Building the Best Bench Seats: Part 35 - RAM Promaster 2500 Van Conversion

Hi everyone, we hope your 2023 has started out with many blessings for you and your families. Today we're going to discuss the benches and the bench seats. Since I love woodworking, this has been one of the most fun projects we've done so far.
We took the idea from a dude named Greg Virgoe, who is based in the UK. He had this great idea of using inexpensive IKEA bed slats to make the benches, giving them a nice “cushiony” feel, while keeping them very strong and light. We pretty much followed most of his procedure and just made a few changes to suit our needs
In today's video, we will take you step by step through the plan and build process of the benches and the bench tops. It's all made from inexpensive 2x2 lumber from Home Depot and Lowe's. My guess is the entire project costs less than $100.
If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment below, and please give a thumbs-up if you enjoyed this video and found in helpful to you. Subscribe to our channel to follow along on our entire van build series.
Blessings to you 
Marc and Tania
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[@paulmfti]

The way the videos are done make it real easy to follow. Great work. Thanks for your attention to detail. Very helpful!

[@marctania2349]

HI Paul....Really glad you like them.....:)

[@igoslomo]

Yay!! Another great video! So so helpful. (Sorry about the neighborhood police - sigh)

[@marctania2349]

Hi LeAnn..so glad the videos are helpful...and thanks for commenting

[@patrickgosselin9756]

Great idea with the framing! I'm going to steal that for sure. Neat trick if you cant find decent 2x2s is to just rip down some 2x4 (or larger for less warp) on the table saw.

[@marctania2349]

Thank you. Glad you got something out of the video

[@trishwhitehouse6536]

Hey good to see you back in action. That HOA- ugh, that has definitely made this build more challenging. What a pain doing it in a parking lot. I like the idea of using the Ikea slats- I used that for my fixed bed but hadn't thought of them for the bench (I have a bunch and a fixed bed). Our first trip using the bench did show us that sitting on hard wood even with a cushion of 3" foam was pretty uncomfortable after a while. So maybe version 2.0 will be made of slats. It looks great- can't wait to see what you do with the rest of it. Great attention to detail- my build is not anything like that but I still love it. I can commiserate with low temps- it was -10 this morning here in CT.

[@marctania2349]

-10....Good gosh. I actually took a trip to Alaska this year and got to fee what -50 felt like....not fun.. It's warmed up a little bit here....which make my constant trips to the parking lot a bit more bearable :) I wonder if the folks that own the parking lot even know what we are doing....we just keep showing up with tools :)

[@trishwhitehouse6536]

@@marctania2349 It's entertaining for the nosy people, anyway! Keep the videos coming, I can't wait to see what you guys do next. Yesterday I wound up having to fork over $700 to have my van fixed because the whole electronic system when crazy when I accidentally did something to the back up camera wire. Apparently that one wire talks to everything else. 4 hours of diagnostics later, they found the one tiny little wire that I had disturbed. This van building stuff is not for the faint of heart!

[@marctania2349]

@@trishwhitehouse6536 No it is certainly not :) But what an amazing experience.....my guess is your entire circle of friends thinks you are crazy for even trying this. But they are also impressed to heck :)

[@ROGIKNOBY]

Great to see another video. Thanks for the inspiration and keep up the great work.

[@marctania2349]

Thanks for the kind words :)

[@MackJudd]

Super helpful! Thank you

[@marctania2349]

You are welcome :}

[@mrbranchatl]

As always Marc, great job, to bad your HOA is tripping.....I plan on starting my build sometime this year. thanks for the videos my friend

[@marctania2349]

Hi Steven.....Yeah...the HOA struggles never seem to end....Look forward to hearing how your build progresses.

[@LachieWales]

Hey mate, what did you use for the bench seat walls after it was built? I was thinking just a thin plywood 👍

[@marctania2349]

Yes it was just some thin scrap plywood I had lying around. Just a thought though....you may want to do some calculations before building these. as you get farther in your build, every bit of space is important...so you wnat to be sure that the corners of the wheel boxes dont cause you to lose any space.

[@karengreen5287]

Looks GREAT! You mention a "kit" in the video? What are you referring to? Thanks so much!!!!

[@marctania2349]

Hi Karen, So sorry for such a late response. I actually ended up rebuilding these, using a higher grade lumber. They look really much better now, but the build was the same. Ikea sells the bed slats in kits. I think it took a queen kit to give us enough slats for this project. I think the product name is "Luroy"?

[@timlauerjr688]

Are you planning on an elevated foot rest/ floor between benches? I'm struggling with bench height plus mattress thickness.

[@marctania2349]

Yes, Tim, that’s correct….I think about 7 inches.

[@timlauerjr688]

Thanks for the response. Great build and videos btw. Very helpful

[@loullabelle80]

What kind of crazy place fines you for having your own vehicle on your own property?!

[@marctania2349]

Yes, welcome to the joys of HOA

[@Psychmart123]

What is the hinge tool called? Great video 👍🏼

[@marctania2349]

www.amazon.com/Ryobi-A99HT3-Installation-Mortiser-Template/dp/B08DZ1HNZ5/ref=asc_df_B08DZ1HNZ5/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=459562120277&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12824669210388400108&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9010777&hvtargid=pla-952043781743&psc=1 Best $40 tool ever made :)

[@alliehunter9896]

Rent a storage space and work from there.

[@marctania2349]

Thats what we did. So much easier at home....but what can you do

[@paulc9848]

Completly over complicated and added cost

[@marctania2349]

Well, to make it worse....I rebuilt them....with select pine. Now there are over complicated and even more cost. but they look really good

[@joamonirl]

​@@marctania2349why did you remake them.

[@vinceocratic]

What a dick move, bro…