Our last post detailed the search and purchase of the van. Now that it’s mine, there is a LOT of work to do.
I’m starting this post off with a quick walkthrough video tour: Next we get into the plan and a few pictures. As you keep scrolling I’ve got more detail and several build and final galleries.
Plan for the van:
From committing to purchase the van to owning it, I had a week. From purchasing the van to ferrying it home, I had nearly a month. (read about all that in part 1 HERE) As an Art Teacher with a background in design and construction, I absolutely relished this design challenge. Over these several weeks before I was able to do actual building, I drew up dozens of designs and plans. Bed Layouts, maximizing storage, and an espresso machine to go with the Pizza Ovens… Why not?
Through all of this, I retained the No Money Motorsports mindset: Do this entire build as cheaply as possible, without sacrificing quality. I would spend money where it made sense, but I also wouldn’t throw money at it indiscriminately. That meant deeply considering if common upgrades were actually necessary, and often waiting for good deals on components.
Sketches began very primitive to figure out basic layouts and what could fit, later becoming much more detailed to design specific elements:
When I finally got the van home, my first task was a deep cleaning both inside and outside. Pulling out some interior panels I was able to get more precise measurements for designing things like the bed and main storage. After a cleaning, I did some more thorough preventative maintenance and added things like the tow hitch and wiring so I could get right to hauler duty.
As a heavy duty 1-ton (3500) chassis, I expected to have some bit of trailer-ready wiring, but that was not the case. Wiring up a trailer plug is not particularly challenging, just annoying that it wasn’t already present. However, the pleasant surprise of the 1-ton chassis was just how nice it rides. I initially wasn’t even considering 3500’s because I had heard they ride like a subway car on a rocky hill, but this was not the case. The Van feels just fine, and drives like any modern 1500 pickup I’ve ever driven, with my only “complaint” being somewhat vague steering from the oldschool steering box.
The heavy duty hitch took about 5 minutes to install, but wasn’t cheap. Nickel and Diming the various costs for hitch and wiring, these added up to nearly 20% of the entire van purchase price. A significant cost, yes, but this is an example of a place where the stakes were too high to test cheap parts. Plus, I know it won’t be too long before maintenance and upgrades eclipse the initial $3,000 price.
The Van was 21 years old when I got it. While it lived a much gentler life than many vans, it was largely neglected over its last couple years, especially the non-mechanical components. One of my more simple joys is repairing small and easy problems on vehicles. Simple things like replacing broken clips and missing handles, popping out dents (Albeit only partially), fixing loose pop-out window hinges, and gluing in falling weatherstripping. A very concerning suspension rattle turned out to be nothing more than a sway bar mount bushing that had disintegrated and was missing. An ever-present belt whine ended up being a very bad idler bearing on the AC belt. With just a couple hours of work, the van got significantly more functional and comfortable. Surprisingly, a charge of the AC has lasted two full years. Fluid in the trans and diff were plenty easy to swap. The added bonus: The Chevy Express platform has been largely unchanged from 2003, so parts are very accessible and affordable.
Exterior: Buff & Clearcoat Headlights, realign fenders so they don’t rub on doors, buffing off the old church decal shadows, add stripes (to lower the creepy van factor), replacing lost hubcaps.
Interior: Replace Broken and missing interior pull handles. Fix broken dome lights, removing trash, lots and lots of upholstery cleaning & shampooing, and beginning the buildout.
This bag lived behind the interior panels for ~17 or so years
Overall my “build” plan for the van was simple: On the tightest budget possible: Build a Van that functions well as a hauler, track support vehicle, AND a camper. I kept to this plan with a few strategies:
- I designed a basic layout around 3 key features:
- Retain the front 3-person bench so the van could still transport a total of 5 people. This kept the van viable as a way to transport my family. Retaining the ability to bring my wife and kids to the track on occasion. It also kept it open for family camping trips, sleeping in the van or pulling our camper for extra sleeping space. Selling the other benches recouped a couple hundred dollars of the purchase price.
- A full-size “Twin” bed: With my height, sleeping across my old truck’s back seat meant I had to crunch up all night. It was fine to fall asleep, but within hours became super uncomfortable. With the long 155” wheelbase van, there was no need to compromise here. The longitudinal bed also meant there was a “lane” the whole way up the van, allowing it to still easily haul lumber and full plywood sheets, retaining some “home improvement truck” capability.
