Project Erica Part 5 - In which Erica is stuffed and wired (with a bit of deadening thrown in too)

Once we'd got Erica's floor down, our attention turned to making her a bit quieter via some sound deadening and plenty of insulation, interspersed with the running of cables through some of her voids.

You'll find the YouTube video of the process here:

 

I'm highly dubious as to the value of sound deadening in a vehicle of Erica's size, but it's not one of those things that you can easily add in afterwards if you regret a decision to omit it, so after spending far too long weighing up the specifications of the various offerings on the market, I went for the cheaper end of the spectrum of butyl-based products available. 

For insulating the body we used loft insulation made from recycled plastic bottles, so if it does get wet, it won't hold that moisture as other traditional loft insulation materials would. We recognise that solid board insulation would have been more thermally efficient, but Erica's panels aren't big enough to warrant using it. Over the top of that (except for on the tailgate) we put a vapour barrier, held in place by foil tape.

As for the wiring for the pump, lights and 12v socket, it's surprising, in such a small vehicle that all of the cable runs worked out at around 6m long. They were, however, easy to put into place, with the exception of the one that needed to run behind the driver's seatbelt pillar cover - and even that one would have been straightforward if I'd run it when we had the pillar cover released, rather than about three hours after I'd put it back!

We got as far as cutting the insulation for the roof, where we are using solid board, but we can't fit that  until the solar panel cable is in place. The latest on the solar situation is that I did an about-turn over the weekend the result of which is that the original panel is due to be collected today and a different one is being delivered on Thursday. Despite my previous comment about a flexible panel not even being in contention, that's exactly what we've now bought. It's nearly twice the price and will likely have a short life, but will also raise Erica's height by less than 10mm, rather than nearer 70mm. Taking into account that it's also 25% of the weight, will produce less wind resistance, will be quieter (no air gap under it for wind to whistle), and only needs to be bonded to the roof (rather than needing eight screws through) I can convince myself that it's a sensible decision.