![]() The only engine mods Ive done are a performance hypertech ECU chip and removed the cat converter. I pull car trailers and other stuff fairly regularly so the original trans went out around 220,000 miles, I had Amco transmissions rebuild it and it went out again just out of warranty so since it was a popular transmission that was also used in corvettes and other stuff I was able to get plenty of extra heavy duty parts and rebuilt it myself this time adding all the good stuff including a trans cooler with electric fan and a deeper alloy sump, also put an external filter adaptor and temperature gauge to go with it so I can keep a close look on how much heat its making when Im towing now (thats what kills them) The drivers seat foam started crumbling and falling out from underneath a few years back so I just swapped it out with one of the extras I had removed and kept. it came with a folding rear bed and two more matching captains chairs. Ive kept the carpet and seats covered since Ive had it so it still looks almost new. It is a conversion van that was done by Explorer, the wood work is done by the Amish for them, its nice. it has served me very well over the years and now has over 300,000 miles, it still runs good but it puffs out some blue smoke for a minute after it sits over a few days. it was my daily driver up till then also. ![]() I kept it in the garage until around 2006 so after that the paint started fading pretty bad and now it really could use a paint job but no rust anywhere on it. Ive taken exceptional care of it, continued to use Mobil-1 oil, use mobil-1 ATF in the transmission and M1 in the differential aswell as the same brand for grease on everything routinely. he had taken good care of it, always used Mobil-1 oil and garage kept. It had 127,000 miles on it when I got it. Pictures of this as soon as I've built it - maybe this long weekend.This is a 1987 GMC Safari with 4.3 litre V6 and 700R4 automatic trans.that a lifelong friend of my Dad bought new and I bought it from him in '92 I'm preserving as much height to maximize storage space in my build by using a very "low profile" mattress platform and slightly shorter plastic storage bins (rubbermaid roughnecks). The result of these two differences is that you "sit" a bit higher in the van and some of my taller passengers actually are very close to hitting heads on the roof. Also the seat back on my bench is a bit more "upright" than the Astro seat back. The seat cushion is the same height as the stock Astro bench at the front edge, but where the Astro bench rakes down slightly towards the rear, mine does not. My conversion-van bed is from a dodge with a higher roofline. Not a bad recommendation, but you have to balance this against seated headroom if you plan to have passengers ever sit there, or if you want to be able to sit up in bed. Everyone is advising you to raise the bed platform to gain storage underneath. (Important detail: my conversion van seat comes forward about 10" as it lowers into a bed, if it did not, then the bench would mount just a bit past the rear floor cups for the 2nd row) I ran like this for several months because the extra space made it easier to get baby into carseat.Ĭurrently I have a van-conversion bench seat installed, bolted through the floor, and it sits almost mid-way between the two factory bench locations in order to give me a 72" bed. For reference, it IS possible to use the "3rd row" bench in the second-row position by swapping over the seatbelt receiver hardware and trim pieces. When I was experimenting with my bed solutions, I tried both the 2nd and 3rd row benches (3rd row has the sliders), and the most I was able to get was about 15" from the front edge of the bench to the back of the driver's seat, using the sliding bench in the rear-most position. (Only a problem if you planned to use the original benches). Second, the additional bummer is that the factory locations for the benches don't correspond to your drawings. If your bed is a full 72", it's going to be more like a foot and a half, depending on how tall you are. I am 5'6" and with the driver's seat in normal position, I think I have about 90 inches from the back doors to the driver's seat. I need to post some pictures of the conversion van bed currently installed in my project, just for illustration - Getting a good bed solution is harder than it sounds (and a bit harder than it ought to be).įirst, regarding your drawing - you probably won't have a full 2 feet from the edge of a 6' bed to the back of the front seats unless you are very short or plan to pull your seats all the way forward.
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