Vandwelling Video Journal

   Things are rolling along famously with old Vannigan.  I finished rebuilding the carburetor today and re-installed that.  I also had my two bargain tires mounted, then I mounted them on the van, so we're in moving status once again.  Today I also replaced the spark plugs, distributor cap, and rotor.  Tomorrow I will change the oil and filter and also install another fuel filter before the fuel pump.  I put the doghouse back on, but need to get a new seal for it, got a little gassed out, lol. 
   Got both front park/turn lights working.  Replaced a bulb in the rear taillight, but still no turn signal output on one side, so I will test the flasher and wiring tomorrow.  I still need to replace a couple of side marker bulbs. 
 

Lighting in effect as twilight looms.

  
   Most everything works, but I still need to check out why the horn isn't working.  I heard it barely engage once with the button, but the button cover on the steering wheel is all warped from heat, and things look kind of dry underneath, so I may have to pull the steering wheel off and lube everything up inside.  I'm having a problem shifting into reverse anyway, so I may just pull the column and service it and grease it.  
   Trying to get it worthy of inspection, as we are dying to get it to the river bank for some camping.  All in due time, but I try to hustle on it every night, and some days.  My main transportation is a motorcycle, so its thrilling for me to be able to take a regular vehicle into town, and around.  It's hard to carry lumber home from Home Depot on a motorcycle, trust me.
   I have been filming some video journals for the blog, which I'll start posting here as I get them edited.  I can't wait to start filming them from abroad.  I'm using just the basic Windows Movie Maker program to keep it simple and quick while out in the bush.  Here's the first one, I call them van dwelling moments.  I was just screwing around with the camera on my laptop, seeing how it would do to film these vlogs from in the woods, or wherever.  More to follow.

Click link below for video
Van Dwelling Moments - Test Footage
 

Resources

     With the ups and downs associated with repairing or restoring an automobile, it can be daunting, on any level.  Even with a huge budget, there are a ton of decisions to make, some of which need to be made quickly on the spot.  Going into a build knowing that you don't have a budget or won't be spending much on the restoration, you would think would make it a lot easier to decide on things, but there are still plenty of factors that can steer you along.  For instance, trying to find an under-dash heater control cable quickly became nervewracking when I realized that a), this part is not readily available through local parts stores, making it difficult to find in the first place, and b), if I do manage to find one, it's going to be expensive as hell.  My solution?  Forget about it til (almost)winter.  This cable activates the heater door, so its not essential that I have it to run the vehicle.  Now, likely I will forget about it until I really need it on a cold day, but that's how that goes.

   I totally understand that the van needs a lot to make it 'perfect' again.  I get it.  But, I also know how much I am willing to spend on it to make it reliable, and it ain't much.  I feel like I've spent more than I wanted to already, replacing fuel pump, tune-up, little parts here and there, it all adds up.  All of this has really made me think hard about where I am going with this project.  Colorado is where I'd like to go (haha, little jokey), but seriously, I have had to decide on how little I can get away with, and still achieve my overall goal with the van.





All these parts in the seat add up to too much spent. Time to be thrifty and bargain hunt.
 

Can't afford new side marker lights right now, so I must keep the rain out somehow.





The fuel gauge didn't work, so I pulled the tank and found the sender above loaded with gunk. I can't afford a new one for $65, so I cleaned the original, and it should work. Forgot to take pics of it after I cleaned it, but it looked new-ish.



 

New terminals, custom cables built by me, and the battery is 'borrowed' from my El Camino. No more connection/current issues. I had all the parts except for the new battery terminals, so I only spent $4 here.


    
   So, I recently went to a local (50 miles away) Pick-N-Pull on an unrelated assignment, and was astonished at how many valuable (and cheap) van parts awaited me for this vanly resurrection.  I mean, they had EVERYTHING I was looking for!  Not necessarily parts I needed for the drivability part of this quest, just things I might buy for it if I had the money.  There were chrome bumpers in perfect condition, reciever hitch, side marker lenses, overhead caps, custom wooden-trimmed interior pieces, this was a gold mine.  Suddenly, I realized there was more hope for our no-budget camper van.  I may actually be able to fit a little style or personality into this mutha.

Chrome bumper in great shape for $50. Not a necessity, but someday, maybe.

 

For $10, a person could add some security to the back windows...

This one was in amazing shape and it runs and drives. Anybody looking to get into vanning should check the salvage yards first, they may offer a cheap introduction.

