More Van Work and Heading for the Cabin.

 

Van work

I have been finishing up the work on the van in preparation for the Nevada trip.

For the last 6 or 7 years I have hardly spent any time working on the van. Every spring I would load it up with tools and take it up to the cabin and leave it parked there until the fall when I would bring I home for the winter.
A few yes ago the headliner of the cockpit had come unglued and a mouse had made a nest up there. I pulled it all down and used a wire wheel on a drill to take all the old glue and rust off the roof.
That was as far as I took it.
I promptly forgot about the overhead.

The other day while was finishing up the work on the CB installation I happened to look up and noticed that there was no headliner in the front of the van and the roof was covered with a thin layer of rust. This is not a good thing for several reasons; the cockpit will be extra hot with no headliner, it will be very noisy and when I am sleeping and cooking in the van moisture will condense on the metal of the roof and it will rain all over the front seats.

Preparing the Ceiling

I got out my new Makita cordless drill put a wire brush on it and went to work on the ceiling. Once I got all the loose rust off I painted the ceiling.

Buying Parts

I went to the local big box store and bought a couple of pieces of carpeting 24”X 60“.
I figured that it would be easier to glue two small pieces on the ceiling than one big one.
I also bought 2 cans of spray on contact cement.

Putting up the Headliner

I sprayed the entire ceiling with the glue. Then I sprayed the back of one of the pieces of carpet. It was a little tricky getting the carpet in place but eventually I got it. I screwed up one corner and it ended up with some creases here and there but it stuck to the roof.

The next thing was to trim the next piece to size. Then I sprayed the back of the carpet with glue.
By now the outside temp was nearing 90° And I needed a break.
After my break I installed the last piece of the carpet. I thought it went quite well with far less wrinkles.

A Little problem

I thought I was finally finished with the van work so I cleaned everything up and closed the shop.
Later that evening we were going out for diner because it was to hot to cook. I looked over at the van as we were getting into Patti’s car and saw that the last piece of carpet that I glued up had come down. Apparently I had let the glue dry to long before I put the carpet up and it didn’t stick. I’ll have to try it again but not until next week.

Going to the Cabin

Today we are going up to the cabin for the weekend. Patti has PT around 10:30 and we will leave after that.

Talk to you later.