The Van Saga Continued...
I had never used a pop rivet gun before yesterday (7-14-03) . I can now see riveting becoming a lifelong habit. It's fun!
It looks pretty snazzy already! I'm proud of myself. I haven't even sliced a finger on the sharp metal.
I'm on my 4th drill bit in 2 days in this picture. Perhaps its time to buy a titanium drill bit set...
August 16th 2003
It was raining this morning, so I opted to work inside. I unscrewed the wooden paneling from the short side of the van, and ripped out all of the old insulation. Earlier I had found a very dead, very preserved mouse hidden in the roof insulation...and didn't want anything else stuck in my walls.

I vaccumed and primed everything to prevent rust from forming. There were a couple of rust spots near the tail lights. Otherwise, the walls looked great! I sanded the grungy siding down to bare wood. It looks like red cedar. I can't wait to polyurethane it. :-)
I tried unsuccessfully to unscrew the bolts holding down the plywood floor. They had corroded too much to be budged. Always in the mood to destroy things, I drilled holes into the plywood around each screw to loosen the fibers. I then wedged an iron bar between plywood and metal flooring and popped the wood off.

Taking off the plywood left me room to get at the screws. I nipped the tops off with a sawzall and knocked the rest of the screw down through the floor.
What color should my van be? I'll paint it the color that gets the most votes. :-)
Voting has been discontinued. It's almost time to paint!