Standard length motovan - I know, I know, another van build.

I've been building this E-150 for a couple of months and wanted to show you guys some ideas for people thinking of buying a standard length moto van.
Well back to the situation of why I ended up deciding to buy and build a moto van.

I was at my GF house and had my 2 dirt bikes in the back of my truck. I went inside to get some food while I left my truck outside, my whole visited lasted around 45 minutes and in that time my two bikes almost got hijacked by some stupid motherf***rs. Thank god I went to my truck to retrieve my wallet and encountered 2 kids trying to unload my bike out of my truck. I quickly sprinted to catch them, but had a sore leg from that day of riding and wasn't even able to keep up with them. My girl and I thought about how crazy that situation was and at the moment I knew I needed a van in my life.


I was waiting for a perfect condition extended van with low miles, mint condition and under 5k. Well, you guys should know I was pretty much asking for a unicorn. After 3 months of looking relentlessly everyday craigslist, I encountered a standard E150 2005, 70k miles for 5,700 mint condition and we had to jump on that deal.

I was afraid that I might regret the decision of going standard length, but I went for it and guess what? I'm in route to a standard van that can fit 3 bikes (4 with hitch receiver) and have a sleeper sofa without the use of an extended van.


Pros of having a van:
- no more rain hitting my bike before or after the track
- peace of mind
- don't have to unload
- can camp and road trip in it
- no need for the trailer
- it's a van
- might give away free candy

Cons:
- mpg

Please feel free to chime in with any ideas or steal mine if you want.
Well let's stop the writing and show the pictures:

here is the van that was purchased:


Put the bike in and at least it fits.





The van had these ugly gray front and rear bumpers with gray wheels, so I went to work with the matte black paint.








Took out the rubber floor to fix some underneath rust:







I was going to put wood on the door panels but went with aluminum and pasted some cardboard on the back for noise reduction. It was a cleaner finish, not easy damageable and can get wet.



Added a table on this side door of the van to make some sandwiches maybe even put a grill on top got the lock hinges on amazon, for the table I bought a bamboo cutting board so it would look professional and fit perfectly without me trying to pull my carpenter skills.



Wall build, I wanted to maximize as much space as I could so we built the partition wall with a slant to it. The slant will be where the people who are sitting in the back will put their back against, there will be cushions but that is next to come. The window works to see if everything is okay in the back or if you need to grab something real quick without having to stop and get out. I wanted a shelf on top to store miscellaneous for trips. Pretty much I was asking for a lot but was going to try anyway.
The wall is a good idea to not get headaches from gas fumes and be able to store the bikes without the inconvenience of mud, gas, oil, etc in the sleeping and driving area. I met a guy one time with a van that said after the day of riding moto and storing the bikes back in the van the car would smell like a gas nozzle for the next 40 mins until all the air went out the front 2 windows.
I asked myself in a situation where it's raining and you can't put the windows down, The gas smell is going to be disgusting, I was willing to avoid that situation at all cost. (Disclaimer: my girlfriend hates gas smell, for this reason, the wall had to done)











LED lights for some good lighting. I connected them to the 12-volt cable that runs to the back light.

Sprayed foam on the side to finalize the insulation and finish the wall build. Will probably still have to buy some water proof wood chemical to spray over the back part of the wall.





talk about precision.



Waterproofed the wall, set up e-tracks stole a broom from my job and finished insulating the wall completely.





All packed up for race day.



Now the front part of the van has become a headache and I can see the finish line. I installed the plywood on the side, and put a all marine carpet that they sell in home depot.







In the next few days, im gonna be building the futon and trying to finish the front section.