Building A Sleeper On A Box Truck Start to Finish: DIY Mom's Attic #vanlife

what's up guys so some of you may know and some of you may not know we are getting a sleeper put on this thing so took it over to the shop today Fab Works there in Seymour Missouri if you don't know about them check them out after this video you're going to know a whole lot more about them now so what I'm doing to kind of prep and get ready for it is I am tearing all this out thank you foreign these two hands to do this it's way back in this little Nook hey hey at least it's insulated yeah baby step one down [Music] foreign part and when they spin it [Music] [Applause] all right so we're tearing this old sleeper off the front wow it's really just an aerodynamics type deal but it's never as easy as you think it's gonna be not to mention all this silicone you see everywhere I had to work around because metal blades and silicone come on it Russell's in the inside trying to cut them free foreign [Music] [Music] do you have a flat bar [Music] hey don't you feel like Superman here I go like at the top you all right I have no idea yeah that's all right yeah that's as far as what else there you go there it is yeah [Music] I wish I could weld that good anybody can weld he just got to practice that's it yeah I definitely gotten better but my shitty welder ran out [Music] [Music] foreign cut that out or we can get in there now it's been a pretty productive first day got everything off we've got the basically the starting mounts for the top piece on I don't think we expected the top part coming off to be such a pain it took us a few a few hours to get this off foreign [Music] all right so I'm just pulling in a Russell shop here [Applause] what's up [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] yeah what in the world sorry about that that's all right [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] so we just found a screw up well not just but in the near recent see the top comes down just a little too low and the sheet metal would have been almost to the windshield well if we ever have to replace the windshield that's going to create a problem so we're actually having to cut all the welds loose and raise the whole thing up about an inch and a half we're going to put some plating inch and a half tube under it thankfully we're just gonna it's not too heavy at this point we're just going to lift it off and put some spacers in underneath and then set it back on top weld it all down so we didn't lose a whole lot but we definitely lost probably a half a day's work live and you learn there were experiences that you remember and that you do yourself or like I'm doing with thank God for Russell and his help you appreciate the product so much more hang in here with us because pull this thing off now there it went yeah [Music] I got pressure on it but I can't twist it so I just come on that side you got that I think I got this side all right all right hold on I'm gonna close the door okay yeah [Music] scratch that spray paint [Music] foreign we got something done the problem is it don't look right so I'm going to cut it all back off [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] but it's definitely going to take a lot longer to build oh no you don't like the challenge or something like this [Music] hey what's up [Music] [Applause] [Music] well guys this is how far I got tonight progress has been real slow because I'm really not all that smart but hey doing the best I can here trying to get Ben a bed for his kids to sleep in so keep on going [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] yeah I feel a lot better about that that'll be good foreign enough [Applause] make that the intro to the video uh-huh [Laughter] that'd be terrible man that is a beefy trailer over there sitting up pretty high too I filmed that one did you that's cool [Music] oh crap we have to notch for these guys too not quite with what now permanently decreasing yeah yeah as long as we don't fit real sharp this is gonna be the hardest piece so once we get this done [Music] oh we could use oh there you go I got a little late red okay high quality Chinese stuff yeah yeah these always seem to save the day these little multi-tools [Music] [Applause] [Music] we're getting really close we should have the aluminum buttoned up today and get excited but today's Wednesday and we are leaving Friday afternoon out of the state so after this is done we gotta do electrical on the inside build a bed build those interior walls frame it out I mean I still got my work cut out for me even after I'm done with Russell's helping thanks to the help for Fab Works because this is gonna be awesome also for those of you that don't know Russell is the owner and this is his shop he does all types of metal fabrication this is a little bit out of his normal uh realm but he builds Custom Trailers he builds custom bumpers and he does all sorts of trailer and Repair on any kind of metal and Welding work so if you're out of southern Missouri off-road Ranch and you break something foreign fabworks a call and he can probably fix you up [Music] okay so what I'm doing now is I'm pre-drilling and then around these pan head self-tapping screws in to hold all the sheet metal up to the bottom here we've already ran a big bead of silicone around it to waterproof and the trick is you kind of want to work it one screw at a time so that way it pulls the sheet metal that way because you don't want any sags [Music] and the finished product looks like this and I used some Liquid Nails on the back side hopefully I can keep it seamless if it does if it tries to not hold or something I can go back and put screws in it I wanted to show this spray foam this is what's actually kind of cool I don't think people insulate this usually like this it's just Gap filler made you feel cracks and gaps it should swap a little more still yeah more aggressively [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] so is that flush once it drops in a video of that what is it hey man pizza cutter right at this hole that's a good idea [Music] he's going to hang out the back just a little bit not as far as that other tank not as far as this though and you know the feet sit in closer than the back is rounded and it does not about radius so if the feet if this will bump into that first thing first thing we do is cut this out yeah and we can get it shove it in and just see where it stops okay yeah and then width I don't think width is going to be a problem no I don't think so either this looks like it might get in the way a little bit but I can just shove it up