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May 3, 2025
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View Video Transcript
0:01
[Music]
0:26
he [Music]
0:53
hey guys welcome back to the live stream working on John and Susan's build and we are uh Switching gears because because
1:01
we ran out of wood so I got to go and get some more plywood from Lowe's um for the bed panel uh cuz we used up all the
1:08
Baltic Birch and the nice thing is um the Baltic Birch is really heavy and so
1:14
the lighter panels for the bed we're not sacrificing strength the wood it's just going to be lighter so we're using the
1:20
blonde sanded ply um from Lowe's so we'll pick that up we're going to get
1:25
three sheets of that two for the bed panel and then one just as extra we're finish up the uh electrical
1:32
cabinet um behind me we're going to be hopping over here and
1:38
uh since we're um got to pick up wood later today we're going to switch gears like I said and finish up cutting the
1:47
water tank level uh technically would call it a sight
1:53
glass but it's not you know it's not really a sight glass it's just a a hole to look through to check your water
1:58
level um this one is uh it's not going to be as long as I want it to to show the maximum
2:06
you know high and low level um in this situation what we had to do is let me
2:13
move this a little bit closer so again I'm trying to maximize
2:20
the space um for John and Susan on their water system because we went with a nice
2:27
4 gallon hot water tank and we went with a nice 36 gallon uh freshwater tank so
2:32
takes up a lot of room so I didn't want to make it any wider to hide the hot
2:38
water and cold water lines so what you're looking at right now is actually the uh this is the side panel of the
2:46
water system um I think the camera was better back in
2:52
the other position there we go so this is
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the side panel so what we have is the side panel the water tank and then right here is the notch
3:06
for the L track so we've already got the L track bolted in so this is just so that um it's just easier to to take uh
3:14
on and off in this this section's tight so this um butts up right against the
3:20
back of the kitchen Galley and that kind of divider wall so instead of being it you know snagging on this when you're
3:26
trying to pull it out we've got like a little Notch so we can just take it right out um this side I'm doing differently
3:33
so the L track will just pop up here so when you need to take this out you'll just
3:39
um you know lift it up from the back and then slide it Forward uh next this is what we're going
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to cut is that hole now what I was saying earlier is that we have all of
3:52
our hot water uh hot and cold lines coming down here so we have our supply
3:58
line we have our supply to our hot water tank we have our return from the hot
4:04
water tank going up on the top and then we've got our return uh on the bottom for the freshwat
4:12
now when I say return those two lines are actually going back into the rear shower
4:18
compartment so I lost 6 in down here and then I lost 5 in up here so the
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difference is what we have to work with for our opening to see the tank level
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um so you'll probably be you'll be able to see uh probably 25% fill 50% and
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75% so from 25% to 75% you'll be able to see that window um anything above or
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less you won't be able to see um but 36 gallons is a lot
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so uh but yeah a little bit of a compromise but it's the it's so that I
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can make it bigger um but you're just going to see all the exposed water lines and I don't think that looks good
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so now allowing you to view this we have a blue LED that turns on when you turn
5:16
the water pump on and turn the water pump on the whole entire uh opening will
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glow blue and then that difference in color with it hitting the water versus
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the empty section uh you'll see that line that's visible and that'll tell you the tank level easy way that way you don't
5:34
have to cut into the water tank and make an extra hole um you don't have to add
5:39
any more Electronics or gauges or any type of thing like that it's just a visual indicator nice and
5:45
simple so we're going to get to work here um there's two pieces that I need to cut so we're going to use our track
5:54
saw for the second piece and we're going to use a hole saw and a jigsa for this first piece cutting out our
6:02
window so the second piece I have right here um this
6:10
one we need to take about a 16th of an inch off this uh backside Edge and then it'll
6:19
be perfect um just a little too tight in there and then after we paint it you
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know we just don't want it stti we won uh this will probably never be removed but um if you do need to remove them I
6:33
want to make it easy for these to be taken out so be both of these are you can use for inspection panels at the
6:40
back of the van there is an inspection panel that allows you to access the water pump itself remove and replace it
6:48
if necessary as well as cleaning out the strainer basket um which you want to
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check maybe you know once every six months or uh as often as you want if it
6:59
just depend on how much you fill and empty the tank so track saw is going
7:04
over here we'll knock this out so this first thing I'm going to do is actually
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go ahead and uh drill and cut out these um this window
7:16
here one thing that's been really useful in the shop is uh this kettle bell it's
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like my it's like my second hands so just plop it right there um
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one thing that I would invest in if you guys are a DIY you can probably use this for projects in the house as well so
