290 replies to this topic

[Hodakaguy]

Time to get the roof rack finished up so I can move back to doing inside work....

Next on the roof rack...close in these side gaps so you don't see the white bottom of the solar panel.  I'll also build some filler pieces that cover the gaps on each side of the solar panel for aesthetics reasons.

Here's the gap that I'll be fabricating a cover for on each side.





Dialing in the pattern with FAD.....Foam Aided Design :-).  I used the foam board to get a good fit up before transferring the pattern to Aluminum.




Pattern transferred to a sheet of 1/8" aluminum.  I was playing with design ideas here and had drawn in a few circles, I decided not to incorporate the holes as I have another idea that I'll add in down the road.




Steady hand and a Jig Saw.....cut baby cut.






Making the 2nd side.




Making some spacers with some 1/2" x 2" aluminum 6061-T6 stock.




Chop saw with aluminum blade made quick work of cutting the aluminum stock....nice and clean.






Head of a bolt makes a good tool to mark the corners before grinding.






Getting ready to drill the mounting holes.






Now to make up the solar panel end gap covers.  Starting with some nice aluminum bits :-)




You can see the gaps on each end of the panel in this shot that I'll be covering.




Drilling holes and using pop rivets to attach the aluminum angle to the aluminum sheet.  The angle will keep the aluminum sheet from panting in the wind, making it nice and solid.






Continued Below....

 

[Hodakaguy]

Continued from above....

Starting to assemble....




Tucking the LP9 wiring harness up under the solar panel.




Starting to assemble the side and top pieces.






Wiring all tucked up and in place.




Tidying up the wiring on the back side of the drivers side panel




Solar side gap pieces installed




I think the front looks better with the side panels installed....Done!






Took the van for a drive to make sure adding the new panels didn't cause any new wind noise....nope, perfect!





Next up I'm installing a Pelican case to carry our light weight camping chairs, ground cloth etc.   The case will be going right behind the solar panel as this area won't be utilized for much and its a perfect place to mount the case out of the way.  I'll always have our chairs ect with us everywhere we go.





I'm using the Pelican Storm Case IM3410.  These cases are super tough, water tight and lockable.  They also hold up well when left outside, I had a similar case on our Syncro and it was very handy!








I used stainless steel sidewalk bolts to attach the case to the rack.  I drilled holes through the case and used Sikaflex 221 to seal the bolts to the case to ensure the case stays 100% waterproof.




Quite a bit of storage inside for light weight items.




Double 1" fender washers on the under side, nice and solid.




The latches are easy to use and the case is lockable.  Handy setup!




One last chore for the day...Brakes.   For the last year I occasionally get a squeal from the brakes when stopping and it's driving me crazy.  I pulled the front pads on both sides, cleaned them, applied lube to the critical areas then applied some "Disk Brake Quiet" on the back side of the pads......took a test drive and it's nice and quiet now :-)



More to come...

Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

Heading to work this week......back roads in the morning.





Follow me on Instagram @Hodakaguy_Tom

Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

Out driving on Saturday I snapped another pic.  Not a lot of work this weekend on the van but I'll be back at it soon.



Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

Little work today....

Starting to add the lower L-track.  I will be using a combination of recessed and flat mount L-track since I'm going to re-use the plastic trim around the windows.

First up I need to trim the lip on the bottom side of the plastic so the L-track can sit flush against the metal.  A pair of sheers make quick work of this task.






Adding Plus Nuts to the horizontal recessed L-track.  This track will only be used to support the panels.






Prepping the L-track.  Here I'm recessing the holes in the flush mount L-track.










Starting to get there.  The Vertical flush mount track will support the bed frame eventually.  I'm tossing around ideas to finish off the ends of the tracks along with the upper edge of the horizontal track....I think I have it figured out, we will see :-)








Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

Working on the drivers side today.

Getting ready to install the horizontal L-track.




Drilling holes and installing the Plus Nuts....Using the Deburring tool to clean up the edges before tapping the plus nuts into place.   The Deburring tool has replaceable cutting tips, the shape of the tip allows you to de-burr both the outer and inner edges of the hole.   Great piece to have in your kit...available on Amazon here: CLICK HERE






Getting ready to tap the Plus nut into place and seat it.




