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How to install a campervan rear door panel (Part 3)
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May 2, 2025
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View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:49
hey everyone welcome to the live stream today we're doing a quick update on the van build behind me we have our
0:56
upholstered panel that we did yesterday so we showed you how to do that start to finish and then over here to my left we're
1:03
going to install the other panel and we're going to show you exactly how to do it so we got a couple of products
1:09
here um just want to show you what we're working with so if you have any questions um you can
1:17
kind of reference it so the first thing we're going to do
1:22
is we're actually going to use a sound deadening material and it's called Uh
1:28
kilmat you can also Al use um hushmat or
1:33
Dynamat uh there's just there's a bunch of different U companies out there so if we go to Amazon and there we
1:43
go wait wrong tab okay go to
1:48
Amazon uh we've got the kill map and let's see which one I actually
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got cuz you want the thin one because you don't really need to have the heavy
1:59
one I've just found so the 5050 mil is this uh is what you
2:06
want so this one's 80 mil but you want to get the 50 mil so if we do kill Matt We
2:16
Do 50 uh there we go you can see I
2:22
purchased this two times in November so um and
2:28
then we'll put the stuff on the van DIY van build cheat sheet so that is our free van build cheat sheet it's pretty
2:35
much an Excel sheet of the last 3 years of my Amazon purchases and it's organized and guess what it's completely
2:42
free Link in the description below if you guys want to get it and you can also head on head over to vuer hq.com and
2:51
you'll be able to uh not only check out that article or that download but you can
2:57
look at all the blog blog posts that I've uh put together over the last um couple months here got a lot of great
3:04
information for you guys if you're doing a DIY build and you just need some extra help uh getting it past the Finish Line
3:11
this is uh some free stuff to help you out so yeah DIY van build cheat sheet name email address it'll come straight
3:17
to your inbox it's completely free so check it out okay so killmat is the first thing
3:25
we're doing um to install the killmat we're going to need something called a rubber
3:32
roller or like a neoprene roller I forgot what it's technically called but it's one of these and it's used to roll
3:40
the material onto the van to get a really good adhesion so that is uh something you're
3:47
going to want to get and then the next thing that we have is havlock
3:58
wool
4:06
black wool and this is uh this is some good stuff um it is less expensive or cheaper
4:16
than the uh 3M thinsulate so that's more of a
4:21
technical insulative uh material um have like wool is
4:27
essentially wool and uh it's got some good properties because it is natural uh
4:33
I have heard that people that have either you know respiratory or issues like that uh don't quote me on that but
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I've heard that this is a better option than using um other types of
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insulation uh I actually like 3M thinsulate but depending on what you're
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going to do how you're going to use your van and what budget you're working with uh this is a very good budget option and
5:00
uh a natural option at that if you go to their website uh again this is not sponsored at all just giving you guys uh
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quick information you can go to Vans go to buy now
5:13
um actually go to uh van is it
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info yeah go to Vans and then learn more because they have a calculator down
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here and this calculator is going to help you find out how many bats so
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bats uh that is uh are boxes you're going to need so over here
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on the right hand side we have a Transit 148 in wheelbase and so they're wanting you to
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have three to four boxes uh for this customer that I'm working with we purchase four boxes because we have less
5:56
windows and we're insulating the back of the door so that's something to consider if
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you're doing more than average insulation in a
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van um yeah so that is the
6:12
insulation and then the last thing is masking tape but you guys know where to
6:17
get that so we're going to go ahead and do the whole process it's going to take
6:22
just a couple minutes um put the panel in explain a little bit about how we're going to hold the insulation in uh so it
6:29
doesn't fall down while we're installing it now the panel will hold the installation back when it's under
6:36
pressure or compression but until then uh you're going to want to use some type of tape um some people use uh like some
6:45
netting and stuff like that I found that simple masking tape uh does the best job
6:51
let's take a look at our work that we did yesterday uh really excited so I've already um sound deadened insulated and
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mounted this panel this is the uh panel we worked on yesterday a pul stream
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looks awesome so just kind of zooming up here on the
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camera yeah so everything went in perfect looks really really good nice
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and clean so now let's move the
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camera I'll switch back to this camera so you guys don't get
7:35
seasick all right so we'll do that going to probably need a step stool unless
7:40
you're working inside the van and hopefully if I can angle this
7:50
right get you guys a good example of how I'm installing
7:58
this
8:04
all right let see if we can get the camera to show the whole thing back up just a little
8:19
bit okay so let's quickly review what we did in
8:28
the last couple live streams now these are all on the YouTube so you can go back and uh check them out but if you
8:34
guys are new here you'll notice that there are these uh dry eras markers
