Luxury Electrical Restored

As I work through the interior of the 1972 bus, I am learning that there are many layers to the electrical re-visit. I posted about the re-wire of the ceiling circuits (see Ceiling Wiring Rough-In). Today, I go over some of the other modifications I have been doing in the electrical space. I had the interior torn apart, so it seemed like a good opportunity to get after things before I put it all back together again. For example, the cushions have been removed from the rock-n-roll bed, and the cabinets have been emptied. 

Changing Tack

I am absolutely feeling time pressure, as the days get longer and camping season looms. So, I am shifting to getting things good 'nuf for Summer. What does that mean? I am setting aside the headliner. I am setting aside the carpet and the door card stuff. Instead, I am going to focus on getting Hapy operational enough for us to enjoy the Summer. The new reduced scope for the Spring includes the finish electrical (this post), completing the sound deadening (slider door and a few little bits here and there) and getting everything else that was pulled apart put back together. If I have any time opportunities pop up, I will do a little thing here or there so long as it doesn't impact our ability to take Hapy out for a spin or a camping trip.

Furnace Control Moved

Afterburner control

Recall the diesel furnace I added a couple years ago. When I did it, I added a custom computer-based thermostat, called Afterburner, hand-built by a guy in Australia. I had mounted the control unit to the side wall about where the 1979 Westfalia control panel traditionally sat. I decided that I did not need to see the thermostat all the time, and would prefer the less-cluttered look. Also, the LED panel glows whenever there is power (it doesn't have a sleep concept), so at night, it acts like a potentially unwelcome nightlight. I moved that control panel right next to that 1979 control panel: inside the rear cabinet. The wiring was readily available, and simply required another hole to be bored in the wood panel. The temperature probe, of course, needs to be in open space. I had previously routed it up along the C-pillar (between the mid-window and the rear window) and set it sort of hanging on the window frame. Obviously, that was temporary. I am not sure where I will put it now, but according to Ray, Mr. Afterburner, the sensor wire can be extended with CAT5 cable. The extension should work, but if I can avoid adding another variable, I will. Ultimately, I will solve this later. I did, however, run a CAT5 cable from the bottom of the B-pillar back to the furnace control so I could make the modification later, if I so choose.

I discovered during testing, however, that a couple of things are not working properly with the furnace. First, it test-fired okay, and it really pulled the voltage down on the luxury battery. I had forgotten about that, and the fact that I cut off the furnace wire back to the drive battery during the interior tear-out. I will need to upgrade the wiring to thicker gauge to see if that stops the heavy voltage drop, and then maybe re-plumb the wiring to the drive battery. Second, during the test run, it became obvious that the exhaust had become disconnected as exhaust started to appear inside the bus. That's bad. I will need to completely exhume the furnace and re-do the install to make sure there are no leaks. Last, there is something not right with the Afterburner controller. It no longer supports a web access point. So, it has all the other great stuff, but I can't start it remotely. In the end, the furnace will sit unused until I fix the exhaust... and the voltage drop. Maybe I'll figure out what's up with the Afterburner access point after that. Of course, it may be next spring by then.

New Fuse Box

new fuse box

I had been wrestling with a decision about the luxury fuse box for a while. I had been using a spare bay window bus fuse box. It worked well enough, but it was not perfect. It lacked a common positive post, some of the fuses had a common supply side and others did not, and there was a whole relay section that I didn't use. The fuses were the old-style fuses, not the newer bladed ones, and those old-style ones are becoming harder to source, and more expensive. Last, it is kind of big, almost 50 years old and the way I was using it was a hack that would fail. So, I bought a smaller 12-slot fuse box and a master circuit breaker / switch to put between the battery and the fuse box. Since many of the wires were being replaced, and the remaining were going to get at least touched as part of the routing, changing the fuse box was a small incremental increase in scope. I needed to remove the prior box for the noise contain efforts anyway, so I was halfway there already.

Doing the Doing

wire up in process

In the Ceiling Wiring Rough-In post, I described what color wire was going to be used for what. I ran or strung the wires to their destinations, and routed the other end down the driver-side (left) B-pillar, along the front edge of the middle window, under that window around the fridge-cabinet and left things pretty much in a heap right there. I started by completing the routing of the wires along the route that the solar collector wiring ran (See Hapy Gets Solar). I zip-tied the wires together and against the side of the bus and then solar wiring inside the fridge cabinet to hold them secure. Once I determined which fuse spots were to be used for which wire (see below), I mounted the new fuse-box onto the top of the wood box under the rock-n-roll bed which covers the old Westy rectifier.... basically in the same spot as the old one was before.

