L31 Extreme Budget Build

[BVRPLZR]

Painting this is not in my immediate plans. Potentially in the future.

Almost finished insulating the roof as well as well as creating a somewhat flat surface to install the headliner boards to. Discovered the roof is pretty much exactly 3 widths of 48" wide plywood in length and just shy of 60" wide. That is 1" thick, aluminum faced foam insulation board with a R6 insulation value. 1-1/3 sheet covered the roof, leaving me with plenty left of the 3 sheets I bought to insulate the walls with. I left enough room to run the new wiring down the sides for the interior stuff. I will most likely use some of the butyl sound deadner stuff I have left to finish the outside edges as well as some of the weirdly shaped areas. The next step is to finish the flooring, then the headliner. Once those are in place, will create new door panels and figure out the walls. I kept all the old stuff I pulled out for templates.

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I did essentially the same insulation treatment to my G20 and while it's worked out pretty well as far as heat control goes, I've found that I occasionally get condensation on the underside of the roof, above the foam and have had to cut a couple vents into it.

Granted, my front doors will allow in some water if the rain is blown just right (even with new weather-stripping ) so I think that's the root cause of it. Water gets into the cabin, evaporates with the sun, and then condenses on the cool metal of the roof.

I recently tossed a couple 100g silica gel packets up there and that seems to have dried things out pretty good.

 

[tayto]

I did essentially the same insulation treatment to my G20 and while it's worked out pretty well as far as heat control goes, I've found that I occasionally get condensation on the underside of the roof, above the foam and have had to cut a couple vents into it.

Granted, my front doors will allow in some water if the rain is blown just right (even with new weather-stripping ) so I think that's the root cause of it. Water gets into the cabin, evaporates with the sun, and then condenses on the cool metal of the roof.

I recently tossed a couple 100g silica gel packets up there and that seems to have dried things out pretty good.

i have fought trunk condensation issues on a number of vehicles over the years. resealing windows and body seams, new weatherstrip, adjusting trunk latches, sealing fasteners from taillights and vents... sometimes you just need to throw some sillca packets in to finally fix the problem

 

[L31MaxExpress]

I need to pull the cowl on this one to seal a water leak appearing in heavy rain on the passenger floor. Thought it was the windshield but it is definitely in the cowl.

I installed my weatherstrips without adhesive first, had some leakage, went back after picking up the weatherstrip adhesive, used the adhesive, no door leaks now.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

Pulled all new wiring for all the interior lighting today and started working on building a new overhead console. Tomorrow I plan to finish said console and start on the new headliner and door panel boards. I ended up having to feed weedeater line down the A-pilar to pull the power feed wiring up through the A-pilar from the fuse box area. Actually worked quite well. It is hard to see, but I ran all the wiring through the roof structure in the OE openings that already existed, tucked up well out of the way. The new switch panel will be incorperated into the overhead. It was kind of a time consuming pain, but I trust my wiring and the old stuff that was in there was a total C.F of a disaster.

I fired up the 350 today for the first time in a while. Spun over for about 1 second and barked right off. Way quicker starting than the factory TBI. No lifter noise, exhaust leaks, or anything goofy although the roller rockers and the Sanden compressor are a bit noisy. The ac was on and it cooled right down to 40F even with the engine cover off and it being 93F and humid as could be.

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[Supercharged111]

Gotta love the scope creep on this thing.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

Gotta love the scope creep on this thing.

A bit but you know how it is on project vehicles.

 

[Supercharged111]

A bit but you know how it is on project vehicles.

Even more so on this one. Wasn't it gonna be a parts rig at first but was too nice to junk?

 

[L31MaxExpress]

Even more so on this one. Wasn't it gonna be a parts rig at first but was too nice to junk?

More or less. It was always going to get the interior build though, customized for the intended use. The interior fabrics, carpet, etc were rough over 5 years ago before I bought it. The first plan was actually to simply reseal the 305, put a MTC1 cam into, swap on the Vortec accessory setup, add headers and run it though. That turned into the 6.0L getting tossed into it and it being driven a bit. That made the worn out front end and brake system issues apparant, so it was parked. My buddy then kept harassing me about the 6.0L, so I pulled it and built this 350. Glad I did though, it pulls this van around so much better.

Lately though, I have noticed people wanting a stupid amount of money for these vans. Kind of glad I did not cut it up. You do not see many here even in Texas now. I have zero doubt in my mind that aside from the TH400 which will surely fail at some point, this could easily run another 100K miles or more reliably at this point.

 

[Spareparts]

Low top vans go for good money. High top vans go for great money and High top 4X4 go for over 20K if even half decent.
I got my High top van for $4,200 and was lucky i think.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

A lot more progress being made. At various points during the interior build out. Overhead console built, roof panels constructed, door panels constructed, the front vinyl flooring is down although it will need some cleanup trimming if it ever lays down completely flat in the heat. Tomorrow the roof panels get installed, the swivel seat bases are getting cleaned up and repainted. The rear flooring is going in. Then will start on making the wall panels. Starting to feel the crunch since I leave June 8th. Roughly a 10 day, 3,000 mile road trip in this thing. Mechanically I need to throw a new rear brake hose, U-joints and a carrier bearing in the thing and top off the refrigerant as it is a touch low still and recheck all the fluid levels. Not worried about much else atleast mechanically.

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