jrm223

As already mentioned, drop both parts of the headliner, since you have a passenger wagon. I'm one of the cargo guys, so I can't really help with what's needed for removing the back headliner. Each rail has 5 screws under the ceiling/roof to hold it on, I've marked their positions in red on the passenger side in this pic and left the Ford markings on the driver side: After you get the headliners down, you'll be able to see and remove the screws. There will be openings left behind in the roof, so you'll need to decide how you want to make sure they won't be leaking after you change to whatever other rails you may choose. And you don't have to do anything at all with the side curtain airbags, at least on the front seats. Again, my van is a cargo model, so I can't say what you'll find in regards to side curtain airbags in the second and/or third-row seating of a passenger wagon... But the front ones are mounted far enough outboard from the rail channels that you'll have plenty of space to swing a ratchet, haha.

I just looked through the interior pics I have of my 2015 gen-2 cargo van and I don't have anything resembling that in my van. Is yours a 1st generation TC? Passenger or cargo model?

I love the padded folding chair to undoubtedly primp himself in the mirror before "jumping into action", lmao. I wouldn't be too surprised if those plastic drawers have a mirror and probably even a comb & hair spray, at the least. Definitely looks like an FTC1 to me, too.

I don't have any photos of the caps or holes, but the little plastic caps have a couple of tabs that you can squeeze from underneath and then the cap just pops up out of the holes. Just make sure to squeeze them from inside to loosen them, I broke the first one attempting to remove it from above! I only removed four of them to put on a 'universal' type two-bar ladder rack, although my original plan was to install custom-bent/profiled L-track that I shaped to the roof a few years ago, but I've never gotten around to installing those. Figured a couple universal bars would be a lot quicker - and I installed them alone in maybe half-hour or so! There's really nothing "under those plastic caps", they have a built-in gasket to keep water out and then there's just open holes after you gently remove them, nothing too special. And the holes are not threaded, BTW. The front pair (where my first crossbar is) has small circular holes and I had to open them up a bit with the next bigger drill bit for the bolts to fit through, but the rest of the holes are slightly oblong/oval-shaped (front-back direction) & a bit larger because I didn't have to drill them for the bolts.

And yet they do, for many people. A little friction is all that's needed; the hinges use screws & nuts, so the tension can be adjusted quickly & easily.

Reflectix is radiant barrier and not actual insulation. Great for using on windows as removable covers, but not worth the time & money as wall insulation - especially when you see people put it directly against the sheet metal body, absolutely worthless! Radiant barrier needs at least about an inch of air gap between it and the outer sheathing (or vehicle body, in our cases). You would be much better off with closed-cell spray foam or - for low price, easy access for future maintenance and ease of use & install - the foam insulation boards at the hardware stores, cut down to fit where you need them. I need to get around to insulation and I'll be going the foam board route, although my van is like a Swiss Army knife for me, so I can't build a permanent camper in mine, lol.

I wouldn't expect the dealer to necessarily know anything super technical like that, lol. But once in a blue moon, you'll get a knowledgeable person. Several members here can't even successfully get their perimeter lights turned off at their dealerships and Ford provides specific instructions on how to do it; so there's not much excuse, yet the techs still can't figure it out. On the other hand, I've never heard of any Ford-provided info at all on permanent removal of passenger seat, for comparison. I wonder if your dealer sees a lot of fleet vans? There could be an upfitter nearby that is setting them up for businesses and may be able to help you out with info or something on what they do to remove the seat? My own van doesn't even have a manual shut-off for the passenger airbag, at least not that I've ever noticed. For testing purposes, you could shutoff the passenger airbag and then just disconnect all the plugs under the passenger seat to see what happens, simulating it's removal. For reference, when I was messing around with trying the Gen 1 resistors, the gauge cluster air bag light permanently stayed lit-up to indicate an error condition, plus some OBD codes were thrown, but no CEL that I can remember. I think I even tried it without any resistors, also as a test, and everything was the same.

And that's at only 31 MPH, essentially residential neighborhood speeds, lol.

From what I've seen discussed in the past, disabling part of the air bag system - such as the sensors (3 of 'em: occupant, distance from dash, seat belt) & side air bag in that passenger seat - will disable the entire air bag system, leaving you as the driver vulnerable to full force of impacts in an accident. Here in the forum, there is some old info on removing the seat and putting in some certain resistors to mimic the seat still being there, but that info only works for gen 1 TC (up to 2013 model year). I tried it in my 2015 and it didn't work correctly; I haven't gotten around to using an ohm-meter on the seat connections to see what values are needed for our gen 2 TC's. But that would still only give the ohms required, not the info like 1/4W resistor, 1/2W, etc. If your passenger seat folds down (release on left shoulder of the seat) like my '15 & Kevin's '18, I'd probably recommend doing that until dummy resistors can be figured out to bypass the seat without disabling the whole air bag system. I can't imagine that FoMoCo would drop that feature for 2020 and my '15 is a dealer-lot XL (options added power windows/locks only), so it should be a standard feature instead of optional.