With the fuse-box in a fixed location, I could determine wire lengths and mount them up. In an ideal world, I would have used ring terminal wire-connectors on the wires. I could not find enough of them on hand, so I just used the bare wires. In classic Paulie Axiom form (See Light a Cigarette, Attract a Bus), I found them after I did this work so I will be slowly retrofitting them onto the wires. Anyway, once the wires were routed, trimmed and connected, I wrapped the bundle in one of those plastic wire tube things.

Fuse Layout

fuse	wire color	purpose
1	Grey	Cab 12V Accessory Plug
2	Purple	Cab Dome Light
3	Yellow	Stereo
4	White	3-switch Dome Light
5	Pink	PopTop Light / 1-switch Dome Light
6	Blue	3-position Westy Light
7	Yellow	Furnace
8	Green	Rock-n-Roll 12V Accessory Plug
9	Green	Sleeping Area Dome Light
10	Orange	Sleeping Area USB Chargers
11	OPEN	OPEN
12	OPEN	OPEN

 

Wait a Second...

wired up

The keen eye will notice that circuit #3 is wired up in the picture on the right, but isn't in the picture above it. Fuse #3 is the stereo. This is interesting only because of the gymnastics I executed to get it there. Before I started the noise project, the power lead for the stereo ran on the floor under the carpet. Yeah, that was not ideal, but it worked short-term. I ran a new power lead behind the dash and through the original wiring harness pass-thru hole in front of the accelerator pedal. From there, it runs along the inner edge of the passenger side frame rail and passes up under the rock-n-roll bed through what looks like a factory drain hole. A closer look at the rear edge of the wood floor will show the yellow wire running along behind / underneath. I didn't stop there, but that's another post I'll write up and post later.

Battery and Ground

Finishing up the circuit, I first confirmed that none of the wires I just hooked up to the fuse-box effectively ran to ground with the multi-meter. I returned the luxury battery to it's old location, and hooked up the ground cable to the same grounding bolt near the fridge cabinet under the seat. With the sound killer installed, it was a little harder to find.

ugly (for now) but functional

My last step was connecting the B+ or positive side. My old set up had many smaller gauge wires all wound together at the battery post. I used a very short stretch of 8 or 10ga wire to bridge from the positive post to a master switch, and then some more of it to bridge from the switch to the fuse-box. The wire was the thickest I had around. I will mind the overall amp usage, but this should not be an issue except for when the furnace first starts up. Even then, I do not expect much system stress. The master switch is a battery/fire-saver, basically, that will prevent more than 100A draw. I don't see this switch ever popping, but it is better to be safe than on fire. Based on the length of the wire, and my uncertainty about it's thickness, it is very possible that the wire will fail before the switch pops. Ultimately, I would need to have every circuit in use and have the furnace kick on to get close to even 50A. So, the switch becomes little more than a means to turn the whole system off.

Completing the Circuits

I had very little in terms of electricity consumers actually connected at this point. So, my ability to test was fairly limited and I only put fuses in the circuits as they were completed. Still, I was able to turn on the light by the front seats, and test the accessory plugs up front and by the rock-n-roll bed. All good. I checked continuity on the circuits which did not yet have a consumer, but I did not really expect any negative findings, and didn't have any. So, I started down the path of hooking up lights.

not as ugly. functional

I started with the light fixture over the sleeping area (pictured above). I used the mounting bolt for my ground, attaching a ring connector to the white wire, and leaving it inside the fixture. To the black and red wires, I connected female wire connectors. My method has been that the power-supply side wire would get a male connector, and continued that throughout. To the green (to fuse 8) and white (to the switch over the slider) supply-side wires I attached male wire connectors. I discovered, as I attempted to install the light fixture, that that 1/2" thick Mega Zorbe sound absorber was too thick for my bolts to reach the riv-nuts. I considered finding longer bolts, but concluded that the heat produced by the light fixture could have a negative impact on the foam, and chose instead to remove the foam where the fixture went. The fixture effectively recessed into the foam, which, I think will actually look better once the headliner goes in. It admittedly looks pretty trash right now. Once the fixture was mounted, I plugged in the wires, and Immediately, the red LED on the fuse-box next to fuse holder 8 lit. This told me that the circuit was good, and just needed a fuse. I popped in the fuse, and the light came on. Sweetness.

so many lighting choices

I followed this same path for the 3-position light over the window behind the driver seat (pictured above)... mounting bolt for ground, male female orientation, even plugging it all in to see the red LED. I needed to add a mounting plate behind the Mega Zorbe, but that was barely post-worthy. I cut out a small section, cut a rectangle of HVAC and screwed it to the bus. I set the fixture where I wanted it, marked and bored the holes. Easy-peasy.