8:40
circling where all the screw holes go on doors doesn't matter if it's Sprinter or
8:47
Transit the door is usually going to have a straight side that is easy to
8:53
mount to it's pretty you know apparent which is the flat side but then uh over
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here you're going to have these little standoffs so different Vans are different um so these standoffs and
9:06
different Vans are used for uh like if you were a plumber electrician um uh I don't know if you
9:15
were you had like the wire mesh back here for like a courier service or something like that uh Vans are designed
9:23
to be upfitted for different businesses so when we take a van and we put it and make it a you know homeown Wheels RV
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camper van Adventure van um or kind of utilizing stuff like this to uh attach
9:38
stuff to so what I did is I found out where I wanted um I always like to start
9:47
with the end in mind so what is it going to look like and then kind of reverse engineer it to get it to be that way
9:54
when I get back to the end if that makes sense so for example I like everything
9:59
to be nice and even so I find out my points here you know I don't use this
10:05
one I don't use this one I use this one this one and this one and up and then I
10:10
mirror it to this side because I can really go wherever I want to so kind of thinking Forward Thinking will help you
10:17
get that uh achieve that look and then what I did in the other streams is I mirror that to the other door
10:25
and uh it's kind of what I end up with so this is the panel that we
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finished and we've already pre uh We've pre-installed all of our screws so the
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these are uh these are number 10 1 in self-tapping stainless still painted
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screws stainless still because we're at the back of the door you can use zinc plated and stuff
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like that but it will corrode um stainless steel is going to be your best
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option um but on the back side you can see it gets a little bit more technical
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because let me lift that up here there we go uh So Pro tip yesterday I was put
11:13
these together and I kept using a punch down tool to find out where my holes were and I said why don't I just cut the
11:20
upholstery out before it completely hardens uh or attaches to the back and then have just a little wedge um because
11:26
it won't affect the Upholstery and so this is my little hack that way I can still see the holes because that's
11:33
always been the issue when I upholster is you know trying to find um where the holes have been
11:39
pre-drilled so this is what the back of the panel looks like everything's wrapped um everything is drilled so now
11:46
we flip it to this side we've got our clean side it's clean it's ready to be
11:52
upholstered now remember when we upholstered this we wanted to make sure that our lines in the upholstery the way
11:58
it's uh uh woven is nice because you don't want if this fabric shifts it's going to
12:06
look weird um so always try to keep that lines vertical and horizontal okay this panel is ready to
12:16
go so we're just going to set it over here just for a
12:23
second all right our next step is we need to do our
12:30
sound deadening material so right here on this this uh
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panel you can hear the the resonance that it
12:42
has I'm tapping on the back of the one we just insulated it's much of a thud it's much
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more of a thud so that's going to help us when we uh for sound deing so this is
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not really for uh it
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does uh it's hard to say if it actually is somewhat of an insulative has
13:08
insulative value however this will slow down the noise coming into your van when you're driving
13:15
and uh also when you're parked it will just slow down those sound
13:22
waves and absorb them because what it's doing is uh I'm gonna be technical just
13:28
for a second so there's something called resonant frequency so every thing has a certain resonant
13:34
frequency so if we uh vibrated this van or shook it and all of a sudden this
13:40
starts making a noise then that's kind of like its res resonant frequency so to
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take that no that tenty noise and change it to a lower frequency we add Mass to
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it so this kill mat is adding Mass to this sheet metal
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and it's making it to where it is uh a lower in instead of a higher
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frequency so um all we got to do is just peel this off it's really easy uh I like
14:14
kilmat because it has these these lines and you can use them to trace now we this is uh a little too
14:22
easy right here because this piece is basically just going to fit in here perfect uh we don't even have to uh
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change anything about it but essentially
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um most fans that I see and it may be a budget thing with that's okay but uh I
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do see kind of skipping out a little bit on the the kill mat and I would say the
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more you can put in your van the better uh some people just put a small
14:53
little square here now that will do a little bit but I I believe that the more
14:59
you can do is better so uh yeah and then you're going to take
15:06
this because this right here see I can actually kind of peel it off a little
15:11
bit so when you use the roller and you really get on it that is going to make
15:17
it to where uh it's going to really Bond and once it bonds um make sure it's
15:27
exactly where you want it because uh you're not going to be able to get this off you're going to peel this off
15:32
that aluminum will come off and there's going to be this gooiness this uh the
15:38
adhesive or whatever is going to peel off okay there's our first one next thing Pro tip you're going to
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want a a wooden board and this is just going to allow you to uh score it so
