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The 1990 Toyota Odyssey V6 4x4 that we call The Comvee (warning: long post with photos)


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23 hours ago, linda s said:

This place is in Tampa. Sounds like the right place to start your wood search. They carry the Okoume plywood that is supposed to be the best and lightest you can buy for boat building so would be good for you too. very high company ratings

http://www.craftsmensupply.com/

Linda S

Thanks Linda, I gave them a call and got a price of $95 per sheet for the marine grade fir that they recommended.  I found it at a lowes for $75.  Now the question is the quality difference between the two!  

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  • 4 weeks later...

I've been super busy but still managing to get work done on the Toyota between my Dad and I.  I have a lot of video footage recorded but can't find the time to sit and edit video, its a tedious task!  We added a 15 gallon auxiliary fuel tank right in front of the stock tank, what a perfect fit.  It will have its own fill spout directly above the factory spout (shown in the photo below) which we moved both to the driver side of the truck.  The original setup had the fill neck on the rear of the camper which made filling awkward considering how far forward you had to pull ahead of the pump.  The aux tank will have a T in the fuel line and a switch to turn its own pump on and will also have its own gauge.  It will pump directly into the main fuel tank and when the valve is turned I'll be able to pump out of an aux line on the back of the truck.  This will be used for filling my motorcycle or whatever else.  We decided on the aux tank rather than a larger factory tank due to needing to carry higher octane fuel for the motorcycle in the aux tank.  

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Most of the floor insulation installation is complete.  It was all cut to shape and fit into the rails.  It was caulked into place underneath for a total seal.  We will also be spraying a foam underneath for double insulation when everything is tied up down there.  The water tank is fully insulated as well.  We will be adding a vapor barrier on top of the insulation now using a visqueen type of plastic wrap.  

 

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I purchased a 3/4" marine AB Fir plywood from my local lowes for $75 a sheet.  I was told it is not "true" marine grade but its plenty good quality for a hidden RV floor.  It is a bit heavy but looks and feels like good quality stuff.  The next option was $95 a sheet and higher from local suppliers.

 We are now in the process of cutting it into shape.  

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I have also been on the hunt for a factory Toyota electronic diff lock to swap into my 8" housing.  The 4runners and a few other trucks came with the factory e-locker.  It is a direct swap into the 8" housing in my truck.  It requires a little bit of modification to the diff housing.  I just need to verify my gear ratio to try to match to the locker.  They go VERY fast at junkyards and run $500-$1200 on ebay.  I am also keeping an eye on craigslist for trucks being parted out.  It is not needed anytime soon but I am keeping an eye out!  Maybe I'll get lucky and find a complete crashed truck for cheap with a factory locker and the 3.4 to swap into mine!  

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Not real crazy about hanging the aux tank from welded brackets

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17 minutes ago, WME said:

Not real crazy about hanging the aux tank from welded brackets

They're bolted on the parallel bar not shown 

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53 minutes ago, Boundfornowhere said:

Excited to see how this turns out. You guys are doing awesome so far. It took me 8 months to finish editing video from our rebuild... 🤦‍♂️

People severely underestimate the amount of time that goes into editing 10 minutes of video.  I have a bunch of footage I need to edit but that’s the boring part.  

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2 hours ago, Odyssey 4x4 said:

People severely underestimate the amount of time that goes into editing 10 minutes of video.  I have a bunch of footage I need to edit but that’s the boring part.  

You and Boundfornowhere have so much in common and live not so far away. You should really meet sometime. If not for yourselves at least for your girlfriends. They need to talk. They have no other girlfriends they can talk to about this motorhome stuff. So hard when your so passionate about something and your friends faces go blank the minute you open your mouth. 

Linda S

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  • 2 weeks later...

The work has continued!  Fiberglass cab-to-coach cap has been repaired.  All cracks repaired/reglassed, wooden framing installed for bed platform as well as where walls/roof meet cap.  The fiberglass was impregnated into the wood during reglassing, should be plenty strong.  Cap was primed and ready for install!  I still need to locate whatever gasket we will be using, a few people here mentioned garage door gasket, they did look like they could do the job.  The only concern is how those gaskets will handle turns in the shape of the cap?  

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Will be acquiring materials to soon begin wall build.  Insulation, Luan board, adhesive and filon fiberglass siding.  

On a side night, the Toyota got some sun out of the shop today!

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Edited by Odyssey 4x4
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Garage door seal is used to give a nice clean finish to the cab to coach transition. I have never seen it used as a main seal.  It is fairly thick though and I imagine it could be made to work. I would trim off the thinner sections but screws should go into the thickest part. 

Linda S

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25 minutes ago, linda s said:

Garage door seal is used to give a nice clean finish to the cab to coach transition. I have never seen it used as a main seal.  It is fairly thick though and I imagine it could be made to work. I would trim off the thinner sections but screws should go into the thickest part. 