I verified the pop top light at this point, and then shifted to the modified dome light (See Dome Light Mod to Trigger Other Lights). I had tried to mount this light earlier, and the mod wire broke off. I mentioned that in a comment on that original post, but I simply duplicated the effort with a thinner multi-stranded wire. On my repair version, I super glued the wire end down like before, but also added a 1-inch long stretch of superglue to adhere the insulation to the light housing. That bugger was not moving. I wrapped every bit of exposed metal (chair adapters, bits of relay, etc) with electrical tape so nothing would short out after I popped a couple of fuses. Once they were wrapped, and I could get the relay tucked in deep enough, I was able to settle the light fixture into place.

Testing the Lights

Once all of these circuits were completed, I cleaned up Hapy's interior and then hit it with the shop vac. Clean, and de-cluttered, Boo and I tested / played with the lights. The lights up front will work for checking a map or even reading a book. The original dome light, when turned on as a single creates plenty of light in the main cabin to see things on the floor, and even on top of the fridge cabinet. When the modified light circuit is turned on, the entire bus is well lit, from dash to tail gate. Since the rock-n-roll bed is not together, we could not test the reading lights for reading, but that test/play will be very soon.

With the new plan of just getting Hapy ready for the road, I do not feel the same pressure I did before. The lighting is functional, and I learned along the way that I needed to make modifications which would have been unpleasant after the headliner went in. Removing these fixtures for the headliner install will not be difficult either.

Thanks, as always, for following along-

Enter the Headbanger (Part 2)

The effort to design and build a custom headbanger cabinet took a while. And, there is a ton of detail, so I split this into multiple posts. Ultimately, this took me a few weeks of sporadic, and sometimes dedicated time, to do. At this point, I have the cabinet structure built, the speaker boxes attached and the speaker wire in place. So today, we solve for the mounting, finish the shaping, add trunk carpet and finish the electrical bits.

Plan to Mount

gap-filling

Prior to the assembly I described in Part 1, I rough-looked at a mounting plan. I took the cobbled-together OSB almost-a-cabinet out to the bus to consider how I could attach it. The cabinet was mostly stable, but I felt that adding the speaker boxes and other bits would help me plan for the mounting brackets. I couldn't be sure what I could reach or could not reach without actually having the speakers in, the shelf in, etc. With a considerably heavier cabinet, I headed out to the rear end of the bus. When I held a single speaker box in place, I used a rubber strap to hold it against the torsion spring for the rear hatch. That would not work this time. Instead, I stacked cushions and whatever I could lay hands on underneath it to wedge the cabinet up against the ceiling. It looked ridiculous and I regret not having taken a picture of the wobbly stand it was on, but I could think about where to place the brackets without a balancing act or having the cabinet shift side to side or front to back as I considered different angles.

I discovered that my initial measurements were slightly off for the inner supports, and I had to remove about 1/2" of the front-most 3 inches (front to back) off the top of the top-most edge of the 2 inner supports to snug-in against the ceiling. In the picture on the right, you can make out a small cut-away just above the chairback in the background. After some quick adjustments with a hand saw, I could return the head banger to the bus for fitment.

 

filling in gaps with cardboard

The cabinet is not terribly heavy, and even with the speakers installed, I don't think it will be more than, say, 20 pounds. While it is not a big deal overall-weight-wise, it is very front-heavy, and I think that will matter. Figure, the speaker boxes and the speakers are most of the weight and that weight is all front-of-center. So, the rear mounts will provide stability, but the front mounts will be carrying the weight. This is especially obvious in the picture on the right, here, where I have a roll of tape wedged under the passenger-side speaker box so it will sit flat on a table. I decided that I would put a bracket on all 4 supports up front. On the outer supports, the bracket will point out and on the inner supports, the bracket will point in. Any other orientation would have been unreachable because of the speaker-boxes. Either in the interest of consistency or overkill, I decided I would put 4 on the rear as well, but with the installs reversed: outer brackets facing inward and inner brackets facing outward. This was necessary to account for the added shelf running all the way back to the rear edge of the inner supports, effectively blocking my access to a mount point above in the rear.

