What's a radio without speakers? That was my next upgrade. I scavenged some decent-looking 5x7s from my dad's spare speaker bin, and stuck them in the front doors. I even used some handy dandy wiring harness adapters so I wouldn't have to butcher up the stock wiring.
Next up, just before the Challenge, I painted the front half of the roof, and installed a backup camera. Sorry I don't have too many photos of this part–I was mostly watching the debate on my phone.
Oh, and Ed found the solitaire on the radio:
Painted this all nice and shiny white (the roof actually looks good now). 
I decided to mount the backup camera to the upper left of the license plate, because I thought it would have the best angle (and look somewhat factory) there.
Powered the camera from the reverse lights, because it doesn't really draw anything, and that greatly simplified the circuit. I thought about adding a separate circuit from a fresh fusebox with a relay activated from the reverse lights, but then did some googling and realized that was total over-engineering.
Cable routing....
Back in the dash! While I had the radio out, I replaced the flush-mount AUX jack with a different insert that has a USB port and an AUX jack. Cable clutter is now gone! How many feet of wire does it take to get from the camera to the dash? Exactly 35! 
Camera placement:
Veeeeeeeeery nice!
Found the correct length adapter/lightning cable to plug my phone into the front USB port, too. 
Very nice! The exact same (ish, different brand name and remote, the rest looks 100% the same) radio showed up at my house yesterday.
What OS does the radio run? If it is Android based would it be possible to run Torque Pro for OBD2 monitoring?
The eBay listing said Windows 6.0 CE (LOL!), but I honestly have no idea what's under the skin.
In reply to 2002maniac:
Torque will run on Android. Ill see if I can figure out what its running when I install mine
Update time!
I towed the Rotary Miata to the Challenge with the van, and it did great!
Shortly afterwards, a giant hurricane was forecast to hit us. Time to add some power!
I picked up an open-box 2000 watt inverter from Harbor Freight ($100), and after confirming that it worked, set down to do some math. I determined that in order to pull 2000 watts six feet from the battery, I'd need 0 gauge wire. I found a kit on amazon with 25 feet of wire and an ANL fuse box with a 200 amp fuse for $31. It's meant for wiring subwoofers, but after confirming it really was 0 gauge, I decided to give it a shot. A 200 amp fuse isn't really a big enough fuse for my inverter's 4000-watt peak capacity, but I figured I should err on the side of caution with Harbor Freight products.
I wanted to put the inverter under the passenger seat. Why? It wouldn't eat up any space in the van, it would be easy to access from both inside and outside of the van, and it was close to the van's main battery, as well as the factory frame-mounted battery box that was installed on diesel Econolines. Down the road, I'm planning to add a second battery with one of those boxes, so consider this planning ahead.
Luckily, a quick test fit confirmed my store eyeball measurement.
Bye seat!
Next, I needed to figure out where to run the huge wires. Notice I said wires, plural. An inverter this big needs a good ground, too–I wasn't willing to just screw it to the seat frame.
I found an opening in the vinyl where a better-optioned van would have had wiring, and peeled it back a bit:
Success! There's a grommet that's the perfect size.
And the wires fit like they're factory. I ran the postive in plastic casing down the van's frame, while the negative cable goes down to a factory ground strap on the frame.
I cut a scrap of plywood (don't judge, there was a hurricane rapidly approaching and I was out of sheetmetal) to act as a mount, and boom!
Now I have a ton of power that doesn't take up any space. The seat has a full range of motion, too.
Very nice! You might throw some sort of cover on that positive terminal. Its amazing how much room is under those seats, but now you cant use a swivel! 
Next up: some snazzy floor mats! A set of custom-fit rubber mats was $33 from Amazon.
What's that? The Hurricane is actually going to be a Category 4? We're outta here! Nicole and I threw everything we loved (even the cat) in the van, then bugged out to inland Florida.
Your esteemed publisher and Data the cat enduring the storm:
And the van taking it like a champ:
Then, it was cleanup time. The van played tree removal service, as well as kitchen and generator. My generator has A/C, while most only have AC. 
At the end of it all, Nicole said "This van is pretty much the perfect bug-out vehicle." I'll call that a win! The Harbor freight inverter is pretty awesome, too–a friend even ran his electric chainsaw off of it for a while.
java230 wrote: Very nice! You might throw some sort of cover on that positive terminal. Its amazing how much room is under those seats, but now you cant use a swivel!
Good point, I'll cover it up.
And yeah, I thought about the swivel. If/when I get to that point, it won't be too hard to move the inverter.
The ONLY thing keeping me from doing something like this is snow travel. I am REQUIRED to get to work and I can't be stuck in my driveway, at work or anyplace in between.
ebonyandivory wrote: The ONLY thing keeping me from doing something like this is snow travel. I am REQUIRED to get to work and I can't be stuck in my driveway, at work or anyplace in between.
If I run into some money I would solve that problem like this: 4x4conversion
In reply to Tom Suddard:
Did you guys lose a tree house?
Wall-e wrote:ebonyandivory wrote: The ONLY thing keeping me from doing something like this is snow travel. I am REQUIRED to get to work and I can't be stuck in my driveway, at work or anyplace in between.If I run into some money I would solve that problem like this: 4x4conversion
Not tooooo long ago, a good E-150 with a Quigley 4x4 conversion was for sale for a crazy $3,500. I had just bought a newish truck and had no extra money. I'd kill for that now.
Wall-e wrote: In reply to Tom Suddard: Did you guys lose a tree house?
No, we know right where it is....
Was your dash hole actually double DIN or did it require some trimming?! Mine is not double din.... Its the previous gen though, 97.
java230 wrote: Wash your dash hole.
One of these words is wrong.
In reply to Wall-e: oy veh. Yeah "WAS"
Keep up the great work on the van build.
I have a good friend that works a 2nd job delivering a substantial amount of newspaper bundles, car ad flyers, weekly papers, etc - and has a cube truck and a 1 ton van. The invertor install is something I'm going to forward him to read on this thread.
His cube (box) truck is a late 70s Ford Dually with a 460. Van is a 2000 Chevy Express 3500 with a Vortec 5.7 that has 380,000 miles. The Express is starting to suffer some frame rot (in WI) - my advice to him is we pull the 5.7 and find a $500 3rd gen F Body to drop it in (find the Camaro by me in TN). He is starting to shop for another used 1 ton, Ford or Chevy.
There are a lot of contractors (plumbers, electricians, carpet installers, etc) that probably would find alot of what you are doing helpful.
Thanks for the compliments, everybody! I know this hasn't gotten real radical, but I'm focusing on building a good all-rounder here.
java230 wrote: Was your dash hole actually double DIN or did it require some trimming?! Mine is not double din.... Its the previous gen though, 97.
I trimmed, but only slightly. I took a little bit of the plastic lip off of the top and bottom with a dremel.
In reply to Tom Suddard:
Thanks! That was my plan as well as it appeared it would fit that way! Bottom is already gone, top will go as well!
What did you do to hold it in the hole?
With the factory dash having that big shelf to support the rear, I wasn't too worried about it hanging on the dash. I used a little L bracket bolted to the side of the radio to hold it in, and let that shelf support the rear.
That was my thought as well, but I cant get to the side. I was thinking a double stick pad on that bottom shelf.
Pop the driver's knee panel off (it just unclips) and you'll be able to reach the side of the radio.
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