. Quite the expensive purchase when other lesser quality products could have done the trick. However, you only do this once, ever, so that was my selling point. And the red color was a big driver as well.



I ordered the epoxy form Lonseal. More than I need but wanted to hit the easy button.


I patched the existing seat holes with RTV Silicone with gorilla tape on top. Not the best way to do it I'm sure but should be fine over the life of the van to seal out water and help reduce road noise through the holes. If I has a welder I probably would have just welded over the holes but I don't and I didn't feel like paying someone to do that.



This is one of the threads welded in for my seat install. This was the first time I had personally seen the welds as the flooring and seat were installed over top when I got it back from the fabricator. Continually impressed with the work. The bench seat and mounts unbolted with ease, none of it was forced together, etc. Hopefully it goes back in as easy as it came out.


You can see the reflectix up top and all the patch locations on the floor.
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