 

I marked on the ceiling and on the cabinet where the brackets should go, and then took the cabinet back into the garage where I installed 1" angle brackets with wood screws. I returned to the bus with the brackets mounted and re-checked the spots in the ceiling where the holes needed to be bored in, marking them clearly with a sharpie. Continuing my avoidance of sheet metal screws, I bored the holes out for and then installed M4 riv-nuts. I confirmed the will-be-cabinet mounts aligned with the riv-nuts and then removed it so I could complete the cabinet. 

One More Thing

cardboard rear-support

While I was working on the ceiling, I prepared the install of the rear dome light between the 2 speakers. I had run the power leads earlier, and I was already there, with a drill. I laid down on my back, and considered where we would be lying down reading a book. Based on where a book would naturally rest in my lap, with my head propped up on a pillow, I figured where the light position should be, and marked it on the ceiling. I measured off of that to set the holes for the fixture, with the switches facing forward. I bored the holes and set 2 more M3 riv-nuts in place so the light fixture will mount with bolts, not screws. Again, that riv-nut tool kit is becoming one of my favorite new acquisitions.

Fill-in The Front

Once I had positioned and installed the speaker boxes, there remained a large gap between the top edge of the speaker box and the leading edge of the headbanger. I filled in this space with carefully cut firm cardboard that I then carpenter-glued into place. These stretches of cardboard will only serve as a backing for the headliner, but they are firm enough to hold in place. Since they are far out of the way, I think that once the cabinet is installed, the headliner and the underlying cardboard will go untouched for years. This pictures along the right side show the fill-in efforts, and how I created some support-from-behind with additional cardboard bits. I taped the seams as well, so the headliner lays down smoothly. After the glue set-up, I tested the relative strength of the cardboard bits by pressing on them with my fingers. They held firm enough that I figured they will hold up.

Final Assembly: Trunk Carpet

USB panel and ports

I was approaching the home-stretch, or at least it felt that way. It was final assembly time, and that includes final surfaces. I chose to use 2 different fabrics. For the areas where hands will touch regularly, like on the face where the USB chargers are and the shelf, I am using trunk carpet. I figure it will show a dirty finger less than headliner material would, and it is designed to withstand some friction. For all of the other surfaces (outer-facing sides, over the speaker boxes, the very bottom) will get headliner. They both apply with stinky DAP contact cement (or spray adhesive). I brushed both the trunk carpet and the target underlayment, wait a few seconds for the DAP to get tacky and set it. You only get one shot, so measure and plan carefully. I chose to use many small pieces, in contrast to the single complicated piece I used on Oliver's sub-box. To create some time to fiddle the pieces around, I used carpenters glue on the larger faces of the trunk carpet. It does not set up as fast, so you can wiggle the carpet into the exact right spot. Then, I did the outer 1/2" edges with the contact cement.

 

fun with wiring

Before carpeting the USB face, I installed the face to the cabinet with a staple gun and tapped the staples home with a framing hammer. To make sure everything stayed put, I edged the panel with carpenters glue. Once well-fixed, some trunk carpet went on. I cut out the holes for the USB chargers and the speaker switch with a razor blade and then installed them too. Before I repeated the install process with the shelf, I applied trunk carpet behind the USB face on the floor around the rear edge to finish the look. I also applied trunk carpet to the floor area behind the speaker boxes, around the inner supports and on the rear-facing side of the outer supports. I did not address the rear of the USB panel, so in that large black sea, there is this large white rectangle. Yuk. I'm not sure if there will be an easy way to get in there and "black" it. My goal was anywhere that could be seen or touched inside the bottom-most shelf from the rear hatch got trunk carpet. The result would be a view from the rear will be completely blacked out, and any use of the rear-facing shelf has dirty-finger protecting trunk carpet. That center section is virtually unusable from the rear so I may make a block-off insert to keep the look clean, and the wires from getting disturbed. The plate will wait. 

Final Assembly: Wiring

At this point, I wanted to finish the wire routing, so the rear-facing area was as tidy as I could manage. I ran the power and ground wires for the USB chargers out through the hole I had bored for the left (front is front) speaker wires, and routed them up the outside of that inner support, setting them immobile with staples. The speaker wires got covered in that black plastic wire wrap so they will not get caught on anything that is set on the rear-facing shelves and, because of all the black carpet, they will visually disappear. I verified that I had enough USB supply-side wire to reach the mid-point above the center shelf, added female wire connectors to them and then popped a chair-connector onto those connectors. 

