I’ve spent a lot of time over the past couple of weeks working on the van. None of the projects have been very fun or exciting, but they’re all things that needed to be done.

Before moving forward with installing my interior, I had to deal with the current state of the van’s floor and walls… which wasn’t good. This van was previously used as a work/delivery vehicle, and the interior of the van shows it. All of the walls had big scratches, and the floor was a combination of surface rust, some sort of spray-in floor liner which was rotten and gross, and dirt. Before I could move forward with anything else, the inside of the van needed a fresh start.

Cleaning the floor has been a chore. I’ve sprayed the interior of the van out multiple times with a power washer. I’ve also spent a lot of time on my hands and knees with a grinder, removing as much surface rust as I could. In some areas it was difficult to determine if I was looking at dirt, rust, spray on liner, or something else, but the grinder deals with all of them the same way.

Mentally, for some reason I hadn’t really put much thought into, I thought the van needed to look new before work could begin. Maybe it’s because I’ve watched so many #vanlife videos on YouTube. So many of those projects begin with brand new $50k-$100k vans (more more) right off the showroom floor. I’ve started with a 15-year-old van that no one would mistake for new.

While discussing my frustration with all the repairs my van needs, my wife mentioned to me, “you know, perfect is the enemy of good.”

Perfect is the enemy of good.

I’ve heard this saying before but never given it much thought, and especially not how it applies to my van. It is so easy to get caught up in making things perfect that you tend to forget things really only need to be good. The term “good enough” has some negative connotation, but if you take it literally, that’s what I need to do. The floors and walls in this van don’t need to be perfect; they just need to be good. Good enough, even.

With that in mind, I attacked the van with refreshed vigor. The picture at the top of this page shows a before/after glimpse into the van. On the left half of the picture you can see the inside of the sliding door. All the walls were in the same condition, covered in rusty scrapes and scratches. On the right of that picture you can see what the walls look like after being cleaned and receiving a coat of Rust-Oleum primer followed by another coat of Rust-Oleum glossy white paint. It’s far from perfect, but for my purpose, it’s good enough.

Due to weather and work it’s taken more time than I had hoped, but I’ve finished the walls and am almost done with the floor. The pictures look better than it does close up. There are more than a couple of paint runs and rough patches, but almost all of this is going to be covered up by other material, and hopefully the treatment I did to the floor will prevent any rust I found from returning.

I’ve got to stop comparing the quality of my work to the stuff I see on television and the vans I see that were professionally converted. The bar has been lowered and I am no longer shooting for perfection. Now, I’ve set my sights on “good.”