I remember hearing way back that a 1lb can of whatever (soup, beans, etc) flying forward, unsecured, in a crash from 55mph will have something like 70lbs of localized impact force (good ole momentum!) when it meets the back of your head after an accident. Take a 70lb soup-can-sledge-hammer hit to the back of your head and it'll be closed casket, lol. It's been a couple decades since I heard the numbers, so I may not remember them exactly correct, but it's still a lot of force. If we have a physics whiz, they could crunch the numbers and figure out the exact impact force. I've seen the damage that a half-full cooler does to a back seat in a 1995 Saturn coupe, the seatback was heavily curved after the accident. It was my own, so I wasn't seeing aftermath of someone else's accident, lol. Even better, my genius ex-gf (dating at the time) had one leg up on the door with the window down, well her foot hit the side mirror with enough force to send the mirror flying like 40+ft away from the car. Her other leg was on top of the dash; needless to say, the air bag bruises on the back of her legs lasted for a good year afterwards before they completely disappeared finally. She had said she's learned her lesson about keeping her feet on the floor where they belong.

Sounds like it may be programmed as a fleet vehicle to not unlock the back with the "regular" unlock button on the remote. I don't know what the gen-1 remote/key looks like, but gen-2 has two unlock buttons on it - one regular button and one rear-doors button. A lot of fleets will have the rear doors programmed for the second button only so the driver doesn't accidentally unlock the rear and potentially have theft of product from unknowingly leaving it unlocked. The good news is that this can easily be programmed in a few minutes of time - once you have the right equipment - using ForScan (search the forum, tons of posts already about the software) so the rear doors will unlock with the normal button on the remote like non-fleet vehicles. I believe that will probably be found under BodyCM (As Built) module when you have the ForScan software and an OBDII adapter module, which plugs into the port under the dash.

I suspect that you'll be receiving requests from members to do this as a service, haha.

I'm thinking the door module, too. Although, my van will chime at certain times when the key is still in the ignition, but not always. For example, I can open the door and it won't make a sound, but if the door is half-latched (say, I didn't push hard enough to close it all the way), then it will start beeping at me. My radio also quit staying on after turning off the ignition, but it's easy to turn it back on for an hour after turning off the key. There is no "door switch" the old way most of us are used to them, though. It's now part of the latch assembly (which runs through the door module), rather than being a separate plunger switch in the door frame.

Going into your van or removed from it? Lol. I am in Texas, too, Jack County. The Chevy 3rd-row seats are all right about 48" from what I have found. Which makes sense, since it needs to fit between the wheelwells of the SUV's.

I hadn't even considered delivery, TBH. I may look into that from a materials total cost perspective (local picked-up $ vs HD delivered $), but I already have the rack now, so it's a moot point overall.

Most RV's have 1/8"-1/4" Luan under the rubber roof from the factory. When I was saying plywood before, it certainly could be Luan/Lauan instead of "regular" plywood, depends what my local store actually carries and I haven't talked to them, yet. Right now, there's way too much rain happening for me to be tearing off the roof for replacement, even with my plan to do it one sheet at a time - pull a section off, cut & fit the replacement, move on to the next one. And it'll be directly coated with an elastomeric coating instead of buying EPDM rubber garbage.

@collinjx that's a pretty sweet setup - and with "limousine" amounts of legroom, holy cow. I've been looking at Suburban seats lately, too. I have one that I'm going to try to buy soon that's a 50/50 split with cupholders & small storage pockets in the middle. BTW, I'm including your pic below here so it displays correctly for other people (I'm in IT, so I noticed ".jpg" was missing, lol). Funny thing is that I found an ad for the same seat you used for like $45, but I'll spend a little extra on the black 50/50 seat (guy is asking $100 obo). I can't find anybody parting out a gen 2 TC wagon anywhere close to me, so OEM stuff isn't much of an option and I would rather have the built-in seatbelts, anyway. Here's the seat that I'm fixin' to buy for my "crew cab" conversion (it's an actual option package from Ford on the big Transits, 4-5 seater with cargo room in back), I think it should even match my TC seat color pretty closely. I know my mom & grandma will be happy when I can take both of them someplace at the same time during my vacation visits! Hahaha And here is the pic of Collinjx setup/conversion, leg room for days:

Idk, this guy may have Slamsit beat for custom one-off's. Rear ladder, roof rack, sliders, aluminum strut spacers with Escape 4x4 struts, interior ceiling storage rack, just to name a few. Kenny Transit Connect Overlander on IG, of course it's also "offroad" build vs street builld, lol. Those seats look awesome. I'd love to get something more comfortable in mine, but I have to deal with the in-seat air bags complicating matters. Removing/disconnecting them supposedly disables the entire air bag system.

