Blooper Buildout

Blooper Buildout 158 T1N Maxxfan install

Once the hole was cut out I clamped the flange to the roof and used it as a drill guide. I did the four corners first, bolting each one as I went then drilled the rest of the holes. I had already drilled the plywood backer frame. I deburred and painted the holes.




The view from inside. Notice the wider sections where the dimples had been.




I used butyl tape under the flange and 1" x 1/8" aluminum bar on top with stainless bolts and fender washers inside and out. That's the butyl squeeze out beside the flange. I scraped that off before I coated the whole flange assembly with self leveling sealant.




From outside.




From inside. I would make the inside frame larger if I did it again, it is only that narrow because that was the size scrap I had...

Blooper Buildout T1N ScanGuage install

I wanted to mount a Scangauge where I can see it without looking for it and so it doesn't block any dash display lights or gauges. I sat in the van and held it here and there till I could see it but not block anything. I had a roll of aluminum roof flashing in the garage , kinda thin but a crease would stiffen it up. Cut it out with shop scissors, radiused the corners to reduce finger bleeding and creased it over the edge of the workbench. Mounted the Scanguage to the metal with the supplied velcro tape and used double sided foam tape to stick the mount to the dash. Routed the wires with some adhesive backed cable tie mounts down the dash and under the steering column, coiling the excess near the OBD port and securing it all with more cable ties.

Looks good and I like seeing real time engine data. I will using it for fuel and trip data at the next fill up.

Blooper Buildout 158 T1N Solar Panel install

Time to put more holes in the roof! I went the Graphite Dave route of one big solar panel, the same industry standard 1 meter x 1.64 meter size used on building roofs. Less expensive per watt to get high quality panels, fewer connections and simpler install. The deal breaker was shipping. Online sellers either had minimum quantities or high shipping fees for one panel. Local solar suppliers are geared towards whole roof subsidized installs. The best deal was through a commercial electrical supplier, Platt Electric. They sell mainly to the trade, contractors and builders but also sell to the public. Large selection, good prices and no shipping if I picked it up at the local warehouse about a mile from my home. A black framed 310 watt LG panel for about $300. Approximately 30 volts at 10 amps, 18.9% efficiency. The frame is an extruded rectangular box section, light and rigid.
Another mile down the road is Seattle's "Online Metals" warehouse. I ordered up some pieces of 2"x3/16" aluminum angle and flat bar. Cut 6" sections with my regular woodworking 10" chopsaw and a cheap Amazon metal cutting blade. Filed the sharp edges and used a drill press to make the holes. The panel has factory mounting holes about a quarter way down each side and the 2" angle made the base of the mounts wide enough to clear the roof ribs that are about 1 meter apart.






Got some help lifting it into place and marked the locations of the feet and hole, moved the panel a foot forward and drilled the holes. Applied a patch of Sikaflex with a caulk gun where the foot would rest and re-positioned the panel. Ran the bolts through from the top, inside the van and through 6" x 3/16" x 2" backing plates.

Blooper Buildout 158 T1N Solar Panel install

Before mounting the panel I extended the MC4 wires with 10 gauge wire and mounted the wire and connectors to the back of the panel with 3M 3340 HVAC tape.



Once the panel was up I used a Greenlee Slugbuster to punch a 7/8 hole in the roof, primed and painted then inserted a rubber grommet. I used Sikaflex to mount a pass through box and once the adhesive was dry ran the 10 gauge extension wires into the van, snugged up the watertight fittings and gave them a coat of Sikaflex.



Ran the wires down a roof rib and then into a window pillar space and a section of Smurf tube.



That tube comes out behind the diver rear wheelwell where the 8D battery will live.



A birdseye view of the finished product.





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I think Hein's stick on VHB pads would be a good way to go but I have concerns about the T1N paint bonding to the van metal. What I ended up with is bombproof and simple. I have 1.5 to 2 inches of air space under the panel and still reasonably low visibility from the ground especially when I get around to painting the silver feet black. The panel made a big difference in interior heat by shading a large section of the prime area we use.

Does look a bit familiar.

I used the same brand panel because it has a tubular frame. Used the same existing mounting holes for the 4 feet. I did use 14 ga. SS for the angles between the roof and the angles bolted to the bottom of the panel angles. Used the SS angles because they could be bent slightly over 90 degrees to match the roof curvature. Also only use one bolt through the roof for each foot.

Since Transit roof is thinner than the Sprinter roof I had to add four wood stringers between the roof ribs inside the van because my mounting hole locations were not close to the roof ribs.

Nice simple installation. No need for a 80/20 framework like I had on the sold Sprinter.

