2005 118" Sprinter Conversion for Alexander

PaulJensen

Custom Builder
About a month ago I got an e-mail from Alex...He was about to get a used Sprinter and we started the conversation about his wants and needs, then we refined that list to keep the budget from blowing out with stuff he likely just didn't need...He had a long look at how Joe and Gina's van turned out (link below) and figured I was the guy to do the work...

Alex went from California to Oklahoma to get it, had it checked out there, resolved a few minor mechanical issues, the drove it back to California...Last week he drove it up here to Washington State...We talked more about the layout and agreed on a plan...

So, it starts...

There in the driveway...Alex's is on the left...Mine's on the right...

P1030010.JPG
(above) The 118" sits a bit lower due to the 15" vs. 16" wheel size...The rims and tires can be up-sized if you can find rims...

P1030011.JPG
(above) It was a drywaller's van before Alexander got it...

P1030012.JPG
(above) Fairly decent for a 2005... Found on Craigslist Oklahoma with just over 100,000 miles for the bargain price of $8,000 USD...

P1030013.JPG
(above) The difference that's not obvious is the 118" has rear doors that do not fold flat to the sidewall...If they did, they would interfere with the sliding door...

P1030014.JPG
(above) Alex's camping set up...I'll try to improve on that...

P1030015.JPG
(above) Dirt bag to the max...Not that there's anything wrong with that...

P1030017.JPG
(above) Alex... The coffee is black, like there was a choice...

P1030018.JPG
(above) The starting point for me was to clear the vehicle of the identifiers of species...

P1030019.JPG
(above) Soak and slowly lift with coffee stir sticks...The key is to let the chemicals do their stuff slowly...

That all was last week while I was working the day shift on other projects...Next week I'll be deep, full time, creating an interior to meet Alex's needs...
 
Last edited:

mhiscox

Expedition Leader
Welcome back, Paul. It's always boring around here without a Jensen build thread to look at and admire.

That's a stumpy little van you guys have got there. It'll be great to see what you can squeeze in.
 

PaulJensen

Custom Builder
P1030024.JPG
(above) Before I add anything, it needs a clean out...

P1030025.JPG
(above) The paint was scratched up pretty bad...

P1030026.JPG
(above) The pictures don't show the dust and grime from years of hard use...

P1030030.JPG
(above) Ridden hard and put away wet...

P1030033.JPG
(above) Looks like someone drove with golf spikes on...

P1030034.JPG
(above) Not exactly skin friendly cleaning supplies...

P1030035.JPG
(above) I drilled out the rivets that hold the plywood floor down, pulled the plywood out and this mess of Oklahoma dirt and mud was there to be cleaned out...

P1030036.JPG
(above) The plywood floor...It's sort of like a Bakelite surface in and out, and between the layers...Tough stuff...

P1030037.JPG
(above) Halfway through the floor clean up...

P1030038.JPG
(above) The seats were removed too...
 

PaulJensen

Custom Builder
P1030039.JPG
(above) After five hours of harsh scrubbing and hosing out, it's prepped for a repaint...

P1030041.JPG
(above) I pulled the headliner out too...It makes the insulation to come and rewiring a lot easier with it out of the way...

P1030042.JPG
(above) In case you wondered what it looks like up there...

P1030043.JPG
(above) With the seats out, it looks like that...

P1030044.JPG
(above) Driver side, under seat wiring...

P1030045.JPG
(above) Passenger side...

P1030046.JPG
(above) Done for the day...The badging came off alright, but the body has plenty of dents and the paint is indicative of the way it was treated...Pretty rough...At some point, it had a graphics wrap that wasn't taken cleanly off...There is a residue of the adhesive in the window channels...I'm not going to get OCD trying to make the outside perfect...Alex wants it to maintain a 'there's nothing to steal in here' look...Makes sense to me...
 

1leglance

2007 Expedition Trophy Champion, Overland Certifie
thanks for showing the behinds the scenes work that goes into these things....especially the less glorious stuff like cleaning all that mud/dirt/grime

I am really looking forward to what you are going to do with this blank slate.
 

PaulJensen

Custom Builder
#2

P1030048.JPG
(above) The right thing to do is to remove worry about rust...My solution was to goop it up with the most ************ gel known to man...Liquid kryptonite...

P1030050.JPG
(above) Then it was on to the next stage of paint prep...After a TSP wash / scrubbing , it all got wiped down with paint thinner, then a dry rag...

P1030051.JPG
(above) After roller priming more than a few areas of consideration, I masked off areas that didn't need painting...

P1030052.JPG
(above) Ready to mask off the rear doors / sill...

P1030053.JPG
(above) The yellower areas are the rust encapsulated zones...

P1030054.JPG
(above) Curb side, ready to spray...

P1030055.JPG
(above) Driver side...

P1030056.JPG
(above) And down the center...

P1030057.JPG
(above) More than an hour of masking total...
 

