Paul Jensen

2012-02-01T06:28:00.000-08:00

Twenty-Seven...

Today the focus is to get the cab-over components sealed with epoxy for final installation...

(above) The bed was disassembled so the monitor and gauge panel could be installed on the under side of the platform...

(above) Next the gauge pattern was pin-nailed to a piece of 1/2" ply...

(above) Holes were drilled to give access to the jigsaw blade...

(above) Pattern & panel...

(above) Panel installed...

(above) I want the hinges on the bed to be less prominent so I epoxied strips of 1/8" ply over the hinge wings...I taped over the hinge to keep life easier later...

(above) Clamped...Later they will be sanded flush and veneered over...

(above) The curb-side, cab-over face panel was glued and then given a sealer coat of epoxy...

(above) The bed was unfolded and the plywood was given a sealer coat as well....

Next I went out and got the final parts to install the propane components, and went to see about getting some leather for the bench and back panels...What the supplier had was limited in color selection and if I wanted to order a skin, the cost was now $9.00 a square foot...No thanks...I'll go online later and see what I can find...

Back to the shop...

(above) The headliner in the front end was sagging badly, so I removed it, as well as the other things up there that will be in the way when I install a new one...

(above) With the headliner gone, I saw that I could insulate the ceiling...The insulation will be glued up there and give backing for the new headliner...

(above) In the back of my scrap plywood pile I found this piece of 1/8" Afromosia ply that was the perfect size for the headliner...

(above) After making and test fitting patterns, I cut the Afromisia to size, sanded it lightly then gave it a coat of teak oil...

(above) It will dry overnight then get installed first thing tomorrow...

See you then...

2012-01-31T06:48:00.001-08:00

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Twenty-Six ...

(above) Another day at the playground...!!!...

(above) Where I left off last week...The gauge and switch panel...There is just enough space here at the front end of the cabin, next to the sink, under the bed...This is just a pattern that I'll transfer to 1/2" ply later...For now, just defining the space is fine...

(above) Next to be resolved is the solution to the latch / pulls for the drawer pull-outs...I've been struggling with this one...I have a vision of how it should all look once it's done and despite searching stores, catalogs, the world-wide-web, and woodworking reference books, I just wasn't stoked...

I found these online and they seemed cool in the pictures...Once I got them, they weren't so cool...The finger notch just isn't right...Too small for a man's hands...That and too strong of a spring that controls the latch...Why is it so hard for designers to get things right...???...

This latch / pull decision has had me frustrated with the possibility of having to settle for something I wasn't 100% behind...

(above) So it was back to the drawing board...Today the drawing board has scraps of plywood...

the bigger piece on the right represents a drawer face...The small pieces are components of the latch / pull...

(above) The side pieces started as 1/2" x 1/2" then a 1/4" rabbet was cut...The pieces in the center are 1/4" x 3/4"....

(above) When put together and inserted flush with the face create a wood slide bolt...

(above) The vertical piece has a dado in it to capture the bolt...

I'm feeling good about this...Next to refine and finalize...

(above) I thing that teak will be the best for the bolt...It is naturally oily and will self lubricate...A good thing for a moving part...

(above) So I cut these...Teak 3/4" x 1.25" that are made into tees..The remainder dimensions are all 1/4"...

(above) For the bolt part, another cut removed 3/4" of the finger pull part...Simple work on a tablesaw...

(above) Test fit...

(above) For the capture parts I had a choice...Blend-in and camouflage or go with stand-apart contrast...I'm going with contrast...Here it means walnut...

I ripped some to 1/2" x 1/2" and cut the 1/4" rabbet, then cut them to a rough length of 5"...

(above) Test fit again...The finished drawers will have zebrawood veneer faces then I'll cutout the slide-bolt notch with a router in a jig...Under the slide-bolt is a 1/4" x 1" x 1" piece of walnut that is notched (again on the tablesaw) into the one of the walnut capture pieces...Why you ask...???...

(above) When installed I'll drill a hole aligned and through both the slide pull handle and the walnut square...Then a wood peg can slip in to keep the bolt from moving and the drawer from opening...Another hole will be aligned and drilled when the drawer is open giving a place to slip the pin so it doesn't get lost...I might cord them...???...I'll also double up on the walnut squares so the pin alignment is more precise...