Out at the bus, I added a male wire connector to the orange wire, completing the set up for the headbanger wiring. I also made sure that the speaker signal supply cables were long enough to drape over the right speaker, where the wires in the bus are. In the picture on the right, you can see just how much extra speaker wire I have hanging down from the bus ceiling. Why? So I can connect things before mounting the headbanger and then tuck the extra up above. Also, by having such long speaker wire leads heading to the stereo, I could unplug the headbanger and plug in a pair of float-remote speakers. Will I? Probably not, but I saw little harm in creating the option.

I was almost ready for the shelf. This was complicated a little bit by the OSB supports I had made. I wanted them to visually disappear, so I spent some time cutting and shaping small bits of trunk carpet to cover them. Finally, the shelf went in, as evidenced by the pictures above. Unlike the glue-on and staple fun of the USB charger face mounting, I wrapped the shelf with carpet and pushed it into place from the front. It is effectively held in place by friction.

The keen eye will notice that the trunk carpet needed some perfecting and trimming. I will address that before I get after the headliner install... which will wait until next time / later. I am feeling the time pressure, and feel the need to get this buttoned up soon. Phil and Friends is coming up fast and we don't have any interior lights or a stereo. So, this is where I am leaving the headbanger for now.... sitting on the rear of my US General rolling tool cabinet. I will get back to this, just not for a little while, probably. LOL's.

That's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along-

Enter the Headbanger (Part 1)

It seems like the scope of Hapy's interior grows every week. I was just going to do a sound-containment effort, and it has grown in all directions almost from the jump. Today, I visit the furthest end of the sound system: the rear speakers. This little project actually took a few weeks to do, and this post got super long, so I split it into two. I will post the other half once I complete the work. Ha! Apologies for no post last week. I had spent the prior week visiting my son T in Los Angeles, and got back the Monday night before. Before I begin, Hapy Birthday Emily (my sister back East)!

How Did We Get Here?

headbanger from a 1976

So, I'm hanging out with Hapy, thinking about what to do next on the sound deadening one weekend morning and it occurred to me that if I were ever to want speakers overhead in the back of the bus, now was the time to wire them. Once the sound deadener is all the way in, snaking more wires will be much more difficult. While looking around at the furthest back part of the rear ceiling, I remembered that both the original Westfalia and the 1979 had a shelf or headbanger cabinet covering up the rear tailgate torsion springs. So, what had started as a "let's just run some wire" became "let's add a shelf/cabinet thing to hold speakers and cover up that rear-end ugly". More evidence that this bus will never be finished. I actually like that thought, but I'm weird.

Rear Speakers

speaker boxes

Recall, my earlier version of the rear speakers included a pair of speakers that basically floated around. When we were parked, we could move them out the slider for music under the canopy. I did not want to lose that capability, but felt that adding a pair of semi-fixed speakers back in the sleeping area would help the sound because we could actually dial-in our on-the-road sound based on those fixed speaker locations. I ordered a pair of Rockford Fosgate 6x9 speakers and a boom-mat from Crutchfield with a plan to flush-fit them into the lower ceiling, but.... ultimately, I simply could not bring myself to cut 2 big oval holes into the bus. I thought about a pair of 6x9 speaker pods from the guy who supplied the pods for Oliver a few years ago. Those were okay, but the 6x9 options seemed really big, and hung down over 4 inches. I found a speaker box that is curved on the back instead (picture on the right, here). I felt that these would give me more options for targeting the sound and they are quite small. The white lettering is absolutely atrocious, so I literally shot them with black spray-paint to cover it. If I could have gotten these boxes without carpet, I would have preferred that. I intend to cover them with headliner, because, while the spray paint removed the shocking white, the stitched letters are still visible. Wow, so ugly... but they will do the job.

The wiring for these speakers followed the line that the rear defroster wire takes: up the passenger-side A-pillar, and inside the lip along the ceiling. Behind the rear slider, they followed the course along the passenger-side ceiling.

