Diary Of A Camper Conversion
Somewhere in my history I picked up some sprung loaded cabinet hinges so today I tried to fix them to the over cab locker door. With the thickening panels glue having dried overnight I marked them up and screwed the hinges into place before using some quick clamps to hold the whole thing up while I attach them to the van.
Unfortunately the inbuilt springs are not strong enough to support the weight of the panel door, even without carpet on it. And because they are built with a special linkage they also do not hold the door in the correct location when closed. The door is cut slightly smaller than the opening so that when it is carpeted it will be able to close but the linkage pools the panel up to the top of the hole and so it is distractingly off-center. In the end I took them off and will have to find some alternative hinges..
Just as I was setting up to start carpeting, big Joe came down the hill for a chat. In the course of showing him progress on the van I explained the problem I have with accessing the sliding door panels. I said that I really need some help to take the door off as this would be the easiest way to get to the panels to be able to carpet them. Very kindly, he agreed to help me lift the door off and so with a bit of grunting and spannering it came free.
I then took off the panels and found I’d done a pretty good job of matching the contours of the van. I first marked up and drilled the holes where I’d need to screw in later and then started carpeting. Dark grey on the bottom and lighter grey on top, just because it adds some interest.
In other vans I’ve seen people carpet directly onto the door when in place. This means you don’t see the fixings which I really like, but you then get a raggedy carpet edge which I really don’t like. So by carpeting them off the van and wrapping over the edges I get a nice neat edge. I’ve found the best way to tidy up the rear side and get rid of the wrinkles is simply to let the glue dry a bit and then use a sharp blade and just cut them off. Seems like cheating but it works brilliantly. However, carpeting the panels off the van and then screwing them in place, you will then see the fixings. To make them as unobtrusive as possible I’m using tiny black dome headed screws that completely disappear into the dark grey carpet. They are visible in the lighter grey but very small so hopefully won’t be too distracting.
The only trouble I had putting it all back together was finding the screw holes that were now covered in carpet! It took a bit of poking around but I got them in eventually.
I very quickly found out that I didnt have enough little screws for all the holes. So to avoid this problem again, I put them all in where I can’t reach them once the door is in place. This meant Joe could help me get the door back on today and I’ll get some more and put them in where I can reach later.