Look at all this neat stuff I could incorporate into my van if I were ambitious. The Pick-N-Pulls here sell these parts dirt cheap, even the leather seats.

This conversion cap would add some creature comfort and storage to the van. Maybe one day down the road...

Looky here. This van had a whole set of 'custom' side marker lights. For $20, these would fix my water leak problem.

This van had a whole bunch of good parts to give.

And of course, the 'Gucci Man's Jaguar' was spotted at the Pick-N-Pull. What an elegant waste of money.

     I was glad to have found a couple more resources for my van project, resources that will not cost me much.  With a little careful planning I can finish patching this thing back together, and not have it looking like a hooptie.  Ultimately, my overall goals for the van have not changed, more like they have been enhanced, now knowing I can find a few decent replacement parts for cheap.  It means a little more labor, pulling these parts off the donor vehicles myself, but that's what I'm all about.  Satisfaction of having it done right while saving a lot of money is great. 
   Tonight I will try to finish rebuilding the carburetor, then install the spark plugs, distributor cap, and rotor.  All that should make this van run like new.  I have already replaced all the fuel lines, fuel pump, replaced battery terminals and cables, so the van is almost ready to drive.  Today I got two tires at the Pick-N-Pull for $15 apiece, so I won't have to worry about the one going flat 10 minutes after I air it up.  The new tires are Goodyear Wranglers with decent tread and good overall shape.  I picked out knobby, 6-ply tires for the back of the van so I wouldn't have any problems driving the van right to the river bank to fish and camp, in as remote locations as I can find.  I can't wait.  I have been filming video journals from the van during storms lately, getting a feel for the adventures to come.  Van dwelling, here we come...

Working late towards goals, camp lantern helping me see to solder...

 

Where it sat, and where it's at.

   I haven't been working on the van as much as I wanted to this last week, been kinda busy and broke.  I haven't been taking many pictures, and without pictures, to me, a blog is not as good.  I mean, sure, I could focus on my writing skills, but I like you to see what I'm talking about sometimes.  I have never really gotten into the history of the van, so today is a good day for that, seeing I don't have much progress to write about.
   The G20 van is from 1976, a great year for a van to be born.  In the 70's, it seemed like vans were cooler than Corvettes.  A party on wheels.  This particular white van did not start out as a party machine, but I was told it had seen plenty of 'socializing'.
    "I met a lot of girls in this van", he told me under his breath, grinning compulsively while he stared at his old van.  "Some would spend the night" he added further.  I can only imagine.  He had bought the van for his business, in which he traveled around the country selling chainsaws and accessories.  Most of the time, the van would be loaded with several chainsaws and several cases of oil, plus he and his personal gear.  He had insulated the driver side wall and covered it with silver-faced insulation foamboard.  The floor throughout was carpeted with what I would call a "birthday cake puke" pattern.  The owner had also constructed a wooden bed frame with a hinged plywood top, for sleeping and mingling.  When I had first stripped the van to clean it, I thought against re-using the bed platform simply because it took up space in the now-hollow canyon of a van.  Since then however, my fiance has talked me into keeping it, as this will definitely be a camper van, and not necessarily a cargo van.  The truth is, there is still a HUGE amount of usable cargo space in the van with the bed in it, and you can still haul 12-foot timbers with it if you have a porch or outhouse to build.  I have since added a support beam to the back of the bed.  It had been resting on the hinge bolts to the back door, and was flimsy in the middle.


2"x3" support beam and 2"x4" legs I built to support rear of bed. Plenty of room underneath for medium and large storage tubs and other items. That area will get 'rhino lining' on the floor and lighting under the bed. 6 large, or 8 medium tubs fit in the space under the bed.

   I was told the van sat for 20 years before I rescued it.  20 years, blyat.  I can't verify that, but the plate on the back has a license year of 1987, so it sat that long.  Three years before I graduated high school this thing was parked in the woods and forgotten about.  At that time, I knew nothing about working on cars.  It wasn't parked for any reason, other than it just wasn't necessary anymore.  We change jobs, and our lifestyles change.  So do our vehicles.  We drive whatever suits us best at the time.  To think this vehicle ran and drove shortly after pulling it from the weeds, trees, and thorn vines was superlative, to say the least.  Yeah' it needs a few things, but all in all this G20 van is almost completely re-animated, without a lot of effort.


Where it sat. Doesn't look like much now.

