The following is a complete breakdown of the materials and cost for building out the van from scratch. The first table is an overview. Any item in bold in the first table has a more detailed table below covering individual items and associated costs. We spent a total of $7,354 purchasing the van and outfitting it entirely. These numbers do not include any mechanical repairs that were done to the van prior to leaving. We spent close to 5k more replacing the head gasket and having the transmission rebuilt among other things bringing the grand total of the van to approximately 12k.
mechanical work
Mechanical Disaster
What started as minor preventative maintenance turned out to be a stressful and expensive month. Knowing the transmission had a small leak I searched for a mechanic that could swap the seal out a bit cheaper than a pro transmission shop could. I found Saul on Craigslist. He talked a good game and led me to believe that he could work on the transmission for a very good price… (more…)
Roof Fan and More!
Well, it’s been a little while since I updated the blog. The primary reason being an order-of-operations-based hold up. I have a mechanic that I know and trust. The bay door to his garage is 7′ tall. The van is also 7′ tall. It literally has less than a centimeter to spare and barely makes it in. In order to complete the insulation I figured I better get the wires run first for electrical. Also, the fan/vent would need to be installed before insulating as well. Thing is, the fan adds a few inches to the top of the van, therefore getting it into the mechanics garage for repairs needed to occur first. So there you have it. (more…)