Yeah, those patches are cheap options off of Amazon. I decided to call SMB and hit all the locations and Nancy at Indiana was the only one to return my calls and actually send me a couple of large patches of true material for free. I attempted to do a hand sew job but after going in an out of the van for a few passes I decided I'm just going to go the glue patch route. I've got some Gorilla fabric glue coming and will cut round patches from the material Nancy sent and deal with it from there.
I didn't ask about a full replacement, not a job I want to take on right now. After a lot of reading and talking to local shops I decided I'm going with a round glued on patch from the material Nancy sent. The canvas is in great shape and tears are extremely clean. No one local would do hand sewing and after my own amateur attempt I figured that was my best bet. Local shops also offered this as an option so I've got some fabric glue on order and will post my progress when it shows up.
Finally received my parts and am hoping to post some pics this week on progress, I have a quick question. The PH lights wire runs behind the driver and has an inline 10amp fuse. Does anyone know why or specifically what it's protecting? Just curious if I need it when I rewire the top.
That circuit is generally tapped off of the 30 amp protected 10 or 12 awg wire for the driver side. The reduction of wire size going to the top which was probably 18 awg, the 30 amp fuse for that circuit, would be to high to protect the smaller wire, especially considering the wire run is sandwiched between the top and ceiling panel.
Thanks greg, makes sense. I'm probably going to move that fuse to the back of the van and run the lights up with the brake light wires as I plan to install a dimmer switch to control two LED tracks and I won't have to run the wires across the entire roof front to back.
Finally have some progress to show. Tapped all the wiring in the back of the van on the same driver side circuit. The wires that run up from the rear passenger side will control the third brake light and the PH lights. I wanted to install a dimmer into the ceiling but the material was too thick so the dimmer switch will be in the rear passenger harness. The set of wires hanging off the back will be 12v sockets in the PH.
I'm planning to use a wire cover used on walls to cover the ceiling seam and tighten up the ceiling and will tidy up all the wires as well.
Linear Mode
