a place to lay my head..

The first bed I put in my van was built like a couch, it went along the driver side wall, you could open it for storage, and oddly enough.. my couch cushions fit it perfectly.

when I ended up putting in sub woofers, I rebuilt the bed to go across the back of the van to hide them, and it looked a lot more symmetrical to me, and that's the way it stayed for the past 17(ish) years.
it was a little cramped, but I could sleep in there if l lay diagonal across it. I liked it because it was always setup, had a foam mattress, never had to mess with it when I got to an event.


I have found that in recent years, trying to spend a week sleeping in there at the nats was getting a little tough, and after last year with m fiancee in there, I needed to make a change.

I have had a couple of ideas, so today I spent some time in the garage with some power tools and a sheet of plywood.
the bed platform looks about the same as before (I built over the existing bed), but I can now pull it out and it extends to the back of the front seats. it's big enough for a full size mattress, but that's not practical to leave like that all the time, so from now on it's an inflatable mattress.  the bed will take a little to setup now, but will be a lot more comfortable.

I need to get some more black carpet to cover the plywood, and some trim to dress it out a little.  Will see how well this works at LOST ad the Nats.


pics are kinda crappy, hard to shoot inside the van.

new tech for old lights

Several years ago I swapped out my cab visor from a lighted Lund, to one from Hank @customfiberglass in CT.
I missed having the lights on it, I think they help give the van shape at night, so I shopped around and found some APC flush mount marker lights that looked great! It didn't take long for me to discover they had some flaws however... the 197 bulbs would melt the housings (making it impossible to get the bulb out if it blows) and discolor the lenses.

I had been shopping around for similar marker lights that used LEDS (the original style is no longer made) and had not been able to find anything to my liking. Recently I spotted 2 sets of them on eBay, and snagged them both, and picked up some LED bulbs to put in them. hopefully these last longer and won't cause the melting.

 I took an afternoon and swapped them out recently.

the old ones were pretty trashed.

I had to clean these up.

nice and shiny!

all lit up... but there is more to come.

this lighting project isn't over.. anyone who remembers my van, knows there were a lot more lights on the front, and they are coming back.



UPDATE 5/2017:
the LEDs didn't hold up, and I had to replace them.  I found a different bulb that seems to be better built and sealed up against the elements, and is WAY brighter.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N0Y4LTA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

they are just short enough (2cm) to fit in my cap lights and allow me to snap the covers back on.
instead of just the center lighting up like in the picture above, the whole lens lights up now.

we shall see how they hold up after a couple of years.

the other issue I noticed was one of the marker lights and broken around where the rivet was holding it to the visor. I didn't have any more bases to replace it with, but luckily found some on ebay.. I made sure to order extras for future spares.

Strutting my Stuff

so... many many moons, and more than a few brain cells ago, the sliding door fell off my van.
In a  flash of inspiration, I hinged it and poof! instant gull wing!  Sadly, it was held open with a big stick... and after 15(?) years of not knowing how to weld or being able to get anyone to weld on the cheap metal in the Astro.. my friend Matchstick from customvanner.com hooked me up!  He had just done this to his own Astro and had it all figured out.  He sent me a purchase order, I bought the parts, brought it all with me to the van nationals, and he took an hour and welded it all in for me!

Parts - https://www.customvanner.com/product-page/gullwing-kit

a little change finally...

I have had this no window slider in the garage for almost 2 years, and finally put some work into it and got it mounted on the van.

I need to get someone to remove the door handle (it serves no purpose anyway) and my friend Matchstick is going to help me install the struts to hold it open when we are at the nats next month.

Now I just need someone that knows what they are doing to help me get the dutch doors installed!

swappin parts

so one of my fellow vanner friends out in Ohio, Mike Nemec, had his old distributor still sitting on a shelf (he put a v8 in his astro) and sent it out my way via another friend in exchange for a cigar the next time I see him.

