We had been debating how to bridge the large opening in the wall. As you can see, there is structure above, below, and on the sides, but the middle has nothing to use for attachment points. The van wall curves up there and as our bed posts are fairly high, they push into the curve a little so we needed a solution that didn’t take up much space. Above the bed we will eventually put in side cabinets so we don’t need anything fancy.
I forgot to take any good before photo, but here is an earlier picture showing the gap – the large black space in the back.
People do all kinds of different things, which usually involve some sort of wooden furring strip(s) running horizontally or vertically. Today we finally set to figuring out how we would solve it. The goal for us was to do something as rigid as possible while not taking up much space.
The gap is just over 8′ wide so most conventional lumber won’t fit. We did pick up a 1″x4″x10′ board to test. A 1″ board is actually 3/4″ wide so it would push that much into the bed. It might have worked, but we weren’t convinced. It also would not have left much room for any type of wall.
I also picked up two lengths of 1″x1″ L-angle aluminum stock. I thought that by joining the two pieces together it would make some pretty rigid, but it was still surprisingly floppy.
While we looked at the aluminum I also noticed some slotted angle iron – the kind with all the holes and slots in it. It is fairly heavy, but rigid and strong. We could only get 6′ lengths, but I figured that it was strong enough that it would not flex much, so that is what we went with. It only took 3.25 trips to the hardware store to get everything we needed (one trip we left the store, but before I actually put the van in gear I realized we needed some more hardware).
As it is steel and I don’t want it to rust, we painted it with some self-etching primer/paint. It was really cold in the garage so we needed to paint in the warm van. I don’t know how many brain cells I had left, but I have even fewer now. Wowie did we get high!
Painting the angle iron.
Drying while we got high.
The angle can only go through the gap because we don’t it to stick out so it has to be flat where it gets bolted to the side of the van. A little angle grinder makes quick work of the … angle.
Bolting the two lengths together. They overlap about 1.5′.
As I might have mentioned somewhere, everything gets one more layer of insulation before the actual walls, so we also finished putting in plus-nuts into all the holes in the van we want to later bolt. Plus nuts are just a cool expanding metal device that fills a hole with a nut so you can bolt things to the van without creating a new hole. With that done Sara cut the reflectix to fit.
Now the problem is that all the plus-nuts we installed will be hidden behind the insulation. One of the other blogs we follow provided the solution to that problem – hanger bolts. Hanger bolts are bolts on one end and screws on the other. We put the bolt end into the plus-nut and the pointy screw end then sticks out. Align the reflectix where you want and then push – the screws pop right through and you now know where your nut is on the other side.
Here is the strap installed over the whole gap. You can see some of the hanger bolts sticking through the reflectix.
But wait, there’s more!
We also got stuck for the first time today! It snowed about 6″ last night and my parents’ driveway was super slick. When we backed out and turned onto the gravel road, we could not go forward. Every time I tried to move the back end just slid – dangerously close to a large hill/cliff.* We walked back up to the house trying to figure out what to use for traction. We ended with a metal floor mat and some old wire fencing. We piled those things up under the rear tires and it was just enough traction to straighten out and drive the rest of the way down the driveway. Tonight we ordered the tire chains we were planning to get as well as Tow Truck in a Box. For some strange reason you can get them at Menard’s for ridiculously cheap. If these don’t cut it, we’ll have to go with studded tires. Remember, they don’t salt the roads out here like New England – driving on ice is a regular activity here!
*I have a relationship with this hill/cliff. When I was a kid it was just grass in the middle – no trees except on the sides.
It is roughly 50 high total – a steep hill that ends in a 4′-8′ retaining wall. Our driveway used to come straight at the hill and then turn right at the top (that would be right to left in the picture above). When I was three years old I started at our garage and rode my big wheel as fast as I could. I rode down the hill and off the cliff onto the gravel road below. (I still believed I landed it clean and only crashed when I tried to power slide to a stop. I will admit that is unlikely.) That was probably my first concussion, but amazingly after many hours at the hospital having gravel picked out of my face I was pretty much okay.
Apparently not content with riding my Big Wheel off the hill, I was driving to high school one morning and fiddling with the radio. I didn’t quite make the whole turn and drove my parents’ Toyota van off the edge. Fortunately I was mostly around the corner (moving right to left in the photo) and the small trees caught the bumper and a bit of the driver door (Toyota van had no front end to speak of) and stopped me from rolling down the hill. The van was leaning close to 45 deg. and being held by small, wiry plum trees. I very gingerly climbed out the passenger window without setting it all loose. Our local tow-truck guy was pretty impressed, my mother not so much. He managed to pull the van back up to the driveway without losing it so no big deal. It’s all good.