Building My Ford Transit Production Van Part 2: Dealers, Decibels, and Dilemmas

In my previous post I discussed the preliminary planning of my Transit production van build out, before receiving the van, and the benefits of laying that early ground work.

Even after receiving the van, the unexpected WILL happen and there will be obstacles to navigate, including how to deal with setbacks, picking the right partners and making sure you proceed in a logical order.

Here are some of the things that I was thinking about during this early phase of the build, what I decided upon and lessons I learned.

EARLY SETBACKS

I ordered the van from a dealership in Fall of 2024. I did a custom build, so that means the vehicle would have to be built and then shipped to me. At the time, delivery could take 3 months or longer. Right around mid February 2025 I got a call saying my van had arrived and was ready for delivery. I was excited. It was finally here!

I went to the dealership, completed the paperwork, and test drove the vehicle only to realize that they had ordered and built the van with the incorrect specs. It was missing some blind spot and other sensors, and it had swivelling front seats that weren't even on my build sheet!

It's crucial to double-check thoroughly! Dealers can sometimes be careless, sloppy, and indifferent. Make sure to check your build sheet and also the vehicle when it arrives.

Ultimately the vehicle had to be re-ordered which meant waiting even longer. It took another 3 1/2 months but the properly built van finally arrived end of May. It was time to build!

After over 6 months waiting the correctly built van finally arrived!

ORDER IS CRUCIAL

Building a van requires that tasks be completed in a certain order. In math there's an acronym called "BEDMAS", which refers to a certain order of operation when solving an equation - brackets before exponential, before division, before multiplication, etc.

Similarly, in a van build any treatment to the sheet metal needs to happen before you put the floor or walls in, while you still have access. The floor should probably be put in before you do any work inside the van. You don't want to drop something and put a dent in any surface. For safety reasons, a partition should be installed before driving around with anything too large or heavy. Additionally, any electrical wiring from the cabs battery, should be run before installing the partition. It was important for me to follow the correct order of things or I might have to undo something causing delays and more work for myself.

FINDING THE RIGHT PARTNERS

In the early planning phases I had searched out an up-fitter to purchase and install certain components in the van.

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being highly skilled, I'd say my handy skill level is like a hard 5, maybe soft 6. I'm definitely not completely useless when it comes to tools and DIY projects but employing professional help was going to be useful for certain things. I knew there was already going to be a lot I was going to do myself so using an up-fitter and getting a jump on some things was going to be beneficial. It was important for me to get the van working as soon as possible. I had already lost 3-4 months because of the bungled handling at the dealership.

The van came from the dealership essentially an empty sheet metal box. There was nothing from the factory. For flooring, walls and lighting I had decided to use Legend product. Based on my research they seemed to have some of the best offerings for my situation. They also have Canadian roots, with operations based here, and I felt good about the local connection.

For a partition I was going to use a Ranger solid composite partition. This was largely chosen for weight savings. Composite partitions also don't rattle compared to their metallic counterparts.

FIXING IT IN PRE-PRODUCTION: The Sound Floor

I scheduled the up-fit installation as soon as they had an opening but needed to tackle sound deadening first. I had decided early on to use a product called Kilmat on the sheet metal walls.

Empty metal shell inside the van. The photo shows the installed Kilmat on the right side rear wheel well.

This is a product that comes in sheets with aluminum foil, with embossing on one side and sticky self-adhesive butyl rubber on the other. Once you stick it to the sheet metal of the van you roll out the embossing on the metal side and once it's smooth you know it's installed properly.

It's designed to help cut down on vehicle noise, vibration, and rattle. It adds rigidity to the thin sheet metal body of the van that would otherwise be quite noisy bumping down the road.

Applying Kilmat to the wheel wells. A dedicated roller tool is very helpful for the installation though not necessary.

I was initially going to apply it to the floor, and that was the main reason I had to get it done before the up-fitter appointment. In the end I felt it was unnecessary and only did the walls and wheel wells. The wheel wells are particularly important because of the noise and vibrations of the tires. After treating those I had enough remaining to complete most of the walls.

You can really go nuts with this stuff, covering every bit of sheet metal surface, but at some point the weight of it exceeds the performance improvements. The box I bought weighed 18lb and I decided I didn't want to buy another box and spend the money (about $100 Canadian) or the extra weight allowance to cover more than I had.

In hindsight I'm unsure how much of a difference this made once the build was fully complete. For "BEDMAS" reasons the Kilmat had to be applied then, if it was going to be used at all. Considering how much additional wall treatment I did on top of the Kilmat, and the fact that no one is ever in the rear cargo area while it's driving down the road I could have probably skipped this step.

After applying some sheets of Kilmat to the walls. I cut these to size so they would fit where I needed them to.

THE UPWARD STRUGGLE: A Tale of Two Slopes.

After the cart vs shelving debate, ramps vs liftgates is probably the next most heated discussion in the production van build community.

A liftgate seems to be the more popular choice of the two. For those unfamiliar, a liftgate is a hydraulic mechanical platform that can be raised and lowered more or less parallel to the ground. This allows you to roll a cart onto the liftgate platform, while it's lowered to ground height, and mechanically raised to the loading height of the van's interior. You can then push the cart straight in. A ramp on the other hand requires you to push that cart manually up an incline.

If you're utilizing very heavy carts the liftgate is a much better choice. It's safer and I'd say critical if you're working solo. While the liftgate seems like the obvious choice in all circumstances there are some drawbacks.

1) The first is weight. Liftgates for vans typically weigh around 350-400lb with some models coming closer to 500lb.

2) Cost. Compared to a ramp, liftgates are substantially more expensive. Including labour for installation, it can be almost double in some cases.

3) Ongoing maintenance. Compared to a ramp, liftgates require more maintenance. A ramp is much more straight forward, with no motors or electronics, and not much to it. From stories I've heard from other people liftgates have a pesky habit of breaking down at the worst moments.

For these reasons I decided a ramp was a better option for my needs. The biggest factor was ultimately weight savings. I decided to go with the National Fleet / WM Systems swivelling ramp with the widest/longest option, a popular choice for Team Ramp. This ramp weighs about 200lb, so I was saving quite a bit of weight, which could be used instead to carry more kit.

Looking at it now, with several jobs behind me, I still love the idea of a liftgate. However, because of the reduced weight, I'd still stick to a ramp if I could do it again. Choosing the longest ramp possible, so the incline is gentler, didn't prove to be as effective as I thought when pushing a cart. Most of my carts are just about doable for me to do myself and the one that is a bit too heavy can confidently be done no problem once a 2nd person is helping, which I always have on set. When I'm by myself, on off days, I'll remove some items and then it's ok to do.

WM Systems National Fleet foldable ramp installed in the back of my Transit. The perforations help with grip, especially when it's wet. The ramp folds inside the vehicle when stored.

FINAL THOUGHTS

After the initial setback with the dealer, the rest of the early work went relatively smooth. I had done my research on accessories, like flooring, walls and lighting, long before I received the van, sought out the right vendor, and followed a logical order of operation. This all made a big difference.

With the initial sound deadening complete, and core components installed or purchased from the upfitter, I was ready for next steps.

What did I decided to tackle? Come back for Part 3 as I dive further into the build!

Do you have further questions about the things I chose to put into my van? Leave a comment down below or send me a DM on Instagram. @barrycheongdotcom