Today we worked on getting the driver’s side rear wall installed. With the bed off things were easier so we did not cut the wall into two pieces. It still required quite a bit of in/out of the van because we had to make a few cuts and line up holes multiple times. This kind of work also inevitably leads to some minor problems – in this case we had some plus-nuts that were messed up in some fashion so we had to add some new holes as well. It is never particularly difficult, but what should take an hour or so ends up taking 2 or 3 hours. Sara also cut the reflectix so we have the whole thing insulated as soon as the wall is ready for a final fitting.
Sara also started putting polyurethane and/or stain on both of the walls. A camper van is not exactly the driest atmosphere and we want to make sure none of the wooden panels absorb moisture and rot/mold/mildew/etc. On my Ace trip today I picked up some additional bolts called truss bolts – essentially round-head bolts but they have extra large, shallow heads so I think they will work well for bolting on the wall. Normally I try to counter-sink any bolts, but the walls are only 1/4″ baltic birch plywood so there is no depth in which to counter-sink a bolt. These have plenty of surface area to hold the wood but they also sit fairly flush to the wall. They are sure a lot shallower than a normal bolt/washer combo. I randomly found them one day while looking at things in the hardware department at Ace. It is really amazing what all those little drawers hold!
We also rewired two of the factor LED cargo lights. As with any vehicle, lots of lights go on when you open the door. We don’t necessarily want that! Most of the lights are too bright and would be covered anyway once we are done covering the walls, but we do think it would be handy to have some light when we open the back door as that area will not be near any other lights. Our solution was to rewire the factory rear van lights to go under the bed.
This is a look back at how the lights were originally installed in the arch above the rear door.
We had previously popped the lights out of the back wall and they have just been hanging on the wires. We cut those wires and added about 10′ of wire so we could run them down the pillars on either side of the rear door, out a little access hole and up the rear bed posts. At some point we will figure out a nice way to attach them to the post. This will give us light in the storage area under the bed whenever we open the door courtesy of the van electrical system. I suppose it will also be a good indicator if a door is not completely closed.
Splicing our new wire to the original wire.
Taping up the wire that will run down the wall. We put friction tape on the entire length.
Sara did some crimping, too. Here she is about ready to plug in her light. We just kept the stock connectors and added them back in to the end of the new wire so they fit right back on the OEM lights.
The faint red lines show the path from where the lights were to were they are now. They actually run along the wire harness to the corner, then down the wall to the bottom, into the pillar at the back, and out a hole next to the bed post. The wire whole fan wire harness will be reattached to the walls once everything is built up around it.
