What did you do to your SMB today?

[saabman]

Today built the sink and fitted the kennel for the dog

Later going to look at a second hand fiamma F45 awning

Check out:
My Chevy Project

[deminimis]

Well the fridge cabinet project just keeps going and going and going. Here is the back of the fridge cabinet as I found it. No frick'n wonder:


No, seriously, this is the insulation situation in the back of the fridge cabinet as I found it.


After several alternating layers of the reflectix stuff. This is an improvement:


Here I've managed to fit a 3' by 2' piece of dry erase/shower stall board into the gaping hole (although you'll never be able to see this area, I wanted to fit the board so as to help with insulation and to help keep the insulation in place).



You may notice some expanding foam underneath the panel. I used the foam between the board and some of the reflectix in various places to tighten up the new board (with pressure from the expanded foam) against the orig wall boards. I was careful to make sure there was no foam on metal or placed such that it could dam up any moisture. This AM, after the foam expanded all the way, and dried, I trimed it back nicely. The wall is firm and the orig rear wall is firmer than before.

[cellularSTEVE]

Finally got around to finishing the Aluminess rear bumper hinge screw upgrade. Put in stainless steel non threaded bolts. Also replaced the the plate that goes from the top of the tire carrier and box carrier to the top door hinge. One of mine snapped when we were in Death Valley.

steve

[deminimis]

Finally wrapped up the cabinet modification and fridge install. The fridge is very quiet. Very happy with this fridge thus far.

[scatter]

Looks good deminimis, nice job!!!
Now for the Baja test -

[deminimis]

Thanks BB. I think its Puertocitos-ready!!

If someone decides to do this swap (Norcold DE4100 (3.6 CF) to the Vitrifrigo (4.2 CF), its not bad, but be prepared to make some easy mods to your cabinet. You'll need to decrease the width of the cabinet opening by 1.25" on each of the sides (by adding molding, whatever -I made some 5/4 piences and glued and nailed strips of the dry erase boards to the face of them). If your former fridge was a Norcold DE0041, you may have to open up the height of the cabinet ( in my case by approx .5") if the cabinet opening is not to the same height as the upper Norcold molding/vent/trim. In my case, the upper front cabinet face dropped behind the Norcold Molding a little bit (approx the amount I needed to remove).The depth of the Vitrifrigo is considerably less than the Norcold, so no issues there. This fridge doesn't stick out as far as the Norcold did, so that's an added plus (since narrower and flush, you can more fully open the fridge door in less room (a biggie for me because the opposing cabinetry keep us from opening the Norcold to 90 degrees). This fridge does not have a drain (has a tray instead), so plug up the drain hole that goes through your floor if you have one. If you have rear AC ducts in the cabinet like I do, you may be able to re-route them along the sides of the fridge. That's what I did, but I had to squish them down to a 1.5" oval. No loss of duct volume, its just oval instead of round. Much better than before as the ducts were pretty pinched-down where the rear of the old Norcold and the curvature of the van wall met up. The seal is magnetic and the latch is positive locking. The trim is all metal which is great for really locking the fridge and cabinet together. God I love cold beer.

[Roubo]

Over rare spare moments the last few weekends, I removed the original headboards over the dinettes (that we bump the backs of our heads on when we sit up without slouching – like Mom told me to do). You can see the old head boards in my gallery. A photographer I’m not.

Built boxes to mount the lights, as well as the propane alarm, and thermostat that used to be in the middle of the board. Moved the Blue Sky controller from the head board and mounted it in a cabinet.

Covered the lower part of the bare van walls with some 1/8" ply, padded and covered with spare SMB fabric, and used 1-1/2" aluminum angle stock for the upper piece (the roof cutout protrudes out from the wall, necessitating the angle).

Everyone here’s real happy with the new headroom. For comparison's sake, the faces of the new light boxes are in the same plane, and are the same height, as the original boards. I’m told the headroom is better on the Fords, due to less wall curvature, but if you’re bumping your head, you can probably improve matters a lot.

