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Inspired by Mike Chell's 2018 thread, and coveting the more than 6 cubic feet of storage space Ford hid under the cargo deck, I took the plunge and removed the deck hiding the second row foot well. I'm looking for ideas on how best to finish off the hole. One thought is to build a new deck that is level with the existing deck and add hatches to get to the under storage. I may end up doing that, but it seems I'll want insulation and a neater bottom than just the bare metal, so a floor seems imperative. An aside: I had read that the Government changed their import tariffs that motivated Ford to import Connects as passenger vans, and that Ford no longer did this. Below is a photo of the front matting that extends to the second row. This mat is under the deck. You can clearly see there are threaded holes with the paint gone, and scratch marks near the locator holes, so it is obvious this 2021 van, purchased new as a cargo van, once had a second row of seats. Does Ford just throw those second row seats away? Or perhaps they are shipped back to Europe to put into the next shipment of "cargo" vans. Back to the topic: Now that I've got that hole, I'm trying to figure out what to do next. My current thinking is to just install a floor on top of the lateral beam (the side-to-center pieces with multiple sets of three holes). I'm going to cut the mat further forward, to where the threaded, bolt hole is at the forward edge of the door opening, so I can secure a wood beam to those threaded bolt holes. I can bolt my new floors to the top of the lateral beam using the bolt holes for the second-row seat mounts. I think I need to add some blocks at the rear wall, either just on the floor or glued to the wall. I think the floor and wall are exterior under surfaces, so don't want to drill. I'll bend the current floor mat, which has about an inch of foam under it, down to cover the front-facing wall. My thought it that will help with noise and thermal insulation. Seems like glue will be the way to attach the matting. Hope it doesn't dissolve the foam under the matt. Speaking of insulation, I'm going to want some insulation under the new floor boards. Was considering using spray foam but I understand that stuff needs air to cure and it doesn't seem like it will get much air down in that pan with a wood floor over it. I guess I can just stuff the cavity with fiberglass, building insulation. Would you consider using sawdust? Custom cut the jig-saw style foam flooring? Any recommendations?

I don't know what I would buy to replace the Transit Connect with. For me, the Transit Connect was a low cost option to replace an Explorer. It moves people. 7 passenger seating. I won't be able to do that with a small pickup. Or even a large pickup. I'm cringing at the thought of spending twice the money for a larger van or sports utility vehicle. An all-wheel-drive Transit is coming to the market. It will cost 3 times what I paid for the Transit Connect, and be much larger and harder to park. Only people in large cities understand trying to find parking on the street, only for the parking space to be too small to squeeze into. Ford's CEO has a very strong dislike for dealerships overcharging the customers with add-ons, markups, and price gouging. He has publicly stated that he wants to change the sales structure to a flat price model. People are also pricing cars online and buying cars from Costco. The last time that I bought a car, you had to haggle like it was a third world country bazaar. I've always paid less than MSRP out the door. Maybe things are done differently now that 3's Company is off the air. A local dealership advertises that they do not mark-up their cars. Their ad on television says that no customer pays over MSRP. I haven't bought a car from them, so I don't know.

Part 3. The following minor work had to be done: Remove tape, reattach wiring clips, reinstall door trim. The outer tag light didn't want to work, but the wiring and bulb were fine, so I bent the pins a bit tighter and it came back on. Installed a rear-view mirror. The basic one on Amazon doesn't come with glue, so that was $7.50 at Advance Auto. Back glass is still firmly in place and shows no leaks after the big storm last night. So, aside from minor improvements I might come up with in the future to make the trim look better, I'd say the project is done: Visibility is obviously infinitely better. Gonna take the van on the highway tomorrow and check everything out in action. Final project cost was ~$265, plus a handful of consumables I already had in the shop. If anybody has any questions, additions, or comes up with a line or has anything else to contribute on the sliding door windows with sliders for the 1st-gens, feel free to ping me. If I do something for visibility on the left slider, be it fixed glass, sliding glass, or a camera, I'll update this again. Thanks!

You would have to reprogram the ECU using Ford IDS (dealership) or Forscan (free software). It's probably easier to find the bad switch that is triggering the alarm