- Significant Storage under the bed: The space was designed around fitting at least 3 of the Black & Yellow totes available at hardware and big box stores. This required both the space and height underneath to slide totes in and out of both the side and rear of the bed.
- 1 tote for spare van spare parts, fluids, and tools.
- 1 tote for Miata spare parts and specific tools
- 1 tote for cooking and serving supplies
- Room for whatever other miscellaneous stuff I need (like a half-size box for lighting, extension cords, and other wiring).
2) I built the slowly through the course of the 2024 season.
Just like my first track car build, no giant grand plan & expensive build based solely on what people on the internet told me. My first event I simply tossed a complete twin bed frame into the van for the weekend. After that event, I began building a floor in the rear 2/3rds (From the back door to the back of the remaining bench seat). The bed was grafted into the wall, and I built (what started as) a simple counter to fill the space between the front of the bed and rear of the bench seat.
The most important part about all this: As I took the van to events through the 2024 season, I kept a notebook and jotted down things I wish the van had, and things that didn’t work well. This led to specific upgrades like the magnets & boxes on the doors for easy access to common tools/supplies. Lighting locations, extra outlets, etc. Building the van slowly made my upgrades more purposeful, so I wasn’t wasting time and budget on things that didn’t actually help. It also gave me time to find what I needed on a budget, keeping my eyes out for good deals and even free stuff.
3) Used, Recycled, and as much free material as I could find on the interior build-out.
A) How’s this for luck: My first “Work” day on the van, I was making a quick run to the parts store for a brake line and passed a house where someone was discarding vinyl tongue-and-groove floor planks at the curb. A quick K-Turn and I was loading as much of this floor into my Civic as I could fit. They were relatively new still and in decent shape, a total score.
B) My local community has a very active “Buy Nothing” group on Facebook. If you haven’t heard of Buy Nothing, they are an outstanding resource for both gifting items you don’t use at home, and receiving things you may want or need. People offer up items for free on the page, and I was able to get both furniture and appliances. I secured a wooden bed frame that was perfect to modify and fit snugly into the side of the van. Appliances were a huge bonus: A coffee grinder, and even an espresso machine were both secured for free on the page.
C) I raided my “standard homeowner scrap wood pile” for much of the wood needed for the build. Through various projects I had plenty of plywood scraps, 2×4’s and other materials. I still needed to purchase some new wood, but was able to use extra/scrap for a large portion of the build.
Insulation/Climate:
If you do any research on building a van for camping, you’ll see that 90% of all online conversation is about insulating and heating. A work van is generally just a metal box and you will need to do some sort of work, but a passenger van does have a decent amount of insulation as a starting point. It’s very easy to get swept up in the hype about perfect insulation, proper layering, efficiency, etc. Cooler on hot days, and warmer on cold days sounds fantastic, but at the end of the day, this “Fair weather camper” van will be used on occasional weekends in the more pleasant months of the generally mild Northeast US. Keep that in mind if you’re reading the notes of a van-builder who plans on spending winters living off-grid in the Rocky Mountains… They have very different needs than us.
For me, the factory insulation of the passenger van (Vs a naked cargo/work van) was quite sufficient and I added only minimal insulation here and there. The factory carpet had 1.5” thick insulation under it, which was equal to the top of the existing seat-rails. The height of a laying 2×4 board on the metal floor happens to also be 1.5”. I cut a few 3.5” wide strips out of the carpet+ insulation to lay 2×4’s into, giving my plywood floor a stable base, while retaining the factory insulation. Retaining and building on top of, instead of removing the factory seat rails saved me a bunch of headache for a marginal gain. The side-panel insulation was attached to the back of the plastic interior panels. When I removed the panels, I just pulled it and stuck that to the walls in the voids under my new panels. There is some debate that without an air gap, these will absorb condensation and eventually cause issues with rust, but I think it’s largely misrepresented/exaggerated, especially in a space that is rarely used.
The single most effective thing I did was adding Reflectix insulation for the windows, blocking both the sun’s entry and insulating better than glass. 2 cheap rolls from the hardware store were plenty to cover all the windows. I cut them to size, marked for which window they are trimmed for (do this, trust me), and just push them in place when I park. The existing window trim is plenty to hold them in place. Before I leave, I just pull them out, roll them up and toss under the bed.