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that you can cut it easily cuz you're going to be cutting
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this in a bunch of different pieces P
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shapes also save all your scraps CU this
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stuff all the stuff that all the off Cuts we're going to use up here on top
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so we don't waste any material um so quick way to do this is
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this is why I like the thinner material is you're just going to take it and hold it up against uh whatever you're getting
16:26
ready to do for your next piece and then just come over here and just use your
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hand and just put some pressure and what that's going to do is it's going to give you a uh the shape of whatever you need
16:40
to cut out and then all you need to do is take your your wood
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board and go about a/ inch in from what
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you cut the shape out and then this piece SA because we're
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just going to put it up here all right so here's our next
17:06
piece and uh see here so you see this is the
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uh the tacky part of it foil part and then we're just going to put it right
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there I'm going to take a
17:38
roller and just start the middle and then go all the way around and I'm going to put this kill
17:44
mat all over the van I'm going to put it all over the floor I'm put it all on the inside panels
17:50
everywhere um I did a little bit of it in my personal van but I didn't realize how
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incredible it was until I did the Adventure wagon installed cuz Adventure wagon gives you two huge boxes and you
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get ton for the whole entire van and I did the whole entire van and
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then I was closing up the van uh at the adventure van Expo show and I went
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inside the van because it was freezing outside I shut the door I was cleaning everything up and it was the first time
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uh that I taken the van out and just realized how quiet the inside of the van was now I know that has to do with
18:27
insulation as well well but I really contributed more to this kill mat um
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kind of dampening the the outside sounds all right let's get another piece
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and do this bottom so down here we've got this just
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going to do the same
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thing
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but yeah the more you can use the
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better
19:32
um another thing that I didn't mention when I was put this on make sure you don't have any air bubbles in here as
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much as you possibly can now any type of Ford or something like that that's painted you know it's
19:46
going to have a like a corrosion resistant layer then it's going to have its exterior
19:51
paint but the reason I don't want you to have bubbles in here and make sure you
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roll it out or whatever is because you don't want condensation or moisture to sit behind
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this and that's probably one of the more important reasons to roll roll it cuz
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you imagine if you didn't roll it and one of these Pockets gets some condensation in it it's not going to
20:13
happen tomorrow but that's going to be a place where you know it can potentially
20:27
rust and I also use my fingernail and I'll just kind of score a mark in
20:48
here and remember we don't want to waste any of this
20:57
stuff
21:07
okay so that's what it looks like um after the kilms
21:13
installed and then now we're going to look at our scraps so here's our scraps so let's
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just quickly come up here and let's say okay that's enough for that
21:25
side we can use this piece over here so let's cut
21:35
this so and this is kind of fun too because you get to you kind of want to figure
21:42
out where to put
21:54
everything I just kind of lightly place it just in case I want to change my
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mind there you go so now out of three sheets so or four
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one two three four sheets this is the only scrap that we have from this whole door but we have a
22:19
nice Square you want to try to make the last piece that you use uh a nice Square so you can use it
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somewhere else these are just my tips you don't
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have to you don't have to do everything for [Music]
22:41
batim okay now these pieces of
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tape keep these pieces of tape on here the these pieces of tape are visual indicator as to where we need to start
22:54
our screws um but before we do that we need to get our havlock
23:01
wool and this is what it's called a bat so it's a just a a piece
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of uh
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material uh now when you get this when you open the
23:20
box it's going to smell like wool like natural wool almost almost like sheep a
23:27
little bit uh but don't panic uh as soon as you put this in in a
23:34
day this goes away like it it smells like nothing I promise you so when you open the box and you're worried that
23:39
your Van's going to smell like that that's completely not true um we put this uh we put havlock all in Marine one
23:47
and I thought the same thing when I first use it because it was the first time I used the product um as soon as
23:53
it's exposed to air it just airs off and it just it's natural and it does doesn't smell like anything that will go
24:02
away okay so next part we're going to take this and what I do is just kind of
