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Build Update | VBHQ Live!
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May 3, 2025
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View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
1:00
he
1:08
[Music]
1:43
all right guys welcome back to the live stream it's been just a minute and we are working on John and Susan's van so
1:50
uh going to catch you guys up and then also we're going to hop into the van and we're going to be uh just putting all
1:57
the Plastics in um the final swivel seat that goes on the passenger
2:03
side and uh something kind of funny I was eager to get the van outside to do
2:10
uh I took it outside yesterday to test the solar uh you know water systems and power and stuff like that and um it's
2:18
kind of funny I put I put the passenger seat in the driver's seat so uh yeah
2:24
there's actually no difference in the the mounting or the seat Arrangement it just essentially is the uh adjust for
2:30
the reclining and the seat belt it's pretty much the only difference so kind of hilarious uh even the cables
2:37
underneath for the uh the airbags and stuff are exactly the same so yeah
2:43
nothing was uh ringing out to me that it was wrong but hey I just used it to get outside so when you see me moving the
2:50
driver's seat over to the passenger seat uh that is why um it's good though
2:57
because there's some things that I had to modify now I modified this on Thomas's van um actually not Thomas's
3:04
van I modified this on the shop
3:09
build uh so I think I'm calling that one the glacier build and uh I didn't do any photo or
3:17
video of it so we're going to get inside the van and show you what those modifications were um mainly it was uh
3:25
there's two things that you got to do um let me see if I can find these
3:30
parts that I cut
3:36
off so you have a bracket that holds this bracket holds the uh this is the
3:41
battery tie down so essentially there's this this rubber piece and it goes into the front of the seat and then this back
3:47
has a carpeted section and that bolts down so technically it uh it doesn't
3:54
really hold the batteries it's more um so if if you don't have the swivel seat there's like a probably an inch and a
4:01
half Gap so they don't want the batteries doing this however when you put the swivel in it won't lay flat so
4:09
you have to cut this out and then the other thing you have to do is this is
4:14
the uh little battery negative battery terminal access uh and this sticks up
4:20
too high this profile here so you got to just take that out um so those two
4:26
things have to be removed before you can actually
4:31
get the seat in um let's see we're going to do that
4:38
and then let's see we got our SI swivel couple other things um yeah I was
4:46
bleeding the uh I guess you would call it bleeding it's a I was air purging the
4:51
wo lines yesterday and uh it took forever I had to basically when you're
4:58
installing a basto here um and we'll look at this little video here when you turn this
5:05
on you have to let it cycle through and pump all the air out before the fuel can
5:12
actually get into the combustion chamber and so um normally it takes a
5:18
like maybe two times I think it took me like five times so I uh and that was after I'd actually uh I
5:27
took a vacuum pump so let me show you what that looks
5:32
like so I got a vacuum bleeder uh you can get it at Harbor Freight I think
5:38
it's like 20 bucks but essentially what it is is a uh it's a vacuum pump kit for
5:45
brakes so if you were changing your brake fluid you would buy this and then
5:51
this would uh so we got it here in a bucket just in
5:57
case gasoline came out but Essen what I did was um I took the fuel filter off
6:03
and I took this and I stuck it in the end of the fuel filter between the fuel filter and the pump and then I just
6:11
pumped it up until I could actually pull that vacuum out uh and get the uh get
6:18
the fuel flowing um because it it'll take forever for that pump to do that uh
6:23
so yeah that took uh it took a while last night but um I stayed here until I got the
6:29
well back as running so the Bluetooth works I got the app running um the basto
6:35
heater is working uh super smooth um I let it run for a little bit because if
6:41
you don't let it run for a while uh when it first kicks off it smells like melted plastic for about 15 20 minutes so I
6:48
just let that burn off you know open the doors of the shop let the whole entire thing burn off um especially if you're
6:54
building a van for someone you want that to burn off before they get in the van CU it'll smell like something's wrong
6:59
even though it's not but that has all been uh taken care of so that's all
7:05
working and now that's checked off the list uh from last night today we can go ahead and seal this up with the swivel
7:12
seat now one thing with the swivel seat that's such a big deal