There are many options for keeping the van cool on hot summer weekends. From simple “keep it opened up” to full air conditioning units. I began by using some old screen material (leftover from a 10×10 tent side-screen), cut to the size of the rear door opening. The screen is secured with velcro on the top of the rear door opening (where the edge of the door are plastic panels), and magnets on the sides where it is metal. It keeps bugs out when the rear doors are open. A small slit for the latch bar lets me keep the screen in place whether the doors are open or closed. The front doors of the Express have a very large frame and the typical “over the door” screen I used with the Ram did not fit. I used more of the screen material, cut to the door shape. They stick to the inside of the door with magnets to cover the window opening. These screens allow me to keep the van “open” for airflow through it, but avoid letting all the bugs in.
I do have a rooftop vent, which is the most effective non/ac option for cooling down the van. I haven’t installed it yet, as I’m a bit hesitant to cut open the roof of a well-sealed van, but it is next on my install list.
Power:
Similar to insulation, online advice often includes very intense (and expensive) solar + battery power setups: Much like the overly-intense advice from full-time Rocky Mountain van dwellers, these intense power setups are usually for people trying to live off-grid and remotely connect to tech jobs. As soon as one person brags about their overbuilt setup, it becomes the standard for a “Good” power build-out. My needs are different. Of the 5 tracks I frequent, 4 have power readily available in the paddock (This certainly is regionally-dependent, some areas have less power). Lime Rock is the only track we visit regularly without easy access to power, and the paddock is literally full of humming (or screaming) generators. The Van’s first trip to Lime Rock, a simple single 100amp solar panel and old car battery was enough to power my fridge-cooler, but I also bummed some power off a neighbor’s generator to power some fans and charge cameras.
My Primary Power Need: The main item I need power for is a 12v/120v powered cooler. Essentially it is a cooler-shaped mini-fridge/freezer. The shape and design means this fridge is very efficient, but still needs power. The fridge can run on 12v OR 120v, so it is very easy to power up while I’m packing, driving, and camping. I’m typically showing up to the track with supplies to bake 20 pizzas, so having a reliable fridge with temp readout is much easier (and food safe-r) than managing a cooler and ice.
The most expensive part of any power build is batteries. As I built out the van, I focused on a shore-power based system, holding off on batteries at first. I have a plug in my back bumper to send power to multiple outlets around the van. That same plug also powers a hardwired trickle charger that runs whenever the van is plugged in, this is just as good for when it’s parked between events as it is making sure I don’t run the van’s starter battery down at events.
I have 3 major electrical systems:
- The Van’s original 12v system: This is largely untouched, with the exception of an engine bay mounted trickle charge it gets whenever the van is plugged into shore power. Factory outlets and dome lights are still functional (though swapped to LED). The only additional significant component in the factory 12v system is the trailer. The trailer has its standard lights+brakes, but also has its own 12v system powered from the aux plug in my trailer’s 7-pin plug. With standard SAE plug outlets near the front of my trailer, I typically use them to power exterior LED spot lights on my trailer.
- A 110v system: Powered via a shore-power plug in the rear bumper, this system has outlets around the van, one near the back and 3 in the middle. The outlets also have integrated USB charging outlets. I have a DeWalt charger mounted in case I kill my impact gun or air pump battery. I also have a 120v to 12v converter that can power up my third circuit:
- A 12v system: Powered one of three ways: Via the 110v system’s converter, a battery in the middle of the van, or with solar via another plug on my rear bumper. This 12v system has two light circuits, one for dome lights and one for under-bed/cabinet lights. It also has another usb charging port, and a cigarette lighter plug. Eventually I’ll add a roof-vent to the 12v circuit, and likely some more interior lighting.
Easy to grab storage:
One of the first things I learned in my early events with the van is that I don’t want to dig through several boxes to access commonly used tools. Each event for the first year, I added a new easily grabbable storage for specific tools. Door panels are generally wasted space, and have a ton of potential to hold the most frequently used tools and gear. A combination of nets, magnet strips, wood boxes, and even bungee cords use up nearly every available inch of door to get my most-used parts within easy arms-reach.
