Pimp My Van Continued

The insulation and paneling mentioned in the previous post made for a quieter vehicle, but it still was a bare bones beast. This-mind you, was what I was looking for.  The excesses SUV's and even pickup trucks came with were irritating on general principle and function. They resulted in vehicles meant to transport people in comfort with screens and cup holders up the wazoo. It's funny how one's prejudices can work against you as I would have never considered a Mercedes Benz to embody utility together with a Spartan sensibility.
So I like bare bones, but not having a place to store stuff out of sight other than a glove box is asking to have your car broken into. Thus I looked for after market storage solutions on Google and in the Metris Forum; none of the solutions fit my needs or aesthetics. The options were a cheap looking metal box designed for file folders or plastic consoles with- cup holders. I wanted something that could store my gym/work bag so that it not be visible from window view. Locks were not needed as if someone broke into the car a padlock would not stand up to a crow bar. So back to the shop.
One of my 2017 woodworking resolutions had been to learn dovetails and this was an opportunity to practice that skill. The BCTW Jointmaker makes the task easier but not by any means fool/newbie proof. A modification specific to the project was to make a taller fence attachment (the purpleheart piece) to hold the panels of the console securely.

 The design had to accommodate an uneven floor, thus the cuts on the left hand side on above photo, and be able to clear the armrest. It should also be able to work as a writing or laptop surface. At the same time sufficiently tall to hold my backpack. Other jigs made themselves useful in the project
My Moxon vise made the fret saw cuts and tracing the tails to make the pins.

It also was invaluable in the glue up of the Cosman wood hinge. This was my third project using this  hinge and, while still having room for improvement, was much better than the previous two.

The La Forge screw jack is one of my favorite woodworking toys- an aesthetically cool object and way useful.

Here it served to help in planning a awkward piece to hold- the part used to wedge the console to the lower part of the dash area

Here is the piece used to secure the console to the front. and another piece as shown below allowed the console to be install without drilling any holes to the interior.

The finished project prior to installation

While not a trunk, there's much more room for concealed storage.

Two weeks later, while filling up at a local gas station, the attendant remarked that my van had a Home Depot smell. More specifically what he was smelling was Watco.

My mom, a cargo van, and the next chapter.

This entry is the second after a  more than year long hiatus. An elaboration of a very brief explanation given in the previous post seems in order prior to continuing hopefully more regular postings. I'm not much on making my private life public, thus this blog has been mostly about my hobbies. The why and the wherefores of what will follow in subsequent posts need the context of the passing away of my mom last year. Like I would imagine is the case for most of us, it was a sea-change event. Anyone who knows me well knows that I was a world class mother's boy. Many of my actions and decisions come by my love of my mom and desire that she stay with me and live on in some way by what I do going to do going forward.
Mom worked her whole life in the Los Angeles Garment District. She worked her way up from piece work to pattern maker- made the prototype from the initial pattern prior to mass production.  In forty some years, she only had three employers. This was despite having to deal with an asthmatic kid  (me) early in her working life- in the era before albuterol and steroid inhalers- who required frequent absences from work.  Aside from the work, what was left behind from that part of her life were her two industrial sewing machines. Toward the last four years of her life, she could no longer use them. None the less, she would not part with the two machines. Despite all practical considerations, they moved with her in her small assisted living room and stayed with her until the end.
Another sad rite of passage is what to do with what is left behind. Newspaper articles, even books are written regarding dostadning. We had already done some of this five years ago when she made the transition from living in her own home to assisted living. All of her belongings were either donated or disposed except a recliner (think Frasier's dad's chair) which sits in my sister's living room and the machines as they were as much a part of her as any material object could be.
We had room for the machines at our home. Further, DW was a pretty accomplished seamstress before she gave that up due to work and family demands on her time. How to get the sewing machines to from LA to Salem was the next step. Family friends kindly offered to store them for a limited time until I could return for them. There were several options involving rental trucks but none were cost or time effective. This brings us to how I came to owning a Metris as that is how they machine found a new home.

A Mercedes Benz had been predicted for me by one of my colleagues at the  LA County Assessor's Office when I left there for medical school. However, John M. foresaw my wife driving it while  I continued to drive the old beaters I was known for. In LA, at least at that time, you were what you drove. One of my supervisors had taken me aside and kind of in jest remarked that I made enough money to get a presentable car as what I was driving was a disgrace to the office.
My Saab had done pretty well as a utility vehicle.

But there was no room for a 4x8 sheet of drywall or plywood. That requirement was a running private joke between DW and I when at car shows over the years. I had ideated on a Ford Transit Connect in the past couple of years although alas it did not have the capacity for 4x8 sheet goods. The price and size otherwise were right, however.
Low mileage Transit Connects were nowhere to be found in several weeks of looking. The local dealers were completely disinclined to negotiate on price- one guy could barely suppress a yawn when presenting his offer. Other small cargo vans were considered "gutless wonders" by their users or not very reliable by consumer ratings. Also, DW was not all that enthused about driving underpowered, high point of gravity, poorly handling and questionable quality vehicles which was her impression of the options I had thus far looked at.
Thus I started looking at Metrises and found a local dealer who was open to negotiating on a low mileage 2016 model. DW wanted rear door windows for visibility. As I could purchase a low miles Metris for the price the dealers wanted for a base level new Transit Connect, it was purchased and we went to L.A. where it came in handy for a number of tasks associated with my mom's memorial service.
I would not have bought a cargo van for that purpose only. When our car acquisition would come up in conversation DW would refer to it as Sal's two seater midlife crisis Mercedes. In a way it an accurate assessment it's role in my life's next chapter will become apparent in subsequent posts.
This project's first stage was posted on Lumberjocks a wood working site.
Soundproofing the interior was not a want but a need as the interior noise qualified as a low level health hazard by OSHA standards. Paying for the paneling and soundproofing is what most owners do. But that would have been boring and expensive. Thus, I made the side panels, ceiling and wheel well covers. 

As they say, when you're a hammer the world looks like a nail.