Popping my top

[boywonder]

Got the electrical stuff just about done.

The used Prosine 1000W inverter works fine, and the (free RV leftover from the neighbor) Progressive Dynamics 60 amp converter + charge wizard also works great.

The Prosine is an older unit (bought off of CL-pre Xantrex)

The solar is up and running as well, and the Blue Sea 7610 separator is also functional. I've tested the separator with the van running and with the van off and the sun shining for bi-directionality.

I've got two 145ah AGM batts stacked in the back of the box, and a couple of blue sea fuse blocks, and a 150A circuit breaker right at the house batteries and another right next to the starting battery.

For now I've got some vent holes in the cabinet for passive venting; I'm still thinking about adding a fan that switches on when the house batteries are charging.

[boywonder]

Built some tops for the box, not done yet but you get the idea.

They are cork flooring from Home Depot with cherry trim (the cherry still needs to be varnished).......and a cup holder from ebay......

[Abitibi]

Nice touch with the cork!

[boywonder]

I'm back on the rear upper shelf build. This shelf is a bit tricky since it will also contain the rear AC vents.

I've actually mocked up about 4 versions of this, and it looks like this one is it. If I don't like it, I can always make another......

Another constraint for this shelf is that I need headroom above the rear seat/sofa, so the mock ups went from being long to being short, then I had to nail down the design for the rear ceiling trim, which drove the length a little longer to get the AC vents in the correct location.

The box is 1/2" Baltic birch covered with 1/8" foam and grey velour that matches the SMB material on the rails. It's lined with fuzzy trunk liner. We lined the air plenum with fuzzy trunk liner to make the inside black when looking into the open vents, and to help with noise reduction when the rear AC is blowing.

There is an air plenum that mates with the hole in the headliner and allows air flow to the vents, which are the factory headliner vents that have had their mounting flanges machined off. This will (hopefully) all make sense over the next few days when the front face is completed and the shelf is mounted. I'll be adding more pics as well...

The front face (which I am planning on making tomorrow, ran out of cherry in the garage), will be cherry with either water based satin varnish or flat oil based varnish.

A few pics:

[boywonder]

More pics:

Added a couple of LED map lights to the bottom.......

[boywonder]

Note in the post above I mentioned if I don't like it, I can make another.....

Well, the crushed grey velour was a bit "conversion van"-ish so I decided to re-do it with the fake leather (pleather!) that I used on the PH lift blocks and a few other places.......Like this is less "conversion-van"-ish.......??

I've got both rear upper shelf-thingies going, and I hope to have them completed tomorrow (screw work, it's Christmas!)

The fronts are cherry and need another coat of varnish......They are cherry since I wanted rounded corners and I haven't figured out how to cover rounded corners cleanly.

The only tricky part here (other than figuring out the AC stuff) was determining the profile of the sides to match the headliner, which changes every few feet front to back.

I'll take a few pics tomorrow of the rear AC details to hopefully clarify a few things.

Here are a few pics......

[boywonder]

a few more pics.....

[E277]

boywonder, you're insane. I just stumbled across your build thread and the work looks amazing. Great job!

How many hours do you think you have in this build and at what cost savings than a factory build?

PS If you're married, I am very proud of your wife.

PPS I saw in one of the pics you have/had a Honda Element. We had 3 before our SMB and loved them. The E-Camper is what drew me to the SMB in the first place!

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by E277

boywonder, you're insane.

How many hours do you think you have in this build and at what cost savings than a factory build?

PPS I saw in one of the pics you have/had a Honda Element. We had 3 before our SMB and loved them. The E-Camper is what drew me to the SMB in the first place!

E277: yes, I need my head examined.......apparently I have no life.......

.......a zillion and counting, and at my normal billing rate I could've bought a fleet of SMBs, but I suppose that's not really the point, or at least I keep telling myself that.........

I'm also proud of the GF; if you see a pic with girly hands in it, they're hers, not mine....

Still have the Element, it's a 2003, bought it new, best car I've ever owned by miles. Has everything I need and nothing that I don't need. My only gripe is that I wish the gas tank was larger. Initially the top of the steering wheel interfered with my view of the gauges (I'm 6'1"), but some creative milling of the tilt mech fixed that.

Made a fair bit of progress today, got the rear corner shelf thingies mounted and wired and made a trim piece for the rear section between them, in front of the rear doors. I used a leftover piece of original SMB grey velour for the trim piece, recycling!

I have LED map lights mounted to the bottom of the cubbies; I also plan to fabricate and mount some fixed down-firing LEDs to the bottom of these as well....it's never ending.

The rear AC vents work great; they are the factory vents from the headliner with their flanges milled off and attached to the front panel with VHB tape.

Here are a few pics:

[boywonder]

...and a few more pics....

I got busy and neglected to take a picture of the AC vent coming out of the cut headliner before installing the shelf........the first pic here shows the parallelogram cutout in the rear of the plenum for the AC vents taken through the rear vent hole, this crazy shape mates snuggly to the AC outlet of the cut/modified headliner. Sorry, it's hard to visualize and describe; next time I remove the shelf I"ll snap a few pics.

The shelf units are suspended from the penthouse rails with flat head screws. I drilled and countersunk the channels below the helper springs. While I had the helper springs out, I added thicker spacer blocks to them as well; went from 3/4" to 1 1/4". Minor help when lifting the top.