so
do
first things first is we need storage so that's what i'm working on i've already started it you
can see a little bit where i'm going to be using 80 20 throughout this whole build or aluminum
extrusion and i'm gonna be building some shelves out of this so my plan is this is just the start i
had to make up these brackets there's the you know stock eight millimeter threadlets that are welded
in right here here and over there um i had to make up these angle brackets for the 10 series which
is what i'm going to be using for this and for most of my build is going to be 10 series 80 20.
because when you do the 10 series and you use just the regular angle brackets like this
if you use these and you try and use like an eight millimeter you won't be able to get the other
bolt through the hole which is kind of a bummer but um i made these brackets up just bought a
full piece of um angle iron from the hardware store or you can get it i got it at granger
and you just cut it up drill the holes where you need it make your own custom brackets so that
you can fit stuff on there so it'll imagine it being looking like a cabinet this is the framing
so there's gonna be another piece that comes out here and there's gonna be another piece that comes
a 90 up and then there's gonna be a rail that goes across the ceiling here
it attaches to these ribs here one two and three and these holes are already here
um i just had to widen them out a little bit with a 25 by 60 fourths uh drill bit so that
they can fit the quarter 20 rib nuts is what i'm going to be using for most of this build
and i'm going to rivnut these stock locations and then i'm going to run a bar across and then
go from there so what i'm doing is i'm just uh spray painting a little rust performer in here
with a q-tip and i'm gonna just coat the holes that i drilled for the rib nuts um just a extra
precaution for any rust or anything like that you know it's probably overkill but i'm gonna do it
anyway just because even though the rivnuts do dig in behind the metal that's what a lot of people
don't talk about the rib not when it squishes up it digs into the backside of the metal anyway but
whatever i mean cover it up just to have peace of mind so you're not worried about rust
let those holes dry a little bit so get this rib nut tool
you can buy it at like i bought it at granger actually uh it's a quarter twenty and then i'm
just kind of cheating them using the impact with a socket on there it goes a little bit faster
i know some purists are like oh you can't tell what's done but whatever i don't have time to make
22 turns with the opening wrench and i'm using channel locks just so i can hold on to it not have
to deal with something falling off or keeping pressure on it i can just hold it like this
and boom you got a nut all right i got the upper cabinet framing
kind of pre-loaded with these brackets that i made and these two are going to go that way so they're
going to be inside the cabinet this one's going to be this way because as you can see over here
um i had to cut away right here at the headliner a little bit and this factory hole that is back
here where i put these rib nuts is actually the spot where the trim piece has the push in tab so
i don't want to use up that hole here so i'm gonna just angle the bracket that way drill a new hole
and put a new rib nut in here once you put the 80 20 up there it's pretty well even with the
headliner so i think i'm just gonna have to cut a notch in the trim piece and it should be good
okay
now
uh
all right got the frame all in
came out pretty good just a few things that would uh do differently next time probably but
overall i think it came out pretty well i kind of
started from because i wanted to use the factory holes so if i had not been too picky about the
holes that i used um next time i would probably just assemble it like you see it on the ground
and then have somebody else help hold it and then mark the holes and just put the rib nuts in
wherever they land i mean you can kind of guesstimate but trying to land and use the
factory holes as you can see here you know made the assembly harder because trying to get this to
end up square and then come up with this measurement here because this wanted to
you know sway this way this one this way that way so you wanted to make sure that they were square
so getting this measurement so they would make it square how i did that was basically take a square
and hold it up in here like that so that both you can see it's resting on top of that angle
bracket and it's resting on top of that angle bracket and then having that space between there
and having that on that upright told me that it's square and you measure at that point
from point to point and that gave me this dimension right here for the brackets to go across
so you may notice that i used these brackets here on the corners um flat brackets well you know why
didn't i use them everywhere why didn't i use them in here to make us you know a little bit
stronger the way it is well because the base of these cabinets is going to be quarter inch birch
plywood which i'll finish and it'll fit right in the channel i may add door fronts at one time at
some point but for now it's just going to be open like that and i'll run bungees across or something
like that just to keep helmets and gear and all that stuff in there and um i have to i don't know
if they sell a fully flat angle bracket uh right angle like this if not i'll just trace on the back
side if this and just cut it out if i want to add cabinet doors later but now the last thing that
i'm going to do now that i got it all assembled is i'm going to plant this rivnut mark it drill it
set it and then the framing will be done i get that uh last hole drilled for the rib nut
just a word of caution when you're drilling in your van make sure you use a collar
like that and make sure you get it tight because this thin sheet metal when you drill through it
with a sharp drill bit like that a lot of times it tends to grab the bit and wants to pull it in
and the last thing you want to do is drill a hole up through the roof of your brand new van