 

Positioning and Modeling

rubber-strap thinking

I started thinking through options for how these speakers could integrate with the roundy rear end by hanging a speaker with rubber straps from the tail gate torsion springs. There is a support that runs from the lower ceiling back to the inner edge of the spring hinge on both sides. I used those supports as my outer edge fixed point. With a speaker in place, I checked the rear-view mirror. I tweaked the angle and tried again. I wanted the top edge to be within an inch of the ceiling, but did not want the lower edge to block too much of my visibility. I arrived at a viable compromise with the outer top-edge of the speaker sitting about 1/2" below the ceiling. Surprisingly, this "compromise spot" set the speaker fairly close to 45*.  This location would remove the top inch or so from the rear glass when looking through the rear view mirror. Based on the picture above, this is more than what is lost on the later bay-window Westfalia when the headbanger cabinet is installed. Can I see out the back? Yes. Will I be able to see out the back when it is packed with stuff? Of course not, but this cabinet is not the difference-maker; my packing ability is. Movin' on, the biggest difference in having this cabinet will be when I try to get in/out of the rear hatch or lean over the open engine access hatch. When I do either of those, I will be reminded why we call these cabinets headbangers.

With the position set, I shifted to solving for mounting. I started with some thin cardboard out of the recycling (surprise: I used a 12-pack box), measuring, cutting and fitting. This was not especially fruitful until I started marking up locations on the ceiling: inner edge of both speakers, and the center point both on the lower ceiling as well as on the upper lip of the tail gate. Now, with more reliable measurements,  I could determine a viable model. I planned for a shelf to run along the entire bottom, from outer speaker edge to outer speaker edge: 37" long, but only 5" deep. To help make the model better, I simply cut a 37x5 rectangle out of the remaining OSB from when I made the front shelf (See New Cab Shelf). With that shelf in hand, I modeled the supports with thicker cardboard. 

support modeled

The rear edge of the shelf required a 4" tall support. From the front edge of the shelf, the support will climb at a 45* angle. The supports on the ends will meet the ceiling directly. The 2 center supports, however, required an additional 2.5" of straight vertical to reach the ceiling, due to the curvy nature of the ceiling. The rear contour of the supports angle from the 4" drop up to 6.5" at the front (on the end supports) of the shelf before running straight forward. A few inches forward of the point where the lower line angles upward, the middle supports run straight up another 2.5" before running straight forward. The image on the right, here, shows the modeled shapes. I tested these with the OSB shelf, placing the cardboard on the spots I marked for where the speaker ends will be. Things looked good 'nuf.

From Cardboard to OSB

I took these cardboard cut-outs and applied them to the cut-up OSB, making 4 supports to go with the bottom shelf. After some fun with the jig-saw, I had 4 supports. This effectively used the remaining OSB, but I had enough to make the structure. Consider, between each of the outer and each inner supports, a speaker box will get mounted. Between the inner supports, I have an opportunity. My plan is to mount a pair of USB charger ports, another shelf and then enclose whatever is left. Since I am out of OSB, I will look to other materials I have lying around. Ultimately, the angled front face will get covered with headliner material, allowing it to at least visually integrate into the ceiling, and cover up the simply awful lettering on the speakers while I'm at it. Win!

glue-in the supports

Onto the base shelf, I drew the lines for where the supports were to be attached and confirmed again that the speakers would fit between. Then, I took the shelf and one-each of the supports and sorta-kinda test fit into the bus (keeping 3 pieces of wood held consistent with 2 hands is tricky). I felt satisfied that the lines, spaces and supports matched up with where I intended them to land, but, again, it's hard juggling 3 pieces of wood. When I built the speaker box for Oliver (See need reference), I learned that the screws were really not the key to making a solid box. The screws simply held the parts together while the carpenter's glue sets. Knowing this, I did not bother with screws at all; I used large clamps. Since I only have 2 large clamps, I did 1 support at a time: apply glue to both sides, set the support in place and then clamp both ends of the shelf overnight. The picture on the right here shows the last support getting glued in. Yes, that is one of those US General tool cabinets I posted about (See $50 Tool Chest) and that is Oliver in the background patiently waiting for dry weather and a trip to get smog certified.

 

More Planning

OSB supports

Now in one piece, I could plan for the USB chargers and such. I figure that the chargers are 2-1/4 inches in diameter, and we will need about a half an inch underneath it to snap-off the cover. To retain symmetry, I planned for a half-inch above, so I rounded up, making the USB face 3-1/2 inches tall. Because of the angle, I figured that the USB chargers would go on the lowest spot, since they take up the least amount of space. Above the chargers, I will put a shelf for setting the things that are getting charged (phones), and, again, because of the angle, the shelf being 3-1/2 inches up from the bottom will increase the depth of the shelf enough for a phone to fit without hanging off the edge, but only barely. The shelf doesn't really need a top, but to clean up the leading edge of the cabinet, I planned for a short drop front which I will cover with headliner. For materials, I have scrap bits of Oriented Strand Board (OSB) to make mounting points for the various flat surfaces. For the flats, I have one of the 1979 Westfalia panels I can cut up. Yes, I could save that for someone, and I could go find some veneer of some kind. But, this is free, and on-hand.