(above) Drawer pull / latch resolved and I'm stoked...!!!...

(above) Oh yeah, the drawer case is the bolt capture on the back side...

(above) Just as I finished my cuts, the belt pulley on the saw slipped and came off...Happens every five years or so...No big surprise given the use it gets...Getting to the motor is a pain and a half...The other hard part is finding the Woodruff Key in all the sawdust...I must be living right since I found the key and the motor came out without me swearing...

(above) Old faithful...Close to 30 years in service...By the time the belt was slipped back in place and the saw plugged back in it was only about a half hour from the start...Not bad, not bad at all...

(above) Next on my list was to re-install the foam/fabric on the cab-over ceiling...I spread a layer on the fabric and one on the fiberglass ceiling...I cranked the heat inside the Jeep to high and went over the glue on the fabric with a heat gun for a few minutes to accelerate the process...

(above) I needed to take some time mid-afternoon to do some state tax-form work and when I was done with that I installed the headliner inside the Jeep / sauna...

While in the office I made a call to an animal skin supplier I've used in the past to get some info on the choices for the bench seat and back rests...Bear (that's his name) said cow skin should cost about $6 a sq. ft....Not bad...???...More on that tomorrow...

One other thing that got done today was to vent the propane locker door...To do that it was as simple as cutting away part of the door gasket at the bottom of the door...Consider it vented...

Then it was off to get the State Tax payment posted before the post office closed...Whew, another full day...

More tomorrow...

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2012-01-28T18:19:00.000-08:00

Stare at red dot for 30 seconds...

Look at a white blank wall or ceiling...

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2012-01-28T17:48:00.000-08:00

(above) Today (Wednesday) Mike is coming up for a visit...In preparation, I get out all the components for final placement discussions...

(above) I also organised the invoices for materials I've purchased ...All part of the job...

(above) Not wanting to get too deep into something complex before Mike gets here, I take the opportunity to glue-up a cutting board that will fit in the drawer directly under the stove...I 'm using maple, walnut and bubinga shorts that have been laying around...

(above) Clamped and set close to the heater to help the glue dry on this winter day...

Mike showed up on time, with pizza and pop in hand and we basically just hung out inside the Jeep, had lunch and talked things over...

It is an easy vehicle for two people to occupy without it feeling crowded and it's not hard to see how simple two can travel in comfort and style...All in the twenty-five square feet that is the rear cabin...

We both were quick to say how our collaboration is resulting in something more than special...

(above) After Mike's visit I got back to work...The teak baseboard on the driver's side was next on the list...The existing cabinet is far from straight at the baseboard level, and with the plan to have a removable floor that slides in and out, the baseboard needs to be a straight close fit...To get the base straight, I got the piece of teak that will go there, taped it all around with clear packing tape and positioned it...Next I put a piece of plywood the exact size of the floor, on the floor...Next, 1/8" plywood for spacers were put between the teak and ply floor...That will bet the finished gap size later...To correct the undulating wall, I shimmed the backside of the teak and mixed some grey construction duty epoxy and putty knifed it in place...It's kind of hard to see clearly all that, but that's what's going on above...After the epoxy set's up, I'll remove the ply and the teak which will not be stuck to the epoxy since epoxy won't stick to the clear plastic tape...Then' I'll pull the tape and use clear epoxy to bond the teak to the grey epoxy...Pretty simple really...

(above) At the end of the day, I put a piece of plywood on edge under the floor ply in the propane locker then spray foamed whatever gaps were there...

(above) Before turning out the shop lights, I found a place for the vinyl banner Mike brought me...

Day done...

(above) Thursday morning after a quick trip out for parts...

(above) Before getting in the Jeep, I ran the now dry cutting board through the planer...

(above) Then after cutting it to length a few wood strips are glued on as end caps...

(above) Again clamped and set to dry in a warm place...

(above) Back in the Jeep...The ply floor shims and teak are pulled out as outlined above...Good enough for now...