The Build Phases – Gallery time
This build happened slowly, over the course of a full season. I generally worked in the order below, though some projects overlapped and/or were completed at later dates. Some of the info below is redundant/overlapping as well… but there’s a lot. For the sake of easy organization I split them for galleries below.
1: Cleaning, Clearing, and Emptying: This was a Church van in Philadelphia from new until I bought it 21 years later. Mechanically it was mostly sound, but 2 decades of summer camp trips left the well-loved interior with layers of spills and stains to match. A shampoo-vacuum did wonders to the carpet and seats (Which never got perfect, but certainly got better). A couple cans of Tuff-Stuff interior cleaner and a plastic drill brush cleaned all the panels.
2: Tow Prep: The van came with no towing items. A serious order to E-Trailer landed me a trailer light wiring kit, trailer brake wiring kit, and a heavy duty hitch.
Here’s a fun little lesson: Once I installed the trailer light kit (Which plugs into the taillights to get brake+blinkers for the trailer), the cruise control and left blinker on my van stopped working. After tracing the wires a bunch of times, uninstalling and reinstalling the harness, I could see that it went away with the harness ground bolt removed. I got another harness and BOOM, it was fixed…. for a day. After banging my head into the wall, I finally found the issue. A *partially* broken light bulb, was intermittently grounding through the harness ground and causing the whole issue. Sometimes having a base of knowledge makes you overlook the most simple things first.
Another note: Most trailer wiring kits give you a plug to mount to the hitch or bottom of the bumper. I don’t like how low this is, and did what most OEM’s have been doing for ~20 years, placing it in the step area of the back bumper. Not only is this a way better height, but it looks much more clean and OEM.
(I’ll add more photos to this section when the van isn’t snowed in)
3: Flooring: My first weekend with the van in it’s stock form showed me that I wanted a fresh solid floor in vs the original beat up, stained, carpet and seat rails. I retained most of the factory carpet, largely because it was heavily insulated, added some boards for a good foundation and built a plywood floor over that. By Luck, I found a giant stack of newly discarded linoleum flooring planks on the side of the road. These look great and created a good surface, but by nature of the way they were removed, many had issues with the tongue and grooves. Instead of leaving them as a floating floor, most were nailed down into the plywood subfloor.
For the front of the van, I got a cheap “tiny town” carpet, notched ever so slightly for the bench seat bracket, and shoved it under the van’s trim to look neat enough on the sides.
4: Bed and First Cabinet: For my first weekend in the van I tossed a wooden bed frame into the van. Slept like a baby, but the standard bed frame shape meant there was a lot of wasted space between the bed and edge of the van in the rear where the wall (and rear HVAC box) taper in. After, I trimmed the rear corner of the bed so the whole side would be right against the edge of the van. The small loss of space was a non-factor in overall sleeping comfort, but cleared up loads of interior space.
After the bed was fitted, I designed and built a basic cabinet to fill in the space between the bed and back of bench seat. This cabinet would eventually become the heart of my built-space, with built-in drawer space and being home to all of the wiring & switches.
As for finishing, most of the woodwork was wrapped with cheap carpet from the hardware store. I tried SEVERAL glues to make it stick. Following instructions, online tutorials, and trial-and-error. Unfortunately, the carpet hasn’t been sticking long-term to any contoured areas or corners, but at least it’s holding on flat panels. This off-season I’ll try securing tough areas with staples.
To finish the edges of the flooring, I found rubber carpet edging. It has adhesive, but I added some nails in strategic spots to hold it down.
5: Electrical & Lighting: Electrical is explained pretty thoroughly in the sections above.
After the 2024 build season, I got a Bluetti 1800w battery station. Paired with a 100amp panel, It could power the van pretty reliably for a weekend with minimal need for power conservation on my end. With the versatility of the power system design, I could just plug things directly into the battery as needed (most efficient), or I could use the battery to power the whole van via the shore-power plug.
6: Door storage: Door storage started slowly. First stage was to copy popular boxes for enclosed trailer doors that hold paper towel, spraycan, & gloves. I immediately noticed a need to hold my impact drill and a torque wrench. Shortly after, magnet strips started showing up to hold a few sockets and some of my most-commonly grabbed wrenches. Ideally, I’ll have everything I need for regular trackside work at arms reach. I’ll only need to dig into my box for some of the less common tools + jobs. Latest additions are cup holders, trash bags, pencil cups, clipboard.
