Welcoming a new member to our home...

Sorry to here the sad news about Tammy's Mom. Thoughts and prayers go out to your family's. It's tuff to loose someone and Mom and Daughter bond....is a tuff one. My wife's Mom passed away last year, and yea she wishes she had visited her more as well.

SHIFTER...

Been looking to get a nice shifter for my install. Been looking at B & M and Lokar.

First I will say that I want to mount this on the FACE of my dash. People might say WTH, to this but that is where I want it.

I found a 6 inch Lokar cable shifter, $315, spendy. The cable is super short though. If I am going to pay $315, it better be ready to use out of the box.

B & M has some nice shifters but the mounting boxes for them are HUGE! This was a reason I wanted to go with Lokar since it has a much smaller and cleaner mounting application.

Suggestions on other types people have used? Really I would like it if the cable entered from the BACK, not the front.

I do have some 10 foot push pull cables and been thinking of just making my own shifter. I have a few CNC/No switches which could be used as a NSS but the "Click" between positions is the part I worry about.

The Lokar I have takes a lot of space below it to hook up the cable and has to lay out pretty flat because it picks up the cable at the low end of the shifter arc. The mega shifter hooks up high and already has some angle built into it where the cable goes. You can ditch the regular mounting box and fab up a below the dash box to mount it, just cut a hole the boot will fit okay either on a bezel or the dash if yer that careful on the surface. You might have trouble getting a cable long enough to run from the dash down without being a special order of some kind? I used a 12 footer on my orange van and it was back on the tunnel.

Got a picture of the Mega Shifter by chance?

Crappy pic but shows how it mounts flat on the bottom and the the cable angles down. It's pretty self contained.

Think maybe about making a flat spot on your tunnel?

I ordered some weather stripping for a Caravan sliding door from eBay and got it yesterday, unfortunately it is not going to work on my flip out windows. Back to square one on that part... $50 wasted...

Weather Stripping

can you tell me what is stopping it from working??? i hate to see that kind of money going to waste??? . if you can't use it i'd try going to the manufactors web site and view all their options. and then contact them and inquire about sample pieces so you can try. or visit the local yard and cut a piece and take that home to try. a member in Detroit contacted J.C.Wittney and they sent him 3 samples to try.

Metro is a top of the line weather strip manufactor. i went back to the site you bought it from and it says you can return it for up to 30 days in unused condition, i'd suggest you take that route. This product has worked on the dodge windows aswell as on Donnies van and others i'd hate to see people running away from somthing that has worked for us, maybe new weather stripe is new and stiff ??? the dodge windows have adjustments to back off the preasure of the glass against the weather strip. does the Chevys ????

The problem is the channel that attaches to the window frame, it is WAY to big, just falls right off. The channel doesnt have anything that would make it hold a shape if I was to squeeze the channel to be tight enough to hold to the opening.

I will get a picture of it on the window opening to show what I mean.

After thinking about it, I am going to keep it and go around my new dog house with it. I am using 1/8 thick 1.5 inch angle iron for the frame so this should work real well to seal that.

the one i removed from the junk yard had a metal channel inside the rubber and could be crimped tight. . ok I think i just figured it out, You ordered the door weather strip, And what you wanted was the window weather strip.

Ahh! Dang it! A guy over at VCVC gave me a part number for it at $1.35 a foot. Going to measure and order it.

send the other stuff back. and use the same thing on the dog house....

Donivan has a post about how he rebuilt his pop-out windows and the gasket he used. Don't you have any salvage yards near you? The one near me is littered with minivans.

sandyvan wrote:Donivan has a post about how he rebuilt his pop-out windows and the gasket he used. Don't you have any salvage yards near you? The one near me is littered with minivans.

I have ONE near me and they are insane for prices. I had tried to buy seat belts, not like all the mounting stuff, just the BELT to use on a full body swing that I make. They wanted $5 each just for the webbing. I ended up paying $50 for 300 YARDS of webbing from a company I found online...



To me it just isnt worth buying 15-25 year old materials. I havent measured yet but the windows are what? 20 x 20 inches? 80 inches would be a bit over 6 feet, that is like $10 for NEW seal, to me it isnt worth saving a few bucks when new would last way longer, look new, and I wouldnt have to walk through a sea of inbreeders to find it.

but that's the fun looking at the inbreeders and then spotting somthing you just got to have,

Man that's awesome. This place near me is real small. The have cars for a month then crush em so there isn't a huge variety.

here is a nother find

Found a slight bit of motivation this weekend, about an hours worth, so thought I would mod my Fiero seat brackets. I had been thinking about this since I mounted Pete's and our seats and how I had went to such great lengths to mount these. It is one of those times you face palm yourself and say, WTH was I thinking?

So this is what the bracket looks like on the bottom of the seat. Most of the feet are at odd angles and different heights. I used iron and welding originally to get these mounts to bolt in, wow a mistake...





There are 2 rivets per bracket on the bottom. 4 per side, 8 per seat... I ground off the heads and pounded out the rivets. There are little wheels and ball bearings for the track to run on in between the 2 sections. I took that apart to get the 2 dropped rivets out then greased up the rollers. The holes were a bit small for my bolts so I drilled those out and installed my bolts and tack welded them in. Now the brackets sit flat and level from side to side. A piece of tubing will run for side to side and this will be easily welded to the new mounting in the van.




Since the brackets were apart, took the back off the seat and installed the new cover for these seat. Here is a cover installed on the seat. I think I had posted before about these covers, $200 for a set of 2 on eBay.

Anyone have a source for the clamp latches for the dog house? I need 4 for how I am thinking of doing mine.

they look sweet...

So I went on eBay and found a few things I am going to try... I wont be using the wood screws.



and 4 of these...




Will see how it works. I wanted to go with more of a metal type but I want the handle to pull 2 directions and I thought that metal latches might not look all that good mounted at an angle...

Been a long time since an update. Has been hard to get out to the shop to work on the van. Very discouraged I havent got to start the motor yet and so much to do till I can.

This weekend I got a few things down.

1. Ran all the wiring from the new EZ-Wiring kit to the rear of the van. Branched off 2 extra wires for a total of 3 dome lights.

A note on the kit, even though it says it will run full for a full sized truck, this is still too short for our vans. In a truck it goes from the cab which is 5-6 feet back from the grill. I will need to extend a few of my wires but it was worth it.

2. Got the drivers side front section of the dog house completed. Still need to get the panel cut of the passenger side then make the hinged front cover.

3. I had gotten this from a buddy, (not sure he wants it advertised yet) and polished a piece of aluminum to set it off a bit. The reflection of the ceiling and cabinet above really show up in it!

I am going to paint the border red but didnt have any paint at the time. Also going to paint the van a different color, I just used what I had in the shop.

Got my water pump pulley and serpentine belt on this weekend as well as most of the engine wiring harness.

I really need to decide what I am going to do for a fuel tank on this beast as that is the last crucial element still needed.

The radiator hose set I bought isnt going to cut it. I bought a flex kit that has metal flex hoses and rubber connecting hoses but I wouldnt trust it for nothing, the metal hose can pop right out. I guess I need to find some kind of rubber flex hose to hook this up. I will have to measure the lengths again and see what I can find.

Magna-Kool makes a nice hose kit. I've used it on different vehicles and had no issues with it. I think I gave around $50 for it.

Thats what I have and the hose part comes right out of the rubber "Insert". Not sure how much I want to trust it.