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Old 05-14-2021, 10:22 AM   #1
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Kiki 06 Ford E-350, 6.0 Diesel, Van Conversion

Hello everyone,

This is Karen. She just to be really uptight, caused by years of being stuffed full of crap and used and abused commercially. Just when she thought she had enough, some ************** millennials got ahold of her, brought her out to California, and showed her how to shake that sweet dash. Now Karen has a whole new lease and perspective on life. She is ready for her makeover and to make new van friends. She's changed her name to Kiki and now lives by the motto "Grab life by the balls." -Kiki, or Karen, 2020.

Kiki is a 2006 Ford E-350, Extended Commercial Cargo Van, 6.0 Diesel. We bought this van to both adventure in and tow an offroad truck. That is why we picked this platform. There aren’t many vans with a great towing capacity. We aren’t planning to live in it so we don’t plan to go overboard on the electrical system. We're Jon and Mara. Nice to meet you all

Plans:

Platform -
Custom 30" Hightop.
CL rear side windows on drivers and passengers side
Polyiso Insulation
Sound deadening
Laminate Flooring
Roof rack (ideally one we can sit on for when we go to races)

Motor -
Bulletproof EGR
Tuner
Oil bypass filter
Coolant filter

Front Suspension -
I’ll either buy weldtecs 4” ocotillo lift or build my own beams and radius arms that raises it closer to 2” and pushes it forward ~1.5”. I don't want to lift it too much because I'll be towing and it will have a lot of weight up top. Fox Shocks. I’d like to run 33” tires.

Rear Suspension -
1-2” lift blocks. Airbags. Fox Shocks. Differential Locker

Kitchen -
Full size sink
Accumulator
Induction Stove
10 gallon tank, under cab
5 gallon drinking water
Fridge
PEX plumbing

Wet Bathroom -
Compost Toilet
2.5 Gallon Boush heater
10 gallon tank, under cab

Sleeping -
Main bed will be on a lift and stored against the ceiling
Table will turn into a bed

Climate -
Eberspacher diesel heater
Roof Vent
Roof AC

Electrical -
400 Watt solar
TBD Ah Battery bank

Details and part numbers will be added as we figure things out. We're super excited to start this build (after I finish the truck)
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Old 05-14-2021, 10:30 AM   #2
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I'm moving this thread over from expeditionportal so please bare with me.

Is everyone using photo hosting sites instead of attaching the pics? Thanks
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Old 05-14-2021, 10:32 AM   #3
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This is the project truck she'll be towing. Jon designed and built the whole truck himself. The plan is to do all the necessary research and design of the van while the truck is finished
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Old 05-14-2021, 06:57 PM   #4
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You two got PROJECTS!! But very cool ones

I just pull pics off my computer, no hosting pics.
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2002 e350 window eb,
7.3
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Conversion in process. Lol
Denver, CO
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Old 05-14-2021, 07:25 PM   #5
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Garage
Welcome.
Your list seems to be missing the last entry - Missed by many, but most crucial to the budget...usually just labeled as "Miscellaneous" - this is the one that will cost you dearly.
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Old 05-17-2021, 11:50 AM   #6
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Ahh the dreaded "miscellaneous". It doesn't hurt as much if I don't track that.
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Old 05-17-2021, 11:55 AM   #7
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I built a coffee table as my first wood project. Good practice before I start building the cabinetry.
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Old 05-17-2021, 11:56 AM   #8
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I finished replacing the ball joints and swapped in new shocks. I tried to get fox shocks for the front and rear but weldtec doesn't sell them by themselves and Agile wasn't responsive enough to get the order through. I feel like there's a market to sell shocks to non-lifted/non-4x4 vans so I'm not sure what their deals were. I ended up going with bilstein comfort shocks (33-176840, 33-187563 ). I found the best deal here: https://www.shocksurplus.com/product...super-duty-rwd. I don't plan to do a ton of offroading so I probably didn't need the fox anyway. It drives night and day different. The old shock were completely blown. I like the new shocks so far but I don't have a lot of miles on them yet.
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Old 05-17-2021, 12:11 PM   #9
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I swapped to towing mirrors. Somehow my drivers side and passenger side doors are different. I think my drivers door got replaced after an accident by the previous owner. These are the mirrors I got, https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Manual....72.m2749.l2649

The passenger side mirror was cake. The drivers side however required a lot of modification. This is the video I used for reference,

Step 1: Mark where the holes need to be with a sharpie

Step 2: Drill the holes. I first did a pilot hole on the exterior and used the pilot hole to locate the interior hole. Each support is a different diameter. I went 1/8" over on each support using a step drill. The interior holes i did 1"

Step 3: Paint the holes (one of the extra holes wasn't from me...). I used POR-15. At first I wasn't really happy with how thin it went on, maybe i didn't shake it enough. But after it dried, it was a really hard enamel paint so I'm beginning to like it again.

Step 4: I've seen people remove the studs that come on the mirror with a bolt and fender washer but I decided to machine some spacers. I slotted the bolt holes because the studs we're centered in the interior holes I made
Flange OD: 1.25"
Flange THK: 0.125"
Body OD: 1.00"
Overall LG: 2x were 0.5" and 1x was .75"
Bore Dia: 0.75"
Bore Depth: 0.375" and 0.625"
Slot: 0.25" OD x 0.125" LG

The mirror lined up perfect. I'm really happy with these tow mirrors
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mirror 1.jpg   mirror 2.jpg   mirror 3.jpg   mirror 4.jpg   mirror 5.jpg  

mirror 6.jpg   mirror 7.jpg   mirror 8.jpg   mirror 9.jpg   mirror 10.jpg  

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Old 06-10-2021, 11:23 AM   #10
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Also got the stereo in
Stereo: https://www.crutchfield.com/S-Dlw3wO...H-1500NEX.html
Wiring Harness: https://www.autozone.com/electrical-...uper-duty/2006
Mounting Adapters: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Step 1: Wire the harness. I just did color to color since the pioneer instructions didn't have a wiring guide. The only tricky one is the orange for the dimmer. you can connect the orange to orange/black or orange/white. I did orange/black but I'm not sure if that correct. The green wire is for the parking brake to allow for media to play. I'm just going to leave it unhooked for now or bypass it later if I feel like I need to watch videos on there.


Step 2: Cut the stereo hole bigger. The top and bottom just need to be ground flush. I didn't touch the sides. You can probably do this with the dash in but I already had it out.


Step 3: I showed how I ran the aux and USB in a previous post since this doesn't have the connectors on the face. I also had to run the mic to the visor for hands free talking.

Step 4: Install the mounting brackets. Since the Ford uses a non-standard size there's no place for a standard din stereo to mount. This grabs onto the side flanges in the dash

Step 5: Make the electrical connections. The stereo just pushes in the front. I don't believe there's a way to remove the stereo without removing the entire dash piece and unscrewing the mounts so be sure you're ready for that step when you do it.


The speakers seems to work and the apple play works on Mara's phone. I haven't had a chance to connect it to my droid to check that compatibility but I'm happy with the stereo so far
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