More info:

http://www.ortontransit.info/solar.php

Blooper Buildout 158 T1N Fiamma Awning install

We wanted an awning on our Sprinter. The same shipping issues came up that we had with the solar panel. About $200 to ship from Fiamma in Florida clear across the country to Seattle. I looked around for a local distributor and found Panther RV in Washougal WA. They sell mainly to upfitters and manufacturers but also sell to the public. Worth looking at their site, they also sell Dometic and SMEV sinks and appliances.
Washougal is right down on the border with Oregon, on the Columbia River. Just happens to be near Hein and his Thinsulate stash... Figured I would make a trip out of it and save two shipping costs. Here is that adventure thread.
https://sprinter-source.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56762

Anyway back to the Fiamma awning install. I bought a black 3 meter F45S and used the standard brackets it came with. Did a bunch of checking and rechecking of locations for the brackets and the awning so the coverage would be right, it would fit and the leg would line up with the 'B' pillar

The T1N roof in the first section above the gutter slopes back from vertical 15 degrees. And it's curved... The brackets work by hanging the awning over a lip at the top then using a bolt through the bottom flange to actually hold the awning secure. However the brackets are almost exactly the height of the first roof section and the gutter sticks out far enough to interfere with the mounting hole on the bottom flange. Here is a schematic of the bracket.




Cut some beveled pieces of 19mm Celtec expanded PVC and used VHB tape to mount it to the bracket.




Added another thin slice to help with the curve of the roof.




Pre drilled the Celtec on a drill press, shimming the tapered end to get holes perpendicular to the bracket face.
Held it up and Used a shim to raise it off the gutter slightly while I drilled the holes. Did the first one, put a bolt in and did the second one. Sketchy but it worked. Put painters tape an 1/8 out from the edge of the bracket. Removed brackets and primed, painted holes.



Using a caulk gun I applied a pad of Sikaflex and mounted the brackets. My wife bolted them up from the inside using the supplied backing plates. Used a putty knife to scrape away the excess adhesive and peeled of the tape.

Blooper Buildout 158 T1N Fiamma Awning install

After waiting for the Sikaflex to cure We mounted the awning on the brackets. Despite all our planning we still had to redrill a hole in the front bracket lower flange because the pivot mechanism interfered with the factory locations. Not a big deal but something else to consider on your layout for mounting locations.




Works great and looks great!




The inside view of the forward bracket shows that we maxed out without moving forward of the B pillar. The leg has enough swivel to meet the pillar for when we add the lower leg brackets.




An overview. We wanted a 3.5 meter but Panther kept saying they were "2-3 weeks out" so we opted for the 3 meter they had in stock. Turned out to be a good choice, only days after buying the awning production was shut down because of a work place shooting at the Florida Fiamma plant... Prayers to those people.
You can see that there is enough room for a 3.5 meter version.

Sub'd! What a great write up so far!

Blooper Buildout No Sew Insect Curtains

We needed some insect screens for our trip to see the eclipse at the end of the week. I bought 2 yards of 54" wide no-see-em netting from Seattle Outdoor Fabrics. They have a good web site too. I used "fusible interfacing" tape, sort of like iron on VHB tape for fabric to join it together.




I cut the 2 yard length into two 1 yard sections and draped each of them over a door top.



Then used laundry pins to hold the fabric in position. At the inside corner by the mirror the clothes pins would not work so I made a dot with a sharpie that left a mark on both layers.

Blooper Buildout No Sew Insect Curtains

I set up the ironing board in the garage and followed the tape manufacturers instructions. It has paper backing, iron it down in position on one piece of fabric then pull the paper liner off, place the second piece on top and iron it together. I used the fabric fold at the top edge and taped/ironed the front and rear edge. The bottom of the sack is open to sldie over the door top.






Test fit it, then cut the excess away.




I used neodymium fridge magnets to hold the bottom in position.



Looks bug tight, in the future I may cut out the inner layer and use elastic tape to tension the back side. That way I'm not pulling air through two layers for no reason...

Sail tape works well for edging, reinforcement, and patches. It has the advantage of not requiring a sewing machine. Can also repair awning rips, and even holes in upholstery.

http://amzn.to/2vyEslU

http://amzn.to/2hERrwy

Sail tape

That is a great idea, I will add some to the emergency kit.

Blooper Buildout T1N Thinsulate install

On my awning adventure I stopped in Hood River Oregon and met Hein and Kim, checked out their Sprinter build and bought some SM 600 Thinsulate. We went with Thinsulate because of it's sound dampening qualities and hydrophobic nature. It was expensive but the results are very good. Our van is a windows all around passenger van so being extreme about thermal insulation did not make much sense. That is what the Espar is for!

Marking a line with a sharpie ended up with a sharpie that looked like a q-tip. The tip collected a wad of fibers. Making a row of dots worked better. I cut 5 foot long strips off the end of the roll with good scissors and started filling beams and voids that would be harder to reach after the main areas were done. Most of these areas were held in place with friction or a little squirt of 3M 90 under an edge after installing the insulation.