You may notice that I switched up my plan after spending a lot of time making my first door panel unnecessarily complex.
7: Second Cabinet: This is the latest major addition. I spent most the season retaining the factory plastic side panel, while brainstorming what I wanted and needed the most in that area. After my first cabinet was taken up mostly by my coffee operation, I needed some more counter space. I also wanted another power outlet near the rear of the van. I wanted to have some metal loops so I could secure items to the sides of the van when driving. And finally, just needed more space for the various odds-and-ends that I would need during a weekend. This was a large wall but I had a long list of wants. The wheel well and van body bracing made it a bit more complicated, so I did a LOT of layout sketches.
8: Insulation and windows: As I mentioned above, Insulation was largely reusing scraps from the carpet and backing off discarded interior panels. Some Metal HVAC tape held pieces in place before it got covered up.
Screens are held in place with a mix of velcro (on plastic panels) and magnets.
9: Some Well-Worth it Vanity: Shortly before getting the van, the factory radio died on my civic daily driver and I replaced it with an android-auto headunit. Instantly spoiled, when I got in the van, I seriously missed the touch screen and phone expansion. Letting Crutchfield handle the legwork on the specific extra modules and a couple speakers, I ordered up the same headunit for the van. Android auto let me have navigation & media up on the headunit, while keeping my phone screen displaying OBD2 diagnostics monitoring (not that I ended up needing it).
Another of the “Must-Haves” in the online van community are swivel mounts for the front seats. After removing the passenger seat (4 bolts) to do some engine maintenance (van stuff), I reinstalled it backwards and was floored and just how “big” the van felt with this small configuration change. I knew a swivel would be a worthwhile upgrade. With a quick pull of a lever, the seat rotates to any angle I could want it at. The swivel remains one of my favorite single upgrades, and I recommend everyone do the same.
I chose to not add a swivel to the driver seat, as the area on and in front of the diver seat becomes useful storage over the course of a track weekend. The area is often filled with both my “hamper” and fresh clothes bags.
I first upgraded from standard ice cooler to a basic 12v cooler, a thermoelectric fridge. It did well, but a lack of thermostat and claim to “cool up to 40 degrees less than ambient” meant it was great for keeping drinks VERY cold (sometimes frozen), but not safe for storing food. A Euhomy 12v/120v car fridge was my next move. This has a thermostat, thermometer, and being more traditional refrigerator, was reliable and consistent. I sold the thermoelectric fridge for what I paid for it, and at ~$200 I think the Euhomy nearly paid for itself vs ice costs and non-spoiled food in 2 years.
10: Exterior: The vast majority of my attention has gone to the interior of the Van, but track life still takes place mostly outside.
While sitting in the van does provide plenty of shady space, more covered area is always good for the track. Setting up a tent next to the van is fine, but during inclement weather, I’d still need to rush to close the doors. A tent based partially on the roof means I could leave my doors wide open, even in rain. On sunny days, the lack of gap means no extra sun directly baking the interior.
I took your standard old 10×10 popup tent and cut two legs off it (keeping 10″ or so of vertical post, in order to support the side structure “ladder”). I added magnets as new feet, so it would stick in place on my roof. I attached the van-side down to eye-rings bolted to the van’s rain-rail.
*You may see some pics where the tent looks very bad. I initially tested with an already mostly-broken tent. It worked so well, I kept using it until a flash thunderstorm destroyed it. I rebuilt the tent with a better condition starting point and it’s been great. My photos are a mix of both.
Exterior Visual: The blue paint (what was left of it, at least) was already a huge improvement from “creepy white van” white, but I still wanted something on it. I didn’t want “full obnoxious” (Though I did consider “Matt Foley: Motivational Speaker” and “The Racers Edge” decals), but figured something classic would fit. Using some painter’s tape, I tested out ways to do a martini-inspired stripe. It looked great, so I tried using WOD brand tape off Amazon. The Stripes looked AMAZING. Unfortunately, this is a place of #NoMoneyFAIL as the cheap tape (despite being marketed for vehicles) shrunk within a month, faded significantly within months. The tape also shrunk at differing rates, leaving my nice-edges looking like a sad bar graph. New stripes are also on my list of things to re-do.
