Don't know if I'll ever be "done". Already thinking of redoing the sofa bed. Couldn't weld when I first built it but now I can, after a fashion.
The biggest thing left is a cabinet of drawers along the passenger side wall between the sink and rear door. A place to store kitchen supplies/groceries and clothes. Was waiting until I could design a drawer latching method that I liked. Now that that's finally done the cabinet is back on the list.

 

I've a small project for the fridge. When I first installed the fridge I added a small electronic thermometer purchased on ebay. They are dirt cheap but with two main disadvantages. The readings are in Celsius and not Fahrenheit and they are battery operated. The Celsius readings are easy to get used to especially since this is for a fridge and the Celsius freezing point is zero. The batteries are a concern because they don't last long enough.

I'll start with the initial installation.

The temperature probe is on the end of a wire. I ran the wire through the grill then EVER SO CAREFULLY used a screwdriver to create a gap through the foam insulation along side the fridge cooling lines where they enter the body of the fridge. Then carefully side the temperature probe through this gap. The foam closed up and sealed the gap after the screwdriver was removed.







Used foil tape to cover the probe wire inside fridge. I made a slight adjustment after this picture. I moved the probe farther from the side so wall it would hopefully have a more accurate reading.




Reinstall the grill then cover the back of the thermometer with double sided tape and stuck it on the front grill.






How it looked when done.




That was 2 years ago. First problem was the tape didn't hold so I ended using a zip tie to hold it place. Second problem was battery Life. It was too short. Time for an upgrade.




Unmount the fridge from the van and haul into the shop. Remove the thermometer body from the grill. I don't want to mess with removing the probe from inside the fridge so I just cut the wire. Use a diamond coated file to carefully cut through the plastic grill.




Not done yet. I had to cut one more louver after this picture and even up the cuts on the right side.




Mount the thermometer in the grill. Looks good.




Now how to power it without batteries. First off check how much power it needs. I thought the the two batteries in the back of the unit were most probably in series. This takes LR44 batteries so that would give it 3 volts. Checked my assumption with a voltmeter. I was wrong. The batteries are in parallel. The unit uses 1.5 volts.




So I need to convert 12 volts to 1.5 volts. This is a LM317 Voltage Regulator. It has a range of 1.25 V – 37 V. It's voltage output is determined by the ratio of the two resistors in the picture.




When hooked up on breadboard it outputs 1.57 volts. Close enough.




Solder wires in place of the batteries.




Build the circuit and test it out with the thermometer. It's reading "Lo" since the probe is hasn't been reconnected.



Install back on the fridge. Here's Fox handing me the lead from the temperature probe so I can join the wires back together. I soldered them to get the least resistance in the splice.




The circuit board has to be insulated from the surrounding surfaces so I'll build it a small box. Keep my left over acrylic pieces for times like this.






Secure the circuit box in place with foil tape. When the LM317 is in operation it will convert the excess voltage to heat which must be vented. Since the thermometer draws just a little current there shouldn't be that much heat in this application but I've still left a couple of vent gaps in the top of the box.



Use taps to get power for the circuit board from the fridge plug.




Mount the fridge back in the van.




Let it run for a couple hours.




Success.

 

Just change your name to MAcGyver.....LOL

 

Nice work on the fridge! I am thinking of the same setup but having the fridge below the countertop since I still need a larger area for cleaning and filleting any fish I catch on the weekends and then of course having a place to fry them up. Any one else do this? I'd love to see some pics of their setups.

 

Great work on the small regulated supply for the temperature probe.

Just FYI:

Be sure to check calibration against a known accurate thermometer. Changing the input voltage MAY change the accuracy of the unit.

Carry on.

 

Yeah but MAcGyver never had a cat or two for a sidekick.

Thanks guys.

This past Saturday and Sunday the power was out in my section of town for around 19 hours due to a snapped pole.

This picture is from Sunday morning. The orange wire is the extension cord that runs from the van's inverter then upstairs to my home's refrigerator. Just got done mowing the lawn and cooling off by parking myself in front of the Endless Breeze fan in the van. The solar panels were still making more power than I'm using.



Have I ever mentioned the fact that Hal The Van RULES!

 

You RULE, WVVan.

I remember in a power outage and serious storm almost 10 years ago we cooled off in our van and watched the crappy little lcd TV the converter put in to see what the deal was with the weather.

Had an old Turtle Top with a propane heater and when our son was an infant, we could go to an outlet mall with Grandma and Grandpa and live in the van in the parking lot while we took turns shopping. And 70 mph diaper changes on the floor in that era.

And me sleeping in the van on campouts while the Boy Scouts only had tents

So yeah, I've had those kinds of experiences. My BIL still has the 12 volt fridge that came in my '73 E200 Turtle Top camper van. I've had 2 Turtle Tops (the E200 and '86 GMC 2500) and the concept was cool but their execution was hilariously tacky and cheap.

Lots of memories,
George

 

Thanks George.

Sofa-Bed upgrade.

This is one of those jobs I've been meaning to get to for a while. When I started with the van the sofa-bed was one of the first main projects. Couldn't weld back then so everything was bolted or glued together. It's held together surprisingly well over the years but could use a upgrade. Here's the back-board and seat-board parts of the sofa-bed removed from the van.



You can see the two hatches built into the seat-board. These were as large as I could make then and still have the frame support my weight. I'm going to replace this with a metal framework that will provide better access to the space underneath. The back-board is still working well so don't see a need to replace it.