(above) The air lines that control the roof raising and lowering were leaking and the culprit was the quick-connect air line Tees...I changed them out for these brass compression fittings...A job that I thought should take about fifteen minutes, max...It took over an hour...The old air lines have expanded ever so slightly over time and that was enough to have the fittings and the tubing resist coming together without hard, heavy hand work...Frustrating when you expect it to be simple and easy...I ended up making a small wood block that slipped over the tubing and resting on the compression nut, the using big pliers I was able to get the nut to fit down over the insert ferrule, then I was able to get the nut to thread onto the tee......That make sense...???...

(above) The compressor was turned on and the roof was lifted and it held...Yeaaah... The plywood is there in case it didn't...

(above) Next on my list of "must get this done sometime" was to finish the gas lines for the stove and the wall heater...

(above) The gas manifold is all 1/2" rigid copper...It ties into the 3/8" soft copper line that goes back to the propane locker...You can see the port for the heater line just to the left of the roll-bar and the stove line there on the right...Easy to get to the connections there...The tee in the middle is for a pressure test gauge...

(above) Next I put foam pipe insulators over possible contact points...I also enlarged the cut-outs where the wires go through and wrapped them too...An ounce of prevention kind of thing...

(above) Then it was back outside to cut away and sand the excess spray foam, then I fiberglassed the inside of the propane locker...Waterproof and airtight...

(above) Finally I finished off the spray foam by using it to further resist movement...Once set it will stand up to some serious off road rambling...That after all is what this is all about...

2012-01-27T05:31:00.001-08:00

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Twenty-Four...

(above) At least for a few days I won't take lights coming on for granted...

(above) Some of the daily necessities...

(above) The bed pull-out, as it is, was positioned over the cab and checked for fit and clearances...No surprises...

(above) The other half of the bed platform is now ready for small part to fit inside of larger part with glue and pin-nails holding them together...

(above) Then the piano hinge was rabbeted to the bed slabs...

(above) The bed pull-out, pulled out...The CF panels are dry fitted...Later they will be epoxied in...

(above) Well, lookey there, it works...

(above) Another test fit, then a few filler plywood pieces are custom cut for the right side...

(above) Next, the floor gets worked...First the inlaid areas are belt sanded flush...

(above) The good cutters are readied for action...

(above) The router cuts a rabbet on the rear door end of the floor panel...

(above) A matching rabbeted piece of teak is epoxied, then taped on...Good masking tape has some stretch...Use it...

(above) At the front end of the floor, a teak strip is inlaid...I'll cut the excess end of the panel off at the right side of the inlay later...

(above) I pulled out the back-rest panels made in the mock-up stage...

Guess what you have if you use them as table legs with the removable floor panel on top...???...

Good guess..A 28.5" tall teak table...

Yet another serendipitous dual-purpose outcome...Never planned for, but....Voila...!!!...Outside dining elegance...

(above) The tape on the floor end cap is pulled...Still needs sanding...

(above) A couple weeks ago I put the teak curb up front...Well, I got to thinking that the resulting notch in the floor wasn't the best idea...So I cut the intruding teak out...

Now the floor will be straight, and either side can be up...All wood on this side, copper inlaid on the other...Bling or bland (hardly)...You choose...

My thinking on using the shower is this: Remove the wood floor when you want to shower...The panel weighs less than twenty pounds...Slides in easy and cutting grooves in the wood floor for drainage aren't needed... And lets be realistic, how often will you really be showering inside the Jeep...???...Sure you can, but, really...???...

The last thing I did for the day was to epoxy and pin nail a straight teak 'baseboard' on the curb side...

Tomorrow, I'll do the driver side...

More later...

2012-01-25T05:17:00.001-08:00

2012-01-25T05:06:00.000-08:00

Twenty Three…

The power came back on Sunday night…Seventy-two hours without...Word was it might not come back on until Wednesday…Am I ever glad that didn’t go that far…

During the power outage we went to a coffee shop to check internet…Thanks for the concern and kind words…I appreciate it…

Now where did I leave off…???...

(above) Teak floor panels…I belt sanded the inserts flush to start…

(above) Then I figured an easy way to cut the copper in half…I lock-screwed the copper to a piece of left-over OSB…

(above) Next another piece of OSB was screwed over the copper…

(above) I ran it slowly through the tablesaw…Copper is soft for a metal and the carbide tipped blade went through it easier than some hardwoods...