Linda S

The original seal was pretty minimal as well.  It had actually shrunken a bit and wasn't even making contact with the truck in a few spots.  If we go with a garage seal it will be finished with caulk on both sides as well for final seal/ adhesion.  

It doesn't seem there are any other real options out there unless someone can give some advice!?  

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We went to lowes today to check out gaskets for cab-to-coach gap.  We weren't too happy with anything they had.  I'm gonna swing by camping world tomorrow and see what they have in stock before I order something online.  

We test fitted the cap and driver/passenger side walls and everything is lining up great.  We made a few mods to the cap fitment as the previous fitment was a bit off.

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We will be making a few changes to the wall designs including eliminating a few doors (refrigerator vent doors, battery slide tray, etc).  

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We are also going to redo the front bed over design to a round shape rather than the sharp point the previous camper design had.  You can see a very rough idea of what we were thinking for the round shape here with the blue tape.  I think the rounded shape should help bring the camper to a more modern style as well as the solid filon siding we will be doing.  

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And finally, a quick layout to see where the access door for the cassette toilet would roughly align so we can modify that section of the wall for the door!

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At one time the local Cruise America folks would mileage out the Class C units. Then they would remove the house and install it on a new C&C. They would install a cabover box on the old chassis and sell the resulting box truck on the local market.

If they do this local to you maybe they would have some of the sealing strip

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You had a battery slide out tray? Darn I always wanted on but never got around to making it. This rubber seal is for garage door thresholds. Very thick. No white but they do make grey.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Garage-Door-Threshold-Kit-20-ft-Gray-Durable-Vinyl-Seal-Blocks-Draft-Dust-Water/401701683404?epid=2254492480&hash=item5d874940cc:g:8IQAAOSwPA1cWc0E:rk:19:pf:0

Another crazy idea. The early Chinooks used white hose, like we use for fresh water. Lots of them still in use with gaskets that have never been changed

Linda S

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Yup it did indeed have a battery tray but far too small for my battery bank so we went ahead and deleted it.  

The hose seal is definitely interesting but I think it would be too thin of gauge for my application.  I'm going to make some calls tomorrow and see what a few local RV supply shops have to say.  

 

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38 minutes ago, linda s said:

One of our members works at Host Rv's in Bend Or. Wonder if he could buy some from the factory. Hope he's following this thread and chimes in

Linda S

Any advice/comments are greatly appreciated!  This is the type of job where many things will do the job fine, but if there is an actual gasket/seal made for this purpose of course I’d go that route first.  

Edited by Odyssey 4x4
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  • 3 weeks later...

Just an update regarding the seal situation for curious minds,

Here is the original closed cell foam seal pulled off of the cab to coach fiberglass cap.  The thin area is where it was glued to the fiberglass and the larger area is what provided seal/cushion between the two surfaces.

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I cannot find this (exact) seal anywhere, I have looked all over the internet and been to multiple RV repair shops.  If anyone knows where I can get this seal, it would be appreciated but I assume they are no longer made.

My next option is using a generic seal that would work for this application.  This seal looks to be the most suitable and appears pretty similar to the original.  I believe these are used for the slide outs on bigger RVs.  I have seen them in person and they seem pretty sturdy.

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Here is another random foam seal found online that looks to be close to the original but is too thing for my application.  

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In my desperate state I even reached out to the specialized parts team from Coachman RV builders.  I asked them what specific seal they are using on a certain model of RV (Coachman Prism to be specific) since this RV utilizes the same general design.  

To my surprise they responded quickly and were very friendly.  The responding email included this product photo and part number...

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After doing some quick google searching I found a photo of the actual seal.  It looks to be pretty flimsy in my opinion.  

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So at this point it is looking like the second mentioned seal may be the winner, unless someone has some better info!  

 

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We started on the walls today with the Luan board and foam insulation.  We started by laying down the boarding and then tracing the wall framing on top of it.  We decided on likely mounting the 2x4 on the roof to be standing tall rather than lying down, this is to give some extra interior height once we build the roof out.  

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Window cut out...

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We also began the installation of the new double fold out step...

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  • 3 weeks later...

The work continues! I had someone photoshop a quick edit of the rounded front end design just for a quick reference for comparison to stock, they made the truck a bit whiter too to go with the "arctic white" filon I will be using on the coach and painting the cab to match. The new design eliminates the front seam and looks a bit more modern in my opinion.

Factory Design

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Rounded Design

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I ordered a Filon sample to see what it looks like, it looks to be decent stuff and should make the bend on the front cab over without issue. I also got the seal for the cab-to-coach joint. It looks like very nice stuff and should do the job, it wasn't exactly cheap at $85 bucks but is marine grade and high quality stuff. 

