Kaiju the 4x4 ambulance build

Rockey709

Active member
Well, I’ve been waiting to make one of these. I recently won a bid and took receipt of a mildly molested e350 quigley ambulance. It’s a 1995 SRW type 7 mini mod by wheeled coach with a Quigley 4” lift, 33” rubber and the all mighty 7.3 diesel.

I discovered that it wasn’t without its issues upon arrival as the AT transmission shifted “oddly” and seemed to slam into gear, the odometer was disconnected and the new looking tires were dry rotted to Hell. Add in the 4x4 did not work/engage (more on that later).

The good news, is it was only 10k and the box is in beautiful shape. Many things were poorly ripped out, but it’s all there. The cab is better than expected and after a DEEP cleaning, I was pleased to report zero hepatitis and zero needles.

Let the fun begin.
 

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cjken

Explorer
Awesome!!
Looks a lot like mine, although mine started as a wide box dually.

I just had my tranny rebuilt (2weeks ago)

Once you work out all the small issues it will be great!
 

Rockey709

Active member
It was a busy day. My “new looking” tires had a golf ball sized bulge in the sidewall so I had to prematurity put new tires on her. While we were there, I did new Bilstein HD’s all around. While that was done we discovered my batteries were nackered! After four stops, I finally found them at a Ford Stealership at oddly the lowest price (go figure lol). Tires were on the list, but throws off the timing of everything. The flow chart on this was going to be: register in South Dakota (pm me and I’ll teach you the best dmv truck in America)

Address HARD SHIFT transmission ?

New springs (low tec coils up front and leads in rear)

Shocks & steering stabilizer

Connect odometer (because it’s not powered) and may contribute to the hard shift because no speed data is being communicated...???...???

Address a few wiring oddities and reconnect the sine wave inverter.

After all that, I’d address the interior and layout. While I love the rustic or primitive crash pad style, I’m sadly married to a wonderful woman and have two girls to consider. Those weirdos want things like beds and at least a port a potty.... weird...

I love the Snow White build on here with the transverse elevated bed, but I lack the skills to do that and I still need seatbelts that are car seat friendly. The westfalia/Sportsmobile layout is my favorite, but I’ll kikely just keep the current floor plan and “modify it”.
 

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Rockey709

Active member
Interior porn:
 

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Coachgeo

Explorer
Looks like great platform to start with. Had not seen seats like those in the box. Very interesting.
 

Rockey709

Active member
im amazed at how well the interior is built. My wife and i looked at several class B and C RV's and even delved into the Sprinter world, but the build quality was appalling!! BRAND NEW they rattled and squeaked enough to make you deaf. This 23 year old rig doesn'
t have one annoying noise!! The only bad thing about the build quality, is that cutting and changing the cabinets will be a BIT*H!!
 

cjken

Explorer
The interior looks identical to mine.
I left the left side alone but took out the right side including the cabinets and wall behind the passenger seat. Now the passenger seat can recline.

fb77361c94f6130f34c4b9ba40421baa.jpg

f944043f9fd7c22cec9bcb6198695ec6.jpg
 
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Rockey709

Active member
cjken: how hard was it to remove that bulkhead? also do you have any other interior pics? I'm looking for inspiration and potential pitfalls.
 

cjken

Explorer
I have very few interior pictures.

The bulkhead came out easily here is a picture just before I removed it.
3242f84d498f3cb3a664bfb395b34f26.jpg


Here is a shot from behind you can see the fold down platform that serves as a bed for camping. It folds up for transporting things if I need the space.
Overall very simplistic. There are much better interiors than mine, but I did not want to lose the ability to fold bed up for additional space for utility uses.


31e03cbbe7ed049772af50dddf6b84ce.jpg


The left side is exactly like yours except I cut out the fan which is in the rear left corner and put in a RV fan through the roof which you can see in the exterior rear photo.
Right now I have a small window ac in the spare tire compartment.
I may do a small mini split or rooftop ac this summer. The window unit being so low is less effective than I would like.
 
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cjken

Explorer
did you end up losing your heat/air unit in that cabinet stack? any issues with that?

Yes. I yanked it out. It never really worked well to begin with. The front cab ac works great. With the fan pulling hot air out the top it stays reasonably cool when driving even with out the rear ac.
When camping I run the window ac.
I may add a low profile roof top unit soon. Trying to avoid making it taller, but it may be my best option.
 

Coachgeo

Explorer
Yes. I yanked it out. It never really worked well to begin with. The front cab ac works great. With the fan pulling hot air out the top it stays reasonably cool when driving even with out the rear ac.
When camping I run the window ac.
I may add a low profile roof top unit soon. Trying to avoid making it taller, but it may be my best option.
you can always make an outside shelf on back of rig to sit a roof AC on. Then duct air in. Granted one could do that with a window AC unit too. Unconventional...... but if it works.... who cares. Maybe you'll start a fad lol.
 

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