(above) Pulled the cover pierce off, then released the cut copper…The edge was sanded once, lightly…

(above) Next the rail guided router came out…

(above) …and a dado was cut across the teak…

(above) The copper was slightly off parallel so I cut the teak edge with a utility knife…

(above) Teak is nice to work with if you use sharp tools…

(above) As you can see, somehow the router slipped and a stepped cut resulted…Ooops...

(above) Design opportunity…!!!...Stiffen the inlay with some carbon fiber strips…

(above) Thinking ahead of a way to finish the install, I went though my long lost copper-nail tin can…Maybe I’ll make these into copper rivets…???...Hmmm....???...

(above) For now, I'll just epoxy them in place...Epoxy was mixed, the CF was laid, then saturated…Finally the copper strip was dropped in the dado and spring clamped in place…

(above) With the snow melted from the Jeep, and no rain in today’s forecast, I silicone caulked the last leak source…The one at the front of the roof lift-up…Did it on both sides…

(above) Next, inside the floor was insulated…

(above) Back in the shop, the other copper inlay was routered out…

(above) C.F. again used to reinforce…

(above) By now the first inlay was set-up and the clamps were pulled…Still needs to get sanded…

(above) After a trip to the store for hardware, the second set of clamps were off and the panel is further along in the process….Tomorrow the end teak caps will go on…

More tomorrow…

2012-01-25T04:31:00.003-08:00

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Twenty Two…

(above) Thursday morning…Clamps holding tight in the heated shop…

(above) Outside the snow dump exceeded anything I’ve seen up here as long as I’ve lived here…Beyond a couple of decades…A good day to stay busy in the shop…

(above) The bed panels are dry enough to cut to size on the tablesaw…

(above) First I need to clear the work table…The clamps are now off the teak panel that will be the floor…

(above) I have a piece of copper I've been wanting to use…Something with the teak might be nice…

(above) With the teak possibilities not yet ready to execute, I cut the CF panels to size…

(above) Head panel and foot panel…

(above) Back outside the snow has stopped…Replacing the snow is freezing rain…Two words that hate…Freezing rain can be absolutely destructive…This episode turned out to exceed my greatest fear by a magnitude of ten…More on that later…

(above) Back in the shop I cut the plywood components for the bed pull-out, the box jointed ‘em…

(above) Some quick and fast gluing and pin nailing has them assembled…

(above) Uh huhhh…Bed panel # 1…

(above) And fitted between the drawer guides…

(above) Keeping the progress going on a couple of fronts, I got the teak panel and set up the router to cut a dado centered on the glue joints…

(above) 3/16” deep x ¾” wide…

(above) Some teak off-cuts are ripped then epoxied into the dados…The theory is to spread out the load on the glue joint to a wider, backed-up joint…Not have a single, through glue joint…At least that’s the theory…

With that done I then focused on getting ready for the sure-to-follow power outage because the ice storm was growing with trees (and we have plenty) breaking with the sound of gunshots…Bad…

Sure enough the power went out a couple hours later, and stayed out all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday…72 hours total…The destruction to trees, plants and power lines was significant…Our home is fine, our yard is a disaster…During the days the power was out my wife and I cleared debris…yesterday a hauling guy filled his 18 cubic yards truck with twenty yards of our debris…

Life goes on…

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2012-01-19T07:03:00.000-08:00

Twenty-One...

(above) Overnight , it snowed...Eleven inches...The most I've seen here in twenty plus years living here...

I opened up the Jeep and was pleasantly surprised how cozy it was...I ran the space heater overnight and thought the escaping heat would lead to trickles or seepage of water and found none from the roof side-wall fabric, or the areas I already fixed...There is still that trickle on the cab-over sidewall...But from where exactly...Hmmmm...???...

(above) Back in the shop, the carbon fiber / foam panels had hardened overnight in the 80 degree temperature...Love a heated shop...

(above) I sanded the bed 'foundation'...

(above) Next I flipped the CF panels over and prepped, then epoxied the panels just as I did yesterday...The plywood foundation also got another coat of epoxy...

(above) Between checking out the ongoing snow and making sure that some outside sheds had enough support for the heavy snow load, I settled into the warm shop to start the teak floor...

The teak stock I bought was a full 1" thick...I had it bandsawed in half...The surfacing planer came out and the teak was planed to just under 7/16"...