or even a used van doesn't matter who wants holes in there man nobody so i got my birch plywood here
quarter inch um gonna be measuring and cutting it to inset into the 80 20. and as you can see
it sits in the 80 20 about 5 16. and just remember you have to double that
measurement for each side so it would be an extra 10 16 so 5 8 on
the total length of your measurement on the inside from the inside of the 80 20 inside the inside
now that i get the plywood cut i can just rotate this out of the way
and test fit my plywood
finish edge down
see if i measured right
i like what do you think looks awesome
so
looks good put some uh coats of poly on it dress it up a little bit
use a tack cloth to get all that off and then we'll have bottoms to our shelves
just putting a few coats of poly on the boards before i put them in the shelves
made some end caps as well that'll just i'll just bolt onto the end of the shelves
so we'll have to do like four or five coats and let these dry and
go from there so i cut all the pieces obviously you know that already um
didn't want to bore you with the details but i put about four coats of water-based oil modified um
polyurethane just clear on the birch just to give it a little bit of protection
a little bit smoother make it look a little better now for the most tedious part
is this gasket material that goes in here and what that'll do is you know here this side
i don't want that going down the road here this side you can't do it because it's got
this gasket that kind of squeezes into the 80 20 channel and over here that's
gonna bug you if you're driving or something like that but this gasket material over here
gets right in there but it's a really big pain to get in there you literally have to like stretch it
a little bit and then you have to push down on it and then push in with your fingers and your
fingers are going to be really sore by the time you're done i'm contemplating just doing little
sections but then i gotta kind of kind of got into a rhythm so i'm just gonna do the whole
thing and i'm not gonna bore you with the whole thing but we'll see how it looks when it's done
all right so a few days later just trying to finish these off i've got the end panels kind
of going on here and i'm just going to trace around here because it's a little too tight
what i did was i actually took this cover off which is the wiring harness cover and i trace it
on the plywood on the floor and then it got cut a little bit too tight as you can see so
i'm just uh scribing it in a little bit closer so i can get in there i get it kind of trim the fit
around the wiring harness cover but one thing i'm going to do is later on i'm
going to have ceiling panels that kind of come down and follow the contour of
the beam members here so one thing i'm going to do is i'm going to trim
these with that contour so that when i go to do that later i won't have to really trim them much
i have to take like a quarter inch off later but what i'm doing is basically just tracing a line if
you could see it up there tracing a line with the pencil and just kind of like scribing it like this
you know i mean holding it up against the framing members and i'll probably go a little bit strong
on it maybe like an extra eighth of an inch quarter inch so that i can kind of later on
i'll slide the ceiling panel in there and uh i'll be able to do that without having to take
this off cut it and all that stuff all right so now i cut the contour of the that cabinet
and now what i'm doing is i'm just taking the other end kind of putting together lining up
the front edges of the cabinet and just using this one to trace the contour of the other one
all right we got one mounted as you can see i put in these l brackets
and then mounted on that end panel and i get the black screws showing i don't think it looks
too bad um one thing that saves you with these things is these little drop-in t-nuts you can
see that go in the channel so you have to take everything apart to get it in there all right
good i'm pretty much as done as i'm gonna get them for now
get everything on i got the headliner trim piece back on that i just cut out as you can see
i didn't cut it out much because honestly the ceiling is going to come here later and i'm
probably going to end up cutting this all the way out like this later so the ceiling panels can go
under there but i'm not worried about that right now just wanted these shells up so i can have some
functional functionality of where to put stuff and then the black stuff on the bottom this is just
you know like stuff from home depot the uh tool drawer liner rubber that i just cut the size and
basically that'll keep anything from being able to slide around mostly helmets and stuff like that
well that's it for now i'll end up putting some probably some eyelets in here like this i just ran
out of in t-nuts i'll get some more probably just run some bungees across here so stuff
can't slide out for now i don't know if i'll put drawers or our cabinet doors or not i don't know
we'll see all right that's it for now um remember to hit that like
subscribe button down at the bottom um things i would have done differently
um now that i've done them is you know i'm not too impressed how it came out with the edge here but
i've got some quarter inch uh you know panel edging it's on its way it's just not here yet but
overall happy the way it came out and uh why i didn't go with the smooth channel
and stuff like that is because i want to be able to mount i want the option to be able to
mount anything on here whenever i want you know whether it be you know putting some mounts for
you know a snowboard going across here or something underneath i just wanted the versatility
and i don't think it looks bad at all with the you know 80 20 profile i know a lot of people
use the smooth channel and they get rid of the ones that you know they just have the flat front
for more finished look for a cabinet but overall i'm going for more function than you know
than beauty i guess you could say but i think it still looks pretty good the way it came out