    I don't really have a nickname for it, per se, but I have been calling the van, Vannigan.  When I first started on it, I had no real direction of where the van was taking me.  But now, it seems like every day it's purpose becomes a little more clear.  I now know the van will be outfitted as a camper, or small RV.   I have a (guacamole colored) sink I saved from a pop-up teardown, and several different camp stoves, so it doesn't need much else.  The biggest expense I now feel will be the 200-watt solar power kit.  Including batteries and inverter, that will run me $700.  Since I don't have a budget, I will likely have to sell another vehicle to buy into this poker game.  Great.  However, I'm not planning that aspect for a while, so I have some time to plan and acquire. 
   The van will be sparse on the inside, yet have everything we need to drive to Colorado or Kentucky and camp by the river.  I would like to set it up to be totally self-sufficient, but I realize that will take some time and careful planning.  For now, we focus on the basics, and what it needs to be reliable.  Sitting for twenty yeary has made this colt's legs shaky, and I have to teach it how to run again, how to explore. 
   We have worked on a few things recently, unrelated to the driveability of the van, such as we began re-insulating the interior.  I knew I didn't want to put any of that pink 'cotton candy' back in the van.  After seeing what the mice do to that stuff, I hope to never encounter that nightmare again.  I started off by spraying expanding foam in all the ribs and open areas to minimize vibration and noise while driving.  I usually use Stinger Roadkill dampening sheets on the inside of a vehicle for superior noise and heat reduction, but I can't afford that on this build.  To keep it simple, and within budget, we installed styrofoam or styrotek insulation on the ceiling, in-between the ribs.  I have also laid a sheet of blue 1/2" styrofoam on the floor, under a rug she got for the 'room'.  It's firm, yet has some 'spring' to it, so it is comfortable for you to sit or lie on the van floor. The side walls will get 1-1/2" foamboard, and everything will be paneled with lauan.



Silver-faced styrofoam board (R-4) lines the ceiling. Still have to wire in the dome lights before I panel it in.

Test fit of the moss green rug and doormat. Starting to look like a little home.

     Other than that, I have almost got the dash back together.  I installed a tee fitting in the engine block so I could utilize both the oil pressure gauge, and the idiot light on the dash.  I was going to do the same for the temperature gauge/light, but the tee contraption would have been too bulky, so until I can find another water port, I will just use the gauge.  I made new battery cables and new terminals.  The old setup wouldn't get good contact half the time, causing me to waste time going back and forth between the cab and engine compartment, fiddling with the battery connection.  If it doesn't rain too hard, I may run it some today.  I replaced the dimmer switch, so now both the lo beams and hi beams work. 



Tee fitting for the oil pressure switch/gauge.  Also 4-gauge high current wire for the starter to the battery, gold-plated connectors.  And about an inch of sludge on everything else.  "Drive it til it dies." 

Hi beams AND lo beams, what a bonus! Now for the park/turn lights...

 Thunder is sounding the encroaching rain as I write this, so I may not work on it at all today.  Next week should yield some results on the body and paint, if it doesn't flood us with rain showers all week long.  We'll see.  Happy Sunday, God bless.




Work on the van begins just before sunset on most evenings, and doesn't stop until well into nightfall. 

 

The bad, the ugly, and even the good.

   Today was a good day in the land of mechanical beings.  I feel like I made a lot of progress on the van today in a few areas, some of which was simply discovery.  It rained mostly all day and I didn't originally plan to work on the van at all.  Well, my curiousity led me to it, so I decided to fix a few things.  I had plenty of indoor work within the van, so I wasn't too worried about getting soaked.  I did however, find something wrong on the outside during my morning walk around.


I was mildly horrified to see this. Not tryin' to see dollar signs everywhere I look...

    When I got in the van this morning, I sat on the bed platform for a few minutes collecting my thoughts about the work ahead and listening to the rain, getting a feel for the van.  I looked over to the right and noticed what you see in the picture above.  Water was pouring in rapidly.  I went to the other side and saw the lens had broken and the gasket had become brittle, causing rain water to enter.  The driver side of the van was no different, even though that light was working.  Looks like I will have to replace both lenses and gaskets, and one bulb.  The front park light lenses aren't leaking yet, but the plastic lenses are somewhat warped. Time to empty the penny jar and head to the pick-n-pull.


You can see water flowing right into the top of the lens, going right into the van.

  

Driver side was the same. Chit.