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this is a whol saw kit and uh it's this
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it's the one from Lowe's so doesn't have to be this one um but
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having a really good ho saw is just it just makes life so much
7:54
easier with a working on a van you've got different holes you got to cut out and different compartments and uh you
8:03
need a really good hole saw do not use anything from Harbor Freight uh any type
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of kit that has multiple ones that's cheap um it is well worth it to get uh a
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really nice kit this is a nice kit from Lowe's but I would even go higher and try to get
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something um you know maybe like a carbide tip Hol saw uh something really expensive
8:28
because I actually use this a lot now what's nice about this um is a couple things it has uh this
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quick disconnect so that the plug that's created on here when you drill out a hole saw whatever material plastic or
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wood you can just take this and pull it back and it's going to pop out that piece of uh wood or plastic and then it
8:51
comes back in and then just snaps uh then also it has this collar
8:57
that you pull back and you can quickly [Music] change the different heads on
9:06
here and you don't have to worry about making sure that it's really you know perfectly tight because it'll find its
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holes and just lock back into place and um whatever bit this is is really nice
9:23
so I have a concrete one and then I have uh just some additional ones the kit
9:29
only comes with non concrete but sometimes I like I install my air
9:36
conditioner I needed the uh concrete tip so we're using an inch and a
9:43
half to start our um process over here and I'll move the camera in because I
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think a lot of you guys will want to do this and just going to show you exactly how to do
9:56
it so if you're ever doing a type of like a curve in a van um what you want
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to do is use a hole saw you don't want to jigsaw out the curve you're going to
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want to hole saw out the curve and we're doing that so that we get a
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nice um very neat
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radius so what I've done is I've measured uh I found a spot coming from
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the back of the van forward uh so this line represents the
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direct it's directly underneath the LED so it's going to give you the most
10:38
illumination um so 12 in back is where I mounted that and then if we uh go from
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here this is the bottom so this is where most of our water lines are so we have a
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2x4 so that's uh 3 and 1 12 in and then
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from 3 and 1/2 to six is our water lines and then from 6 in to 13 in is our
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uh opening for our viewable window and then 13 to 18 is again another 2x4
11:12
support and the hot water to the rear shower and then all I've done is I've
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taken the inch and a half divid it in half which is our 34 so I come up 3/4 of
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an inch and I come down 3/4 of an inch and then once I finish I take a uh
11:33
center punch and I punch the two holes where I want my hole
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saw to start and then all we have to do
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is drill it out
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and I think my audio is been automatically ducking the volume when I
12:14
do stuff like this so we're just going to go for it um yeah
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but let me know if it's crazy loud but it shouldn't be
12:29
a [Music]
12:47
[Music]
12:59
okay this is a pro tip because I always forget to do
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this um believe it or not so we start our hole
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saw uh on the back it punches through
13:14
and so this is our nice side it's the side that's going to be painted and you can see we have a little
13:21
bit of blowout here now if the Hol saw comes through the other side um it's just going to
13:28
destroy this nice face that we are going to paint and we don't want that so what
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we're going to do is we're going to have our two holes and
13:39
then now we're going to take the same hole saw and we're going
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to uh do the remainder of the cut from the front side
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and so this is what's really cool about this Hol saw so watch when I push this button I can come and I can take this
14:11
out and then I can just get back to work on the second one it's just really
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[Music]
14:24
convenient same thing just pull it right out
14:43
[Applause]
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okay so now we need to uh get our square and draw some more lines so that
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we can followed them with our
15:08
jigsaw and then it'll also give us a chance to make sure that when we did uh
15:14
do our holes that we didn't goof and make these you know
15:21
offset uh when you're using a square I always go on the inside line and have this going down uh you don't want to go
15:30
from the side that's up just wanted to go from the side that's
15:35
down and the square is only going to be square if your side over here is square to this so um if you did not cut your
