This is the fourth post in a series that serves as the primary documentation of how I purchased and converted a 2008 Dodge Sprinter Van to a full-time living space.

Salt Lake City, UT

Removing the Stock Floor

I wanted to remove the stock plywood floor in order to be able to put down sound insulating mat and save the extra 0.5” of standing height in the van. The stock floor is restrained by several different pieces - aluminum trim held down by a series of torx screws, several D-rings that are bolted in with larger, 1/4” torx bolts, several pieces of L track also bolted with torx bolts, and finally a set of floor receivers for an additional row of seats.

Closeup of the seat retainer

While many of these bolts came out easily with a socket wrench and torx bit, a few of them remained stubbornly bolted down. I broke a few of my socket wrench attachments and used the better part of a can of Liquid Wrench, and even drilled out a few bolts with left handed bits in the process. Finally I only had the two seat retainers left to remove. The passenger side retainer’s bolts seemed loose, but just kept on turning beneath my socket wrench. I took a look underneath the van and realized that these were not factory installed and actually had (rusted) nuts exposed on the underside of the van. With the help of a friend holding these nuts on place with a pair of pliers I was finally able to extract the passenger side seat retainer.

The driver’s side bolts however would be a different story. The retaining nuts on the underside of the vehicle were blocked by the fuel tank - I would need to drop the fuel tank in order to access them. While I played with the idea of looking for a friend with a jack, getting one myself, or taking to the garage I finally decided (after a few weeks on and off removing bolts) to abandon the idea of removing the stock floor.

Covering the Stock Floor

I decided to simply apply vinyl flooring above the plywood floor. The remaining driver’s side seat retainer would mean the flooring wouldn’t be perfectly level, but this section would be underneath the future kitchen cabinets anyway.

Cutting the vinyl with a utility knife and laying down was surprisingly easy and took less than a few hours to completely finish. With the walls, floor, and ceiling completed the van really started to feel like a room rather than a vehicle.