There are 2 screens in the bottom of the OEM distributor that are supposed to be vents, and apparently GM found they didn't work so well, and issued a tech bulletin to punch them out for proper air flow and drainage of moisture.

I popped those out on the "new" one.

Today was my day for swapping it out, never done one before, and much to my surprise, it was simple and easy. 5 minutes, done.  I had a couple of the wires backwards at first, and once I got them sorted out, the van ran fine.

I also put a new MSD cap and rotor on it, as well as replacing my coil (older MSD for new style MSD)

(yes, I realize a wire is missing, see below)

I noticed that the post for the #2 wire on the old cap was discolored,

so I looked inside the boot and it was all corroded, and when I went to check the other end on the plug, I discovered why....

so now I need to order a new set of wires.. and I have headers, so I can't just use any "direct fit" set off the shelf.  my current wire set is 4 moroso and 2 accel wires, so now I am looking for new wires, might get another moroso set, so they are all the same.

UPDATE 7/10/2014

I haven't had any issues since doing all this when driving in the rain, but I also haven't had to drive in any tsunamis like the one that caused this...  so I came up with an easy fix in just in case.

12"x24" magnetic sign, primered to match the hood.

Almost can't see it.

soaked

So yesterday, I decided to clean out the garage and get it ready for tearing the van apart. (has been more a storage and staging area for other projects over the summer)
A friend came over to help me move a couple larger items, and we got to talking about what happened with the van, so I get the bright idea to hit the starter so he can hear it... and I'll be damned, it starts right up and runs perfect.

OK.... I guess that rules out the timing gear/chain. So now I'm looking at it as a moisture issue, because there was water flying area from under the hood.
I have a louvered hood, and with the crazy freakish rain we were having, I think I had way too much water get in under the hood.  the cap and rotor definitely need to be replaced, and the terminal on the coil is cooked.  I'm also concerned about the rust on top of the distributor, no idea what is considered normal and what is bad...  

so I am ordering cap, rotor and coil, and debating what to do about the distributor as I research it more.

it finally happened....

This weekend I had planned on heading to Super Somer van and truck show in Somers, CT.
The trip started off like any other, last minute packing, store stops, etc..  and then I'm off and running.  Van was running great, but the weather sucked!  serious rain... having to run the defroster to keep the windows clear isn't any fun when your hot and damp already.
I'm trucking south on 95, my GPS is tossing out alternate routes to avoid multiple traffic hang ups, it's still raining like hell and it's getting dark... suddenly I hear a "pop" and the van dies... oh crap.
I'm in the middle lane doing 70 and slowing down quickly, I'm trying to head for the breakdown land but have a tractor trailer next to me, thankfully he sped up and I was able to get all the way over.
I hit the key... van turns over, no fire, and it sounds awful.. I'm pretty sure the timing gear broke.
will have to wait till I can get the front end ripped apart to get at it and see!
Thankfully I have AAA premiere, which has a 1 time (annual) 200 mile towing, I was 130 from home, so I had to use it.  but man... it was so worth it... 130 miles at $4.00 a mile!?
After 1.5 hours, the driver finally shows up, and he gets the van up on the ramp without touching the air damn (thank you!) and we get on the way.

  this guy couldn't maintain the speed limit if you lit a fire under his ass!  we would be doing 60, then 40, then 60... he was drifting all over the road, texting, taking calls...  a drive that should have taken 2 hours took over 3.
BUT!  he redeemed himself when we got to the house... he backed the truck up and dropped the ramp right at the garage door and lowered the van right into the garage.  of course, it's ass backwards... but there was no way we were getting in the other way around.

 I'm really bummed I didn't make it to the van run.. I was really looking forward to it, but I'll call it a blessing in disguise that it happened now, and not say... a couple weeks ago on the way to/from the nats?!

 All in all... I have owned the van since december of 94, and it has 244331 miles on it, and this is the first time it has let me down and needed a tow.  I can't complain about that at all!