Time to rip out all that cocktail cabinet wood to cover it up!

The new interior wood will be two colour with a dark red base and black top panels

Look at how the wood has faded over time

The hard bit was getting the front wood out over the cab

First I needed to remove the front roof lining

Oh look fount a TV antenna too !

The wood strip had about 6 screws holding the panel in place

WOW there sure is some wires up here!

Its out now, will get it covered now.

Some of the wood after re cover

and the doors on the front cabnet painted

Some parts re fitted into Astro Van

and the back

And with the bottom bar fitted

Tomorrow I will do all the arm rest inserts to red and maybe the vac surround and magazine rack etc. Not able to do much more after that as I left the 2 side panels that holds speakers, spot lights and air con vents at work along with the small door for the rear panel.

Finished trimming the roof parts in the back

And the back cupboard door

Spot lights have been sprayed red

Today got some more of the small parts out for spraying, took some time due to rubbing down, primer, rub down spray

The arm rest inserts have also been trimmed in red and I have removed many small panels ready for spraying. I have started to put the front back together after sorting out the wiring and hard wired the reversing camera to the flip down monitor in front as this was using a wireless system that was crap. The front roof lining is back up again.

I am a bit held up finishing the side panels that have the vents, spot lights and speakers on as I have a pair os 6x9 speakers coming and need to cut the holes before I cover the old wood parts.

17/Sep/11

This weekend I will get the final top parts finished as my speakers have arrived. I will also get all the bottom window parts removed and trimmed up.

A quick run on doing the trim work on the window parts

front part had coat of primer and satin top coat

cover stapled upside down in place

Card template stapled into place

Covering pulled over wood and template and stapled

before cutting

staple round any holes

holes cut out for cup holder, dimmer and bed switches

All parts re fitted

And fitted into the van

Just need to fit the 6x9speaker now

Speakers, TV and lights now in

And the view from front

Well that's the back of the van trim finished. Next I am installing a full ICE system and building a centre consol to come from the dash up to the back of the front seats.

Today fitted a new Alpine head unit and at the same time I added a LCD volt display and a led to show alarm is on.

The Carbon Fibre dash kit landed today. From placing order in USA "they make each kit when you order" it got to UK in 6 days! I have waited a lot longer for stuff I order within the UK

The kit came from HERE

Watch this space

Check back as new photos will be added as I do the work.

Today I started to build a new center consol for the Astro van, all I have done so far is removed the old wooden one with the cup holders and cut away most of the plastic one that was hidden under the wood. The new center consol for the Astro van will house a leisure battery for my pc and ham radio gear and i will move the switches from the dash for the lights in the back of the van and control for sun roof.

Well it is coming on well and I have the main box between the seats made and started on the side panels. This coming week I will order up some brushed aluminum to take the switches etc.

All of the wiring to the consol goes via a connector plug and socket for easy removal.

Still more work to do but its part fitted for now. Next week it all has to come out again to fit the leisure battery in the center box and more wiring. I also need to make a padded cover for the center box to give easy access to battery and wiring.

I have now installed the wiring "4AWG" to add a amp and sub in the back of the van. The sub I will be using is a 1000w Kicker L7 15 inch in a temp sealed box

When I can get some good advice on building a sub box to suite the back of the Astro to get the best performance out of the 15" Kicker I will get building.

The amp I will be using is a JBL GTO 14001 1500-watt mono subwoofer amplifier with Remote bass-level control

This weekend I made some changes to the wiring to the JBL 14001 as it was dimming the lights on the van! I have fitted a sealed leisure battery in the back of the van and a 140amp auto switching charge relay. Now no dimming of the lights and a deeper base