The roof sections are just under 5' so easy to do in one stripe. I draped dropcloths over the seats and dash to avoid overspray and used a piece of cardboard as a shield to limit the spray area. I sprayed tacked up the first foot and and then sprayed and attached in 2' sections across the roof. Huge difference in heat coming off the roof as the job progressed.





The wall sections are all filled with uniform width strips. Here you can see the solar panel extension wires in smurf tube coming into the left rear corner where the battery will live and an additional large smurf tube for future use.




Most of the van walls are glass or will be covered in cabinets. Only the first section aft of the slider and the first section aft of the driver seat will be exposed paneling. I added a second layer in those areas.



I insulated the lower section of the rear doors and the slider but could not fit any in the front doors. Too little room for the SM600 between the rolled down window and the door sheet metal. Below the window mechanism was wide enough but looked like it would get wet a lot so I left the doors uninsulated for now. Maybe closed cell foam later... I did put Noico butyl sound dampener in those areas and really helped quite them down.

Blooper Buildout T1N Thinsulate install

The results are outstanding. The van is super quiet and solid sounding now. I would use less butyl rubber sound dampening in areas that will be covered with Thinsulate next time. The Noico was reasonably cheap and easy to install and worked where the Thinsulate did not. Without doing a science experiment it's hard to separate out what would be the optimal combination. However the result is exactly what we wanted.

Thermal insulation is also good, here are some temp readings on a typical Seattle summer day, about 74 degrees F outside, around noon, van parked in the sun, doors closed, vent fan lid open but not turned on and front door windows down 2" behind Weathertech deflectors.

Random hard plastic part inside the van away from the windows and walls shows only 10 degrees above outside temp;




Inner side of roof beam;




Thinsulate;




Shows how important some sort of thermal break between the roof beams and ceiling material is going to be.

I used neoprene tape 3x60 mm on all the ribs before putting up the ply walls & ceiling. I figured that iras well as making a thermal bridge it would create a moisture proof seal as the ply was vinyl lined as well

Blooper Buildout T1N Espar under seat install

Well after several months of rewiring and replumbing my house and finishing the basement I am back at the Sprinter. I am going to install a Espar D2 under the passenger seat. While I am working on the front of the interior I will also install a 12v outlet on the top of the dash and a RAM mount for my GPS. I am also going to up grade the speaker system to separate tweeters in pods on the dash and 6" speakers in the new overhead storage shelf I going to install. Plus my temperature controls are stiff and have two burned out bulbs.

Since it's winter here in Seattle that means rain. Lots of rain. Unfortunately my garage is not tall enough for the van.




First thing was to remove the seats.



Then demo the dash to get the temp control pod out.




Pod on the work bench awaiting disassembly.

I like your build, nice work

Don't forget to clean the small vent and fan on the middle right of the AC head unit. That is where the temp sensor for the unit is located.

Blooper Buildout T1N Espar under seat install

Started on the Espar D2 install.

My main inspirations were:

Midwestdrifters install;
https://sprinter-source.com/forum/showpost.php?p=411272&postcount=67

Whistle Pigs install;
https://sprinter-source.com/forum/showpost.php?p=599246&postcount=45

And mtnick's;
https://sprinter-source.com/forum/showpost.php?p=490805&postcount=21

Like mtnick I wanted to avoid a swirl of ducting under the seat but I came up with a different way of doing it. Steinbruchsoldat's amazing build thread (Ski Basecamp, 313CDI 4x4 T1N) introduced me to the world of Eberspacher fittings available in Europe. Some googling around led me to Butler Technik in England where I found a 90 degree end cap and a 90 degree elbow. The end cap fits in place of the stock funnel shaped end and can mounted for up,down,left or right output.





There is very limited room to fit the heater under the seat in a T1N because of stuff below the floor. I went in and out and under many times to check and settled on the spot. I used the black rubber drain port in the under floor wire run depression as a reference and could measure from that both inside and under the van. I loosened the exhaust heat shield and slid it to the side to get into the right area.
Because space is so limited under the van in this area I am using a mounting plate (also from Butler Technik) and attaching the D2 to the plate with the factory gasket then attaching the intake,exhaust and fuel line before installation in the van. I will use RTV to seal the plate to the fan floor.

I used the plate to locate the hole then cut a large opening.



Put the plate in position and marked for new holes to mount the plate since the original ones did not line up with the available under the van.



Here's what it should look like. I am going to move the wiring harness on the D2 from the left side close to the wall and have it come out on the right side to make hook up easier.

Good call with the positioning. I ended up reworking my ducting to reduce the number of bends. I am still glad I put my outlet higher off the floor, as shoes and similar stuff can block the outlet. A partially blocked outlet can mean air temps over 250F. I left my flip-flops in front of the heater once, and the left one still has a permanent curve due to the heat!