   Moving back to the inside, I approached the problem of the lo beam headlights not working.  Tested the dimmer switch (floor clicker) with a test light and no output on the lo beam side.  I pulled the switch and performed a continuity test and sure enough, no beep.  I went out to the yard to see if I could find a working one on something else, but all I ran into was bad switches and spiders...

I can see from here there is certainly not a dimmer switch in this truck...

   Well, let's go back to the van to see what else we can find to spend money on.  The blower motor for the heater didn't work.  I had already tested the 3-stage switch and all wiring up to the motor, and no problem with power.  I pulled the blower motor and discovered the fan was rusted and siezed.  I gave it a liberal bath in PB Blaster and begun to spin the fan by hand. I also ran 400-grit sandpaper across the surface.  I cleaned it with contact cleaner and spun it again by hand until the 'friction' disappeared from the wheel.  I tested it with a car battery, and it would have taken off a finger it spun so fast.  Problem solved by cleaning, no money spent there. That was good.  I also found my windshield car shade and gave it a test fit in the van.  Not bad, not bad.  I also use it to lay on the ground if I have to get under the vehicle out on the road, handy for that. 

Shady Summer Van

   Still waiting to put the dash back on til I replace the defroster ducting and a heater control cable.  I replaced the pcv valve and air filter, both were long overdue.  I'll change the oil and give it a tune up in the next day or two, when I can find some time.  I may have enough primer to cover the whole van, so I would like to start on the body soon.  I'm so ready to drive this thing! 

Can you guess which filter is the new one?

  

 

 

 

 

It's Alive!

   Ok, so let's bring you up to speed, so to speak.  A few days have gone by since my last confession.  Haha, just a jokey.  A few days have passed time wise since yesterday's blog post, so ya gots to know what it been...
  

It didn't look too bad here, other than being a sludge and grime factory. However, something sinister lurked beneath...

       So I pulled the doghouse to see if the field mice had nested inside the air cleaner or anything, but was dismayed at what I saw.  When I pulled the shroud away, 'cotton candy' insulation came down from above, from up under the dash. The picture above is actually taken after being blown out with the air hose.  I leaned in and looked underneath the dash, and the little fucker had stuffed insulation in every nook and cranny within the dash region. That dash was insulated better than a 58-foot Reefer trailer.  I will admit to gagging twice from the smell, and vomiting in my mouth once from a rat turd nearly dropping into my mouth.  They don't call them 'droppings' for nothing.  In retrospect, it's probably best to wear an N95 mask during the first journey into the dark unknown...
   Here are some pictures of the horror which lied beneath.

Not what I wanted to see. On the good side, there wasn't any in the air cleaner housing...

I mean EVERY little nook and cranny was filled with this shit. Literally.

And this nonsense falls down at me, adding further excitement to the scene.

   I knew at that point I was committed to pulling the dash out and going over every square-inch (or every deci-whatever for you cupcakes) and refurbishing this entire 'piss bomb' zone.  As I had suspected, the pink panther had struck, and packed his insulation throughout. And he was even kind enough to chew through a few essential wires, and ruin one heater vent control cable with his urine-fest.  At this point, my tongue was plenty lubed up with cuss.


What lies beneath...

   All in all, it took me ten minutes to remove the dash, including dropping the steering/shift column, and about an hour to thoroughly remove the waste and properly clean it.  I put the cleaner to it and let the garden hose have it's way with the dash area, so it was like new again there, behind the scenes.  Almost. 

Clean and ready to live again.

    By now, I was half-frustrated from the whole ordeal, so to turn my frown upside down, I wanted to hear it run.  I checked the oil level, half a quart low, and didn't look too black actually.  Checked the radiator to see if it was dry, and to my surprise it was half full of antifreeze.  Great!  A visual inspection shown that the rat-sized mice had gnawed the tops off a couple of spark plug boots at the distributor cap, exposing the tip of the electrode.  That, and a little 'condensation rust' kinda thing going on, and everything else under the hood looked to be in order, more or less.

Meet the 292 cid Chevy L6, aka 'the big six'. You can Google this motor, and guys are building them to this day for racing and street. Turbo motors!

