Next up on the v2.0 list was my side mounted lights. I have a couple issues with them. One, they never really stayed put. I made these wooden brackets and glued magnets to them - door closing eventually jarred them loose. Hot glue lasts about a week on average.
The other issue I had with them is their current mounting position makes them as obnoxious as when they were in the van. They need to be angled down - the current plan is to stuff them in the top corner so they angle down at about 65 deg. Should still throw plenty of light and not be too in your face. I have still not figured out how I will mount them. Once I build the bracket I think VHB tape is the way to go - super glue, magnets and hot glue have all failed. My theory is the tape will absorb some of the vibrations.
After removing them the leads were getting short and I did not want a ton of splices so I fitted some new longer leads. This will let me make all the connections inside under the headliner.
The wiring has become a priority for me as my headiner template is done - all of this upper wiring needs to be finished before I can finish the ceiling. Below you see the filler piece I made for the right hand side. It's not perfect but good enough to get a good fit on the finished piece.
Left side also in need of some tweaking but good to go. Materials courtesy of my sons Lego box lol.
Dropping the template was as scary as anything I had done on the van. So much time had been spent making it if it fell apart I was going to be less than happy. Of course I was solo but with a little luck I got it down without incident. Now that it was down I had no idea how to move it. It was a bit floppy and needed to go diagonal to come out. I made a make shift stretcher which didn't work out too well - in the end a 10' 2x4 screwed to one side worked just fine. I also spent a bunch of time reinforcing all the joints before I took it down, once down I did the same thing to the back side.
I had cleared out a basement room to build my ceiling but didn't want my template damaged in the interim. I mounted another 2x4 to the wall french cleat style to hang it.
It's gonna be there a while as I have some wiring and finish work to do before the ceiling can go up. Below is the material I settled on - 1/2" foam r3.3. I bought 4mm Coroplast ala Victory Vision but IMO it was way too flimsy. This stuff has decent strength but is brittle. My plan to add strength is to run an additional layer in between the roof ribs on the back side. This will also allow me to fasten 3 sheets together for a one piece look. Anything not securely fastened to my strapping will be a 1" laminate. This will also put my ceiling insulation at R6+ in addition to the Thinsulate. It will also have an air gap up there. Pretty psyched.
This is all gonna take some time as I have to rewire and mount my side outside lights first. I plan to add one and a switch in the back - it will sit between the two doors support thingies. I also have to wire two small strips of led in the ceiling.
Once that is done I plan to wrap the entire rear entry in stretch carpet - I may use the same for the headliner so it all matches. Once the rear is finished I can build and install the ceiling. Yay.
Gray ceiling, limited gray fillers to hide all the holes in the sides between the windows, etc - in the rear entry I want to transition to black half way down so it matches OEM. Long term I am thinking the lower panels will be foam board too finished in black.