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Old 02-26-2018, 06:25 PM   #11
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No worries. Today I saw -- in the wild! -- another green Transit (a green LR passenger van), in Austin.

The only other green Transit I've seen in the flesh (in the steel?) is the maintenance van at the von Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, VT.

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Old 03-01-2018, 06:15 AM   #12
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I've read that there are high-zoot window tinting films that are designed to cut thermal gain significantly rather than just tint glass. One of the films is clear, and thus legal for windshields. And the Transit windshield is HUGE and probably the greatest culprit for the greenhouse effect. That may be on my March list, as I will be in Texas where fighting the heat is a sport.
I'd love a link to the clear tint---would be interesting for me since I'm actually in the auto/truck glass biz.

A product I use is from these guys who sell through eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/SILVER-Sun-...t-IkYxyOOu3RuA These aren't the cheapy crap found, they're quite robust in fact. They'd be great for when the van is parked for any length or time, fantastic for privacy.

If interested contact them for your specific van---they're quite accommodating to buyers.

Should you go that route avoid their "premium" versions---they're anything but premium apart from cost. I bought one and immediately returned it for one similar to the link.
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Old 03-05-2018, 11:39 AM   #13
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Step 2: the floor.

With luck, this will be the last mundane, excruciatingly dull build post: yes, yet another floor.

Ridley has a very standard and boring floor layer cake, beginning with ½” polyiso foamboard in the channels of the bare floor (beveled at 45 degrees and cut easily with a jigsaw), attached with construction adhesive (Liquid Fuze IT) to the metal floor to make the floor level. (Oops -- that’s not quite right: some of the channels were filled with ½” plywood glued to the van floor. These give something into which to screw the full plywood layer.)



Next up is a full layer ½” of foamboard with foil tape on the seams. Great Stuff was -- in theory -- squirted all around the foamboard edge to seal it up and lock it into place. This would have worked better if the GS can & nozzle had not exploded. That goop is the very devil to clean up.

Here is a before-mayhem photo; I don't have an after-mayhem shot.



Then a ½” of plywood was screwed through the foamboard to the strategically placed plywood pieces on the bottom layer; the sheets of ply were staggered so that the seams were not on top of the foamboard seam. I don’t have a picture of the plywood layer (and it wouldn’t be exciting anyway) so here’s a picture of my “shade tree workshop.”



The final layer is sheet vinyl, attached with horrible sticky vinyl adhesive applied with a notched trowel. Honestly, the stuff is like stiff butterscotch royal icing with an incredible sticky factor. And it goes everywhere. Everywhere. And sticks to everything. Everywhere.

And because I was playing pastry chef with royal icing on this layer cake floor, I used a rolling pin to go over and over and over the vinyl to make sure it adhered without air bubbles.

Finally, the edges were sealed with Silicon II caulk. It looks a little weird, but it is waterproof, and since all of the edges will be covered with cabinets or otherwise not visible, who cares about aesthetics?



Why sheet vinyl? In my last van I used Allure click-lock vinyl floor planks and had problems with buckling and shrinking as I moved between weather and humidity extremes. I am hoping that sheet vinyl will not have that problem while giving me a waterproof, mudproof, snowproof surface.

Note: Five months and some temp extremes (18*F to 110*F) later, there are no signs of bubbling or buckling.

Still remaining: the trim at the rear doors and the stepwell. My floor stack is a bit too high to use standard aluminum stair tread edging, so I have to go on to plan B (when I have a plan B figured out).

And I’m considering cutting an opening in the vertical wall of the slider step-well for convective airflow (paired with the roof fan), but I’m waiting for someone else to do it first. And that will dictate the vertical cladding for the step-well, which will dictate the trim for the step-well…..

So, that's the last of the preliminary mundane posts. Now on to the more interesting build!
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Old 03-06-2018, 05:59 AM   #14
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So, that's the last of the preliminary mundane posts. Now on to the more interesting build!
Personally I find most every detail about any build far from mundane or boring----lots of great ideas found in the smallest of details!
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Old 03-06-2018, 11:15 AM   #15
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Good start Meredith, I've wanted to try that type of flooring but haven't yet.
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Old 03-06-2018, 07:37 PM   #16
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Thanks!

I really like the vinyl flooring. Alas, about six hours ago I deeply scratched it as I stupidly dragged a heavy box across it and there was a screw trapped underneath the box.

Time to find a YouTube about how to fix scratched sheet vinyl ....
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Old 03-06-2018, 08:30 PM   #17
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Great job bud!
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Old 03-08-2018, 08:13 PM   #18
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You mentioned construction adhesive for the foam filler strips into the floor channels. Did you also use adhesive to glue the sheet of foam board down to the high points/filler strips? What about the plywood to the foam board sheet? Or did you just rely on the screws to sandwich the plywood and foam board down?

Your plan, before explosion, was to only use the great stuff on the perimeter of the foam board correct? And not as an adhesive within the sandwich?
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Old 03-08-2018, 08:42 PM   #19
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To clarify: The strips (foam or plywood) were glued to the van floor with adhesive.

The (pre-explosion) plan was that, after laying the solid foam floor without adhesive, the GS on the perimeter would lock it into place. In retrospect (or maybe making lemonade from lemons) this was probaby not necessary to secure the floating solid foam layer. But in theory it would fill in gaps between the foam and the wall...

So in the end, the plywood layer was screwed into the plywood strips in the first layer--through the foam layer -- sandwiching/trapping the solid polyliso layer. The caulk around the edge of the plywood is for waterproofing.

Five months later, still good! Very happy with the floor.
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Old 03-08-2018, 09:01 PM   #20
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Great, thanks.

And no squeaking? My plan was to rely solely on mechanical fastening (screws) through the plywood and the foam board but was a little concerned about potential squeaking. Most seem to use adhesive at every step along the way but this simply seems unnecessary to me. (And a nightmare if you ever have to take the floor back up)

Did you consider leaving the floor ribs open for air flow in case moisture were to find its way down there?
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