ok, so, I started getting pretty serious with setting up the 1995 E350 for work this february. I kept waiting and waiting for my buddy arty to gimme a hand with putting this truck together, finally i said ***** him, and just went at it.

I have been working on this truck now, almost every day, atleast 3hrs a day, some days 10-12hrs... trying to get this thing ready for work. Dad used the truck as wheel chair van, its even got matching handicap license plates...

old pic:


So. Art's dad took the work bench out of his garage and asked If i wanted it, I said, sure ill take it. I needed something to give me a 'leg up' since the truck was completely empty, and I had never done anything even remotely close to this scale, on my own and by myself with out much input from anyone else. I needed something to give me 'ideas' so to speak... so I took the bench... thinking it was gonna be a big pile of crap.. I figured, eh, maybe I can make it work, kept an open mind... anyways the bench turned out better than expected, and worked out perfectly...



dad was a bit of an innovator. And cheap. He needed a way to pick up and move his power chair, safely effectively, and do it on his own. After ALOT of work, we built this crane on the back of the truck. This is our knowledge hasnt really been done before... not in this fashion anyways. Thats a harbor friengt crane, with dads personal touch (which means its about 5x as strong now LOL)

the crane is staying. I can use to lift material and stuff... its got a 1500lb capacity...

this is what I had up until a week ago...



the bench is in. I used angle iron, bolted and glued to the floor and the bench to help hold it in place. I also used a piece of galvanized angel iren, left over from when we lowered the truck in 2000, and screwed and glued that to the top by the wall... that bench aint going no where.

I added all the shelving, and what not...



this is the plank rack off the old 1977 cube van. Dad custom made this rack to hold wood plank. I had to cut the top off, in order to get it out of the old truck. Art helped me load it on the 95. after that, i did the rest.... 14hrs to get this sucker installed...





because we cut the body, and removed 6 inches out of the fiberglass and lowered it, I was told, repeatedly for the passed 6yrs what i CANT do with this truck as far as customizing the interior. and that it, I can not anchor anything to the walls, everything MUST be tied to the floor.

so.. for the rack, which was held in place in the old truck with 8 wood screws, after some talking on here about it, I decided to go with some 1/8 plate steel I had laying around the shop. I totally over killed this one...



the piece of casing on the end of the rack is so the plank will sit over the top of the gas filler box... so when loading the truck and unloading, the gas box doesnt get hammered.. and the last plank will be easier to remove..


I lucked out here.. the rack is right over one of the floor ribs... however, because I over killed it, i put a few more holes in, for big beefy bolts to hold the plate in place...











i know its crooked, i cut it with a sawzall.



this morning, my mom came over, to help me to put the rack together and bolt it down since arty is always 'busy' He stopped in this morning, to grab his tools and kept insisting i use and air rachet - which would have been faster, but, it costs $5 to start the shop air compressor... and I have lots of time, but no money, so me and mom did it by hand...

I glued the plates down with subfloor adhesive as well... I used all but 5 stainless steel bolts, washers and nuts. I had arty stop at a hardware store yesterday and get me 10 4inch bolts since I sorta screwed up my measurements and required longer bolts... i cant believe i didnt get any underneath shots, ill get those tomarrow...

here it is...













Sparky offered emotional support, in the way of 'cheering'



hes pooped!





I got a bit more to do yet. I hafta run the electrical for powering the truck when at the job, I gotta add some interior lights for when working at the bench, and do some other stuff like figure out shelving details on the top half of the rack... but so far I think its come along GREAT! Took 14hrs to install that rack btw...

Oh, and I ended up having to add some supports near the top of the rack becuase the rack 'swayed' a lil... so I fixed that, all is good now...

 

looks good and functional!!!

 

Looking good Dave.

 

haha... nice dog. =)
is that a brittany?

 

Make sure on those upper shelves, you run a bit higher on the front and sides of it so nothing will plop out, hit the floor, and bust open.. I might recommend a small 4" tall piece of wood to run the entire strip down it along the front there.. perhaps put a couple door hinges on it so you can swing it down to get it out of the way when yoru actually using it.

Other then that, its looking fantastic.. looks like a good work rig :-) I coudl imagine doing somethign like that as an out of home garage for a vehicle.. put a proper set of tools in there, plugs for power and all that.. not bad!

 

lookin good and organized

 

Mike, Im using casing for the shelve borders.. but i really like the hinge idea, ima hafta do that!

 

Looks good. What kind of work do you do with the truck?

 

idk if i missed something but what exactly are you going to be using this for?

 

mostly handyman crap, plaster repair, painting... that sort of thing, but as time goes on, and we (me and my buddy art are supposed to be doing this business together) get more experience, we have the ability to get into renovations, and additions and what not

 

cool, is this gonna be more of a side job or your main job? and if you need any help with appliances just ask me, i know alot about washers, dryers, refrigerators

 

lookin good Dave. you've got your own mobile shop now!



what do you plan on doing with the chair?

 

not sure yet. im keeping it for now tho.