15:43
wood out accurately then the squares it's going to draw a crooked
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line okay now the this line is on the inside of the curve and I'm actually
15:58
going to cut on the inside
16:03
here and that inside will allow me to if I need to sand this just to make sure it
16:11
looks neat then I can do that um now I'm go nice and easy
16:18
because uh I'm again technically I should well
16:24
actually I'm GNA do that I say technically that means I need to
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show you the right way okay this is the side that we don't want
16:35
to uh have any chip out happen or blowout or whatever you want to call it
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so we're just going to get this thing where we want it and you can get a uh a blade for a
16:50
jigsaw that cuts out curves or a straight
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edge uh so yeah believe it or not there's actually jigsaw blades that allow you to cut uh curves easier the
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blade is the difference it's not your Technique so there's a specific blade
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for actually cutting out curves um so I'm going to go
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find let's see here see if I can show you guys some
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two different ones as I go grab my
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wherever I put my jigs uh not jigel yeah got a battery on it good okay so the
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first one we have here we've got two um first one is the wood clean cut
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so these little words right here say clean cut and they look exactly the same but this one says wood curve clean cut
17:51
top and bottom so this is for curve and this is for clean cut but it's
17:59
hard you have to look at these words right here because they look almost identical so we're just going to do the
18:05
Clean Cut
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um and this DeWalt 20 volt Max is this is the best jigsaw I've ever
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used so this one was the other kind so this one we're just going
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to pull out of here get a fresh blade for
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this okay so now we'll be able to cut this out uh nice and clean
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[Music]
19:27
[Applause]
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so I'm going hit this one more time because I was a
20:09
little too far in
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oh
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there we go you guys can
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see with a jigsaw it is possible to get a really
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nice uh cut
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and we're going to get uh you want to have a soft block cuz we want to have that
22:19
round over effect uh but we don't want it rounded
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over so much that it would be like uh like uh using a router
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and I'm actually going to take a pair of scissors and I'm going to
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cut just a piece of that
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off I get in here
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and you want to go side to side you really don't want to go up up and
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down we're going to save this cuz after we do a couple coats of
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paint um there's like a hole we got to fill we got to do some filler on the uh void inside the
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wood there's a void right there
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okay so that is our tank level
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[Applause]
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window see no need for a CNC
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but if you just take your time okay so this is sanded prepped this
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is this is is ready for its first coated of paint um so we'll move this over here by
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the wall for a
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second we got our next
25:17
piece this is the one we need to uh take the track saw
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tracks saww is great for quick accurate Cuts maintained got that would be the
25:38
better thing to use but
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um my Crosscut sled is not not that big
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so um this one's really tricky because
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you guys may have known or may know that you know van's not Square so we've had
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to make subcribes to this to get it to be the
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right the right line but what's nice about track saww is
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if you use this Ed this so This Edge is an exact representation of where the blade is going to cut so if you just
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have the line exactly where you want it that's a exactly what
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the uh track saw is going to remove I'm just making sure my spacing
26:38
where my original line is is maintained on you
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can click this and actually run your blade down just to make sure the track is or the cut is what you
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want and then when you're ready just go ahead and cut it
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[Music]
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and that probably that might have been enough but I want this to be a really tight fit so I only took
