"Vandit" A Build Thread

[aarcaris]

Update on Window Covers:
-After only about a week after we dropped off the material we got our other custom window covers back from the local upholstery shop and they turned out great! I supplied them the material (Fabric, Bias Banding, Insulation, and Magnets), window templates, plans for stitch layouts and magnet locations, and one of the Vanmade gear covers for reference. They really knocked it out of the park. Super stoked to have all matching covers that are water-resistant, foldable/stowable, attach with magnets, fully block out all light from inside or outside, and are insulated. It seems like a pretty small thing to have completed, but feels like a huge win for us! I still need to pull off the window shroud and glue in magnets to the backside of the plastic to ensure a perfect fit, but as you can see in the pictures they are already fitting great without the magnets installed and should only get better.

Side 60/40 Door Window Covers


Rear Passenger & Driver Window Covers



Comparison of Custom cover to Vanmdae Driver Door Cover


Side Pop Out 60 Door Window Cover In place. No Magnets Installed In Door


Side Door Window Covers 40 Door No Magnets Installed In Door



Side Door Window Covers 60/40 Doors No Magnets Installed In Doors


Rear Door Window Covers Passenger and Driver No Magnets Installed In Door


Front Cab Doors Vanmade Window Covers For Reference


Window Covers From outside



Side 60/40 Doors Window Covers

[Twoxentrix]

Impressive work, those look fantastic!

[BroncoHauler]

Excellent!
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[marret]

Plus 3, look great.

[aarcaris]

Small Update:

-Few small updates for Vandit before we headed out on a trip along the Oregon coast.

-Added in an AMI billet locking fuel door. Thanks to a fellow forum member for passing on a link for it. It seems like they are getting harder to find now! I did make a slight modification of pulling the bolts out and painting them black that way it blends in a little more with the van.

-Then I started the process of adding magnets for my windows covers. I pulled each shroud off, placed the window cover inside the shroud, and let the magnets locate themselves on the backside. After some slight adjusting, I was able to get them to fit very nicely. I then marked the location with a sharpie and glued them in place. After the glue dried I covered the entire backside of the window shroud with some ⅛” foam I found on Amazon in hopes that it would help deaden some of the plastic sounds of the shroud. After using them for one full trip it seems like not only did the window covers work great so did the foam and stopping some of the creaking sounds we heard from the shrouds.

-Next thing I did was add a 4” cleanout port to my freshwater tank. Still need to find the best solution to getting rid of the plastic taste, but it’s much better now that I can get inside the tank to clean it as well as had any cleaning solutions.

Before (view of the tank without fill panel behind the seat)


After

-I was having problems with GPS location while using wireless Apple Carplay with the new head unit, so I decided to replace the GPS antenna and relocate it to the center of the dash. Since I had to take apart the entire dash to do this I also decided to add a few USB charging ports to the dash. The two on the far passenger side are directly plugged into the head unit for wired Apple Carplay/USB functions and the other two are just your standard Blue Sea Fast Charge USB ports. They worked great on the trip and the antenna swap fixed the problems I was having.

-I took a chance on a random Amazon find for a Bluetooth controller as I have missed being able to switch songs quickly like in my Tacoma. It connects to my phone Via Bluetooth and runs off batteries. So far it works great for Pause/play and next and previous songs but can't get the volume control to work while the phone is in Carplay mode. Overall I am super happy with it. It is installed with double-sided tape behind the wheel so everything looks factory and it stays out of the way until I want to use it.

-The last main thing I did before the trip was to pull some Trek-Paks material that I had in my truck bed drawers and did a test repurpose in the van drawers. I only had enough to do one of the rear drawers and my main galley drawers, but I am very pleased with the result and will be ordering more for the other drawers.

-We had a great trip along the coast, the van worked great and like I said the window shades worked perfectly. Van stayed nice and even for temperatures. They were easy to deploy and stow and blocked out all the light outside. Ace our dog is very pleased with our camping setup!

Now I just need to stop kicking the can and place my U-Joint order!

[86Scotty]

Those window covers look fantastic! I like the remote mod on the back of the wheel too. Probably one of the few ways you can do that with an E series wheel since it has essentially no flat spots on it. I have come to appreciate the back-of-steering wheel controls on our newer Jeep.

[aarcaris]

Originally Posted by 86Scotty

Those window covers look fantastic! I like the remote mod on the back of the wheel too. Probably one of the few ways you can do that with an E series wheel since it has essentially no flat spots on it. I have come to appreciate the back-of-steering wheel controls on our newer Jeep.

Thanks, I am super happy with the window covers! I agree with you the steering wheel in the E-Series doesn't really have a good option for mounting for on the face but the backside has just enough room to mount the control while still staying out of the way.

[IanF]

Great looking build! Just binged all of the pages. I'm not sure how I missed this one progressing. Thanks for posting the links to products you used! Let us know how the steering wheel blutooth gadget works!

[aarcaris]

Originally Posted by IanF

Great looking build! Just binged all of the pages. I'm not sure how I missed this one progressing. Thanks for posting the links to products you used! Let us know how the steering wheel blutooth gadget works!

Thanks for the compliment! I am happy you enjoyed going through all the pages of the build and happy you were able to make use of some of the links.

As for the Bluetooth controller so far it's been great! I used it quite a bit on our last trip. With Amazon electronics, it's really about how they hold up over the long haul, so I will report back once I've had it for a while.

[Glen]

Love the window shades & the drawer dividers. Giving me some ideas. The more I can do to prevent rattling, the better

Now, if I can just figure out how to make that damn Maxx Fan stop rattling...