(above) I needed to work on the big work table , so the CF panels were put over the heater to cure overnight...

(above) With the work table cleared off, I first cut a straight edge on the teak with the Festool rail saw, next I ran the boards through the tablesaw to fine tune straight, parallel edges...

Prepping teak before gluing is vital...First the edges were hand sanded with 100 grit on a hard wood block...Machine sanding or machine planing can heat the teak which can raise the oils to the surface that can prevent the epoxy from penetrating the wood cells...You need penetration to get the epoxy to bond...

To further reduce an oily glue-face, the teak edges were wiped with lacquer thinner...Next I got the table set-up for clamping... Plastic sheeting cover on the table, clamps made ready, plywood strips for edge clamping, screws to put the plywood hard to the table, epoxy measured and mixed...

Next the teak edges were wiped with denatured alcohol, then brushed with epoxy on all the glued edges...The boards then were placed edge to edge, the plywood clamp strips were screwed at the ends to the table and then clamped on the ends...Just a pair...Then I screwed additional screws through the plywood to keep the assembly from moving or lifting...The clamps were set between where the screws were placed so the plywood would flex under the pressure of the clamps and draw tight the teak...With a big dead-blow hammer the boards were beat on to make sure they laid flat to each other...

Finally the excess glue squeeze-out was wiped off with alcohol...

(above) Good enough for now...

(above) The epoxy for the bed 'foundation' had dried so I disassembled the OSB mock-up and set the drawer guides with T-nuts...

Tomorrow with the CF panel cured enough to work with, I'll get the bulk of the bed work done as well as making the underside of the teak floor more secure...

See y'all later...

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(above) It continues…

(above) Yesterday at the end of the day, I rolled out some paper with the expectation of it identifying where the latest leak is coming from…Looks like this one is originating on the wall on the drivers side…

(above) I’m thinking it’s from the wrap-around awning mounting bracket…???…

(above) Driver side fabric overhang…

(above) Up front…The leak is not coming from up here…

(above) Rear corner…It’s not getting in here either…The new gasket is working fine…

(above) The curb side is fine…

(above) Lifting up the curb side front flap…Dry, but hardly sealed…

I’ll get to the leak later…

Next it’s back to the inside…

(above) Spray foam insulation was shot in to keep the wires and pipe from shifting or moving…I put clear packing tape over the hole to keep the foam from expanding up too muck…I’d rather have it spread down and inward…

(above) It was then time to start on the slide-out bed…First I made a pattern of the base length, then I hot-glued on vertical and roof line pieces…

The bed support design will use the cab-over roof as an element in the resistive up loading once the bed is extended and loaded…The roof is sturdy and a great way to help distribute the overall bed load…

(above) I pulled out the mock up to help me remember how the design works…Not so complicated…

(above) The pull-out and drawer guide base is built…1/2” ply for the sides, 1/4” ply for the bottom and back…

(above) I scribed and trimmed the top edge a few times to get the fit just right…

(above) Next was the lamination of the scored foam panel with carbon fiber cloth…An all plywood pull-out would be pretty heavy so the foam / CF panels are built to reduce the weight that will be moved in two directions when the bed is unfolded and set-up to sleep…

(above) I slowly roll out the cloth along a ‘score line’, then tape it along that line…

(above) After that the other edges are carefully aligned then taped…

(above) I need two panels…Notice the nails tacked through the foam to the work table…That is to keep the panel from being anything other than flat…The back plastic is great to work over because cured epoxy does not stick to it…

(above) I measure and mixed the epoxy then used the foam roller to spread the epoxy, always rolling out in one direction…Back and forth leads to wrinkles…After the epoxy is saturated, the squeege (made from a cut vertical window blind) the carbon cloth is pushed down onto the foam…Just using a roller will not get the foam down hard and flat to the foam…

(above) Two panels laminated up front and the bed base is coated with epoxy in the back…Everything is designed to be leaked upon…I hope not, but build for it…

More bed work tomorrow if the power is still on…The weather forecast is calling for record snow overnight…I hope they are wrong…

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Nineteen…

2012-01-17T07:21:00.001-08:00

(above) Guess what we got over the weekend…???…

I better double check that the space heater is plugged in…Check…

Time to get stuff on the ‘To Get’ list…

(above) After an hour or so of mix and matching at Lowes, I have the the components to run the LPG gas from the propane locker to the driver side cabinet where it will supply the stove and heater…I also picked out a few things electrical…