   I poured a gallon of fresh fuel into the tank and grabbed a local battery and threw it in the van.  At first it wouldn't turn over due to the battery terminals not making a good connection.  After a litte twisty on the clamps I got it to turn over.  Sounded like an old tractor lumping over on a cold winter morning.  I shot a squirt of ether in the snout and the motor kicked right over.  It took a few minutes of cranking and approximately 30,000 gas pedal pumps with the trigger foot, but eventually got it to run on its own, without the panther piss.  It was alive!  I mean, I was told "it ran when it was parked", but you never know for your self until you hit the key.  The 'three-on-the-tree' shifter was bound up, but I finally got it to go between first and second gears.  So I put 'er in low and let out the clutch and away we went.  Right over the horse manure mound.  Right past the satellite dish duck pond, made it all the way up to the shop, and into freedom.  This was fucking excellent.  I had motor, power, brakes(ish), steering, all the things that make a choo choo boogaloo.  Now I had to fine tune a few things before I took it any further.


Clean machine, and on the scene.

   With the dash out and a plan in my mind, I quickly got to work repairing things.  All wiring was checked and I ended up only having to re-terminate four wires, and solder one back into the headlight switch plug.  Likely, I will replace the headlight switch, but I will try to refurbish it first.  I pretty much have zero budget on this project, so I will try to recycle any item I can from the van or into the van.  With the exception of the necessary items bought at O'Reilly's to make the van run right or be safe, there will be no other items purchased for the van.  My goal is to make it a formidable and fun camper and cargo hauler, if necessary. 
   There won't be any spaceship gadgets or plush-van doo dads here fellows and ladies.  Just the bare bones.  Anything this project will need will have to come from in-house.  Meaning I will have to find it lying around, or build it myself.  Yet my needs are simple.  Utilitarian camping, perhaps.  Whatever it is, this van and I are connected.

  So here is where I am at right now. At my computer.  Haha, just a jokey.  I poured half a quart of automatic transmission fluid in the crankcase and ran it for a while to loosen up any deposits and what-have-you.  The thing sounds like a Singer sewing machine with some clackety going on up inside the valve cover, and the trans fluid mix has already quieted that down.  It now runs a bit rough and backfires through the carb when you get into it, so a valve may be sticking.  I'll run it again tomorrow and maybe run some Seafoam through it.  I have a new oil filter, oil, pcv valve, air filter, fuel filter which I will install tomorrow.  I have already replaced the alternator belt, smoked it off during initial startup.  Other than that, it will still need a tune-up and maybe a tire.  I had to replace a bunch of bulbs in the dash and front turn signal bulbs.  Tracking them down one by one.  I realized that the 'idiot' lights in the dash are not very informative.  Staying within the parameters of the budget, I swiped the gauge trio I had originally purchased over a year ago for my El Camino.  I figured the Elco could do without them for now, since it was having the motor rebuilt.

Factory 'idiot' warning lights.  Pathetic, at best.  Accessory, at most.

Test fire of the dash lights and gauge lights. 

   That's about where I stand at the moment.  I may have an in-dash stereo to replace the 'brick' of a factory radio.  By the way, the dash is now matte black, that blue color was hideous.  The replacement stereo will actually reside in the panel above the original, and accessory switches will take the place of the factory radio, mounted in an ABS panel covering the hole. 

Oh, hell no.

   Tomorrow is Friday and I will have some new pics and maybe a vid of the motor purring. We'll see, gotta lotta shit to do...




 

A nothing worth something.

   I haven't blogged in a while. Life has a funny way of distracting you if you look away for a second.  I've been thinking a lot lately about blogging, and getting back into it. The closest I really get is sharing mechanical knowledge or project updates on Facebook. Well, Facebook is fickle, as we all know, so I wanted to express myself better through a blog. I have a couple of blogs already, one for my book, and one for daily life and oddities I encounter.  But I wanted a blog to better showcase some of my builds and restorations, some of my core passions. I have a couple of projects I am working on right now, but I lack enthusiasm when it comes to blogging about them simply because I bounce back and forth between them, so my blogging would be a bit sporadic. This project will give me plenty to write about, I'm sure.
   Well, recently we were given (yes, given, as in a gift) a 1976 Chevy G20 Van. By all means, please don't let that sound too glamorous, you haven't seen the van; yet.  I had seen this van many times along my strolls through "the woods of classics", it sat five feet from my 1950 Ford F-1 when I drug it out of the woods. I never paid it much attention because for one, it was becoming part of the foliage, and two, it had that 'look' to it. You know, the look which makes it hard for you to decide if it's a 'pedo-cruiser', or a carpet layers van (albeit they could be one in the same).  When I was told the van was ours free and clean, I was ecstatic inside, but in a bittersweet way. I relished the thought of another useful tool we could benefit from. But part of me was saying "it's been taken by the woods and nature, and they may not want to give it back".