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shake it so if you guys have ever had like a uh a goose down jacket or down
24:14
jacket when you go hiking or a sleeping bag just want to shake it a little bit
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to get it some Loft and that's going to make it a little bit Fuller it won't be so
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compressed and then we're just going to take it now the door on the passenger side
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this was the the width so this one is a little bit
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wider and so we're going to take it like
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this and this is going to look messy for a second but all we're doing is just
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getting this held in place
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and then we're going to we're going to clean it up here in just a minute but we just want to get so we're
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just going to use masking tape and again it's going to look a little silly but I
25:11
promise you this is this is the way to do
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it so as you can imagine as we get the rest of the uh insulation in here this
25:27
this is going to be able to uh I mean when we get the panel on
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it's going to be able to hold this in here better there's a lot of different methods you can use uh I've personally
25:40
just found that this method is the best for holding it into place while
25:47
you're working with it it's just faster I've seen people use
25:52
uh mesh Nets and all kinds of netting and stuff like that and
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uh you see this just took a couple
26:19
seconds okay so the kill mat that I bought we've got a question over
26:24
here um TC how's it going TC good to see you back in the live stream as my camera
26:30
turns off there we go um let's see here the
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killmat was was 50
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mil uh and I got
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two got two
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boxes I may need three boxes I'm not
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sure um because it's it was hard to calculate
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uh the dimensions of the what I got for the adventure wagon insto last was I think a little bit bigger than what the
27:14
killmat provides but uh yeah so 50 mil and I got two
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boxes which is
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this so so that's 60 bucks I probably need three I should
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probably maybe go order another one um I'm taking out the floor today and then I'll do the floor I'll do
27:39
all the walls so when I get to do the ceiling is the last thing I'll do in the van I might get extra box for that
27:46
remember we're putting the uh we're putting the kill mat
27:56
everywhere uh um let's see does it tell you okay you get 47
28:03
sheets per box and they're 10 by 15
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in
28:17
roughly all right where was I I was got the half
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lock
28:53
now you know you do want this to compress a little bit but but what gives
28:58
insulation its value is its Loft so we want to make
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sure this is the maximum amount that I'm adding to this door if I add any more
29:10
then it's going to degrade the amount of insulation that or the insulative value that this
29:18
has um again this looks crazy trust
29:25
me nothing this is is
29:37
just now we're going to clean up all this tape on the outside but what we're really doing here
29:45
is just we just want to Anchor
29:56
this
30:10
and don't cover up your screw holes uh yeah don't do
30:22
that okay basically what we're doing is we're just creating a net
30:30
with our masking tape it's simple you don't have to use any fancy
30:41
uh uh I I know people use string uh it's kind of
30:47
crazy if you like to use the string method I'm not hating on it I'm just
30:53
saying uh I see people taking these little bits of string and trying to make this whole thing uh hold
31:02
up you will need a pair of scissors just like this and we're going to take this
31:08
uh you know me I'm kind of OCD this little pocket right here I want to make
31:14
sure any little spot that I can add it we can get H some H loock in
31:26
there and then just also be aware of
31:36
where of where your panel comes over because you want to make sure that you don't have any insulation sticking
31:42
outside of your van just for visual
31:48
purposes okay and then just going to come up here with our
31:54
extra pieces and just with our fingernail we'll just uh we'll hold our
32:00
fingernail so that it tears off right where the uh tape
32:13
ends now I'm not saying you need to rush this but you need to do it kind of fast
32:19
because you want to get your panel on before uh your tape
32:26
releases
32:34
[Music] [Applause]
33:01
I'm trying to remember to leave those pieces of tape that identify where my
33:08
uh screw holes
33:14
are all right so it looks wild but you
33:22
know kind of like to show you guys every part of the van there's no reason to
33:27
hide anything you can't you can't learn anything if you hide it and if you hide
33:32
it you might be not doing something right okay very gently I'm doing this
33:39
for the camera so I'm going to show you how much is sticking
33:44
out so can you guys see that very very little is is sticking out this is very
33:52
good because we just we want this to be lightly pressed in there
33:58
and the reason is is the whole lofting so that airspace is what gives
34:05
insulation it's insulative properties is air
34:10
it's that pocket of air
34:16
um so now it's time to uh do the fun part and we are going
34:25
to uh let's see yes TCI
34:33
I yeah I put it over uh I did it over the cab
34:39
um see I did just three
34:45
large I just did three large panels uh over the cab I didn't go too
34:55
crazy all right let's get our drill again not a sponsored video but
35:02
this little Milwaukee drill is the best man this is the best
35:07
thing you can uh put uh Allen head bits
35:13
