Project Erica - Part 6 - You've made your bed...

When we started planning for our van conversion, way back last November, we had the clear notion that we would do things in a sensible order. First we would strip, then we would run cable (including the solar panel), then we would insulate (including the roof), apply a vapour barrier, then apply the final finishing layer to walls and ceilings, before moving on to constructing furniture. We continued to hold onto that notion of a sensible order right until about a week or so after we took delivery of Erica.

With the whole debacle with the solar panel, it became clear that if we waited until we had the solar wiring in place, and the roof insulated, and the roof liner back in, then we would be doing an awful lot of sitting around waiting – particularly with the need (once we have a solar panel we’re happy with) for good weather for that job. Likewise, if we waited for the wall carpet to be delivered, we would be wasting a spell of dry sunny days. When we analysed the situation, we concluded that even though it didn’t feel like the right order, there was no reason why we couldn’t build the sofa/bed, even if we weren’t going to fit it just yet (and it was thus going to take up residence in our living room). Moreover, doing that would feel like real progress.

So, a week last Saturday that’s exactly what we started. It took us three half-days to complete (i.e. 1.5 days total). The process was approximately as follows:

• Build the base
• Build the frame for the lid/slats
• Take the frame back apart and make it the right size
• Apply hardboard to the slat frame
• Remove hardboard from the slat frame and refit it the right around
• Cut the slats, make design modifications on the hoof to take account of two issues we foresaw
• Fit slats
• Remove slats, modify slats, apply washers to create a stand-off for slats
• Stand back and feel mightily proud of our handy work!

I cannot tell you how many hours it took me to put together the video of the process. Probably longer than it took to build the bed!  Here’s the final result:

You’ll notice that in this video we made good use of the workbench that, if you missed it in a post last week, you’ll find me describing in this very short video:

 

Erica takes over the world…

…or at least our house.

I’m currently sitting at the dining room table. About six inches from my right arm is a roll of insulation. To my left is a stack of timber, hanging over one piece of which is a solar panel extension cable. Behind that is a box of high temperature spray adhesive. Behind me is my large toolbox. At the other end of the table is Mick’s laptop, next to which is a pile of notebooks, plus multiple loose sheets of paper, mainly bearing sums and sketches of bed designs. Beyond the far end of the table are three cut pieces of insulation board.

Out in the room that might loosely be described as a conservatory there’s half a sheet of insulation board, behind which is Erica’s rear header liner. In the middle of the room is the boxing in made for the nearside wheel arch, standing on top of the surfaces of our two makeshift workbenches.

Fortunately, from here I can’t see all the stuff that’s in the other half of that room, and as there’s so much of it, I won’t subject you to that list.

If I was to walk from here to the living room, I would pass through the hallway, where I would find a piece of Erica’s trim (from next to the driver’s seat) leaning against the wall, under which is a large coil of cable.

Then there’s the living room, which until a few days ago had retained its function as just that. Now it’s exploded into a new role as a store room. Immediately on walking through the door you encounter the base of Erica's sofa (and if not paying attention will walk straight into it, as I’ve learnt). My knitting chair sits in front of that, but my knitting is feeling sorely neglected, and I couldn’t get to that chair at the moment if I wanted. In front of it is the huge box for the second solar panel*. A few inches in front of that is a boxed PortaPotti, next to which, leaning against the coffee table is the sliding-slat sofa-seat/bed base. On the coffee table is the stove/sink.

I’ll describe the utility room with a photo, but with the comment that it has got worse since this was taken.

And all this after the house was so clean and tidy through lockdown! I could, of course, dedicate some time to having a bit of a tidy-up, but many of the items that are lying around are so big that we’re limited for options as to where we can put them, plus it seems a futile endeavour whilst work is on-going. At least at the moment I’ve got a good idea where everything is.

On the one hand, I hope that nobody announces that they’re coming around to see us in the immediate future; on the other hand, I’ve got kilos of freshly picked cooking apples and there’s going to be a lot of apple-based cookery to be shared over the coming weeks.

(*I’m not in the habit of sending back things that I’ve ordered online. Indeed, I can only remember making one return previously, and that was when I carelessly ordered the wrong item. However, I’m not making a good job of choosing a solar panel as having sent the first one back earlier in the week and received a different one, I’m now sending that one back too. Third time lucky, I hope.)

Review of our sophisticated new workbench

Just for a giggle, here's a short (less than 2 minutes) video review of the new workbench, with interchangeable tops, that I manufactured this week. 
 

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.

Project Erica: The Plan

A couple of weeks ago, just after we’d stripped everything out of Erica, Mick and I sat in her and had a chat about what our plans were. I should have posted that footage earlier, before the video about the floor, but it got overlooked. Here it is now – six minutes of us talking about the our intended layout:

Project Erica: Things wot I achieved (or not) today

Erica was put to good use as a means of transport this morning, and for the first time in five months, Mick and I went on a little jolly – just a few miles down the road for a run around some woodland for me, whilst Mick took a walk, meeting me at various points on my route to shout encouragement and take photos.