PaulJensen

Custom Builder
#3

P1030058.JPG
(above) Today's brew...

P1030059.JPG
(above) I used a decade old Campbell Hausfeld H.V.L.P. to shoot this...I thinned the batch of paint by 25% to spray it...

P1030060.JPG
(above) The difference a coat of paint makes...

P1030061.JPG
(above) It just makes sense to do a second coat tomorrow...

P1030062.JPG
(above) Remember that freshly painted old gas station smell...
 

PaulJensen

Custom Builder
# 3

P1030064.JPG
(above) With a stretch of warm dry weather forecast, it's a good time to cut in and install the roof vent...The 14" cut out square was penned onto the roof and cut out with a worm drive saw with a dry diamond blade...Sparky...

P1030065.JPG
(above) The hole edges needed filing...

P1030066.JPG
(above) The roof flange was my drill guide for the screw holes...

P1030067.JPG
(above) The roof flange and the roof was wiped with denatured alcohol, then the flange perimeter was taped off to make the clean up easier...

P1030068.JPG
(above) 3M marine grade adhesives are the only adhesive I use on vehicle roofs...

P1030069.JPG
(above) The screws were placed and cranked down hard...The adhesive squeeze out was removed, then wiped quickly with a rag saturated with alcohol...Speed matters to get a smooth line..Ice cubes work great too...Immediately after the wipe, the tape is pulled...

P1030070.JPG
(above) Roof work done...

P1030071.JPG
(above) Next, the second coat of interior paint was to go on...I pulled all the weatherstripping, so I taped off the door edges to keep overspray from getting out...

P1030072.JPG
(above) Second coat on...Another day done...
 

PaulJensen

Custom Builder
# 4

P1030074.JPG
(above) After the pant set up, it's time to get started on the fun stuff...

P1030075.JPG
(above) The seats were as dirty as something from an Oklahoma junkyard...Our weather forecast is warm and dry for a few days so the twins got a soaking and scrubbing...Gawd, they were filthy...Now there are only a matching pair of cigarette burns that add curiosity...

P1030076.JPG
(above) Alex found a new floor mat to replace the hard rubber sink hole on the driver side...To remove the mat, the step-in thresholds have to come out...To do that, three press-in, plastic screw cover plugs need to get pulled out...Ice picks did it here...Then three screws free it...

P1030077.JPG
(above) Oh my...

P1030078.JPG
(above) Curb side is nearly as bad...Why didn't the put a drain hole in there...???...I will...I'm going to open mine up too...

P1030079.JPG
(above) Floor mat removed...

Then it was on to the design of the rear cabin...The start of the creative part...!!!...

P1030080.JPG
(above) Alex has bike that will need to be wall mounted for storage...

P1030081.JPG
(above) A front fork mount was double sided taped to the wall after the bolt holes were drilled through the steel interior wall...

P1030082.JPG
(above) I had a pair of elevator bolts that would work great...Getting them installed was simple...Masking tape them to wood eating sticks, then....

P1030083.JPG
(above) ...wiggle them through the holes...
 
Last edited:

PaulJensen

Custom Builder
# 5

P1030084.JPG
(above) These bolts need to be firmly mounted, no doubt...I started with a lock washer and a standard nut...I tightened it with an impact driver...

P1030085.JPG
(above) The installation is done here...If you look close you can see that on top of the standard nut is a nylon locking nut, again driven hard with an impact driver...Solid...

P1030086.JPG
(above) I thought installing this was going to be harder...

P1030088.JPG
(above) I like that...Notice the contact point of the rear wheel...No chance of that getting pushed in...

P1030089.JPG
(above) To secure the rear wheel, after the finish walls are in, I'm thinking of a channel and a strap...

P1030090.JPG
(above) Not bad...

P1030092.JPG
(above) Next, it was on to the front seat area...I loosely mounted a seat on the new swivel and tipped the seat back as far as it would go...The grey panel is left over from the last 118" I did...I'll use it to mark the layout of the components that will fill the wall...

P1030093.JPG
(above) The reclined seat was traced to the wall with a pencil taped to a 2' dowel...

P1030095.JPG
(above) That ice chest will go there...

P1030097.JPG
(above) ...and a drop down table will go there, behind the removable ice chest...
 
Last edited:

PaulJensen

Custom Builder
# 6

P1030098.JPG
(above) The table will be accessible from either the front seat once it's pivoted, or from a chair (or ice chest)...With the table dropped down, the ice chest can also serve as a jump seat...I'm liking this design...Another grey panel was taped in place, then the rest of the cabinet plan was simple to visualize...There will be 60" of drawers installed...I'm not decided on the depth of the cabinet, but I'm leaning to 15" like my van...I'm still thinking about whether to build two or three columns of drawers...???...

clip_image169_008.jpg
(above) The curb side cabinets will be the same as what I built for Joe & Gina's van...It just works great like this...