Some Assembly

I drew my plan onto the supports, and cut up a small pile (6) of OSB supports. With my limited number of clamps and vice-grips, I had to follow a similar pattern as I did with the supports: glue as many as I could support with what I have on hand and then wait a day. I oriented the 6 bits to support the USB charger ports and the small shelf directly above.

speaker prep

I then shifted to the speaker boxes. First, I prepared the boxes for speakers to get installed. I set a speaker and corresponding grill into the hole, marked and then drilled out the 4 holes. I set the speakers aside and returned to getting the boxes attached to the cabinet. These boxes deliver with wiring cups already glued in, but the location of the supports will completely hide them. I thought about boring holes in the supports, but decided instead to cut a small channel out of the speaker boxes and run the wire into that gap between the support and box. Then, I drilled 4 holes for each speaker, 2 per support, about 1/4" in from the long diagonal edge. Holding the speaker box in position, I drilled marks into the speaker box fabric, pulled the box aside and then completed the bore. I then returned the box to the cabinet and sent 1-1/4" long wood screws in to hold the speaker boxes in place.

 

For the shelf and USB charger surface, I measured out and cut with a razorblade the rectangular shapes. Into the USB charger surface, I bored 2 2-1/4" holes for the USB charger ports with a hole-saw bit on my drill.

Wire It Up

At this point, the weather outside was frightful. I wanted to take the cabinet out to Hapy to test fit, but I wanted no part of the wind/sleet/rain mix that was going on (it has been an interesting, albeit cold and wet, Spring in the Pacific NorthWest). I worked through the speaker wiring instead. We like the versatility that the plug-in speakers offer so, I added 2 plug-ports on the right rear edge of the cabinet. We will be able to add rear-facing sound our the rear hatch simply by moving the remote 6x9's. You can just see the rough-in plugs in the lower right corner of the picture below.

 

rough speaker wiring

Last, I wanted an ability to turn off the rear speakers from the back, without turning the whole system off. I figured, if there were a point where one of us wanted to take a nap, but the other was just hanging out under the canopy, the under-canopy person may still want some sounds. To resolve, we will fade the speakers to the rear, so the floating speakers still get signal, and then turn off the overheads. How? I added a STDP (single toggle/throw, double-post) switch. I wired the ground/negative-side of each speaker wire through the switch, and planned for the switch between the USB chargers (1/2" hole). The ports and the switch significantly increased the wiring complexity, but once completed, we have 2 plugs ready to plug into the speaker wires in the ceiling, a pair of fixed speakers overhead, a pair of ports for the floating speakers, and an override switch to turn off the sound signals passing into the cabinet.

 

I am going to stop here. Partly because this post has already gotten super long, partly because I have already spent a couple of weeks on this (and I post weekly), and partly because this is as far as I have gotten. I will complete the assembly, cover parts of it with trunk carpet, cover other parts with headliner and then get the cabinet installed/wired into Hapy. When I get all that done, I'll write and post "part 2". Maybe the weather will improve by then.

Thanks, as always, for following along-

Dome Light Mod to Trigger Other Lights

In my ceiling electrical rough-in post (See here), I described the ceiling wiring. Among the circuits, I mentioned the original dome light, and moving it over the slider. I wanted to take this 3-position switched light and have it optionally trigger the dome lights in the rear and the front. Today's post will cover how I made that work.

Original Dome Light

dome switch innards

Let's start with a review of the original light and switch. This switch is some basic stuff. There are 2 wire tabs near the switch and one at the other end of the housing for connecting to ground. The 2 tabs correlate to the wire that connects to the switch on the dash (if you still have it) and the switches in the doors (again, if you still have them). The door switched side of my dome light never worked, and I removed the switch from my dash so I could reuse the hole for the heater fan switch. But, I digress; there are 2 tabs. The tabs relate to either side of the 3-position switch, with the middle position for all-off.

Inside the light housing, how the switch works is more apparent. Each wiring tab has a corresponding little tang that hangs or runs down towards the lens on either side of the plastic switch. Outside of each tang runs a metal arm that connects to the positive side of the bulb. So, when the plastic switch is moved from the middle / all-off position, it pushes the little tang against the metal arm, closing the circuit. When 12V is sent to the corresponding tab, the bulb lights up.