No it didn't, $112.99 rounds up to $113 because it's one penny short. I'll never understand how or why people round DOWN from 99 cents, $112 won't pay for it even before taxes. @sKiZo, I have plenty of different stuff laying around I could use up on top to add more support, but I'm figuring that just a couple 2x4's underneath the plywood will be all the support that I need and I have several of them laying around. But a couple of permanent supports may be a future upgrade, especially if I ever "camperize" the van and add solar between the racks - drop the panels down a bit so I can still carry stuff and the frame for them could also be made to support sheet material. Obviously they wouldn't charge during the occasions when I need to carry plywood or foam insulation panels, but that will be sporadic anyway. I may just go ahead and build some bolt-on angle iron supports now so they can still be repositioned if/when I add solar someday - I do have plenty of extra bolts, washers & nuts from the universal rack. For the camper roof project, I'll only need 8 plywood sheets, and I may end up splitting them in two purchases so I'm minimizing the amount of weight up top. It looks like 1/4" is around 20 lbs/sheet, and Ford says the roof can hold 220lbs, so 9-10 sheets including some supports underneath & the rack itself - I could get them all in one shot, afterall. And at least it's only about 15 miles from Ace/Buchanan Building Supply to my property, too. The closest two Home Depots are each an hour away from me, so I probably won't be getting my supplies there.

So, I finally got around to putting on a universal ladder rack. I have several home repair projects coming up real soon (like reroofing that damn camper behind the van...) that will require borrowed ladders plus sheet goods including plywood, so I needed a quick & cheap way to carry the stuff around. I came across this rack for $113 currently (Amazon link) and the package arrived yesterday, so I didn't waste any time on install since my area is supposed to have rain every day for at least the next week - also great for double-checking that it's not leaking! Lol I decided to use the front-most & rear-most factory holes, rather than drilling my own. The front pair of holes did need to be opened up slightly to 5/16" to easily fit the 8mm bolts. Those pairs of holes ended up putting the bars at 81", or 6'9", from the leading edge of the front one to the trailing edge of the rear one (ie. 81" includes their own depth). For 8ft goods, that will only leave roughly 7.5" overhang on each end, but it will provide better support when I'm carrying 10ft & 12ft long stuff like the pallet rack I'll be bringing home soon. Definitely need to organize the junk in my garage so I can actually get to work on my projects! And anything longer than 12ft will need to go on that boat trailer in the second pic, after I convert it into a hauler. These are advertised as being 62" inside the uprights, so I'd say 64-65" wide overall, but I didn't measure the total width. It shouldn't actually be a problem, anyway - like a head knocker - since they're over 6ft off the ground and I'm 6ft tall. As shown in the Amazon ad, they did come with brackets to put in the middle for holding ladders to prevent sideways movement, but I left them off for my use with sheet goods & random long stuff. The spoiler or "wind deflector" on the front one works pretty well, too; I really didn't notice any new wind noise driving into work this morning. Noise is a common complaint that I see with a lot of low-budget racks. Obviously I haven't used it yet, but it seems well built and I don't anticipate having any trouble, so I'd recommend these for anyone that wants to stick to a low budget just for personal use and needs to haul bulky stuff with their little van. A lot of "professional-brand" used racks around me cost more than this brand new delivered one.

Most of the stuff on that van is custom one-off fabrication for that build - the aluminum strut spacers, bumper guard, roof rack, sliders, rear ladder, interior ceiling rack, etc etc. Per his comments in IG, only the front was lifted, too.

Your Windstar wheels are supposed to have these hubcaps, not 63mm center caps. @G B L, unit-bearing hubs are not "serviceable" items for generally any vehicle that uses them; whether it's studs, sensors or the bearings, they're meant to be replaced as a whole unit. So nobody will have "Transit Connect press-in lug studs" in their computer system. It would be up to the vehicle owner to measure all the important aspects of the stud and then find appropriate lug studs with matching measurements (aside from longer length) "advertised" for some other vehicle, instead.

That's not the blood of Smurf's he ran over? Lol Those look pretty good on the white van.

No, it's more like "automotive enthusiast community created" (via a group of beta developers & programmers) software because no - zero - "hacking" of any other program was done to create FORScan. Just because something is not made by a "company" doesn't make it "hacked".

On the American-bound Connects, the cargo vans have a false floor put in over the footwell, so the floor is flat and one-level all the way back (no "crew cab" option available in the US except in full-size Transits). Incidentally, the bulkheads we have available screw into that false floor, so you would probably need to do some extra fabrication to put in a standard bulkhead. I wouldn't bother covering up the footwell since it's usable space; instead, I'd make some sort of bracket/mount so the bulkhead has something strong to mount to along the bottom. Something like a 30mm square steel tube cut & welded to match the profile around the front seats would probably do fine, with mounting plates welded to the two ends to bolt it to the B-pillars next to the front seats and potentially even a couple vertical supports going to the floor near the middle.