(above) For connecting and allowing easy disconnect of the 120 volt wiring, I’ll use this block…There will be two additional sets of wires tying into the block, thus the jumpers…All soldered as you might expect…

You can also see the T-nuts for screwing the outlet to the wood panel…Wood screws aren’t good enough…

(above) Next it was time to get run the gas line…

I did a lot of research yesterday about what to use for this propane gas line inside the cabin…

Rubber tubing although much easier to install, has greater potential to leak than solid copper…Rubber tubing is meant to be used in well ventilated areas, like outside, connected to a barbeque… Although (some say) that copper is not recommended for natural gas (due to sulfur in the NG) all the sources I researched say it is excellent for LPG…

I used 3/8” soft copper tubing so there will be a continuous pipe run from just outside the propane locker, along the inside of the curb-side cabinet, through the battery compartment, under the floor, into the driver side cabinet, then up to where it will tee for distribution to the stove and heater…

This was seriously hard work…A lot of twists and turns with the pipe in tight areas…And though it’s called soft copper, it was reluctant to go where I wanted it too…The pulling and pushing was in 1/2” hard fought increments…My primary concern while muscling it into place was to not kink the tubing…

The soft copper pipe is initially flexible, but over time gets more rigid…Just what I want...

(above) To feed the tubing up along the cabinet, I needed to open up this panel to gain a way to pull the tubing…

(above) Where the tubing goes through the battery compartment I made sure (x2) that the copper pipe would be absolutely isolated from any contact with the electrical components…First I positioned the tubing in the neutral zone, then covered the copper with that cheesy plastic flex stuff…Later I’ll put foam pipe insulation over the gas pipe everywhere I have access…You just have to do this right…

I also put an 1/8” plywood panel on the sidewall to isolate the tubing and to lock it in place…Additionally it is positioned to further prevent the top battery from a shift backwards…The bottom battery has a plywood stop screwed to the floor…Both batteries are nylon strapped as well…

Through the whole installation of the gas pipe, I was putting the inverter panel in and out, checking and re-checking that the copper tubing and the electrical components have zero chance of movement…

(above) Looking down into the under-floor compartment…

Later I’ll put spray foam insulation at all potential chafing points…

(above) At the propane locker…

The copper connections are all soldered…

The threaded connections are Rector Sealed…

The solenoid will be connected to a propane leak sensor / kill switch…

(above) The whole tubing thing is softly tucked under the plywood rim…Again, I’ll insulate the pipe and strap the whole thing to the body…Safety with gas lines is everything…

(above) Next, I wanted to see if all the electrical work I did worked…Or at least see if I could raise the roof…

With some apprehension (hey, I’m human), I reconnected the vehicle battery… Next, while holding my breath, I turned the switch that turns on the house batteries aand, Nothing … I love the sound of quiet…!!!… Smoke free is nice too…

I started the Jeep (it’s been weeks since it was last run), then turned on the compressor switch to pressurize the air tank that puts air into the pistons that raise the roof…As you can see, it worked… Whew…

But… There is a leak in an air hose fitting, so the roof start to lower after about five minutes…Should be easy to fix…I’ll get new fittings…To keep the roof up until I replace those fittings, I cut two pieces of wood that fit next to the pistons…Good enough for now…

(above) With the roof lifted, I was able to get back into the cab-over…

The first thing I did was swear bad words over and over and over…It was still leaking…!!!…I got the water out, dried it with a towel and worked on getting the light ballasts off the floor…There were tall screws coming out of the lights and I bolted the ballasts to those…I also tied up the wiring …

(above) Better…

(not shown) The last thing I did was put a 3’ wide piece of brown paper on the cab-over floor to see where the leak in coming from…I’ll know tomorrow because it is snowing again tonight and I have a heater inside and it will warm the roof enough to melt and drip…

More later…

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Centralia…

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Eighteen…

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(above) Getting another early start… When the work is this fun, it’s hard to stay away…

(above) Starting easy, scrub sand the epoxied drawer from yesterday…

(above) Now, time to work on getting the electrical system closer to back up and running…

