Code name “Baby”

[Scott7022]

Well bless your heart. Isn’t that just a pretty little thing. Love it. Get it yote ready and in the words of Jorgensen; visit the fucking road”. RIP ministry.


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[GypsyDogs]

K’ne and I spent some time just hanging out in the van yesterday, feeling the space. Very ‘homey’ and reminds me a lot of Miles.. even has some of the same smells.
This van has been so loved, the pleated shades are essential mint. PO even had the interior lightly detailed before we went to dmv…!

There are 4 ceiling lights in pretty much the perfect locations, but I want to rewire to the house system.. (that may be extra fun.. must explore how the ceiling is attached)

Going to need to do many steps Before I can move stuff from the evil-van to this one. And- we all know how the first few steps are always pretty crunchy..
eg: I want to take the seats out.. but I also want to see if I can swap the worn fronts for the much less worn mid row seats.. and I need to make room in the shed to store the seats to try selling.. (so ‘step one’ actually entails Several steps.. lol)
Wanna swap over the solar, but should take out carpet and put down flooring before installing battery.. lol

Also desperately need to work on dash lighting..replace/upgrade bulbs is a Must.. at near-dark, can only barely see any illumination of gauges.. oh goody- dash work.. “fun”. And of course, ‘crunchy’ - because while I’m there I may as well swap out the stereo for the little kenwood I never installed in the e-v .. because all projects expand to fill any available time.. lol

Anyway- I am going to be busy for a while with this one…

[sternwake]

I too liked the feel of my conversion van interior when I first got it, and it was not in nearly as good condition as yours when I did.
I removed much of the ceiling structure, inside fiberglass roof, so I could stuff my 9'6" surfboards up there, and some of it they had used some fiberglass insulation and other parts were just completely bare behind the foo foo velour panels.

After ~6 months living in it I decided that there was simply too much wasted space, and tore out the sides to again find reason and logic free insulation placement, and some mold and mildew below one of the windows, where the installers drove a screw into the exterior gutter portion.

I went with really light insulation ( carpet underlayment), and just recently removed that, in favor of the 5mm Smartshield with the white side facing inwards, which is a significant improvement in insulation and looks, and only eats up 1/2 inch from side to side., as I sleep side to side, and I'm 5'10". So now there is about 6'5" between the walls for more foot and headroom and i dont have to sleep on the hard diagonal.

The jackknife sofa bed was a torture device. not sure how I managed 5 years on it. I did install all new foam in it, but it was cheap foam and got mushy all too soon. I wasted tons of time money and effort to make the jackknife sofa bed more comfortable, yet very much enjoyed hacking it up with a sawzall to fit it in the recycling bin.

i still use the rocker switch and the motor and screw jack actuator, to open and close a slider window behind my fridge.

I have no idea how similar a 89 is with a 95, dash wise, but mine had a bunch of 194 bulbs.
careful, there is a small cable which drags the PRNDL needle with the gear lever. All too easy to break.

Also the speedo cable prevents removing the cluster to access the 194 bulbs. There is a locking clip which I broke, and now have to use other methods to keep speedo cable locked into back of gauge cluster.

I put all led bulbs inside my dash cluster, and in bright sunlight i was happy.
however at night it was about 100 times too bright, and the leds would only dim about 10% via the rotary dimmer on headlight switch before just shutting off.

Mine also had these green filters, which I removed as i wanted red gauges. The red leds were nice, but I bought red incandescent 194 bulbs, which are bright enough, and respond properly to the dimmer. there is about 8 or 12 bulbs in mine all together, and the rotary dimmer is expecting the load of this many incandescent bulbs.
With the red LEDs I bought, once they get rotaried down below 10.5v or so, they just shut off whereas incandescent just keep on dimming.

I guess some 194 leds/ t-10 base bulbs will respond properly via the stock dimmer, but I was not going to keep buying bulbs and installing them to see if they responded as I desired.

The same was true with the blue high beam indicator. it was so bright it was like a car in opposite land had a light bar on my face. intolerable. I just taped 3 or 4 layers of tint over it, instead of tearing apart dash just to return the incandescent bulb.

Same with green turn signal indicator LED bulbs. Fine during day, but was like being blasted with a green laser at night.

Everywhere i placed LED bulbs in dash cluster, i tore it back open and replaced them all with new incandescent bulbs.

168 bulbs are a bit brighter than 194s, so I'd recommend those. Since there is no need to save electricity with LEDs with engine running, i'd really recommend against going LED for the dash lights, unless you never plan on travelling after dark, and enjoy being blinded by excess glare of the brotrucks with their lightbars on the other side of the road.

I know i am a bit sensitive to excess glare, but the LEDS i used in my dash cluster were far from the brightest available, and simply way too bright. Would be okay if they dimmed properly, but they didnt.

Swapping seats on mine was pretty simple. remove 4 1/2 inch nuts and they'd lift right off the swivel bases.

removing swivel bases from floor required a Pair of vice grips clamped to the nuts on the underside and hoping for some interference to prevent vice grips spinning.

All my captains chairs are now in horrible condition.
I have bought two new ones for the rear 3rd chair at a junkyard, but the second one is now toast too. Its on the list, if when I ever get back to working on the van.

I've gone through many seat covers over the years. They are not really made for captains chairs, and new ones all seem to have slits for seatbelts which do not exist, showing holes and th original worn upholstery.
. Black logoless t shirts inside out have worked out far better and can be washed relatively easily.

I made some Oak spacers to raise the sliders off the base a bit, and angled it back to make the seats a bit more 'bucketlike'

[GypsyDogs]

Adventures in seat swapping-
Yes, they are all the same.. no, they do not fit Easily.. if you get the track-rails off square..
Note: once removed from the solid base- those (expletive) things Move..
Set replacement seat on frame.. get at least one bolt/hole aligned.. curse.. none of the others seem to fit.. try again
and again
And Again…
realize the problem
New plan-
set one side in the holes, lift lever with one hand, tilt seat with other hand, and align bolt with holes with other hand, and put on washers and nuts with… wait a minute.. how many hands do I need??? Expletive Lol

[GypsyDogs]

But I did gain almost 3” of seat ride height..

Totally worth it!!!!

[rvpopeye]

I got some conversion van seats for the class C rig.
The bolt holes on the pedestals didn't match up . (Both chevy vans but different years? or 1/2 vs. 1 ton?)
I made an adapter plate to fit between .

[GypsyDogs]

Oh- they fit.. once I managed to Octopus them in.. lolololol

[sternwake]

Yep, getting the studs on the slider portions to line up with base plate holes, requires a fair amount of cursing.

[GypsyDogs]

And she does have the 3sp no od tranny.. ah well.. still really like the van..

Even more so, now that I can see over the steering wheel— lol

[GypsyDogs]

Pricing flooring… I can score some really nice looking ‘light commercial grade’ stuff for— rounding up — about $75 I figure that should hold up well
And it is a warm wood look herringbone style, so dead-on straight lines will not be an issue -lol

Or if I want to go Cheap- there is one that looks not bad.. for about $55

Methinks I will spring for the durability/quality floor for the extra $20