Taking a break.

We gave ourselves a weekend off from playing with our toys and did some culture instead...

that's if you consider, as we did, spending a soggy Saturday evening with 25,000 pissed-up Picts wearing Saltires as cloaks and jumping up and down in the mud to "Beat The Drum" and "Stamping Ground" as culture...

Yep - Aye - we went to see the final concert of Runrig - and what a great night it was.

The venue couldn't have been better chosen, in the fields below a floodlit Stirling castle; the music was predictably outstanding and the audience "engaged", as they say. A good craic. A great band said "goodbye" very well. Hard to believe that they've been around as a band for all of my adult life....

On the way home I was reminded of why I've been trying to work out some kind of cruise control for the throttle. After 4 hours with my right foot flexed at about the same angle it became quite sore and when I got out to refuel I was hobbling. The same thing happened when we were going through Spain - hours of almost fixed-throttle driving on almost empty motorways left my ankle almost permanently bent out of shape. Some kind of manual control of the gas pedal would be useful when the compressor is running, too, so we can have the alternator work a bit harder to replace the electrical juice to the battery. The latter should be easy, not sure about the cruise control, though.

The wall (carpet) lining material has arrived and is a perfect match for the headlining under the bed, and it came with a can of spray glue as well. I've finished the foam insulation so now we should have a good base to stick the "carpet" to. This should give a more muted feel to the sound in the back as well as being warm to the touch. This ought to help with our anticipated condensation problem and generally give a more professional look to the finish. Another nod to the moisture issue is this slot that we cut in the side panel. Once again, the cut took more time than necessary since we measured 4 times before cutting once.

This is covered by louvres on the outside, fixed in place with pop rivets..

 and this sliding vent on the inner:

The things holding it all aligned are called "clecos" - very useful things.

 With all the cutting and insulation done, it was time to get started on the cosmetics. Lining "carpet"; actually, more like a thick felt.





  I had a test run on one of the vertical pillars, and a good job I did....until I realised, not being a soft-furnishings sort of bloke, that the stuff had a "good" side, and the Other One.  You'll have worked out that I had a 50/50 chance of either getting the glue on the Right Side or the Other One. Which one did I choose?

Anyway, having realised I managed to peel it off - destroying it in the process - but learned the lesson the cheap way. Would've sworn a bit if I'd done a large panel first....

This is the final assembly. Cargo rail and load straps fitted, the top brackets of which hold the "pelmet" in place. The LED lighting strip hooks over two of the load strap brackets so we can easily move it outside. It's a standard strip, glued to a length of ally door trim.

We made a removable panel- see above - for the "big bit" of the driver's side since I needed access to the nuts that hold the external accessories. I thought about just glueing the liner to the insulation but this would've been a) lazy and b) a potential difficulty if we ever want to take those parts off, perhaps for a respray. The panel can be easily removed once the trim for the rear side window has been taken away. This took some thought to ensure that this would be possible without interference from one side or the other. All done with 6mm ply and some woodstain/varnish to make sure that nothing would warp.  Must say that I'm impressed with the stuff we used for the lining - easy to form around odd angles and curves because it has some stretch. Once the cargo rail and straps were re-installed, this bit is done. The lighting strip is removeable for use under the awning, but I put in a dimmer switch for those romantic evenings indoors...

A little bit of carpentry, and the driver's side is looking finished, or at least neater...

I've just noticed the untrimmed edge above the window - should've used a torch to light things up a bit

 

The lack of overhead cover to the back door was something we noticed last weekend, so I applied myself to a solution using, as usual, scraps and junk that was (were?) laying about.

I've had all this stuff knocking about for years, mostly originating from the skips at work!

 This is what we came up with as a "first try".

This didn't survive the troop-trial on the driveway. The plastic brackets, seemingly good enough on the bench, couldn't take the leverage of the long arms and cracked. Having removed all the internal trim panels to bolt it all together and then replaced 'em , I had to take them all off again to dismantle everything. 

Back to the workbench, and a complete re-think. As usual, I'd over-engineered the first try, and came up with a much better solution the second time around using the ever-popular bungees, the windbreak, some fibreglass tent poles and 2 steel awning poles:

As a try-it rig, we used a fibreglass tent pole and bungee hook to support the cover. It's braced around the "helper strut" for the roof.

 

In fact, if I stitch a length of cord along the edge that mates to the vehicle, I don't need the fibreglass pole to hang it off. The cord will take the strain and 2 bungee hooks over the helper struts will anchor it at an appropriate height. The real triumph here is the catenary arch. This is formed by several fibreglass tent poles flexed under the canopy and gives a nice taut roof that will allow the rain to run off and not pool. For anyone who's clever enough to note the slope back towards the truck...Well Done, but as the vent of the roof tent overhangs the cover there shouldn't be much, if any, run-off in that direction. 

 I hope. 

The actual cover is the same one we use for a windbreak and is supposed to be a bird hide, which is why it has a zippered flap in it, which is just at the right place to be a window!

I'm not keen on the guy lines to hold the steel poles up, and neither the steel poles, actually. My preferred aluminium poles are quite expensive, so we'll go with the heavy, cheap ones until we're sure it all works properly. Previously I've used some cannibalised aluminium crutches to make adjustable poles, and bloody useful they've been. High-quality material that apparently has a very short operational life, given the number I've seen thrown away. Must find some more....