Then we came home to see if we could make any more progress on Erica’s build, although with the hampering factor of it being too windy a day to want to do much out of doors.

By 5pm I felt like I had achieved precisely nothing, but Mick put a more positive spin on my day. I had:

1. Made a decision on and bought carpet for the walls (probably 50% more than we need, and the most expensive of the options I had considered, but at least it’s bought and on its way).
2. Done valuable research on battery options.
3. Made yet more notes about timber options.
4. Together with Mick, made a decision on the timber to be used for the bed/sofa frame and found a relatively local store that has stock.
5. A few other minor bits and pieces of research.

The battery was today’s main frustration, entirely by my own fault. A few weeks ago I spent about three hours doing the exact same research, before putting the matter onto the ‘too difficult’ pile. Unfortunately, I didn’t make notes as to what I had learnt and thus today I found myself repeating the same reading and going through the same process of thinking I’d settled on one type of battery only to then read something that cast doubt on that decision (there’s an added level of complication here that we may take Bertie’s battery to put in Erica and upgrade what is in Bertie).  The end result was that I had a list of four possible answers, and at least this time I wrote them down (although we have such a disorganised set of notebooks sitting on this table that there’s never any guarantee that notes made one day will be found again on another!).

Mick had a more productive day. As well as doing more work on the bed design and helping with the search for the right timber, he produced this…

…finishing the complicated shaping just in the nick of time as rain came hurling down. The finishing of the opposite edge (a straight cut) will be the work of a few minutes tomorrow. 

 

Project Erica: Frustration (without indecision)

After yesterday’s frustrations, we were determined to make progress today: it was to be a dry day and we were going to get the solar panel fitted.

Bright and early I gave Erica a wash, paying special attention to the roof, then we loosely fitted the brackets to the solar panel and offered it up onto the roof, before spending time measuring.

It’s a critical requirement that Erica has to remain under 2m high, as we need to retain the ability to use council tips (which is also a reason we were keen to get car rather than a van). We had, of course, measured her height as best we could before we bought the solar panel and had concluded that we had just enough clearance. It is, however, difficult to measure accurately the highest point of a vehicle whose roof is a long way from being flat, and it soon became apparent that something was awry in our measurements, as the highest point of the solar panel was coming in at only 5mm under 2m. For me, that’s not enough breathing space.

We tried the panel in various positions until we found a place that gave us the required clearance.

Method: A piece of wood was placed across the panel, then with a spirit level it was moved into a horizontal position, thus measuring the highest point on the panel. The horizontal piece of wood was then measured against a measuring stick, held in a vertical position alongside Erica.

We might then have proceeded to fix the panel down, except I thought it wise to double check our measurements by repeating the process on the other side of the vehicle. A good job we did, as for no obvious reason, we came up with different figures and we were now measuring exactly 2m high.

Options were considered:

1. We could return the solar panel and not have one at all;
2. We could return the panel and replace it with a non-fixed one that we throw up on the roof when needed*; or 
3. We could come up with a different way of fixing it, so that it would be positioned lower to the roof and/or be removable.

Option 1 was not favoured. We could manage without a solar panel, as we did for 6 years in Colin (and Erica will have much less equipment drawing power) but we also know from experience with Bertie how good it is to have solar.  

Option 2 would be the easy option (and would solve the electronics issue over which I spent hours vacillating yesterday, as they have the solar controller built-in), but not very practical. Aside from needing to find somewhere inside an already small space to store the panel, we wouldn’t want to leave it just sitting on top of Erica’s roof whilst we were out, and if we only used it when we were both in and stationary, then its utility would be severely reduced.

So, we need to veer away from off-the-shelf mounting plates and make some bespoke ones, which will also involve drilling new holes in the aluminium frame of the solar panel, invalidating its warranty in the process. Yikes and gulp! Fortunately it didn’t take me many minutes to find and buy what I was looking for: some unequal (50mm by 25mm) aluminium angle.

As the new fixings won’t be with us until the middle of next week, further work on the solar installation is now postponed, which in turn postpones our ability to fit the insulation to the roof, which in turn postpones our ability to refit the roof liner.

There are, however, other things that we can be getting on with, and I’m pleased to say that a small piece of construction was completed today, albeit another piece that will be completely hidden once the cupboards are built. There was an 'oh no!' moment at the end of the day when I realised that we'd overlooked a major consideration in our design of that piece, but I *think* we’ve got away with it.

(*It could be considered that a fourth option would be to have a semi-flexible panel, which are only 5mm thick and can be bonded directly to the roof, but we discounted that possibility as they're more expensive to buy and tend to have a short life due to overheating, due to not having an air gap under them.)