Celebrat......ions

Well, thanks to twisting my knee, and some fairly windy wet weather once in a while, I didnt get the Solar Panel and Electric Hook Up fitted as I had hoped. In fact Saturday, nothing was done as I had a photography job to do.

Not wanting the weekend to be a complete waste, and wanting to get 'something' done, I figured that the most useful thing to get done was finish the roof fan off so thatbit was useable.

I have been thinking for a few days now what I can use to make the cowling or spacer to fill in the gap between the van metal roof and the interior roof. It was about 6cm, without anything there, all the air the fan was producing was disappearing off in to the roof space and not being directed downwards.

Just as I was preparing to try and stand with my dodgy knee (yes it takes a lot of effort if I have been sat for a while :S) I was thinking dog bowls, with an idea to cut up a metal one if it was somewhere near the 230mm diameter, so asked Jen what size she thought they might be before I got up and measured :P, when she suggested the empty Celebrations plastic tub that has been on top of our dresser for..... erm a while :S.

Unbelievable, when I measured the wider lip of it that the lid clips to, it was around 240mm, perfect !, will sit just outside the hole in the roof. What was even better is that the main body of the tub was narrower and just right to fit the internal gap !

So, out came the Dremel, and my work for the day began :P.


The Celebrations Tin and Dremel !



After measuring 6cm all around the tub, I start cutting !



Then I am left with two parts, the ring part is what I am going to use !



The next job was to cut some plastic sheeting to cover the hole left by removing the light fitting to fit the fan, if you remember, this is how it was left.



These are the two pieces to fit the oblong hole around the roof fan trim.



Once they were cut, I tried my Celebrations spacer to check it fitted. It Did !



Actually it fitted perfectly straight away, so I went ahead and screwed it in :)



Then screwed my two new panels either side. Dont forget, all this except the fan trim will be covered in the lining carpet I have ready to fit.



Then I just swung the fan trim round and screwed in to place and yay it was done !! :).


I put the fan on, (its still wired in to the lights and light switch until I put its own wiring in), and a lovely stream of cold air came rushing downwards, and I knew my Celebrations tub had worked :). This will be directly over the bed/seating area, so will be great if its really hot (yeah right) when camping in her :).

If you lie back and look up at the fan, you can see the red tale tale signs that a tub of Celebrations was used to fit the fan :). Wonder how many people will look up and realise the significance ;). Red is also the colour of my two teams, Bristol City and Manchester United, so Im very happy with how it all worked out :).



Well, as I was on a roll, and I had the plastic sheeting out, I decided to privatise the back, as in line the rear and rear side windows ready for the kitchen to be built around them.

The plastic is really easy to cut, I use a jigsaw, and I quickly cut some rough rectangles to size, they wont be seen, and screwed them in around the windows.






This side took some nifty manoeuvering to get it behind the hoist which sat slightly inside the window frame, but the plastic is quite pliable, and bent around and behind eventually.

The I started on the back windows, these were a little more tricky as they had some shape to them. I used a piece of tarpaulin and drew the shape as it was pressed against the frames, tyen cut out tye shape and used it as a template for the plastic, once cut, I had a little bit of trimming to do to get them to fit nicely, and eventually they did :).



This now means that once the blinds are down on the other four windows, the back is completely private, except for the small bulkhead window that is quite high up.


In my mind, things are really starting to take shape now and look more like the finished article, but you cant see whats in my mind, if only lol, so you probably dont see that yet ;).

I am so glad I got these couple of bits done, hoping to get more done very soon !

The only other thing I did recently I dont think I have put on here is fitted my switch box by the seating. The main body of it will be covered in the carpet, so only the front panel will be black.





Well thats it for tonight, hopefully some more progress real soon, so dont forget to pop back, and as always, please do comment ! I love to hear from you, especially if you are doing this yourselves, leave a link to your blog or album :).



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Location:Gloucester