It was another cool day in the 70’s, which was nice. I finished the work on the ceiling of the van today. Here are the tasks I performed.
The first problem that I had to solve was at the back of the van. Here is a picture of what it looked like after hanging the ceiling boards yesterday.
There is no furring strip at the back of the van to hold the ceiling boards. You can see that they hang down at different heights. Also, there are three short boards missing behind the MaxAir fan, because there is nothing to bolt a board to. I solved that last problem with a backing board that I painted black. The backing board allowed me to glue three short pieces of boards and give them something to attach to. The backing board is screwed into the two ceiling boards next to the unistrut. Here is a close up of what it looked like installed.
You can also see in the above picture that I made up a custom formed piece of moulding from some extra pine board that I had. I cut it to the shape of the roof and attached it to the furring strip in the back of the van. This forced all the boards to be at the same height at the back of the van. Here is a picture from a little farther away.
I also cut down the decor plate for the MaxAir fan to fit and attached it to the ceiling. It really finished off this area of the ceiling well. Here is the final result.
I also installed all the LED lights in the ceiling. I put all of them in the two ceiling boards next to the unistrut. I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out the best location for these lights. The lights stick through the ceiling board on the back side, so they couldn’t be placed where I have a furring strip. They also couldn’t be too close to the AC unit or the MaxAir fan. And, I wanted them to be evenly spaced. So, I spent some time and let the van talk to me, and did some math to decide on the best location for these lights.
I then took down those two ceiling boards and marked the hole locations. The LED lights needed a 2 1/4″ hole to go into. I didn’t have a hole saw that big, so I ended up going out to the hardware store to buy one. I then drilled out the holes by going halfway from the back of the board, then finishing the cut from the front side. This minimized splinters from the cut. I then sanded down each of the holes to make them smooth. The LED lights fit in perfectly.
I then wired up the lights. I wired the back four lights to be on one switch and the front eight lights to be on a separate switch. I used staples to control how the wires are routed on the board, because I didn’t want them to be seen and I didn’t want one of the screws used to fasten the board to the ceiling to damage a wire. I tested all the circuit and lights with a small 9V battery to ensure everything was connected correctly.
Artie helped me to put the two boards back up in the van. As part of this process, we had to connect up wires between these two boards. To do that, we used a small board to push the wires from one board to the other, so they could be connected. We then connected the wiring harness that goes back to where the van electrical box will be.
With that work, I consider the ceiling to be done. I still have to put the decor panel for the AC unit up, but I am waiting for some longer screws to do that. Here is the final result.
I then worked on installing the first piece of stair nosing on the floor. I cut the piece for the front of the van, right behind the driver and passenger seats. I had to make some relief cuts in this piece for the alternator charging wires and body mouldings, but I got it to fit perfectly. Then, after looking at it for a while, I determined what fastener I wanted to use to secure it to the floor. No fasteners came with the stair nosing, I had to select my own. So, I ordered them and will wait to install this piece until the fasteners arrive.
That was it for the day. I made a lot of progress.
Wow!!! Looks awesome.