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off what I thought I needed
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just take these edges off real
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quick and after the paint's dry tomorrow I'll show you
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guys uh what this look what this looks
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like all right so that's the front test this
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ah Perfect Fit excellent
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yeah the reason I take so much time on this is because the way I'm building this box for
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the um the back of the van is
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the seams are very visible so I just want to make sure
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that it looks the
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best going on Nova
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okay
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[Music]
31:01
[Applause]
31:26
a for
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what I'm using to do all the uh surfaces in the van this a whiz cabinet doors uh
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roller and I can't believe we've almost used a gown of paint on this
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van I mean there there's a little under a half a gallon left but I still think that's
32:49
pretty pretty wild I don't feel like we painted that
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much but apparent c l we
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have um so trying to see if it's it'll be enough cuz if we get those uh two bed
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panels we're going to cut and paint [Music] tonight so
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then I use this I use this PL this is a 2hour
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weight period before between coats so we'll do two hours and then
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we'll do a light sanding um and then we'll also fill in uh
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any any places that we have in here and so what I do is I use this uh use a
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razor blade and then I use this
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uh right there painting patch uh this painting patch is ready in
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30 minutes if there's a massive chunk
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missing then I use this I use this plastic wood it's
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awesome it dries in I think it it's say it's sandable in
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15 minutes let's see what it
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says yeah 15 minutes depending on the dep
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depth uh and so if these little holes that I have to fill I'm actually going to paint
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over them first and then I'll come back and fill them um it's just my process it
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seems to uh work out the way that I like
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it scratched uh I find that I used it for all my baseboards when I was uh
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renovating the shop and I decid uh it's really tough
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so it's perfect for a van especially like in the back here if you're going be throwing bags around um and instead of doing fabric
35:39
you're going with a painted surface uh I would definitely recommend this Scuf
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X this is what it looks like right here meas more scx
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and then also uh make sure that if you have areas of that you're working with
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that are going to be exposed so it's an exposed Edge that you're visually going to see throughout the life of the van um
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now is the time to really pay
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uh it's asking a lot of this wood but I pretty I want a cabinet I want as close
36:39
to a cabinet grade finish on this as I want to and I I achieved that in the Kitchen Gallery
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area so we're going to do the same thing for the back of the
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van and then uh you definitely need a back roll this
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because um this has a really high Edge buildup and you could when you're
37:09
rolling you know you could be gently with your brush but I find that that's not the even if you do
37:17
that it doesn't actually fix the problem
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okay that's about as M off with some sandpaper
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and this step don't don't worry if you got uh like a little bit of fuzz or something on the top of the paint we're
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going to come back and we'll just knock that off with some
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sandpaper I like these edges make sure you don't have that buildup on the
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edge it's really pronounced with this uh
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paint for
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and I'm only paying attention to this side I'm not worri about the back
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side Okay so we've gone through and just made sure that we don't have
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any drips so that looks
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good we'll come back and we're going to uh we'll use a foam brush on this this
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section right
