Melton Mowbray

Trip to see family and show off the van
Mpg ave 40.9 not bad , haven't quite done 1K yet.
Comfortable quiet and back to being able to see over the hedges again!

Front B to C posts done

Just the back to do!

I can see why people use the carpet to line vans!

The faux suede is a pain! Ha Ha

Nearside Doorframe covered

Decided to make a start on the roof sub frame and B post nearside lining.
The suede is a bit if a pain as you have to be very careful to press the cloth to the frame not using your fingers! If not careful you'll find that the glue soaks into the cloth and leaves small indents!

Anyway had to pull the B post plastic covers away and undo top seatbelt bolt.

And then rescue one of the hidden fitting studs from the depths of the post!!!

I had a few pieces of the suede left over and luckily there was enough to cover the B post.

I first did the sub frame which is a bit of a tricky shape by the B post and as the suede DOES fray!! Needed to put a 5mm hem where it joins the upper bed carpet. We were going to hem it ( stitch) but had a play with a couple of left over remnants. And if you protect the cloth and spray carefully it was fairly easy to fold the small hem over and stick it down. Key here is carefully and slowly giving the glue about a minute before folding. Worked well.
So removed the door rubber enough to work the cloth.
Stuck the hemmed edge to the side of the subframe first let it set before smoothing it down along the length whilst doing the shaped end by B post.
Then glued the rest down and replaced the door rubber at the top. Best way to do this as you want it to trap the cloth as well is replace it by pushing it from inside at an angle that allows it to open slightly under pressure which allows it to overlap the new suede.  Works fine
I then did the B post easy job this time found that gluing the frame from the door rubber lip inwards worked fine.
Put all back together was fine.

To get around the LED lights as they are wired into the sub frame. Was to remove the " bulb" then remove the light frame ( two screws) then cut the cloth in straight line just smaller than the frame and push it though. Then mark the screw holes before then stick the cloth. Just a case of rethread the wires back into the frame and screw back onto the cloth.

Insulated

Both sliders and rear hatch now insulated with Dacron.

De Badged !

Plastic scrapper
Hot airgun
White spirit
Colour T cut
Hi Gloss car wax

Took about an hour to remove ,wash and wax

We have mains electrickery!

Nothing runs off it mind lol!
At the moment any way , I will probably get the Waeco mains adapter for when we are parked up on holidays . But this is as complicated as my 12 & 240 volt set up will get. The solar panel gauge show volts in and out and the leisure Battery is directly wired to the solar panel. That will always keep it reasonably charged ( 140amp panel) 7 LED lights are also wired directly to solar panel when all on it shows a load of just 0.1 amps.
When we had zig units and gauges everywhere only time I took any notice was when something went wrong!
We've never used all power up on the leisure Battery even on 80's tech !
Don't go on holiday to watch TV even in this country so as long as the fridge works .............

Fridge

Got a good deal on the new CRX 60 Waeco, the extra 10 Ltr capacity is in the depth. Which means the offside cabinets will need to be 60cm deep to allow the air gap etc. I'm fitting it over the wheel arch when I build the cabinets.

So decided I'd temp wire it today, at full throttle it's not that noisy you'd hear it at night when on but the new built in fan is quiet .

We will probably go down to Cornwall in September for a week so will take the fridge (strapped to the rear seat frame for travelling!) And slum it in our posh new van ha ha!