P1030102.JPG
(above) Next it was speaker wiring time...I want all the wiring installed before any insulation goes in...To get wires through narrow channels and multiple holes, a 3/8" wide x 36" long ZipTie with the locking end cut off is used...A pull wire is masking taped to the zip tie, then the ZT is wormed to where it goes...

P1030103.JPG
(above) Needle nose pliers help to get the ZT out of the channels and holes...Later, all the pass through points and potential rub zones will get wrapped to protect the wires...

P1030104.JPG
(above) The floor console will get a new 12 volt outlet, wired into a new fused breaker under the driver seat...

P1030105.JPG
(above) End of the day, speaker wires are in place as is the rear view cam cable...
 

mhiscox

Expedition Leader
. . . Another grey panel was taped in place . . .
Hey, Paul: Are you going to use the factory plastic panels and, if so, are you thinking of painting or covering them? Which is really meant to ask, if someone wants to cover their cargo Sprinter's walls, should they make their own pieces from scratch out of cardboard, luan, 1/8" ply or similar, or use the already cut to size and drilled factory panels (if they have them) as a base? Thanks.
 

PaulJensen

Custom Builder
Hey, Paul: Are you going to use the factory plastic panels and, if so, are you thinking of painting or covering them? Which is really meant to ask, if someone wants to cover their cargo Sprinter's walls, should they make their own pieces from scratch out of cardboard, luan, 1/8" ply or similar, or use the already cut to size and drilled factory panels (if they have them) as a base? Thanks.

I will not be using the corrugated plastic panels...I dislike them on so many levels...Even as patterns for new panels they aren't so great...I'm better off making my own patterns, it's not that hard...For this build I'll likely (still undecided) to use 1/8" luan ply, covered with something else, be that cabinets, carpet, cork, gold leaf, zebrawood or decoupage newspaper...
 

PaulJensen

Custom Builder
# 6

P1030109.JPG
(above) Now, with most of the work focused in the rear cabin, I pulled out the scrap carpet I use in my van sometimes...It'll be easier on the hands and knees when I'm doing things back there...It's just temporary...

P1030113.JPG
(above) Despite the record run of perfect weather, it's September and the rain will be returning soon and be a constant companion...Time to get the work zone weather-ready...This setup will keep me dry enough on the increasingly wet days to come...Bye bye summer...

P1030111.JPG
(above) The tarp covers the whole roof, and as you can see, is tied down into the engine compartment...

P1030112.JPG
(above) Simple, secure...

P1030115.JPG
(above) The rest of the day was foundational electrical work under the driver seat, under the vehicle, and pulling wire in the rear work...Instead of tapping into a hot wire that powers the existing rear lights, the better option is to rework one of the fused circuits under the seat...

Fuse No. 3 is the factory fuse for the 12 volt accessory outlet up front by the radio...So I pulled the fuse block out and soldered in a 14 gauge wire that was then run to a new fuse block (it's below the yellow and blue blocks)...That fuse block is bolted to the steel frame below it...Into the new fuse block are (1) the existing accessory outlet up front, (2) a single new 12 volt outlet in the lower console up front, (3) a few new 12 volt outlets in the rear cabin, (4) new wiring for LED lights, the vent fan and back up camera, (5) a new 12 volt outlet mounted to the driver seat pedestal (it faces the door), and there is one position available for something later...I labeled the wires that run into the new block...The fusing will all be sized appropriately...

All the connections were soldered, crimped and heat shrunk...It takes longer, it's the way I always do it, and it's not something I'll ever have to worry about...Running the wires to the rear cabin was simple by going out through the floor of the under seat compartment, then the friction taped wire bundle, was zip-tied to secure points under the vehicle...The zip-tie contact points were further wrapped with corrugated plastic tubing, then friction taped again, then zip-tied to the frame...Maybe overkill, but I want it safe and solid...

The reentry point into the rear cabin is high on the driver side wheel well...I drilled in a zip-tie fastening point in the wheel well to have a safe and secure mounting of the wiring in the wheel well...Nothing to rattle or flap around down there...Again, no worries...

P1030116.JPG
(above) The new 12 volt outlet on the seat pedestal...It's out of the way for when the seat is turned around, and there is the option of using it for something straight out the door...I'm thinking this might be a good outlet to plug a small, 100 watt inverter...It has it's own dedicated fuse...Probably the strongest outlet in the vehicle...Then again, I'm doing this beyond what's considered adequate...

P1030117.JPG
(above) At the end of the day, my thoughts ran to the rear camera mount...The license plate mount is impractical, considering the amount of cable that has to go in and out of the rear door...So I'm thinking of cutting away most of the frame and....

P1030118.JPG
(above) ...mounting it up there, somehow, someway...I have an idea or two...More later...
 

Forum statistics

Threads
185,527
Messages
2,875,534
Members
224,922
Latest member
Randy Towles
Top