The Little Grey Van Part 3

Le Petite Van Gris

Part 3

Lock down continues and although not going out on the bikes or in the cars restricts what I can report on we are having virtual car and bike club meetings to keep in touch and I started the LE. It is the only bike I can ride at present.

In between Gita and I have been exercising every day for an hour to help fill in the day and I have launched into garden projects like finding somewhere to store garden tables and chairs to free up patio space to have more pot plants even to the extent of creating a plant trough for tomatoes and beans topped off with extending the irrigation system to cope with daily watering.

Now back to the van, the interior lights have been fitted into the roof support beams and wired them in. not a simple job as I had to drill the holes laying on my back and getting hot swarf assaulting me in the process. At the same time I made some vents in the two outside beams to let hot air out and these have simple controls to blank the exit ports off. I have started rubbing down the undercoat that I put on a few weeks ago and that is hard work. 

I fitted one tail gate switch but its position made it vulnerable so decided that a long lever microswitch would be a better option. It was a challenge to wire in the ten LED spot-lamps into the van roof beams and get the set up working. Three sets of lights when needed and two sets for when the tailgate is opened. Along with this I have made two consoles for the rear upper corners that contain power sockets and a USB port. The left one has two switches in. One for power to the sockets and the other is the interior light switch. We may be sleeping in the van so I wanted a convenient way to turn off the light. I have also been preparing a wiring harness to the rear of the van that will run along the chassis. I will use the mounting bolts of the tail light clusters as earthing points and have a 40amp cable to it. There will be no earth to the chassis at this end of the van.

The rear light cluster has been interesting in that it is an after market LED set up and having had all the light fitting holes filled I have a blank canvas on where I could put things. There is a degree of symmetry that makes things look right. There is a fitting problem in that around the tailgate things that stick out need to be avoided one that they will get damaged and they hurt when you hit them. I have chosen slim flush fitting units for that reason. There are still loads to do before I get around to working on the engine. I have an oil cooler somewhere that I can fit when I find it having sheered the pipes removing it so I could get to the plate behind it to clean it up and give it a coat of paint along with the rest of the engine cowlings. All have been cleaned up and painted. The garage looks like the hanging gardens of spare parts.