7:18
is um if you don't finish what you need to do
7:23
underneath the seat then uh like for example all the battery
7:29
connections or the basto once you put the swivel plate on uh it's there kind
7:34
of forever and it's hard to access anything underneath so you really need to make sure you've kind of checked your
7:40
list off as far as um making sure that everything that needs to be done under
7:46
the swivel is knocked out before you install it uh because it's
7:53
a uh I would say it's it's it's a pain to undo it's it's only because
8:00
when I installed I want to make sure that it's safe you know I locktite all the bolts
8:06
um and torque them down and then you know the Loctite set and all
8:13
that good stuff so when you have to undo it it just uh you know it's hard to take
8:19
the Loctite off and and this and that so
8:24
um yeah anyway um oh yeah we're going to
8:29
get in the van now and start cleaning up this
8:35
interior once we check the front off I I kind of want to do the van in section
8:40
so uh we're so close to finishing this so I want to do everything today in this
8:45
front area of the van check it off the list then I'm going to move back do
8:51
anything that I need to do in the middle then I'm going to go ahead and move back um the final thing that needs
9:00
to be built in this van that is uh of any uh real effort is there's a little
9:06
box that I'm building in the back and it houses the uh ecoflow
9:16
um fuses and Breakers and stuff like that but you want to do that one very
9:22
very last because you're plugging you're constantly plugging wires and disconnecting them like for this I was
9:30
you know I was plugging the power in I was checking it making sure it was the right fuse then I was running it and so
9:38
um I need to test this but I don't have it finished so it kind of uh keep that
9:43
back section if you're doing your fuses and stuff open so that you can go back and forth quickly um and then get this
9:50
stuff done first I guess that's kind of My Method cuz if you enclose everything in
9:56
the back with your switches and fuses and something doesn't work right you have to completely take that apart to
10:02
work on it so um yeah and then we got some some Plastics here I'm going to move this out
10:08
of the way so it doesn't get uh damaged but these go over here on the side of
10:14
the van uh then we have some side seat covers uh we've got our our seat
10:23
belts they got to be put back together and we've already got ahead and laid out
10:29
all the tools that we're going to need so for the seats or the swivel
10:35
seats you're going to need four tools um let's see yeah that's showing
10:42
up pretty good um so the first one is you're going to need uh half inch wrench uh ratchet wrench
10:51
this is for the um the seat base and the uh the seat
10:58
base and then and you have uh actually let me this an
11:03
order so this is a what size is this one so you need a 15
11:11
mm Allen key uh preferably on a ratchet that is going to bolt the base down to
11:17
the existing Ford Transit uh holes so that's your first step the second step
11:24
is when you get the base plate on and you have to unlock it and rotate it um you're going to have half inch wrench
11:32
and half inch ratchet with a socket on it um I don't know why I have this so
11:39
three tools these three tools so we're going to use those three tools today get this stuff put together um I
11:48
will have to find this T I don't think it's a
11:56
T20 move this stuff out of here let me see if I got that on the
12:04
toolbox I believe it's a T20 socket for the seat belt so I need
12:11
to find that
12:43
actually no it's a uh t50 it's a big chunky chunky socket so
12:50
t50 um for the seat
12:56
belt and it's typically on a half Finch ratchet wrench okay so there's our seat Bel seat
13:03
seat belt um I don't think we need anything for the Plastics I pretty much got the
13:10
hard stuff already put
13:16
in looking good um now you can go back and forth between
13:23
if you want to uh
13:29
dust off
13:38
here building custom vans is fun cuz you're like a carpenter electrician
13:44
uh fabricator and as you can see here this is going to be a detail a detailer auto
13:51
detailer
13:57
um so this is just the piece that goes underneath the
14:02
seat uh this is good because this cable is going to be direct uh turning like
14:10
this so you don't want it falling down in here
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so
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um I didn't think this was so dirty just cuz we're doing it
14:30
live so I might get some masking tape and get the rest of this
14:54
off yeah this is good if you have a German Shepherd you probably or dogs
15:01
like painter shape it does the same
15:09
thing I just don't want to get the uh the vacuum out it's all the way
15:15