Van-Adjacent Exterior: Part of our typical weekend includes giant pizza parties out the side of the van. We have anywhere between 1 and 4 pizza ovens and bake anywhere between 12 and 60 pizzas in an evening. As part of this operation, I built a fold-out table off the side of the trailer’s tire-rack. The trailer Aux-plug now powers up SAE outlets on the side of the trailer box that we use to power lighting and one of the oven’s stone-spinner.
2 year recap:
As I write this, 2025 has ended and I’ve now had the van for 2 full seasons. 2024 was an “in progress” build season, and 2025 was used with minimal work through the season. I used the van (obviously) to tow to every event in my region’s calendar. The van was also used for various home work, including getting a giant playset for my kids, picking up a gokart, and countless hardware store runs. We also did a couple camping trips, some with just the van and others towing our camper.
Issues: The van has worked largely without issue since I got it. The only big issue that arose was a few drops of water I noticed under the parked van. Quickly found the water pump’s weep hole as the source. Thankfully the pump is a simple job, and that was done with plenty of time to spare before the following event.
Since I first got the van, it would have an intermittent rough idle when hot, typically at the first stoplight or two when getting off the highway. As this persisted, it eventually would be followed by bucking at 50-55mph cruise. I heard a throttle-body cleaning could solve all my problems, I didn’t believe it. The problem persisted, so I had to try. I removed the very clean looking throttle body and cleaned the very small layer of oil residue. Issue was completely gone for the last 2 tows of the year.
The brakes worked just fine when I got the van. A major benefit of the rust-free van meant the metal lines were in like-new shape, but time had taken it’s toll on the factory rubber lines. The calipers were crusty, and bleeders were stuck on 2 of the 4 calipers. I sourced fresh rubber lines on Rockauto and calipers from Summit Racing. Used to servicing my Miata’s tiny brakes, The calipers for this van are comically large to me. Equally funny was that the calipers cost the SAME as my Miata’s, despite being triple the size.
All that work and I figured fresh pads were also necessary. I bought the best my local Advance Auto offered, “Platinum level”. At first test, they felt fine. However, on my first trip to Lime Rock, I got some pulsation with moderate 50mph county road traffic-light braking. The way home: The same. As they got any heat into them, they would pulsate. The following weekend I had a 3hr drive into NE Pennsylvania with the family and my (Much lighter, 1500lb vs 5000lb loaded car trailer) camper. The trip started fine, but in some of the final rolling hills before we arrived at our destination, the brakes were absolutely terrible. I limped the rest of the way (and home), and immediately bought Hawk “SuperDuty” pads. Immediately, it was a night and day difference. The SuperDutys did as great from cold with no load as they did hot loaded up with a trailer, fuel, and gear. They also have the characteristic Hawk Squeak that I’ve gotten so used to running DTC’s on the Miata.
While the heavy duty hubs and axles certainly look “cool” they don’t exactly look “nice”. Another buddy, Dillon hooked me up with his old hubcaps. Unfortunately, within a season, 3 of the 4 “new” hubcaps disappeared. Apparently the plastic nuts that hold them in place crack in time and can’t hold up.
Future Plans:
I’ve been working on some sort of canopy system beyond the current popup tent I’ve been using. While there are several kits on the market, most are prohibitively expensive. My current modified (Two legs cut off and replaced with magnets) $40 popup tent does work great over the doors, so it’s hard to justify spending several hundred (and into the thousands) dollars on a more bespoke version. I want something over the rear that also covers at least the cooking area of my trailer. I’m keeping my eye out for a good deal on a roof rack as well.
At some point I’ll get a little block of time and build up the courage to install the roof vent. Really, I’m just not looking forward to dropping the (massive) headliner. I had considered removing the headliner and making my own, but it is very effective at insulating heat from the outside. Plus, I retained the factory rear HVAC system, and I would need to redesign the upper ductwork. Stay tuned for what I decide to do.
I’ve serviced all the major drivetrain components, but the suspension is the next on my list. The front end feels solid and is still clunk-free, but most of the balljoint boots are deteriorated pretty significantly. I went through 2025 by “adding fresh grease until it leaks out of every crack” but next up is replacing.
Let me know what you think? Have any questions? Motivated to get your own van now? Let me know!