Today’s to-do list was a mix of miscellaneous tasks including sewing on a steering wheel cover, tinting the windows, fixing the passenger seatbelt, and plastidipping the grille. We’re anxiously awaiting the solar panel kit’s arrival tomorrow so we can dive into our next big project: the electrical system.
Window Tint
Austin has applied window tint before on his cars, and he’s also paid to have it done. In the case of the van, we decided we wanted to try a DIY installation. The ceramic tint for the two front windows cost us about $48 on Amazon. A professional installation, by comparison, would cost about $250.
We used 35% tint because that will still block a lot of the UV rays (and radiant heat) and keep it cooler in the cab while being road legal in most places, and light enough to see out the window at night. Austin’s DIY install saved us about $200! We plan to tint the windows we just installed in the back with 5% (darker than 35%) tint in the future.
Steering Wheel Cover
The steering wheel on our van was in pretty bad shape. All of the leather was damaged or completely rubbed flat, so the dealership put an ugly (and incorrectly sized) steering wheel cover on it that slid all over the place when you were trying to turn the wheel. We ordered a sew-on leather steering wheel cover, and Austin sewed it on today. It literally looks like the stock steering wheel, you can hardly tell that it wasn’t made for the van!
Fix Seatbelt
The passenger seatbelt wasn’t retracting properly so Austin took it apart to see what was wrong. It turns out that there was a piece of plastic inside the seatbelt reel that was causing the seatbelt to rub against the housing and not retract properly. Once he removed that piece of plastic, it worked pretty well. The spring is worn out so the seatbelt still doesn’t retract fully on its own, but it works better than it did before.
Plastidip Grille
Earlier Austin had peeled the old plastidip off of the grille because it was missing a large section. We decided we wanted to re-paint it black because the rest of our badges and rims are black and we thought that looked pretty cool. So he took the grille off, masked it out, and sprayed it with Plastidip.
Buying a Mattress Topper
We just got our new 5″ mattress and tried sleeping on it for the first time last night. To be honest, we both found it to be a little too firm for side-sleeping. So we decided we’d get a mattress topper to make it more comfy. Austin found a $95 3″ mattress topper at Walmart that apparently has “cooling” technology. We picked it up and will be giving it a try tonight.
Apply for PNC Cash Rewards Credit Card
A few days ago, Austin applied for and got the PNC Cash Rewards Credit Card, which is part of our credit card strategy to save money on gas while we’re traveling. This card gives 4% back on gas up to $8,000 in purchases, so we’ll be using it as our gas card while we travel.
9/13/2020
Build Day #15
Hours Worked: 9
- Austin – 9
- Total Project Hours: 177
Money Spent: $128
- Heat Gun (Home Depot) – $20
- Mattress Topper (Walmart) – $95
- Squeegee (Walmart) – $7
- 6 microfiber towels (Walmart) – $6
- Total Project Spending: $18,512
Tasks Complete: 4
- Tint windows
- Sew new steering wheel cover
- Fix seatbelt
- Plastidip grille
Questions Googled: 0
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