Congrats Craig! Sounds great! Any idea what foam board insulation
you'll be using? Lookign around at Lowes' I noticed that all the high
R-value stuff seemed to be the pink glass fluff. If you find boards
better than R-13, I'd love to hear-
ps- could you private email me with the mileage on the donor bus? I
know, probably rolled over, but curious b/c of the engine-
On Aug 9, 2008, at 9:56 PM, craig cowan wrote:

> Well today's progress was just astronomical. I started the day with
> a gutted
> van (But holes in the floor, and a few brackets welded in place. I
> ended the
> day with a fridge working on propane, EVERYTHING installed, and
> hardwood
> floors laid down. I even had time to do a little cleaning....
>
> Well by "Everything" installed, i mean everything is in
> place....but not
> necessarily working. I have yet to hook up all the wiring, as it's
> non stock
> and scary.... The plumbing is....dismal but necessary, a new pump
> will need
> to be procured, and since no power is going to anything, the Westfalia
> indicator panel is useless, and the fan won't engage upon the back
> of the
> fridge (So i can expect even better cooling once it's all hooked
> up!). I did
> solder in a 80mm computer fan to help the dismal fan supplied by the
> factory, and hope to add a tiny fan inside the fridge at some point.
>
> A jigsaw made the crazy shaped hole in the side a synch. I have a
> nice one,
> and i got some nice new blades and couldn't have been happier. It
> was just
> so easy, and really shouldn't be that scary to anyone thinking of
> doing the
> deed, as you can mess up quite a bit without anyone seeing it.
>
> I"m heading out camping in my born again vanagon tommorow, for a
> good shake
> down. I still need to seal up a few holes....i'm thinking of using
> some type
> of exanding foam to fill in the hole around the sink drain. The
> propane and
> water tank drain are fine, but the sink drain "protective plate"
> and gasket
> were useless on my donor van. Does anyone see a problem with such an
> expanding foam?
>
> I also need to produce a black door panel to go behind the kitchen. I
> installed the whole thing without a panel there as i cannot bear to
> cut into
> that panel which is in good shape, on my rare black interior.....
> So a trip
> to the hardware store for some plywood and black paint should make
> something
> nice. At that time i'll fill in that area with foam sheet insulation.
>
> Someone had suggested instead of welding in brackets to the floor,
> just to
> drill strait through and stick a nut upon the other side. I had the
> 3 seat
> brackets welded in, but the only other neccessary bracket for the
> kitchen
> unit, i headed this advice and drilled another big hole. It worked
> smashingly and saved a ton of time.
>
> The project is not yet "OVER", but i have a westy!
>
> -Craig
> '85Westy
> 1980 Rust
>
>
> On Fri, Aug 8, 2008 at 9:57 PM, Roger Whittaker
> <rogerwhitt1@gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> dear craig
>> ok my bad ... i had not thought it all the way through in regard
>> to the
>> multi purpose vent exhaust
>> requiring natural flow to work efficiently ...
>>
>> -- good thing we have this list to correct the sillies form doing
>> stuff
>> that
>> would be uncool or unsafe
>> thanks
>> yours
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 8, 2008 at 12:13 PM, Bill Glenn <idahobill@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, 8 Aug 2008 07:42:16 -0700, Roger Whittaker <
>> rogerwhitt1@GMAIL.COM>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> the flu for the fridge simply needs to be pointed away from the van
>>>> so sown and to the side rather than up to the side ...
>>>> and no holes in the side of the van
>>>
>>> I would have to disagree.  Except when manually operating the air
>>> pump to
>>> light the refrigerator in propane mode, the fridge is not power
>>> vented,
>> but
>>> relies on natural convection.  The heat produced by any of the three
>> modes
>>> of operation results in hot air flowing upward through the
>>> exhaust tube
>> and
>>> exiting through the side of the van to the outside air. Since the
>>> intake
>>> and exhaust are open only on the ends where they penetrate the
>>> wall of
>> the
>>> van, and are otherwise sealed, this same convection in the
>>> exhaust is
>>> responsible for drawing in fresh air through the intake.
>>> Convection will
>>> not occur in an exhaust tube directed downward, with the result
>>> that the
>>> fridge would likely not work in any of the three modes, but
>>> particularly
>> in
>>> propane mode, where, without convection in the exhaust, there
>>> would be no
>>> fresh air arriving through the intake for combustion to take place.
>>>
>>> Bill
>>>
>>>
>>> This flow of air will not occur if the venting is routed
>>> downward, and
>>> without it, the fridge will not work in any mode.  Further, this
>>> same
>>> convection in the exhaust also results in fresh air being drawn
>>> in for
>>> combustion when operating on propane.  If you think the Dometic
>>> is hard
>> to
>>> light now  Interfere with this design and risk the fridge not
>>> working
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> roger w
>> There are two kinds of jobs in the world:
>> Picking up garbage and telling people things.
>> Successful people do both, with the same good attitude. (riw)
>> -----------------------------------------------------------
>> View the growing list of video work at:
>> http://revver.com/find/video/?query=LastonLastof&search_on=owners
>> and ... older work at
>> http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7135104650374818257
>> http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3259745150182742364
>>

Oliver Mueller-Heubach
groundhogging@mac.com