One warning, though: have plenty of adhesive remover on hand. SMB sprayed everything, and I mean everything, behind what you normally see with contact cement, including all of the wiring, and you will get your hands covered in the stuff messing around in the innards of the walls.

These are the “after” pictures:

[NRL]

Originally Posted by Roubo

Over rare spare moments the last few weekends, I removed the original headboards over the dinettes (that we bump the backs of our heads on when we sit up without slouching – like Mom told me to do). You can see the old head boards in my gallery. A photographer I’m not.

Built boxes to mount the lights, as well as the propane alarm, and thermostat that used to be in the middle of the board. Moved the Blue Sky controller from the head board and mounted it in a cabinet.

Covered the lower part of the bare van walls with some 1/8" ply, padded and covered with spare SMB fabric, and used 1-1/2" aluminum angle stock for the upper piece (the roof cutout protrudes out from the wall, necessitating the angle).

Everyone here’s real happy with the new headroom. For comparison's sake, the faces of the new light boxes are in the same plane, and are the same height, as the original boards. I’m told the headroom is better on the Fords, due to less wall curvature, but if you’re bumping your head, you can probably improve matters a lot.

One warning, though: have plenty of adhesive remover on hand. SMB sprayed everything, and I mean everything, behind what you normally see with contact cement, including all of the wiring, and you will get your hands covered in the stuff messing around in the innards of the walls.

These are the “after” pictures:

Awesome MOD!
I have the same layout and I need to do mine. Did you reuse the material or get matching ones?

That's the biggest complaint I get from Mommy and Grandma is those headboards!
I don't know why they made it that way.

[Roubo]

I originally was going to reuse the end of the boards for the light boxes, but couldn't remove the fabric cleanly. The boards are covered with a multi-layer fabric, with the brown "velour" you see on the outside. It's glued to some foam, which itself has a fabric underside. By the time SMB glued and stapled everything to the wood, it's on for good.

The box material was scrap plywood laying around (Baltic birch with lots of layers). I could have torn off the material from the originals and used the wood, but I had some scrap Baltic birch plywood laying around and it has a smoother surface. This was just laziness on my part (taking off the fabric, even destroying it in the process, is a lot of work and then there's all the staples to pull).

I used 5/8" ply for the rear boxes, matching the original thickness, since the box fronts need to slide behind the panel flat against the end wall of the van and anything thicker would mean I'd have to do the end panel also. Used 3/4" ply for the front boxes. There's a 2" piece of pine bracing behind the boards, and that's reusable if you want to pull off the fabric, glue, and staples. Me, I hit the scrap pile.

The fabric was NOS, as SMB was kind enough to provide us with a couple of yards extra when we bought the van. I used some thin but dense foam padding that also was lying around - my garage is not a model of neatness - and glued that to the boards before covering with the fabric.

The snaps and fabric buttons were also most graciously provided by SMB.

The electric work was very simple. Most of the wires were long enough to allow me to relocate what I needed to without anything more than replacing the crimp connectors. Did have to extend the propane gauge wiring a foot or so.

All of the original stuff comes off by unscrewing, so you can disassemble everything without penalty. Watch out, though, because underneath each light plate SMB drove a long drywall screws through the board and into the van. You'll need to unscrew each light to get at these.

Most of the time was spent in fitting the covering pieces you see in the pictures. Neither side is identical, and I had to add angled mounting blocks behind the covering pieces to keep everything in the right plane. Probaby could do it in one-third the time now.

Before I started really going to town, though, I pulled off one headbaord and held a piece of cardboard along the wall to mimic the new headroom. I'm over 6' tall and I fit just fine, so your Mom and Grandma should do just fine. If I was a few inches taller, though, the top of my head would hit the underside of the cabinets, rendering the project a waste of time. No problem for the folks without the high tops and cabinets, though.

[saabman]

Fitted Fiamma awning! Yes at last some real stuff!

Check out:
My Chevy Project

Other wise tested the Galley Matt at the pump :