in there I like that that'll be sweet we get the generator propane end of tank s all in there yeah yep I think that'll be good wait let me get this I guess get this out of the way I'm gonna throw a spark on it throw a spark on and let the whole thing off definitely want to go off it oh no all right now we'll run glue in it I scrubs and scrub scrubs on my hands last night in the shower is gonna get all this crap off of it I had glue on there and then all the metal shavings and crap were glued in my hand I mean honestly this is probably Overkill probably stick with the silicone yeah exactly ready is yours yeah yeah it'll be good it'll be good enough okay good enough for who it's for uh is there something we could put in between there and this is not stained I'm thinking like this and then we might be able to just put that in there and wedge a piece of metal here how about this how about this that's it [Music] that's what I was thinking ouch yep I think I could stand here all day I'd make a great city worker oops we could probably put some more boy if that thing was to follow it would crack my windshield I was like it worked it hit right on that board I just put there yeah that's it that's pictures with grabbing things that might be the right length I'm so far off well these four by fours will do it take a little bit so something that I will say is they do make proper trim pieces specifically for RVs and campers and doing these seams however we were just buying some aluminum flashing that we could get at Home Depot or Lowe's so if you want to spend the money and you want to do the proper trim you surely can I did not this is more of a DIY all right so you've got a really tight Gap up in here that you can silicone in and this pretty much goes for all of these sleepers that go over the cab and I think they have some type of Rubber seal that they typically use but what we got was this long nozzle silicone we're going to try to make it happen with this kind of stuff see how it's going to work I don't think I'm gonna be able to get in there really down I can't so options three would be that spray foam that I bought and it's supposed to be some kind of weather water resistant spray foam okay let's see if we can make an absolute mess here with this [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] that actually doesn't look how bad so we're cleaning our surface really well with you can use acetone or rubbing alcohol or something that doesn't leave a residue behind oh my foreign I mean it's just not going to stick to that old silicone you saw the seam tape will not stick to silicone it's on the ceiling at all all dried up silicone has to be removed we've been scraping that for an hour okay so I think this is a little more Russell's style if you're needing anything like this built Fab Works is your place so what he did here is he built a custom container that goes underneath the box truck it's going to hold our black storage tank our small backup generator and a spare propane model I was really impressed and really happy with the way this thing turned out also it really didn't take him that much time if you're needing stuff like this done give Russell a call this all right look at that thing that's sweet I like it it's much more uh elaborate and I initially plant [Music] you like it yeah I think so all right or where do we cut the other one off oh yeah I guess did man oh but if we hold it back at this angle here it's beautiful so yeah I would have never thought of that girl no that's easy I couldn't say it's a genius idea [Music] like yep that other Market just so I get the angle held back pretty close okay [Music] I have this piece over a cup hey I mean custom trimming now we're into everything I don't know how to run one of these it's easier than that cutting you just did a little simple okay that's back again we'll just take that and cram it around you know being one piece like that it'll help pull everything together oh yeah I don't think we're gonna have any problems all right come on grab that little hammer is that how they fasten trim on my RV and just with silicone you know I really don't know we were just winging this you don't know it but we were in such a rush here we literally had been working on this thing until after seven o'clock this night and we still had to make our trip all the way to Dallas Texas which is about an eight hour drive so we buttoned up the outside we left the insulation out and we took our first trip just how it was all right what's up guys so it's Tuesday evening and I've been kind of working on the box truck here but I'm going to show you what I'm doing for installation so I'm using this insulation board it's got aluminum foil on one side and it's high density foam on the other and I'm just cutting it with a box knife and then pounding it into place here so it's really stiff I think this is going to work really well so as you can see right here I'm not really getting my cuts perfect or anything by any means because this foam is pretty pliable but I did make a mistake you saw me go through here with this spray foam and kind of do the cracks although I would do it again because I think it did go down in the cracks and it should keep the uh aluminum from flapping around [Music] foreign foreign are up here and we've just about got all the insulation done we just have one part right in here so we got the crap for the ceiling I regret it every minute of it styrofoam everywhere from now we're doing this last wall on roof okay so this hands down has been literally one of the worst parts of the process and that's putting this flexible board on the wall so this is kind of what I'm working with as you can see there's a crack along the top and that's because this material I used is flimsy so no big deal it just means we're going to have to trim the thing out which will make it look better anyway getting really close we are so thankful we partnered with fabworks on this build the sleeper added tons of space to our box truck and it makes camping with our kids a million times easier if you have any welding metal or fabricating projects and want a local business you can trust definitely call fireworks they're in Seymour Missouri 15 minutes away from the southern Missouri off-road Ranch thanks for tuning in on another episode of Ben and Brandy don't forget to hit that like button subscribe to our Channel and we'll see you on the next one

Channel: Ben and Brandi

Views: 14,498

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Id: dF4Dm1Lp0qc

Length: 31min 11sec (1871 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 10 2023