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here you need to wipe off this excess paint
41:07
I forgot to use a tack cloth that's okay make sure we do it on this
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side this just takes that sanding the sanding dust that didn't get blown off
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off got too many wood scraps back here
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uh under all these pieces I have directional arrows so it tells me you know what's the front what's the
43:09
side um actually I lied all I have is the front but you can
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put you know what different uh ones you
43:24
want so yeah don't be proud and think you can
43:29
remember everything that goes on in your build you know give yourself some cheat
43:37
sheets oh man there's good time to plug the DIY cheat
43:44
sheet so I actually have a cheat sheet for you guys uh it's a DIY van build
43:50
cheat sheet link is in the description below if you guys don't know what that is it is a Excel document that I put
43:58
together and it lists all the items I've bought off Amazon over the past three
44:03
years that I've shipped to the shop it's a great place to start if you
44:08
don't know where to start with your van build um if you're just kind of in the planning phases or you're actually looking for
44:14
parts so there's solar panels on there uh it's a it's a bunch of Renegy stuff
44:20
um I mean I use all kinds of stuff now so Renegy uh ecoflow vict
44:27
on um I'm not really you know yes or no about any of them it's
44:34
really just depends on what use case you have but the DIY vuil cheat sheet has a
44:40
bunch of those components on it it also has some HVAC uh so you would consider that as
44:47
like the medic RTX 2000 air conditioner or the Mac fan kind of different
44:53
varieties and versions of that and then it also also
44:58
has a bunch of the 8020 Hardware that I use so any type of stainless steel bolts uh tools are tools is actually a
45:08
really important part of that list um there's a lot of tools that you use throughout your van build uh such as you
45:14
know wire crimpers uh or even Riv nuts so when I did the adventure wagon install a lot of
45:22
Riv nuts essentially that whole kit is uh is installed using
45:27
Riv nuts so it's important to you know have something that can help you quickly do that and there's an attachment for
45:34
your drill it's called a uh Riv nut drill
45:40
adapter and it helps you get those ribits in quicker um
45:46
there's all kinds of other stuff uh I think there's some electrical wires uh some switches plugs and stuff like that
45:54
um there's 250 there's over 250 items on it right now and I I probably have
46:00
another 200 that I haven't put on um which uh hopefully I can get that
46:06
done in the next coming weeks um after we move on to the next build for the
46:14
shop but if you want the list it's called the DIY V build cheat sheet it's a link is in the description below and
46:20
if you're looking for a professional builder um you can contact me uh with Odyssey custom vans so John and Susan
46:28
contacted me through Odyssey custom vans and this is their custom Adventure van bu build um link is in the description
46:35
for Odyssey custom vans and then when you click on that link you'll scroll down the page you can schedule a consultation with me if you want to talk
46:41
about your own custom van conversion with me um all right I'm got to two little
46:49
spots here I'm going to touch up and then I'm going to break grab some
46:55
food then get back in the shop and keep on working to get this van knocked out
47:03
we're so close I just put a big chunk of paint on
47:09
there I don't know why I did that oh last thing about this
47:14
paint touch-ups on this paint are amazing it's it's the best touch-up
47:20
paint I've ever seen usually when you do a touchup it's kind of noticeable where you did the touchup for whatever reason
47:26
I places I keep touching up in the van it's it's seamless it's a really good um
47:31
I'm actually going to touch this place up back here while I got this roller uh in my hand but yeah these uh touchup
47:39
areas in the van this paint is the best such a good paint for
47:48
touch-ups surprising how good it is but yeah I've got some pin nail holes
47:54
back here that I'm just going to get a little paintt
48:02
on um and believe it or not once all this is installed I'm still going
48:08
to uh come back through here scuff it up a little bit and just give it one
48:14
more top off coat for John and Susan just to make it look excellent um I'll do probably three
48:22
coats on here so this is the first base coat just nice and Light
48:27
uh it's going to reveal any typee of scratches luckily this panel is perfect
48:32
there's no imperfections this one has just a little like one two little
48:39
snags um they'll probably go away when I do the first sand um but I do I do that got some
48:45
splatters over
48:50
here but yeah first coat to fix everything and get all the little stuff
48:56
out of the way and then two hours after that I'll sand
49:01
and then these big hole areas I'll take that other stuff I'll do it takes 15 minutes dries I'll sand that um put a
49:08
little bit of paint on it and then do this uh do another coat and then if I'm
49:15
happy three coats usually looks really good but um like the kitchen area I did
49:21
five coats so anything you see in the kitchen area is five coats
49:29
all right got the panels painted so we will keep on
49:36
trucking um guys let me turn the camera back
49:42
on there we go thanks so much for watching hope you guys are subscribed or get subscribed to the channel click that
49:49
uh notification Bell I go live randomly throughout the week so I don't really have a planned schedule so I want you
49:54
guys to be involved in the channel ask questions if you have any questions put those in the comments i' love to see
50:00
that um we might do another live stream today um if I can get back over to the
50:05
Kitchen Gallery which is that was kind of the plan but I'm going to pick up some wood
50:10
anyway uh yeah if you have any questions put those in the comments below uh thank you so much for watching this and uh
50:17
we'll catch you guys on the next live stream [Music]
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