Photos of my van conversion - Part II
Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 10:59 amI actually finished all major construction on the van... [drum roll, please] yesterday, August 16, 2013. I started the project on or about October 1 of last year. There are still bits and pieces that need finish work, but I will get to these as time permits. Today I will cut the foam for the mattresses/beds, and then get out the sewing machine to make the bed coverings and pillows and whatever else.
Should be a fun-filled day using a barely functional sewing machine. I can't wait.
Planning/hoping to attend the West Coast GTG on September 21.
Uhm [clearing throat] anyway, I am getting ahead of myself here. Back to my story:
This is how most of my days started: a 4 x 8 styrofoam panel laid out on my garage floor that needed to be measured, then measured again, then measured a third time, then cut (my measurements were nearly always wrong, even after three tries - but I got better with the tape measure as time went on). Styrofoam "crumbs" flying everywhere - I always wore a mask and goggles. And discovered the benefits of foam knee pads right quick.
Here is a photo showing how the ribs of the van are (were) hollow. In doing the conversion, everything I read said that one needed to fill every little nook and cranny with insulation. How to get insulation into the ribs?
Styrofoam beads (think bean bag chair) of course! I am a genius!!
Or maybe not so much.
These beads come with a small static charge - so they went everywhere, and stuck to everything. Fingers, hair, clothes. . . when I say everything, I mean everything. EXCEPT it was almost impossible to get them into the holes in the ribs. Oh, no. They didn't want to go there.
Out the van, down the driveway, and around the block. Think windy day. . . That oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico ain't got nuthin' on me.
What to do? After two days or so of trying to fill up the ribs with the beads (16 hours or so wasted), pretty much without success, a light dawned. I needed a special tool! I put on my thinking cap, and this is what I came up with:
Quit snickering. It isn't what you might think. What this is is a tube of hard plastic held closed with duct tape. I looked around in my wood pile for just the right stick, and voila! It works kind of like a miniature (very miniature!) hydraulic ram. Withdraw the stick almost to the end, but leaving the stick in the end of the tube to block the end. Fill tube with styrofoam beads. Insert tube into hole in van ribs. Push stick through plastic tube, beads (mostly) go into rib. Repeat. Starting at the bottom and filling to the first hole, then sealing that hole (or the beads would just leak out again), then going to the next hole above it. Etc. Still very slow, but it worked.
Here is a close-up of what I call the driver's-side header (unfortunately for me, there is also the passenger side header and the header over the rear doors). See all the holes and spaces? All of this needed to be filled with styrofoam beads, or small chunks of the styrofoam panels I was using. Every nook and cranny needed to be filled. Stuffed tight. It took days, which means weeks for me, because I could only work on the van on weekends.
You will also notice that I very carefully sealed all of the joinings of the styrofoam with duct tape. This took an entire weekend. BIG mistake, that. When I looked into the van a few days later to admire my handiwork and give myself a pat on the back, I was not happy to see that most of the duct tape had come unstuck and was hanging in strips. Who would have thought? So it all needed to be carefully removed (the bits that were still stuck would pull away with styrofoam).
What happened next is for Part III
To be continued. . . details at 11:00. . . or something. . .
Anne
Should be a fun-filled day using a barely functional sewing machine. I can't wait.
Planning/hoping to attend the West Coast GTG on September 21.
Uhm [clearing throat] anyway, I am getting ahead of myself here. Back to my story:
This is how most of my days started: a 4 x 8 styrofoam panel laid out on my garage floor that needed to be measured, then measured again, then measured a third time, then cut (my measurements were nearly always wrong, even after three tries - but I got better with the tape measure as time went on). Styrofoam "crumbs" flying everywhere - I always wore a mask and goggles. And discovered the benefits of foam knee pads right quick.
Here is a photo showing how the ribs of the van are (were) hollow. In doing the conversion, everything I read said that one needed to fill every little nook and cranny with insulation. How to get insulation into the ribs?
Styrofoam beads (think bean bag chair) of course! I am a genius!!
Or maybe not so much.
These beads come with a small static charge - so they went everywhere, and stuck to everything. Fingers, hair, clothes. . . when I say everything, I mean everything. EXCEPT it was almost impossible to get them into the holes in the ribs. Oh, no. They didn't want to go there.Out the van, down the driveway, and around the block. Think windy day. . . That oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico ain't got nuthin' on me.
What to do? After two days or so of trying to fill up the ribs with the beads (16 hours or so wasted), pretty much without success, a light dawned. I needed a special tool! I put on my thinking cap, and this is what I came up with:
Quit snickering. It isn't what you might think. What this is is a tube of hard plastic held closed with duct tape. I looked around in my wood pile for just the right stick, and voila! It works kind of like a miniature (very miniature!) hydraulic ram. Withdraw the stick almost to the end, but leaving the stick in the end of the tube to block the end. Fill tube with styrofoam beads. Insert tube into hole in van ribs. Push stick through plastic tube, beads (mostly) go into rib. Repeat. Starting at the bottom and filling to the first hole, then sealing that hole (or the beads would just leak out again), then going to the next hole above it. Etc. Still very slow, but it worked.
Here is a close-up of what I call the driver's-side header (unfortunately for me, there is also the passenger side header and the header over the rear doors). See all the holes and spaces? All of this needed to be filled with styrofoam beads, or small chunks of the styrofoam panels I was using. Every nook and cranny needed to be filled. Stuffed tight. It took days, which means weeks for me, because I could only work on the van on weekends.
You will also notice that I very carefully sealed all of the joinings of the styrofoam with duct tape. This took an entire weekend. BIG mistake, that. When I looked into the van a few days later to admire my handiwork and give myself a pat on the back, I was not happy to see that most of the duct tape had come unstuck and was hanging in strips. Who would have thought? So it all needed to be carefully removed (the bits that were still stuck would pull away with styrofoam).
What happened next is for Part III
To be continued. . . details at 11:00. . . or something. . .
Anne
