Detailing van

[Calendyr]

All right guys,

I am about to start working on my 2005 Dodge Caravan (7 passenger) to turn it into a dedicated Detailing Van for my company.

I will post pictures of my progress at each stage of work. I am not sure how long it will take, it's dépendent on my available time and mostly weather conditions since I don't have a garage.

I will give you détails on costs and work involved in case you might want to do the same thing.

Let's get started ;)

[Calendyr]

Here is the van as it is before I start work.

I purchased it late last summer. Time constraints and budget prevented me from doing the conversion last year.

I paid 2300$ for it. It runs well and have some minor repairs to do as well as a lot of bodywork and painting.

In terms of repairs I need to change a coolant tube (225$), the oïl pan (200$), belt (250$).

As you can see it needs a good paint correction, a lot of rust repair then repaint. I need to remove the deflector on the Hood (I am sure I will find more rust repair to do Under it). Not shown in the pictures I will need to remove the Dodge and Caravan badges on the hatch. The is also a dealer sticker I need to remove. Inside I have already removed the passenger seats in the back 2 rows. I still need to remove the front passenger seat.

I hope I can use the seat tracks to Anchor a plywood floor so I can tie down Equipment to it (compressor comes to mind). I also want to install a Workstation of some kind where the front passenger seat is. This will be where my laptop and printer will go.

I will also do an engine detail, just have to ;)

Here are some pictures of it as it is:

[dcjredline]

Even though you anchor things PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE be safe and get yourself a safety cage. Not sure how much they cost but it would pay for itself the first time you need them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LavJordan]

That is awesome! Great color to! I am just starting out, like barely dabbled in the business and this makes me want to go find the nearest caravan and strip it! Look forward to see the renovations, as always, keep us posted :dblthumb2:

[Calendyr]

Mini update.

Weather has been really horrible lately. Got 2 days of nice weather and I was working one of the two.

So far I have fixed one rust patch on the front passenger side fender (sanded to metal, applied bondo filler, primer, painted and clearcoated). I still need to wetsand, compound and polish.

I grinded the rust off the passenger side sliding door and under the rocker panel. I did not have time to fix the holes with fiberglass filler and since it's gonna rain all week I applied primer to offer some protection until I can work on it again.

Purchased 4 new Mag wheels today, and installed them with summer tires. Since I have not removed the rust and painted the drums and calipers, it looks funny right now ;) Nice mags over rusty drums is not the looks you might want ROFL!

Crazy week at work with the Stanley cup games going on, it's not a bad thing since it's gonna be raining all week so I could not do anything on the van anyhow.

Will keep you posted with pictures as soon as I can resume work.

[Calendyr]

Big day today. Worked on my website till 4 am. Went to bed around 5 and was up by 11.

I had 2 mechanical things to do on the van, the first one was to replace a pipe that link the water pump to the radiator hose. This thing rust on all Caravans and if you let it alone it can start leaking badly and put the engine at risk of over heating. Mine was completelly rotted so changing it was top priority.

The second thing, an other common thing on Caravans is that my o i l (why does this word get all messed up by the forum??) pan was starting to rust. Again if left alone, loosing your o i l while driving is pretty bad for the engine.

So, got an estimate for both:
Coolant pipe replacement: 250$
Oil pan replacement: 300$

So... checked out youtube, saw the procedure for both. Both are easy to do but the o i l pan replacement is a pain in the b..ack because there is like 20 bolts to remove. It's also very messy.

So I decided to compromise. I got the part to replace the coolant pipe: Part is 45$ and I needed silicone lubricant for it, so 10$ more but that can will last me a lifetime ;) I already had grave guard paint which is not standard but...

So I found this place where you can rent a lift for 10$ per hour. There are mechanics in the place so if you get stuck you can ask for advice.

It took me and hour and a half to replace the pipe, had to add 1 gallon of anti-freeze and one gallon of distilled water for an extra 20$. While I was doing that, I removed all the rust I could find Under the truck (including on the o i l pan) and coated everything with gravel guard paint. The pan had some rust but nothing major. I think the garage wanted to make a quick buck ;( Well it's done now so it should be good for a few years.

I also covered the new pipe with gravel guard, it should help protect it against salt and water and what ever makes that pipe rust on all the caravans.

They charged me for 2 hours for a total of 20$. So in total it costed me around 110$ with taxes instead of 550$. Plus my vehicule has some undercarriage protection now. Quite happy with that.

While there I talked to the guy that does body work at that place. He is charging me 600$ to replace the rusted areas on both sides. I think I will go with that, I was planning to simply grind an patch with fiber glass but once I started grinding the other day I realized there was a lot more rust than I thought. Someone had already patched it and it was a mess.

So that is the next step.

Oh when I got home I replaced the cabin air filter on my car (2002 Accent Sport). By the look of it, it had never been changed during the entire life of the car LOL It's supposed to be a while filter, mine was black and all the slits were filled with dead leaves, sand, dust and all sorts of things. I Wonder how air managed to pass through it ROFL!

Finally I tested my new power washer tonight. Did a complete rinse on the truck (no need to wash it when tomorrow it will be covered in sanding dust) and did a quick wash on the car using a wash and wax car soap. First wash this spring and it was dark do did not spend any more time than needed on it. I will likelly do a complete detail on the car this week-end.

So things are moving forward slowly. We are finally getting a break from the horrible weather, so I expect to speed things up now.

[Calendyr]

Ok started on the bodywork today.

While the body guy was busy grinding rust out, applying fiberglass to repair holes and welding the 2 new rocker panels, I debadged the van and did a headlight correction.

Tomorrow we finish the body work and paint the van.

While he does that I will remove the wiper arms and paint them. They have started to rust so this is needed.

This job will cost me about 1000$ plus taxes. Pretty low considering all the work needed on the van. When I purchased it last year I did noticed some rust that had been painted over by the used car dealership. I did not realise just how much rust there actually was! My initial idea was to do all the work myself but I am not equiped to install rocker pannels or do any sort of welding. So might has well let a pro do all of it once the van is there.

Went to the shop that does lettering and vinyl wraps on vehicles today. I need to submit rough design for a specific price but the guy told me around 500-700$. That's very good I was expecting to pay about 2000$. Will see if price changes a lot once I submit a design but that was a good news for me ;)

Oh... yesterday I did some work on my car as well. Changed the valve cover gasket and all 4 o-rings for the cylinders. Tried to replace the horn but did not have the correct connectors, so I will have to jury-rig something to hook up the new one.

[Calendyr]

Van is finally painted :)

I will post pictures tomorrow, I am just too tired to want to make the effort of croping and resizing them ;)

Total job cost was 1150$ including taxes. We ended up installing 2 new rocker pannels, and painting 7 pannels.

I also did some of my own paint on small areas. Man I wish I was in Florida so I did not have to deal with the consequences of our winters :(
Plus detailing all year round insted of 6 months per year. Maybe I should move there LOL

[SameGuy]

J'ai hate a voir ca!

Congrats, buddy!