The AWD Bean Machine

Nice! That will be a huge upgrade.

As to fiberglass tips, thehulltruth.com/forum has a LOT of good diy info

Making progress man.. Bet the ol' pucker factor kicked in when you cut that thing in half

I'm back!!! It's been awhile, life got in the way. Now I have a deadline for Spring Break road trip.

First I got the two halves home and reinforced the seam with quality plywood and adhesive.If you look closely at the vent hole in photo above you can see there are two pieces of plywood. The top has a honeycomb sheet that I chipped out to insert one of the pieces. Since I'm covering the whole thing with Raptor liner, I ran screws through the top down into plywood. Thanks for the boat builder tips. With their websites and videos the fiberglass repair was easy. As you can see I filled in the windows. After I cleaned all the silicone and other glue off the bottom flange I discovered several cracks and had to remove about an 1 1/2" off material to get to solid fiberglass. This made the window openings flimsy so I used part of the interior liner to cut sheets to fill holes. After they were glued and riveted into place the top started to feel stronger. I used the same plywood for the rear panel. The Chevy van doesn't have a drip rail across the back like Ford. So to make it work I cut a 2 x 6 and shaped it to the contour needed for a tight fit. Plus this gives me a solid surface for mounting rear camp lights or a redneck style air conditioner Pay no attention to the wavy lower flange, it gets ground for a tight fit later on.

I pulled out most of the interior again..and cut the roof out. It was much easier to remove since I had already practiced on my loaner van.

I placed the top on van and did some final grinding for a tight fit. Tonight I will glue and fasten top to van. More pictures to come if I can get them to upload.

In reply to beanco:

Awesome! Where & when is your spring break trip?

In reply to petegossett:

My daughter wants to go to the ocean and visit a big city. So.... we decided on the gulf side of Texas and a trip to Houston. I've got two weekends to myself until we leave on the 14th of April to get it water tight and install the upper bed. I'm not worried, having a deadline makes you stop procrastinating and get stuff done. It will just be her and I, so camping in the van is required. Shes not as picky as mom

In reply to beanco:

Nice, sounds like fun! If you find yourself wandering toward Biloxi let me know, we've got plenty of room.

Here you can see the plywood rear bulkhead

<img while on the trailer you can see the curve of the bottom.

Nice to see you back at it man! Ton of progress in a short time. You need more deadlines, seems to help you get stuff done.

SNOW ON A HOT JUNE DAY! JUST WHAT I NEEDED AFTER A LONG HIKE.

This is what I was looking for.

Living the SALT LIFE in Alabama.

this is a great build.

that's all i've got!

In reply to beanco :

Awesome, thanks for the update!

Just made another trip to Grand Lake, Colorado.

Turned over 258,000 miles on a 2300 mile round trip. The only issue was a leaky power steering hard line. Topped it off and rechecked every day we drove. Made it home without incident.

Dreaming of my return trip already.

Great pics! Glad to see you using it so much 

IS there a link available to the photosuckit account to see the early pics without the Mr Magoo filter?

Adrian_Thompson said:

IS there a link available to the photosuckit account to see the early pics without the Mr Magoo filter?

Are you using Chrome or Firefox?

If Firefox, install this add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/photobucket-embedded-fix/

If Chrome, this one should work: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/photobucket-hotlink-fix/kegnjbncdcliihbemealioapbifiaedg?hl=en

FooBag said:

Adrian_Thompson said:

IS there a link available to the photosuckit account to see the early pics without the Mr Magoo filter?

Are you using Chrome or Firefox?

If Firefox, install this add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/photobucket-embedded-fix/

If Chrome, this one should work: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/photobucket-hotlink-fix/kegnjbncdcliihbemealioapbifiaedg?hl=en

Thanks for the plugin, much appreciated!

Also, Photobucket can go eat a bowl of dicks.

To the original poster - love the van, especially all the family trips you are getting out of it.

beanco, I found this thread in my watchlist  and was wanting to share with Curtis73 , seeings how he's the proud owner of a red one of these.....if it's OK?

Yessss.  Love this.  So much inspiration.

I think I'll build a platform for my roof, and I'm planning a T-case swap for 4wd.  I'll probably keep the interior simple.  Probably build a lightweight platform for a bed and build a mess kit box that I can throw in.  Most of my interior mods will be in the convenience department.  I like to add a coach battery with an isolation solenoid.  That way I can listen to a radio and drain one battery without stranding myself in the wilderness.