So I thought I would write a quick post to fill you in on the 'little' things. Well, the little things and an amazing thing !
A couple weeks before Christmas, I used the roll of tint I bought from a tinting garage, and tinted the new windows in the back. Wow, what a difference ! When I did the back windows, it took ages with a heat gun trying to get them to adhere around the edges where the raised pattern was, the type you get on bonded windows. So I was dreading doing the new bonded windows. For the back ones I bought a small roll of tint from ebay, it came retail packed and from China, and as far as I knew, no different to any other tint. If you go back through the posts, you will find a timelapse video ofme fitting it.
Anyway, this new pro stuff, was £28 for a 10 meter roll of Limo Privacy tint, and was VERY different to use, it went straight on, stuck over the pattern without any problem, didnt have to use a heat gun at all !
Took me less than 15 minutes a window. They aren't perfect, I still haven't mastered the art of getting the windows REALLY clean beforehand, but they are good enough.
As you can see, not full of bubbles, and looking quite smart ! Did both sides, and am now a lot more confident when it comes to doing the remaining 4 windows, I should have enough tint left for them all too !.
Since then, I have replaced the speakers too. There are 2 in the roof in the back, and 2 in the dash in the cab, the rear ones are 4" speakers, and when I took the old ones down, the speaker cones were in bits, I'm surprised they made any noise at all ! The same with the ones in the dash, which are 5" ones.
I didn't go mad with the speakers, they are only to listen to the radio, so got them from Maplins. The 4" ones were £12.99 per pair, and the 5" ones were £14.99 a pair, can't remember what power, something like 80watts, good enough for the radio.
The dash ones were a little bit of a pain, as not much room under the dash, but managed ok. No more buzzing and distortion when someone with a deep voice talks on the radio yay ! :)
Ok, now for the amazing bit !
In traditional fashion, Jen decided to buy Nina a present rather than me ! This time, she bought Nina A BIG SOLAR PANEL to go on the roof :). Its a 100w model, roughly 4ft x 2ft, came with the fitting kit including the wiring, mount brackets and regulator. On a sunny hot summers day when the sun is out the whole day and Nina is parked so that the sun is hitting the panel, it should easily recharge one of my 70ah batteries fully from flat in one day, but with our weather in the UK, its more likely to just top the batteries up a bit, and keep them with charge in when Nina isnt being used. VERY pleased, thank you Jen ! xxx :)
So, yet another job that will need doing, once I decide where my batteries are going to be, once the rest of the windows are done.
Just before Christmas, my friend Rich accidentally bought himself 2 inverters from ebay whilst bidding from his phone, something about a dodgy 3g signal ! Anyway the upshot was that he only needed the one, and asked if I'd be interested in the other before he tells the seller he didnt want it.
They were Durite modified wave inverters, 1500w. Max at 3000w, but being modified, will give a constant 1500w, which will run a LOT of things :). These inverters still sell now, and are £400 new most places, got mine for a bargain £82 :).
This is it, its definately 'used', its been in a van, but works perfectly and the Durite inverters have a very good reputation for reliability. Good clean up and bolted in the storage area and jobs a good un :)
I think the next BIG buy now is the seating/bed cushions, which will be around £250, other than the windows which are around another £500, so getting there slowly. Its a shame the windows needed replacing, but I am determined to get it all done properly, so that all my hard work isn't ruined by water trickling in.
So, Nina is doing well for presents, and even though it doesnt look like it, progress is taking place bit by bit.
She had to be brought in to service a few weeks back, one of our Animal Ambulance vans died on us, it had done 174,000 miles, and we decided it was time to get something a bit younger, so the week it took us to find one, Nina had to step in as the second Animal Ambulance, and collect dogs for walking etc. She performed faultlessly ;).
One last thing, a while back I bought a couple of LED halogen replacement bulbs to replace the power hungry halogen bulbs that are in the door spotlights, they are fitted above the door openings and come on with the sidelights, ensuring that there is plenty of light to allow you to enter/exit the doors without problems.
The one on the side door will also make a good awning light as its aimed slightly outside the side door.
I did think about removing them completely, then realised that actually, they are quite useful. :)
So, the idea was to cut the old halogen bulb holder out, and somehow fit the new bulbs in, which are a completely different fitting, new ones are like the headlight halogen bulbs you get in cars, but made up with lots of cree led lights around where the halogen glass would be.
It was a bit of a fiddle and involved some soldering and chopping, but managed it.
This is with the new LED bulb fitted and the old halogen and bulb holder removed.
These next photos are with it all fitted back up in Nina again and showing the spread of light, which is brill from LED ! :) Perfect and hardly any power drain. All I need to do now is the one for the back doors, and supply with a different power source and switches so they can be switched on as needed seperately. At the moment they both come on when the sidelights are on and the door is opened.
Well, thats pretty much it for the time being, lots of plans still, and definately not forgotten, hoping to get the interior finished in 2013, so should have been tried out at least once by next Christmas, I would hope so anyway. ;)
I have been watching the stats for this blog, and its brill to see around 30 page views a day at the moment, even without a recent update.
I'm guessing that means there are loads more of you out there converting too ! Please do leave a comment with your blog address if you are writing one too. I love to look at fellow converters adventures !
See ya soon ! :)
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Location:Gloucester