across the shop so I'll get this off and then I'll blow it with the
15:22
uh electric leaf blow and then we'll get to work
15:49
this is pretty much these little pieces of sawdust when I was uh cutting some holes out in the kitchen
15:55
Galley cabinet
16:04
okay all right let's hit this let's go this out of
16:19
here we've also got to reinstall the step uh the entry step that John and
16:25
Susan got uh I really like it uh however the install process was kind of funny
16:34
because it's one sheet of paper
16:39
um so here these are the instructions so it shows you everything that comes in the box and in the back it
16:46
just shows you uh seven pictures so it's
16:51
kind of funny but that took a minute because there was just a bunch a bunch of steps
16:58
on that some Ford transits when you have steps
17:04
this is just a good note for everyone uh I would say the only way
17:11
to make it easier is if you are in the market of buying a van and you haven't bought one maybe sneak under the van and
17:17
look to see if it already has the studs some Vans already come with studs pre-installed in the chassis of the
17:25
van for uh running board
17:30
[Applause] [Music]
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then some [Music] [Applause]
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don't so uh this van it didn't have the whole
17:55
package it had two studs on the driver's side and then it had uh two studs on the
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uh two studs on the passenger side but
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you need uh four studs what am I doing Los my mind there
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we go you need uh you need six studs on the or six mounting points on the driver
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and then you need three six 9 12 12 on
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the p uh passenger or 15 with the extended and
18:37
you have to physically drill those holes out and the steel is really really uh tough
18:44
um okay nice and clean let's move over here to the other side
19:12
and I got my phone over here if you guys have any questions so first thing
19:20
um you got to keep uh be mindful of where now we're going to take this uh
19:27
driver's seat out but we need to have our seat centered so
19:32
that we can access both bolts uh Believe It or Not these tracks will move independently when they're unlocked so
19:39
they're not uh keyed together so it's if you need to have this uh seat for it in
19:46
rear position latched locked in place before you take the seat out it's going to be a mess
19:53
one piece is going to go one slider is going to go forward one slider is going to go back um
20:01
now there's these special uh we're using scopea uh swivels and to get the seat off we need
20:08
to rotate it um and they had these special was
20:15
washers that are serrated so uh and then you got a Nylock
20:20
nut so I'm not using Loctite on the top section
20:32
but the Allen
20:37
uh the um Allen head screws that are going into
20:43
the base uh those base bolts to secure the frame or they're
20:49
lock tighted they got lock
20:56
tight I want this to be the last time I'm taking this seat out I've taken this seat
21:02
out uh I think I've taking a seat out like five times so
21:49
um it may go without saying but you know when you're uh doing the swivel seat
21:59
um you're going to need to make sure that these bolts are just uh kind of hand tight when you're putting the seat
22:06
in um that way just before you crank everything down it's just going to make
22:12
uh the inso line up easier the Ford factory seats have
22:19
locating pins on the seat base but once you change over to a swivel seat Mount
22:26
those uh are not use anymore so it's it might be challenging
22:33
to locate the seat if you've never done this before so just heads
22:44
up um and then Ford Transit as everyone knows um the only Annoying part of
22:50
swivel seats is you have to open the door of a Ford Transit in order to swivel the seat
23:00
um you can get three of those bolts out on the driver's side but you have to go
23:07
inside to get that last
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one actually my last
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one so we're using the half inch ratchet
23:55
and wrench
24:05
and I take that back on the locti I did put locktite on these
24:15
so it's my default anyway even if I know I might have to take it out um actually
24:20
no hold on a second this is probably it's probably the blue Nylock nut let's see here yeah that's the blue
24:29
Nylock that's what that is okay we're going to leave that seat
24:34
right there because we're basically just going to in a second pick it up from there and move it right over here no
24:40
reason to take it out the driver door and risk scratching anything um so we're
