Van prep - part I gutting

Screws, screws and more screes....

Today was the first day of prepping the van for the conversion process. It mainly consisted of 2 tasks - removing the previously installed E-track rails and OEM flooring.

The van came with 4 sets of E-tracks that were mounted to the upper and lower horizontal cross members of the cargo hull. On initial inspection I wasn't quite sure how these were installed but a couple of good tugs let me know they were on tight!. I started by removing the Etracks which were screwed into the plywood that was attached to the van. This required removing screw after screw - thankfully I had power drill which made the task that much easier. With the rails removed I was able to peal back the white laminate - this process was aided by applying heat with my handy heat gun... pattern starting to emerge here - power tools make the job so much easier!

With the laminate removed, I could easily see the plywood was attached to frame with screws - enter the power drill again!

After removing the rails it was time to remove the stock flooring. The flooring is attached with Bolts hold down the flooring and the Drings these bolts were in tight! I sprayed them with WD40 and let them sit for a little while. It didn't help I had a cheap torx 45 socket so I ran over to autozone and picked up a new one.

A new socket and time for the WD40 to do its magic and the bolts came out. The floor at this point was still attached with some Velcro but easily lifted up. The floor was in two pieces attached by an aluminum spline. I as hoping they would easily separate, alas they did not. The hardest part of this job was probably lifting the entire flooring out of the van by myself. Ha a partner in this sure would be nice.

Pile of trash including floor ready to go to dump!

Floor before and after vacuum - ha... we now know what tomorrows job is: scrubbing and cleaning!

Used the rest of the day to take the trash to the dump, go to HomeDepot to stock up on supplies - need more power tools and go for a bike ride in the rain... Insulation and flooring should arrive in a few days. Windows and fan are on backorder so I will have to skip ahead install those when they arrive.