Meet Ron: Another Van Conversion Story

[Cyrull]

Originally Posted by mothgils

Looks great Cyrull!

Any pics of the install process showing how you mounted the top down? I have been keeping my eyes peeled locally for a top from a junkyard but no luck yet. Seeing threads like yours and shadetreevanman's give me hopes I could tackle the project myself.

Thanks!

I don't think Rob or I took any of those photos. Since it was a salvage we just lined up the the roof so it was centered and started plugging away screwing it down into the sheet metal. Once that was done we took the metal trim piece and lined up the holes.

After all that was done I began to liberally apply caulking on the inside of the van to seal it up. It was actually pretty straight forward, prepping actually took most of the time I think.

I know your exact feeling, this was a monumental task for me and I probably would have paid the 5K to Tufport if Rob didn't offer to help me (honestly it felt more like me assisting him lol). Shadetreevanman's thread was also a great resource and there are many more in this community.

I am happy I can finally contribute! Best of luck with your project, feel free to ask any questions here or via pm!

[shadetreevanman]

You gotta admit Cyrull, after the stress of cutting that big hole, actually mounting the top was too easy. Overall adding the top is the easiest part of the job. Trimming it out and wiring everything up is the harder part. But that first cut though...

[Cyrull]

Originally Posted by shadetreevanman

You gotta admit Cyrull, after the stress of cutting that big hole, actually mounting the top was too easy. Overall adding the top is the easiest part of the job. Trimming it out and wiring everything up is the harder part. But that first cut though...

That's why I got Rob to make the first cut! See how its all nice and straight till the last bit? That's where I took over

[JWA]

Originally Posted by shadetreevanman

You gotta admit Cyrull, after the stress of cutting that big hole, actually mounting the top was too easy. Overall adding the top is the easiest part of the job. Trimming it out and wiring everything up is the harder part. But that first cut though...

Even being a former body shop owner where cutting things was for money I'd have a tough time making holes that big in the roof.

Its not a tough job in the physical sense, not with power tools and so on. Measure 20, 30 times before cutting would be my way.

Good job on both the cutting and the installation---the fun begins immediately after all that.

[Nrobert10]

Joe it was a pleasure helping you drastically change your van. Looking forward to following the rest of the transformation.

As far as cutting the hole in the roof, I installed my poptop and measured 30+ times before that first cut. I helped another member prior to Cyrull’s install a salvaged hightop and cutting a hole in someone else’s van is actually much easier(lol)!

As said earlier the hightop install is fairly quick it’s the prep work and finishing out the top that take the longest.

[Cyrull]

Thanks Rob, let me know if you need a hand if you want to swap that pop top out for the EB high top .

[Cyrull]

It's been a while since the last update and I've receive a bunch of new stuff for the build since.

As I haven't had time to start gutting my interior I began to work on my electrical system. I haven't really figured out my layout so I ended up building a battery box to power our new ARB 50QT fridge! This thing is awesome, I was initially running it off our starter battery but wanted to avoid that as much as possible.

I decided to go with (Two) 6V 210AH AGM Batteries. I bought a box that fit both batteries and ordered a rocker panel, battery monitor, dual busbar, and a quick disconnect for my 180W portable solar panels.

Overall is was pretty easy to make and the wiring seem pretty straight forward. I wired the battery monitor and will be wiring my maxx fan to the rocker panel as well.

I finally got everything I need to start insulating the van, I went with the following:
72 SQ FT of Noico 80 Mil
36 SQ FT of Noice 170 Mil
500 SQ FT of Tempshield Reflectix
50 SQ FT of Thinsulate 600

Just need to find a weekend to take a the panels off to prep the interior surface of the van! We've been using the van a lot on weekend camping trips its hard to find time to work on the van, couple pics from our adventures over the last few weeks.