24:46
going to I need to go over here and uh open this package I've
24:55
not open this one all the way
25:01
okay in the kit you're going to get plastic container right here you've
25:08
got all your fittings don't pour them in the floor keep them here um these are
25:18
the base mounts that I was talking
25:23
about um you're also going to need
25:29
um Let me let me see if
25:49
my okay yeah I was checking out my camera
25:54
uh we need to make sure we get our lock tight we'll just sit there right there
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and now we need our swivel
26:11
base now I'm going to unlock this swill base
26:18
uh see I try to at least before I put it in
26:28
see here
27:31
okay so I'm tapping this with a rubber mallet to uh do an to initially unlock
27:36
it because ah it's just
27:42
uh so what is unlocked it and I just tap this with a rubber mallet and kind of unlock
27:47
it cuz you need to unlock it like this so you can access these bolt holes now
27:54
this is a mistake that I make all the time is I get excited I want to install this swivel seat really quick and I
28:03
don't route this properly um I've done it more times than
28:09
I care to say so we're going to do it live where I don't do
28:14
that okay we're going to Loop it underneath here and uh have this come under so this
28:22
is all your safety sensors uh for the seat um so that it knows that somebody's
28:28
sitting in the seat uh for the airbags um and then also for this van
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does not have it equipped but if you had electronic seating um there would be more it' be more
28:40
complex uh before I forget I'm going to get a socket to put that on the
28:48
seat that's another part that is uh and if you can do it ahead of
28:56
time and makes the install uh much much better
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okay so we're looking at a 7
29:44
mm um a tool I really like in the shop is this
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flexible screwdriver and this is designed for hose clamps but it accepts
29:58
uh the quarter inch sockets and then that way I can just do this um then also
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this I keep these together so for example under when I was underneath the van doing the
30:09
wo those hose clamps are just almost impossible to get to with this forward
30:15
install configuration so this allows me to to bend and really get into those uh
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weird places to tighten the fuel clamps um so I kind of keep this as like
30:29
a kit together with the sockets that I normally use so this is going to go to
30:35
this and we'll use that
30:40
later um let's see Yep looks like we're doing
30:47
good let me grab my phone really quick
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see if I can fix this
31:26
camera for
32:02
I guess it looks okay all right next let's go ahead and
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line the base
32:18
up doesn't have to be perfect um you'll find that you need
32:26
you'll need to uh the plate is not perfect I found so I
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don't know if it's the plate I'm pretty sure it's Ford Ford is would be I'm in my
32:40
experience because the Ford here this is off just a little bit so you really
32:46
can't get all the holes to match but this base kind of does flex a
32:52
little bit so um nothing to worry about but just if
32:59
you're scratching your head at why it's not going in uh you just need a hand
33:05
install so we got our Loctite on our
33:12
bolts um you just need to hand install this not that you're already hand
33:20
installing it but you need to hand tighten guess what I'm saying uh and then you may need to lift
33:26
this up so that you don't lift the plate up so you don't get the
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uh screws to
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strip uh so Loctite is all you have for this bolt there's no um no washer or anything like
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that uh so I'm just going to come in
33:55
here and see if I can
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get this hand started
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yeah so they P it pinches pretty good
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um if my hands look funny when I'm doing this they're like they're pretty tired
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uh I've been Drilling and all kinds of stuff so they're like they they're worn out out this
35:13
week uh and make sure you got to use a uh seven is it what did I say
35:26
seven say say H5 I don't know why I said seven uh for the Allen wrench don't try
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to have do it with something that doesn't fit perfectly into this because you'll start to strip this as you