and stuff like that in there a Philips head and I use this for the adventure wagon install and it I promise you it
35:21
saved me like a week taking on taking the L Trak on and off
35:29
okay so now the fun part is figuring out what um
35:37
where we're going to bolt this in first so I think you need to just like we designed
35:44
it earlier when you guys were watching the install so if you missed
35:49
that check out that video uh we're just we need to do one Anchor
35:55
Point and that's going to allow us to just hold it in place it's going to
36:02
help us install it so now let's come over here let's do one over
36:18
here make sure you have a clutch drill CU you don't want to strip the
36:25
hole so see that
36:30
clutch we just want don't want to make sure we don't strip the hole that got us where the hole
36:44
is cu the whole point of this was we wanted to make nice even
36:54
holes and as you guys can see I'm just starting all of
37:04
[Music] [Applause]
37:11
them gently starting all of them so I make sure nothing bad happens to the hole
37:18
that I drilled because you guys can imagine if
37:23
I had to redrill a hole it just look like crap [Applause]
37:34
and this is where if you get inside your van and gently shut the
37:40
door you'll should be able to get these top ones pretty
37:55
easy
38:02
[Music]
38:12
all right so for example this hole up here
38:20
is not finding itself so we got to figure out
38:25
why CU our a our angle's
38:31
wrong there we
38:40
go okay so now now we're going to put our clutch
38:46
and on this Milwaukee I set it to six now we'll come in
38:55
here
39:59
and just take the tape off as you go so you don't have to go back and do double
40:06
work and if you hear the wood kind of making a little crack
40:12
stop that's as far as you can go even though you have like a little opening
40:18
right here the reason you can't go any further is cu that stop that we decided
40:23
was going to be our uh stopping or back stop is not letting
40:31
us go any
40:55
further okay we'll just now do our final torque
41:00
setting so this is where we put it on six and we just want to
41:05
make sure you hear that little
41:18
rattle and this just makes sure all of these we're going to skip
41:24
that one cuz that's the one that we heard the wood say hey I'm I'm too
41:55
tight
42:00
all right just just look make sure everything's where you want it it's
42:05
nice and clean man look at that we're
42:14
good okay it's pretty much it guys that is our rear door panels so we've got both
42:22
of them we've got this one as you guys can see see and then we'll move over
42:29
here this
42:34
one
42:47
so just realized I can't spell large so three large
42:54
panels hold on we're not done yet all right guys one more mention of
43:00
the DIY van build cheat sheet if you guys need some help with looking for parts parts that are on a curated list
43:07
which means a list that I've created off of all of my Amazon purchases the DIY van build cheat sheet is what you guys
43:13
are looking for anything from electrical to Fasteners Fasteners is the section
43:18
that I use for 8020 connections uh we've got Hardware um we've got insulation
43:26
onboard air compressors Roofing security solar solar
43:31
panels um the tool section again one of my favorite parts of this list because there's a lot of odd tools that you may
43:38
not think you need for Van building and they're on it and this list is 100% free all you
43:44
have to do is click on the link in the description below get your free cheat sheet put your name and email address come straight to your inbox and I think
43:51
it'll really help you with your DIY van build um yeah if you guys have any
43:56
questions on what we just did today put those in the comments below and I'd be
44:02
happy to answer them for you also don't forget to check out Odyssey custom vans
44:07
my custom van business uh just like the van behind me that we're building for a
44:12
customer uh the van that you're looking on the website or that you can see on the website it's not this van but this
44:22
van let me Zoom back around so this right
44:28
here this van is currently for sale all the specs on this van are located on the
44:35
website so down here below if you want to do a quick walk through we did a we
44:41
took it to Adventure van Expo in chattanoga Tennessee and we're able to show it off to a lot of people even
44:46
subscribers a couple of you guys came out to say hi which was awesome but yeah take a look at the van all the specs are
44:53
right here and we got some preliminary photos I haven't done the fancy
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walkthrough video yet um but we're going to get there pretty soon so check this
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out if you're interested in this van in purchasing this van you can contact me
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right here sales at Odyssey customs.com that's my phone number or you can click
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here to schedule a call it's the easiest way to get in touch you have access to my calendar pick a day pick a time we'll
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hop on a phone call and talk about this current van that's for sale if you're not interested in the van for sale
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that's currently as of filming this available for sale in the shop and you want to do your own custom build with me
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like my customer behind me is doing you can uh read this information on the
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left-and side uh just a prep for our consultation call and I'd love to hop in a phone call talk about your custom van
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conversion do the same thing pick a date pick a time it'll hop up on my calendar
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and uh we'll be good to go if you guys are not subscribed to this channel get subscribed click the like but button if
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you enjoyed this video and then share this to anybody who's working on their Vans uh especially they're doing the
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rear door insulation and wall panels I think this will really help them out um
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if you have a question put it in the comments below um but until next time we'll see you guys on the next live
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[Music]
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stream
#Campers & RVs