An Inspirational Journey
I have just over 2 weeks left to reach my goal of finishing version 1 of the van. I’ve been working when the sun rises and until around 9-10 each night whenever I have breaks from normal work.
I finally tackled the complicated setup of installing bench seats with seatbelts and bolting them under the van with steel plates. It took a whole lot of time planning this as it required drilling 8 holes in the floor of the van so I had to plan things so the holes were drilled precisely in specific spots so I didn’t drill into the gas tank or anything else. There are sturdy bars and other obstacles too, as well as making sure the frame of the seats were placed in the best location for space and alignment. If one hole was drilled in the wrong place, it could have open Pandora’s box and possibly become a disaster. All the time I spent planning before rushing into it paid off.
The seats are also lifted higher by using solid steel tubes. I drilled 32 holes through steel. The 8 holes in the floor were easy but drilling through the steel tubes under the seat and steel plates under the van was tedious and took time spraying WD-40 and slowly using cobalt drill bits to create the holes in the precise locations. A few of the images will show how precise the holes had to be to work around the bottom of the van.
I also sprayed Rust-Oleum and used blue loctite on the threads. I’ll be applying some 3m sealant underneath to help protect things better once I driver around some.
The seat makes the aisle narrow but is necessary to fit up to 4 people. Is has a release latches in the back so its removable too. In version 2 of the van (which won’t be for months down the road), I will remove the bench seats and make that area more if a desktop workplace.