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tighten everything
35:47
down also do a mental checklist about the W basto so go through make sure you've seated the plug in there you got
35:54
The Grommet you snap the cap back on the hose is routed uh the cables are zip
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tied so they don't flop around underneath um so that was my checklist so if you're
36:08
doing this I would suggest you do that as well
36:52
okay so that's good this is very important we got that right
36:58
so now our swivel is just kind of doing its thing this goes up in the front uh
37:04
scopas are they're built very well um I'm not particular to anyone really uh I
37:12
just I think these are really good um make sure that velcro piece that's
37:18
just to kind of hide the back of the seat
37:25
um and actually
37:32
I did I did make a I totally forgot we got to cut this
37:43
off all right so we need to uh let's get our welding blanket um
37:51
we're going to cut this uh weld off uh you have to cut this off or the seat will not swivel
37:58
um so we need we need to do
38:16
that now I just got to find where I put that welding
38:23
blanket let's see here for
39:25
don't want to do this off camera but I might have have to
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cuz I cleaned up the shop the other day and I moved bunch of stuff around there it is
39:38
there you go
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s
40:50
[Applause]
41:19
now would this have been better to do and the van was raw and everything
41:25
was in it or not in it yes of
41:30
course but did not do
41:47
[Music] that okay if you're going to cut in your
41:52
van the best thing to do is decide on a Direction pretty much
41:58
you're just controlling the Sparks so decide what direction you want
42:04
the Sparks to go um is even if you did
42:10
this when nothing was in the van you still have your dash and everything that
42:17
you want to keep
42:24
pristine but it's okay I've done this
42:29
so many times that I pretty much know what I want to keep
42:36
uh safe and not safe
42:43
okay all right that's pretty much it so we're going to shoot that
42:49
way the brunt is going to be right here that's why I have that
42:55
uh welding blanket um let's find our grinder
43:53
hm
44:09
oh yeah it's got to be over here there it is there it is I was using it to cut the that battery
44:15
box um off
44:46
[Music] [Applause]
45:05
[Music]
45:18
[Applause] uh satin black is best thing to use if you want to make
45:26
sure that you get the paint match all good when you get get done
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doing
45:42
this uh so we want to give us enough room to work but
45:52
then enough room to get out of the way I mean to mask off that we
45:59
can um not have to paint
46:19
everything okay that be good be a nice little square when we're done
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let's see what else we
46:36
need
46:46
sander get one more towel for a kitchen Galley
46:53
cuz just in case
47:13
okay that wasn't so bad I'm pretty sure the volume's not going to be crazy with this but I'm going to go ahead and turn
47:19
it down check to check check check check
47:31
there are sparks going that way
47:47
[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music] h for
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
49:58
let that side cool down we're going to come over here
50:38
[Music]
50:54
let's get a new battery it's not all the way dead it's just
51:01
uh just feels slow there we
51:08
go that's better
51:15
[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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the [Music]
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[Music]
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[Music] oh
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[Music]
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oh
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[Music]
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oh
53:42
[Music]
53:56
n
54:01
[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
54:49
okay now we're just trying to make it look good before we paint it pretty much all we're doing
55:06
[Music]
55:19
[Music]
55:33
motorcycle gloves for the win
55:56
[Music]
56:23
n [Music]
56:43
okay this is the this is this is why van building is exciting
56:50
because what you'll see is we do this relatively
56:57
quickly however we are going to be
57:04
uh we're going to have to spray this really quick and let it the paint set um
57:11
so but that means we have to move to a different different projects so multitasking is the key to Van building
57:18
if you can't multitask you cannot van build because we can't finish installing the seats um until the paint rise but