Experimenting

So, with that context, we consider how do we tie into the switch to close a circuit elsewhere. The wiring to the other bulbs has been strung; they just need 12V sent when the switch is flipped. We cannot just attach to the metal arm, because then the remote lights would fire up regardless of which position the switch was in. If that's your goal, then that's great, and less difficult. We cannot just tie into the wiring tab because then the remote lights would be on all the time. We need to somehow tie into the movement of the switch so that when the tang is pressed outward, we can pick it up for the extra lights.

experimenting

I noticed that the little hang-down tangs are not the same length, the amount of exposed brass related to each circuit is not equal and the wiring tabs are 90* offset from each other. I do not know how much these details relate to one another, but the longer length of the one hang-down tang provide a way to tie in. The longer one is attached to the side with less exposed brass overall and with a wiring tab that is parallel with the lens. Again, not terribly relevant.

I conducted some experiments with the switch and a bare-metal female wire connector (picture on the right), as opposed to one that's wrapped with a plastic housing. I was able to set a connector fairly close to the housing, but not touching any brass, unless the switch was moved in that direction. Then, the female connector would make contact with the end of the hang-down tang. It was a great fit inside the lens, and did not prevent the circuit connecting with the metal arm. Similar experiments with a wire connector that had a plastic housing produced different results: did not work. The housing was too thick to fit in the space, even if I cut it down so there was metal exposed for the tang. I tested connectivity with a basic multi-meter to confirm that the switch would create a connection when engaged in the one position, but not at any other point.

After spending the better part of a weekend morning fiddling with this plan, I had to change it. I glued the female wire connector onto the lens and discovered that during the experiments, the connector moved slightly as I activated the switch. So, when I had it completely stationary, it jutted out just enough to prevent the tang from touching the arm: the connectivity on the multi-meter was infinite. So, that bulb would not power up had I left it that way. The lesson here, I guess, was to vice-grip the female wire connector in-place during the experiments so it would absolutely not move.

Tying In

bailing wire tang

So, I considered something that was smaller, and more like the little tang I was trying to interact with: a short stretch of bailing wire. With the tip of my needle-nose pliers, I shaped a hook-end and then a twist to create a footing I could adhere to the lens. Learning from my experimenting mistake, I set the bailing wire tang in place with vice-grips and repeated my experiments. In retrospect, something more pliable for the tang, like some thin copper or even a short stretch of solid 20ga wire probably would have been more effective because it would have more flex/give when the switch was flipped. Still, after a few cycles of set-test-reset-retest, I was able to find the spot when both the original arm and the new bit of bailing wire demonstrated connectivity with the wiring tab when the switch was in position.

I soldiered a stretch of insulated 18ga wire to the bailing wire tang, and then a-fixed the tang to the lens with superglue. Once the glue set up, I repeated my experiments to make sure that I could consistently find connectivity from the wiring tab to the end of the 18ga wire as well as the on the original light.

Triggered

Reasonably or not, I considered the amp draw through that little connection between the tang and the bailing wire, and assumed that expecting 2 lights to get powered through it is asking too much. So, to protect against overheating that connection, I'm adding a basic 4-pin relay. Recall the basics of a relay: when there is a sufficient voltage difference between pins 85 and 86, a connection is made between pins 30 and 87. So, we connect the inbound juice (that will be attached to the tab on the light) to pin 30 and ground pin 85. Pin 87 connects to the wires supporting the remote lights and pin 86 connects to the bailing wire tang I added to the light fixture. Because of where I am putting the light over the slider, there is considerable room in the ceiling for the relay and the extra wire.

Install Awaits

one switch. 3 lights

Parts of this could be installed immediately, but so much of the interior is still in disarray. The sound suppression steps are still ongoing, the remote lights are still just bare wires. I thought about stuffing the relay up into the ceiling, but decided that I could just as well wait and install the whole unit at once. Before setting it aside, I confirmed the concept, though. I pulled out a car battery, and set the 3 light fixtures on my kitchen table. I ran wiring between all the lights, and the relay, and simply played with the switches (note the fuse next on the positive side of the battery on the right edge of the picture). Yes, I did use clothespins to hold the wires together; I didn't want to stress the wires by twisting them together or waste wire connectors. When the original dome light is in one position, all 3 lights fire. When it is in the other position only that light comes on. Perfection. While I had it all set up, I played with the other (remote) lights, just cuz. I will, of course, have to retest everything when it gets installed, but seeing things light-up gives me some confidence that the concept, and maybe even the implementation, will work.

That's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along-