White 1999 Dodge Ram van with open side door in a parking garage at night

Do you know what a Dajiban is? In Japan, racers started the tradition of buying these specific vans to haul vehicles, motorcycles and parts. In time, they began a series of track days using the vans themselves! Dajiban is a shortening of "Dodge Van." It's a whole thing.

This is the van as I bought it! It was a totally blank slate. It's a 1999 Dodge Ram Van 1500 with the V6. It was owned by a detailing company and it was VERY clean inside and in mechanically great shape.

Clean Dodge van dashboard and steering wheel at night

Like I said very clean inside.

Bare metal cargo floor inside the Dodge van before the build
Styrofoam insulation boards laid on the van cargo floor Plywood subfloor installed in the Dodge van cargo area

Next came an insulated floor and subflooring plywood.

Laminate flooring being installed over plywood in the van

Then of course, some nice flooring I found on Facebook. Marketplace is a great place to find leftover flooring and other building materials!

Wooden bed frame with storage underneath inside the Dodge van

I built this bed frame that fits a full mattress and both slides out and lifts up for access to storage underneath. I highly recommend this approach!

Solar panels mounted on the roof rack of the Dodge van

Next, I installed 780 watts of solar power. I sourced these house panels from a guy on Facebook Marketplace. I installed a MaxxAir fan and Starlink as well. I wanted to finish up the roof stuff before adding in the interior paneling to hide all the wires.

Baltic birch plywood interior panels installed in the Dodge van

I used baltic birch plywood for the interior panels, finished with beeswax. The corner contour is done with sound-deadening panels from Lowe's. I cut out little cubbies to use each of the doors for additional storage.