I borrowed a pneumatic plus nut setting tool from a buddy of mine.  This tool is the cats meow!  Not only is this tool quick to use but it sets the plus nuts perfectly straight every time!  I'll post a video soon discussing the differences between Rivet Nuts and Plus Nuts and the different types of Installation tools.

The pneumatic tool...








Setting Plus Nuts..








Drilling and Installing the L-track.






Now on to the vertical piece of L-track.  Since I'm keeping the factory plastic trim around the windows I decided to use angled L-track for a finished look and wider mounting base for the L-track that will be mounted over the plastic.

Using the Aluminum blade to cut the vertical piece to size.  This blade makes quick work of cutting L-track and leaves nice smooth square cuts.






Here's where the Vertical track will be installed.  This will be one of the two front supports for the bed.




Prepping the track and drilling holes...








Continued Below....

 

[Hodakaguy]

Continued from above...

The plastic covering around the windows lets me install the L-track a little differently on these sections.  I used a Forester bit to carefully cut a larger hole in the plastic then drilled the hole for the Plus Nut in the middle of the larger cut out.  The head of the Plus nut is now recessed perfectly in the plastic and allows me to install the angled L-track without having to recess the back of the track for the head of the Plus Nut.  This allows for a stronger overall installation.








Plus Nuts Installed....






And installing the Vertical Piece of track.....Fits great!  The aluminum track conforms to the curve of the van as you tighten up the bolts, just start in the middle and work your way out.
















More to come.....

Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

Plus Nuts & Rivet Nuts. I made up a video showing the difference between a Rivet Nut & a Plus Nut...when to use each and an overview of the different installation tools.

Plus Nuts are super handy and I've been using a lot of them. I've been asked several times recently about the differences in a Plus Nut and a Rivet Nut so decided to make up a video and demonstrate the tools in action.

Note that the Pneumatic tool is now available under $200.

 

Youtube Video here:  CLICK HERE

Astro 1450 Plus Nut Tool: CLICK HERE
Pneumatic Rivet/Plus Nut Tool: CLICK HERE
Standard Rivet Nut Tool: CLICK HERE
Plus Nuts: CLICK HERE

Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

Finishing up the L-track today.

Here I'm getting ready to cut and install the lower portion of vertical recessed track that will capture the lower panels.




And I'll be cutting and installing the forward horizontal section as well.   I re-installed the OEM plastic pillar so I can cut the track for a snug fit.




And installed....








Hodaka Wife helping out today and installing the front Thinsulate insulation.  Hoping to re-install the front headliner next weekend.






Installing the power wires that will power our portable chest refrigerator.   Here I'm using the factory installed speaker wires as pull wire to pull in the new Marine duplex wire.






As I pulled up the new wire I taped some old telephone wire to the marine wire so that I could use the telephone wire as a pull wire to pull the factory speaker wires back down into place.






Loom installed.  The power port for the fridge will sit in the rear section of the forward panel.




This is the power panel I fabricated for the fridge power.  It has a Blue Seas Marine cigarette plug on the top and a Powerlet port on the bottom.  






Went through and applied wire loom to all the ceiling wires.  The wires are already double insulated but the extra measure can't hurt.




More to come....

Hodakaguy

 

[Hodakaguy]

Daily update.....

Headliner back from the upholstery shop...recovered in automotive tweed.




Running wiring for a future dash cam and led lighting.  The upper headliner area will have a shelf and bulkhead along with LED lighting inside of the bulk head.




Installed....looking good!








My buddy Mike at VanLab starting on the paneling.   Paneling you say?....wait a minute....didn't you say that you already built and installed the overhead panels?   Well that would be true, but Mike and I got together and decided to tweak a few things to make the fit up even better so we decided to remake the panels.   Here Mike is test fitting the forward center section before covering.  The track is hanging loose in this pics, they line up once tightened up.




More to come....

Hodakaguy