I typed up this post... hit submit... and the forums had logged me out so the post was lost... Here's a second try.
I've been busy since my last post. First, I had to finish up that flooring trim. The last section was the back door. I started off by cutting my flooring to a nice straight edge. The contoured edge looked nice and was efficient, but it was going to be really hard to trim out. I'm much happier with this approach:
The next order of business was installing the second battery. I've had a sweet spot above the passenger side wheel in mind for a while. I built a custom tray that bolts into the existing holes in the wheel well. I cut the tray out of some shop scrap with the plasma cutter, bent the edges with the table clamp, and welded the corners together.
After a test fit, I felt like I wanted a little extra support so I extended an arm down to another existing hole in the wheel well. That finished off my fabrication so I ground it down with a wire brush a bit and painted it yellow.
Once dry, I installed the tray. I laid down a piece of flooring scrap as a pad. The flooring is battery acid resistant. I used a bungee strap to keep the battery in place.
I started to build out wheel well covers (pics below) but stopped working to go on a camping trip. Driving home from that trip, my rear fuel tank stopped delivering gas to the engine. I've long suspected the rear fuel pump was bad so I just went and got a new one.
I asked a friend to help. First we had to drain and drop the tank:
Once down, I found that the terminal leads were filthy. This may have been the problem. I replaced the pump regardless. We also spent some time carefully cleaning everything up. We managed to get rid of a lot of crud without knocking anything into the tank.
Once that annoying fuel pump task was out of the way, I started back to work on the interior. The first pic below was work completed before the fuel pump installation. I used scrap from around the shop to make wheel well covers. The pieces were cut on a table saw and assembled with finishing nails and wood glue. I did a fair bit of pilot hole drilling in the process.
After some trimming and sanding, I used 3M spray adhesive to attach a carpet cover to the wood. I'll use simple L brackets to keep them in place. They will ultimately be covered up by the build, but I sure like the carpet.
Yesterday, I spent a few hours with a girlfriend taping out a floor plan inside the van. I'm really excited about some of the ideas we've had and can't wait to get something built. I still have a lot of technical challenges. Today I was working, again, on the rear doors. They don't seal right and the latch isn't working right. It must be a pleasure to be building on a new van!
Anyway... I'm making a little progress and it feels real good!