I took it off a long time ago now, and it has been used to store junk since.
I think I was putting it off because I had attempted once before to remove the old black carpet that was on it, but it proved to be VERY stuck on with glue and staples.
It had to be done though, so I spent a good hour removing the vents, which were glued in with black silicon and very hard to cut away, even before I thought about removing the carpet.
Next the carpet came off piece by piece and then I removed all the old staples. Obviously staples weren't subject to a budget when used and I removed over 50 of them in a small piece of board. They had done their job though and the carpet had stayed put for many years.
Once all removed, I gave the board a good brush to get rid of all the loose dust, carpet fibre and old glue.
Placed it on the table on top of a piece of new carpet and proceeded to cut the carpet out and start gluing.
I had just finished cutting all the slits for the curves and bends around the edges, when I realised I had placed the board down the wrong way, back to front, and the new carpet I had just cut to its specific size was now useless !!
The fresh glue turned out to be very good, Screwfix No Nonsense Contact Adhesive, it took some vigorous pulling and tugging to remove the new carpet from where I had just stuck it.
Hey, at least I hadn't gotten as far as offering it up to its hole to fix in to place !
Old new carpet dumped and new piece of carpet cut to size, the right way this time, and I glued the edges down. The new carpet is quite thick, and if you don't allow the glue some setting time before you apply the carpet, the stiffness of the carpet meant it was just popping back up each time so re glued it and waited a good few minutes for the glue to become really tacky. Once it had, the carpet folded over and stuck pretty firmly.
Once it was all glued in to place it was time to turn it over and put the vents back in. Because the carpet was glued through the vent holes beforehand, I didn't need any silicon to fix the plastic vents in to place, just popped them through their holes lined with carpet and they stuck firm. Think they call that an interference fit ;).
It looked great when done, the black contrasting with the new sand coloured carpet lining.
Offered it up to its hole in Nina and screwed it on with brand new screws, made such a difference and really tied that end of the conversion up.
Another job out the way ! :).
It was time to start thinking about the floor, another job I was dreading because all along I had intended on removing the metal runners in the floor used to secure stretchers/gurneys and wheelchairs, then I had decided to remove the whole of the old floor and start again with insulation so that I didn't lose any height.
On looking at all the bolts that held the runners going through the floor, ensuring a good solid fixing the trolley wheels, I decided against removing any of the old floor and just fixing a new floor over the top, which yes meant I would lose about an inch in height, but after building a section of the floor up by and inch and standing on it, my hair still didnt touch the ceiling so I made an executive decision to keep it, adding to layers for insulation, and just building the new floor over the top.
More on that next time ;).
Location:Gloucester
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