Roof Ventilation Early on I knew I was going to be putting in a roof mounted fan for ventilation. The gold standard for vans and RVs is the MaxxAir fan. They offer several models, though I went with the Deluxe, which includes a powered vent lift and remote. The Deluxe is also rain-proof when open…
Category: Conversion
Grab Rails
My truck came equipped with six aluminum tube grab rails of various lengths and shapes. There were an angled pair on the back doors, one on the side door as well as two, two foot straight handrails mounted to the ceiling and a single six foot rail just above the squad bench. These were in…
Blood, Sweat & Beers
Herein I document the notable injuries I’ve sustained as well as my adult beverage of choice for this project. As I write that sentence, it occurs to me some might assume a direct correlation between the two. Or, as I suspect, an inverse correlation; that is, the more beer I drink the fewer injuries I…
Bumpin’
Rear Step/Bumper Repair Other than a few scratches here and there, there were no significant dents or dings in the bodywork and the truck was in amazingly good condition. In fact, the only issue I could find was the rear bumper seemed to be a little askew. It wasn’t really even noticeable unless, like me,…
Floored
This post will detail the module flooring. I’ll tackle the cab floor in another post as it’s completely different from the module floor. As discussed in the ceiling post, a measurement I wanted to maintain was the overall height in the module. I put considerable effort into a ceiling solution that minimized the loss of…
Lightbar
Way back when I was working in the surplus yard in Pembroke Pines inspecting and prepping the rig for it’s maiden voyage north I had found that the cab mounted emergency light bar had been removed as part of the decommissioning process. I noticed it in a pile of various lightbars, controllers, police car cages…
Scene Lights
The ambulance came equipped with pairs of fixed, halogen lights on the left, right and rear of the module. These were used to light the area surrounding the vehicle when “on scene”. Each individual light head had a 60 watt halogen bulb, a chrome reflector and diffusing lens in addition to the rubber weather strip…
Module Ceiling
The ceiling design was of particular importance given my desire to retain as much headroom as possible. I’m 6’2″ (74″) and the module, with the existing ceiling completely removed, is also 6’2″. In bare feet, I can stand comfortably without having to duck my head. In any kind of footwear I have to tip my…
Galley
This will detail the design and construction of the galley counter. Below is the counter as designed in Sketchup. The countertop itself, which will be 1.5″ butcher block, is only wire-framed so that the underlying structure is visible. For the front face of the counter, which would also be the primary support for the butcher…
Cabinetry
While the truck has copious amounts of built-in storage that I intend to re-use with little or no modification, I also needed some additional cabinets, shelves and drawers to make living in it full-time a little more comfortable. Wood would be the obvious choice, but I have zero skill when it comes to woodworking. It…