Bulkhead Insulation
Today we insulated the bulkhead with the EPS foam board we scored for cheap at the Habitat ReStore yesterday. We used the score & snap (TM 😉) method of slicing then bending the insulation until it broke along the line that we scored.
There were SO many screws and bolts to remove the painted plywood from the welded steel frame that makes up the bulkhead. We just had to pull the plywood forward to insulate behind it, because we had secured the bottom with the floor framing previously. Luckily the plywood was very thin and flexible, so this wasn’t a problem.
Austin also took the bulkhead door off completely to insulate it. The bulkhead door was bulky and awkward to move because it weighed about 60 pounds and was too tall to carry vertically past the ribs in the ceiling. Getting it out and back in was quite the adventure!
Then he painted the door with a can of primer and a can of gloss white spray paint. We didn’t paint the rest of the bulkhead because it will likely be clad with wood to match the walls. We plan to cover the bulkhead door with stickers from each of the national parks and other places we travel!
Trying to put the door back on the sliders ended up being more complicated than we expected. The screws are self-tapping metal screws, which aren’t great at going through more than one layer of metal. Since the bulkhead was made from box tubing and the screws couldn’t make it through the second layer, we couldn’t tighten them down to secure the door rails properly. So we cut them with bolt cutters and reinstalled them tightly.
Unfortunately, doing so tightened down the door slide rail, which meant that there was no longer any play in it where it could move to accommodate the movement of the door. This meant that the door was sticking and we had to adjust the placement of the rails in relation to each other to make the door slide normally again. After a little trial and error, Austin fixed this and our door glides well. We took a short ride in the van and noticed that the insulation does a little bit to reduce the noise from the back of the van as well!
Tint Windshield
You don’t want to tint your whole windshield, or you’ll have a lot of trouble seeing (and therefore driving) at night. However, it is SUPER nice to have a strip of dark 5% tint along the top 6″ of the windshield for when you’re driving toward the sun. This is called the “eyebrow”. A lot of people think this kind of tint is cosmetic, but it makes a big difference for fatigue over long drives especially if you’re driving east in the morning or west in the evening.
The tint wasn’t quite long enough for our huge windshield, so we will patch that spot with leftover 5% tint from when we tint the back windows.
Seal Trim Pieces
The black trim pieces are connected to the body of the van with plastic trim clips that are inserted into holes that are drilled directly through the metal of the car. This means these holes provide direct access to the inside of the van. This set up is designed to allow water in and allow water out, which works fine when the back of the cargo van is an open space. But if you have insulation there it’s going to absorb the water and become a moldy mess. So Austin popped out the trim clips he could pop out, filled the holes with silicone sealant, and pushed the tabs back in. He also cut some pieces of polycarbonate and sealed the larger vent holes.
Window & Solar Issue Resolution
As I mentioned yesterday, we had some issues with both our window and solar shipments. Austin reached out to RecPro, the seller, to see if they could send us a new latch to replace the latch that came broken. The wording of the customer service agent was unclear, so we’re not sure if we’re getting a window or a latch, but they’ll send us something and we’ll replace what we need to. With this in mind, we plan to move forward on installing the windows tomorrow.
I reached out to Renogy and sent them photos of my whole order, explaining that the 3 boxes I received didn’t even have room to contain the missing components of our Solar Starter Kit. They agreed that they would ship out the missing pieces. We hope to install the solar next week, so I asked if they could expedite that shipment. So far I’ve received no response, and I don’t anticipate getting one, so I’ll call them tomorrow to see if they can expedite.
9/20/2020
Build Day #22
Hours Worked: 9
- Austin – 8
- Becky – 1
- Total Project Hours: 234
Money Spent: $0
- Total Project Spending: $19,666
Tasks Complete: 3
- Insulate Bulkhead & Door
- Tint Windshield
- Seal trim pieces
Questions Googled: 0
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