This was my initial observation of the van. Oh boy...

The first steps to restoring a car? Weed whacker, Deep Woods Off, Raid wasp spray, air tank, tow chain, and cuss, for your tongue.

I think at first I was more concerned with the plethora of hungry mosquitos than I was with the overall condition of the van.
 

   It actually took me two days to go down there (the back 40) and assess the situation. By then I had already been compiling ideas in my head on ways I can customize this huge vehicle. But I was taking a casual approach to it. See, I had already been working on my '73 El Camino (454) days before that trying to get it road-worthy. After running into a few setbacks on the Elky, I was a bit leary on what a money pit this van could possibly be.
   Rewind a few weeks: I had just hauled my beloved El Camino up from Texas in hopes of finishing it soon and getting back on the road. I had taken the nearly-worthless 350 (sbc) engine out of my Elco and replaced it with the much more brutish 454 (bbc) motor. I hadn't tied up the loose ends on the Elco before I moved (eventually) back to Missouri, so the El Camino was only about 80% done. I got it up here and started to fiddle with it, putting the remaining items on it, such as the radiator, alternator, headers, water pump, when I decided to spin the crank just for good measure. As (my) luck would have it, the (newly rebuilt) engine was completely locked up. Later I found that the hood was sitting high in the back, causing rain water to funnel down into the engine. *(insert FML FML FML here)

I've seen worse, but it all has to come apart. I suspect the rings are rusted to the cylinder walls on a couple, or maybe the wrist pins are frozen. Regardless, a lot of extra work I wasn't counting on.

 

   Soooo, I now realized that the van was a God-send, being that my Elco would have to be completely torn down and some parts replaced, causing it to go to the back burner to 'de-funk and re-rag'.  But wait! I haven't even gotten the van out of it's "less-than-final" resting place. I don't even know if it runs and drives. Shit. Well, time to go drag that big bitch out of the woods and see what she's all about...


All tires were flat, had to replace 2 with ones I found that 'held air'...

   Oh, before I get carried away, I had to set off spider bombs in it before I stepped foot in it. Upon opening the driver door, I noticed 3 brown recluses of good size, and numerous other species of spider roaming freely in the cockpit. Die, octo-bitches!
   After swapping two of the wheels with shredded tires on them for 'good' ones and airing up the other two, I believe the submarine bus was almost ready to move out of the country and into the city, so to speak.  My fiance was cool enough to tug this boat to it's new spot with the Z71. I was nervous, because I had no idea if the transmission, brakes, or wheels were frozen up. I knew the brake pedal was non-functional; frozen solid. The first part of the journey was on a slight downhill incline, so I didn't want to damage the bumper or tailgate of the Z71. I really didn't know what to expect. Ok, so I panicked right off the bat and slammed on the brake pedal, which caused the pedal to become unstuck, so I guess the brakes did work after all.


This lil tree frog was chillin' above the wheel, giving us his blessing for the van. If a frog digs a van, then I dig the van.

   We got the van moved to a spot that was close to electricity and water so I/we could begin cleaning it. The plan was as cKy suggested: Infiltrate. Destroy. Rebuild.  I would finally get to go inside and survey this thing. Not liking what I saw was a fucking understatement.  This thing was a disaster zone on the inside, and riddled with rat shit and the strong, stenchy smell of mouse pee pee.  Not to mention the snake skin sheddings. Oh yeah, that was a lovely find! The following pictures don't do the smell any justice. This van makes me realize that nothing in this world is free.

Overall, it didn't look too bad to me. Another man's treasure...
 

Disguisting inside, but it was free, right?

All that mouse crap, arrgg! I'm beginnign to despise those rodents. And I'm thinking about firing my cats, they are obviously not doing their jobs...

 

Yeah, snake skin from shedding in the back of my van, not cool. Regroup with flashlight and pistol on my hip...
 

And what do we do with all that trash and junk scattered about our van? This right here...
 

 
Not a bad first day for the van (nor I, either). Got the uber-gross carpet out, a lot of the trash, and T even washed the passenger door...

   The G20 van had a very busy first day of re-animation. We accomplished a lot, although one might not tell. I haven't even told you what kind of nightmare I found in the front of the vehicle, I'll save that for tomorrow's blog entry.