My van, Mo, had a past life with FedEx and, after 44,000 miles of things thrown, tossed and dropped onto the floor of her cargo area, it was pretty beat up. To mitigate the chance of rust development, I spent the first month of van ownership scrubbing, priming and painting. It is not the most exciting part of building out a van, but it was necessary and the floor now looks radically different than it did when I brought her home.

The Cleaning Process

The van was relatively free of loose debris, so I filled up a bucket with soap and water, gathered an assortment of sponges, a roll of rags, a box of magic erasers, a newly-aquired metal brush, and got to work. The sponges proved mostly useless, but the magic erasers and the metal brush did excellent work, and the metal brush helped to prep everything for priming and painting.

I found only a few tiny spots of rust, and again, the metal brush and a little bit of elbow grease quickly took care of it.

The Painting Process

I’ll be honest. Nothing was straightforward and I kept circling back to more cleaning, finding little spots I wasn’t quite satisfied with. Then, I spent too much time staring at cans of paint at my local Lowe’s trying to figure out the best course of action before I eventually settled on Rust-Oleum’s Automotive Primer and, on top of that, their Glossy Protective Enamel.

For Mo’s tailgate, I wanted something a little more durable and better at hiding filth than the white glossy enamel, so I grabbed a can of Rust-Oleum’s Truck Bed Coating Spray. It hasn’t been on the van long enough to be battle-tested yet, but it was easy to apply (I did two-ish coats), and it makes things look a whole hell of a lot better.

In addition to several cans of paint, I dug out some rolls of painter’s tape from the stash I’ve been building over the course of 15+ years of homeownership, picked up a few plastic drop clothes, some latex gloves to protect my paws and a few cheap paintbrushes. Also, because I hate being poisoned and spray painting in enclosed places is a great way to poison yourself, I bought a respirator. Safety first, y’all.

The Dollars & Cents

• Cleaning Supplies: $16.35
• Paint: $54.45
• Paint Supplies: $12.22
• Respirator: $35.08

Total Van Build Cost after Zero Phase: $115.42

And Then?

Now the van build really begins. I went back and forth on the order of operations for this build and, when I asked the internet about it, it seems like every person who has ever built a van does things a little bit differently.

I thought maybe I’d cut holes in the ceiling first for a fan and a skylight, but when Claude the Dog gets in the van, the floor is so slippery that he refuses to walk on it, locking his little dog legs instead of putting one paw in front of the other. I want Claude to be able to hang out while I’m working on the van so, to appease his dog paws, I’m building the floor next.