Use 3/4" x 3/4" x 1/8" angle iron for the frame. It costs locally $0.62/ft. Measure, cut and weld the frame.



It's nice having the seat-board to use as a guide.



Add 1-1/2" flat metal across the center and pieces at each corner to bolt to the slider supports. The square metal tube that's partially painted is part of the previously improved driving mechanism. It's what connects the seat-board, now the seat-frame, to the linear actuator. I never fully covered the upgrading of the sofa-bed mechanics/electronics from a while back. Have to remedy that sometime.



Next weld on two metal pads along the side for the hinges. The original all wood configuration had four hinges but I'm betting two will now be enough.



Line up and mark placement of the new hinge location on the back-board.



Cut out the hatches from 1/2" thick plywood. They have to be notched to clear the hinges.





Create hand holds for each hatch.





Sand smooth.



With all needed holes drilled in the metal and cuts done in the wood there is only one thing left and if you've been following this van project for any length of time you should already know what's my next step.



PAINT IT ALL WHITE.



Install in the van.







Makes a big difference in ease of access.



Sofa-bed folded flat.



With the cushions installed. In the next posting I'll probably write about the cushion and covers.



That's it, except for some bouncy-bouncy to test my handiwork.

 

Let the test begin!

 

Rust never sleeps

One of those jobs I've been putting off. Previously patched these parts of the van but at the time the best I could do was use Bondo, fiberglass patches and pop rivets.







I'd obviously left this go far too long but could never seem to find the time. It didn't help that the weather around these parts was near daily rain through the whole Spring and most of the Summer. When the first week without rain finally arrived I took some time off work and started in on this project. As is usual, didn't know what I was getting into.

My tools were a hammer, screwdriver and angle grinder with a wire wheel.











The more I dug the worse it got. When I stopped there wasn't much left between the "C" pillar and the wheel well.



I didn't proceed farther up the rocker panel to see how much more needed replaced since I was already feeling a bit overwhelmed by what was in already front of me. Or more to the point, no longer in front of me.

Never previously having done any real sheet metal work before I wasn't sure what thickness to use. I'd ordered a four pack of 3'x3' sheets of metal from Onlinemetals in thickness's from 18 to 24 gauge. Figured I use whatever felt the right thickness.

I took measurements from the opposite side of the van to see where the lower edge of the wheel well should be used that to created a posterboard template.

Since this was a mostly straight piece I used the 18 gauge sheet for this part since it was the stiffest.





Locate where the bottom edge of the sheet should be.



Locate and drill holes to use two bolts already in place on the backside of the rocker panel.



Use a hammer to bend the sheet so it forms against the backside.



On the front side of the rocker panel I cut off what was rusted and using the other side of the van as a guide made another template. Since this piece will have a curve I'm using the 20 gauge sheet since it should be easier to shape.





Here's where it gets interesting. I have no experience with shaping sheet metal for body panels. The only trick I know is what I used when bending the the shield for the extra gas tank. Guess I try it here.

But first, say hello to my new tool. I finally bought a metal brake. Use the brake to create a bend for the edge that runs along the bottom of the rocker panel.



Then back to my old friends, a piece of angle iron and a ball peen hammer.







continued

 

continued ...

Use hand tools to bend the parts for the inside of the wheel well




Weld the back plate into place. And before anyone else mentions it, Yeah I know I'm a crappy welder.


Tack the front plate into place.


You'll notice Mistake #1 in the upper right corner. I wasn't aggressive enough in cutting out the partially rusted metal. I found out when trying to weld to what was left and the weld just blow right through the old metal. I cut some more out and made a small patch to fix this.



Mistake #2. DON"T OVER GRIND YOUR WELDS! This is the first time I'm welding sheet metal like this and in wanting to smooth out the welds I ended up grinding into the metal. It made a section so thin that I burned right through it when trying to re-patch it. Probably a common newbie problem.


In the photo above you can see lots of little holes in the weld line. I went back and fixed each one of those. Also note that the back and front plates are welded together at the bottom.



continued

 

continued ...

With the front and the back plate in place the end needs to be closed off. If you have a Ford van you probably know that the way the body is built that there is a recess just forward of the rear wheel well where the front and back parts of the body are joined. This is a perfect place for water and road salt to collect and cause rust. If you look at enough older Ford vans you'll see several with rust problems in the exact same spot as mine.

This looks like a design flaw to me so I'm not going to bother replicating it. I'll close the end off and try to make it flush with the front and back. Do it in two parts. The first part will be the lower section. I'm making these out of 20 gauge.






Weld in place.


I had help as I worked.


The second piece was going to be more difficult. It had to transition from the recess at the upper part of the wheel well to the flush part on the bottom without leaving a flat spot for debris/water to collect. With the way the inner fender is constructed I couldn't bend it to it's final shape and and still get a tight fit. Bent it as much as I could and still get it to fit in there then used the pointy end of a chipping hammer to keep banging away on the metal till it was formed to fill in the gaps on the inner edges.






Weld it in place.


At this point I grabbed onto all this new metal added to the van and started pulling and pushing on it. It was rock solid. Only then did I start to think I might actually be able to fix this.

continued

 

Are you using flux core to weld?

If so, that is not recommended for sheet metal.

 

No it's a GMAW welder. Had to have my 80cf tank refilled twice by the time I was done.

 

I would have hit the inside of that with por15 or rust encapsulator on the inside and weld through primer on the edges of metal that you're welding. Other than that I think you're doing a pretty good job and I love seeing the updates of your van. Really makes me wish I would've kept mine, my rust would have made your's look like a new car though