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For anyone curious, I purchased the seal from a company called Sailrite, the seal is called the "Xtreme Seal Foam White" - Part No. 102188 at $3.40 a foot.  

The step installation is complete other than finishing work of the interior step once the coach is done being built. We fabricated a small switch that will illuminate a light in the dash of the truck when the steps are down as a safety precaution, once the step is closed it will break the ground circuit and shut the light off. The steps are canine approved 🐶. Notice the small indentation in the step going under the floor, this will be a small "hidden" storage compartment for a quick easy grab of whatever is stored there, closed off by a small discrete door.

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The passenger side wall is near complete. We installed insulation board sandwiched in between luan paneling. I forgot to take a pic of the board installation but I will get one on the other side. The luan also got a coat of polyurethane for improved moisture protection in the event of future leaks. The luan paneling was predrilled and screwed into the aluminum framing as well as glued in with Bostik adhesive. We did a test run with the adhesive and it is super sticky stuff!  

Notice the new rounded front end design on the cab over. It is a bit tight but it's the widest we could go without interfering with the front window framing. Notice the recess on the bottom side where the fiberglass cab will meet the wood framing.  

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We should be installing the walls and fiberglass cap within the next month, once that is complete it will be the roof and rear wall build as well as exterior filon installation. She will soon be road worthy again and not the worlds biggest flat bed Toyota!  

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  • 1 month later...

Small update, new vids coming soon. The walls are almost ready for install. The cab is stripped and almost done being prepped for paint, we are painting it a bright white to match the "arctic white" coloring of the filon siding. 

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One of the previous owners installed some after market seats in a scary fashion, booger welded giant bolts together. I'll give it to them though, those seats were in there good.

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New vinyl flooring is on the way, we will be soundproofing the cab and filling and rust proofing holes. When I pulled the door panels off I realized the RV company covered straight over factory panel covers and they're mint underneath. I think I'll leave them just that way! 

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I was tickled to see the original JDM Toyota logo on the back of my window crank! 

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So the cab is soon to be painted, insulated, desanitized, new vinyl floors and new seats (still need to find something), and put back together. Cap will be painted and put on and then walls! 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Truck has been painted "arctic white" to match filon siding for coach! Sound dampening mat applied to floor and doors. Factory 4runner seats sourced from junk yard. Repaired holes in cab floor from previous owner(s) screw holes and removed rigged up seat mounts that were welded in. Was able to get 4runner seats to bolt to all 4 OEM mount locations. Also installed OEM clock in dash sourced from junkyard. 

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19 minutes ago, linda s said:

You do amazing work and your camper is awesome. So glad your here to share it with us

Thanks Linda! Your kind words are always appreciated. I can’t wait to see this thing done, I think it’s gonna be epic! 

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Well after all this trouble and the fact that it's a 4x4. You need to head back to the wrecking yard and find a dash mounted Toyota Inclinometer

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12 minutes ago, WME said:

Well after all this trouble and the fact that it's a 4x4. You need to head back to the wrecking yard and find a dash mounted Toyota Inclinometer

I’d love to get my hands on one. They’re apparently pretty desirable according to eBay pricing!

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Wires ran for heated seats. Poorly designed cab to coach metal transition redesigned and sound dampener added. Vinyl floor install near complete. New shifter bushing installed in gear selector to get rid of sloppy shifter feel. 

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Edited by Odyssey 4x4
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Installed 94 4Runner map/dome light sourced from junkyard. Door panels have been reinstalled. Installed driver/passenger grab bars sourced from junkyard. Stripped, painted, and installed mirror brackets with new hardware. Headliner will be installed at a later time. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Disassembled and cleaned OEM seats, installed seat heaters in bottom and back buckets. Replaced AC condenser coil, drier, and O-rings. Removed rust and painted front end. Sat fiberglass cap into place to begin fitment.

Seat prior to heating pad installation,

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Old vs new condenser coil (zoom in on fins to see the real carnage), 

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Old vs new front end,

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What an awesome build!

Before they crush that 4runner, you might want to pull the lockable glove box, and lighted cig. lighter outlet and ashtray which you have to easily wire up.  There's also a tray in the cover under the ashtray that the pickups didn't have.

Also, the lighted visors from a Lexus ls400 are nice upgrades with mirrors and telescoping when to the side , that fits with tension under the added grab handled as seen below, as the mounts are not a direct swap tho resulting in the visors being at a slight angle. I also got the map lights and put in a backup camera with a switch. 94 4runner donor.

Also grabbed the door card pockets.

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Awesome! Thanks for the locking glovebox tip, will definitely be doing that if I can find a blue one! 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Fiberglass cap is secured to the cab. The marine gasket we went with worked out great and compressed really nicely. New off-road bumper is on the way and cab is near complete. 

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