(above) Today’s field of play…

(above) The inverter has the gauge and outlet removed from the unit and they will be relocated to the plywood cabinet… The push-on connectors in the middle of the picture are the 120 volt power leads to the newly extended outlets… I solder 99.9% of all my electrical work… It takes just a bit longer than crimping connections but is without question the better way to make shorter wires longer, or to join two (or more) wires together… I like doing things better…

(above) The inverter is mounted to a piece of plywood… The fit of the plywood to the cabinet with the inverter mounted is tight…

I put the factory yellow face plate on the inverter and it would not swing into the cabinet with it on… Missed by 5/32”… No way, that way…

Take it back to the bench… Remove all fourteen miniature screws that hold the cover plate on, remove and set aside the yellow plastic thing, go back to the Jeep, hold the plywood / inverter close and figure out what’s needed to have it fit… Typical for this kind of work… Frustrating…???… No… You just accept it to be this way and you do what it takes to make it work, whatever…

To have it work, the leads for the gauge and the ‘power out’ need to go out the top of the case…

Bring out the step drill, get a plastic sleeve, get the wires through and test fit, again… Works…

(above) Back to the bench, tape and heat shrink the wires together, then get the cover plate and all fourteen of the fruit fly size screws back into the inverter… Fun, with fingers the size of hot dogs… Just for laughs, try it sometime…

(above) This side of the ‘power lead’ will go into a small screw clamp connector (that I don’t have yet)… I have three sets of wires that will connect together and want a simple way to remove the connection, so the inverter panel can be removed semi-easily if it ever needs to come out… I solder the straight ends of the wires, so the screws in the connectors get a better ‘bite’ into soldered wires… You will not find an un-soldered wire-end in my work…

(above) To get the 120 volt ground back to the inverter case (as it was when the outlet was case mounted) I stripped the insulation off the middle of the green wire, twisted it hard, formed a loop around needle nose pliers and soldered the loop… That’s what you see screwed to the inverter case, the ground wire leading from the outlet mounted to the plywood then going up to the other outlets up high… If you look close you’ll see that this is in the middle of a wire, not just an end loop…

(above) The new wiring harness has multiple soldered connections with shrink tubing insulators, then taped together with friction tape…

The space within the battery / inverter compartment is Tight with a capital T… Loose wires going all over the place are bad, so these minimal wiring connections is something that will be much appreciated later by me putting it back together and to whoever might have to work on it in the future…

(above) Another look at the wiring… Notice the ground lead from the case to the outlet, to the other outlets… What I was talking about above… There is enough loop in the wire for the outlet to still come off the case, but not too much to junk-up the interior…

Again, this is what custom looks like…

(above) I want to put a 12 volt outlet on the back plywood panel as well, but the mounting nut for the outlet is too long given that I’m using 1/2” plywood, so the extra mounting nut is cut away with shears… Once that was done the connection went together easily…

(above) Then it was back to the Jeep to connect the loose ends…

(above) Then the inverter panel was put in place… This is looking down into the compartment…

(above) See what I was saying about tight…???…

(above) Stepping back, you see the new outlets… 120 volt AC and 12 volt DC off the back… Nice to have for when you really want easy power access to the outside… Not part of the original scope of work, but I saw the need and just did it…

The T-nuts are for mounting, without worry, the inverter… Wood screws might loosen and having that thing loose would be bad… Avoid the bad I always say…

For your information, that electrical work took about six hours…

(above) Back inside Jeepster… This just looks wrong… The frayness of it all… So I sanded the fiberglass, wiped it wet, spread some Poly-U adhesive then…

(above) … put this 1/8” plywood and Teak curb in place…

(above) Then it was fiberglassed / epoxied it in place…

Now the back cabin floor is isolated from the front… Forget about water or other stuff rolling forward to fall under the seats… now the rear cabin is like a big shower pan…

It also will be a natural curb for the teak floor (which will be removable) to bump up to… Hit the brakes hard and it won’t shift forward…

I also fiberglassed the floor to cabinet base-line… Now it is waterproof and further makes the new work tie seamlessly to the existing cabin / floor…

(above) At the end of a long day, a long week, I slowly closed up Jeep Earth Roam Deluxe, and thought about all that happened this week, and smiled a tied smile…

Time for a beer…

More later…

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