57:25
that's okay we have a list of things to do so the next thing is I'm going
57:31
to after I show you guys this uh me cleaning this up and prepping
57:37
it for coat of satin black
57:43
paint um we
57:49
will put the running board on the passenger one and then we'll bolt
57:54
up the nozzle for the exhaust of the basto to it and we'll check that off our list and then by
58:02
then we can come back here and uh check this again
58:10
um what did that do there did I hit that how did I hit
58:19
that oh I know why I set my grinder on
58:24
that all right we got a I got a little bit bigger of an area to
58:31
paint that's
58:39
okay so this guy right here got nicked a little bit I didn't want
58:44
to have to do this section
58:51
but if it's worth doing it's worth doing right so
59:03
um another reason I use masking tape is because you get in situations like this
59:10
um masking tape holds up better to spot sanding um so you actually kind of can
59:18
kind of hit the spot just a little bit with
59:24
the sander and the tape won't rip off which is
59:32
[Music]
59:46
nice okay now we're definitely going to do
59:52
two coats on this because um um we've had to take it down
1:00:00
to bare
1:00:08
metal and let's see peel this
1:00:19
back uh I mean the reason I'm taking time on this is because this is right at the door you
1:00:27
know where everybody sees now some people may never see this
1:00:35
but I want to make sure it looks good
1:01:16
okay just make sure everything is out of way
1:01:27
[Music] [Applause]
1:01:55
the part about this paint is we can uh we just it just needs to set for like
1:02:03
two minutes and then you can put another code on it all right let's
1:02:12
see
1:02:19
um okay what I'm going to do is stop the stream I'll come back a little bit later
1:02:25
and we'll get back to to uh the seat install that way it's just kind of a straight video um but right now I'm
1:02:30
actually going to install uh this running board
1:02:39
here now this piece is pretty heavy I say this thing weighs maybe 15
1:02:46
lbs maybe maybe 20
1:02:54
um even though it it's going to take some time to install this thing is uh it's made
1:03:02
really really well it's got a really nice uh crinkle paint finish on it
1:03:09
um very very chunky so I don't know if you guys can see
1:03:15
that there you go so it's got these really nice Treads uh just really really strong so
1:03:25
this um this is the easy part because all you got to do is you slide these
1:03:32
six um
1:03:38
little pieces in here and
1:03:44
uh yeah you're good to go so we're going
1:03:50
to we're going to grab grab some food and then we will be
1:03:56
back in the shop uh continuing on
1:04:03
this but yeah we'll be putting in this uh running board during the break and then when that paint is
1:04:10
dry it doesn't have to be completely cured we can move we can actually move on with it with it being not set up all
1:04:16
the way but we'll get back inside the van and then we'll we'll finish it so thank you guys so much for watching make
1:04:22
sure you're subscribed to the channel click that like button uh also click the notification Bell I go live randomly
1:04:28
throughout the week um but yeah we're coming really close to delivery date on
1:04:33
this van so I'm getting really excited um getting all the systems working having fun with that if you have any
1:04:39
questions put them in the comments below um also check out van Builder hq.com for all of our blog posts and articles as
1:04:45
well as our DIY van build cheat sheet it's a free cheat sheet that I made um
1:04:51
it's essentially an Excel sheet of the last three years of all my Amazon purchases organized into an Excel sheet
1:04:58
um so you can see what I've bought for the shop uh it's going to really help you out kind of jump start your van
1:05:04
build it's completely free all you got to do is go to Van Builder hq.com or the link in the description below uh click
1:05:11
download put your name email address be sent directly to your inbox and I think it'll really help you out that's the DIY
1:05:17
van build cheat sheet again link is in the description below and if you want a custom van van built by me Odyssey
1:05:24
custom vans this is John and Susan's build um contact me at Odyssey
1:05:30
customs.com the link is also in the description below uh when you go to the website there is a consultation Link at
1:05:38
the bottom of the page and you can schedule a consultation with me find a time and date that's convenient for you
1:05:44
it'll pop up on my calendar we can hop on a phone call talk about your van build all right that's going to do it uh
1:05:50
for this portion of the live stream we'll be back to finish up the seat install and and uh hope for you guys to
1:05:57
uh hopefully you will join us this afternoon when we do that um until next time we'll see you guys on the next live
1:06:04
stream [Music]