Entrenched

It's been a couple of months, and busy ones at that, so today's post will be a bit of a mish-mash covering the highlights.

 

Farm House Fireplace

fireplace surround primed

First, I am realizing that I never posted on our idea to change a blank wall in our living room to have a fireplace. We live on a street with overhead power lines, and we lose power once or twice a winter to ice and wind. We sourced a (Valon H5) gas fireplace and had it installed against and in the middle of that wall in March or April. Being near the end of the cold season, we only fired it up a couple of times. It does not have a fan, so we will be covered in an electrical outage, but we were impressed with how much heat it produces at a low setting and how far from the unit you can feel the warmth.

 

After absorbing that cost, we got our contractor friend, Ray, to do the side job of putting some kind of built-in around it. He did that work a day here and a day there, ultimately finishing at the end of July. I spent this last weekend doing the paint prep and brushing on a coat of primer. I expect to return to that work in a couple of weeks, sanding the primer fixing all the little holes and such that I missed and then applying more paint.

 

Shop Progress

closest thing to "before" image

In an inspired moment in late-July, I emptied the black rolling tool cabinet, pulled it across my hard-as-a-rock clay backyard and into the shop. Once there, I vacuumed it out, Armor-All cleaned it, set it in place and then returned its contents. That represented the last of the things that needed to move. I since have worked through most of the heap, putting like things together on shelving.

 

Electric Hum

While Ray was working on the built in, we noticed that our main electrical panel would hum when his air compressor fired up. We thought that was probably not good and showed him. He agreed and soon we had his go-to electricians over to see what we had going on. The humming breaker ought to have flipped, not hummed. So, soon we were getting the main panel replaced and some outlets fixed and some other lighting things solved. Once we were in that deep, Boo asked them what the incremental cost would be to running electricity out to the shop. Love her. They made us a great deal ($1600US for an active circuit, 60-amp sub-panel wired from the main through conduit in the trench), but the numbers hinged on the trench being dug, and the work starting about a week later.

 

Trenching

cave-in at the turn

This is the lead-in that found me running a 24" trencher on a Monday morning. The weekend before I had cleared all the mulch and other undergrowth, shrubs, etc along the approximate 100' path. I also needed to hand-trench around the french drain I had installed around the shop last summer. Once cleared, I marked the future trench line with spray paint. I rented a trencher from HomeDespot, not because I love that store, but because they had the best-by-far price (like half what everyone else offered) and they would deliver /pick up. So, with that trencher, I dug 100' of 24" deep trench. Considering how many Holly trees, wild roses and other things we have found in this yard, I was prepared for a long difficult day.

 

The trenching started difficult enough. I thought I would do the line from the garage down to the 90* turn south first. That meant starting the trench up against the garage where I found the first foot below the surface was bricks and chunks of concrete. Fortunately, once I was able to get that cleared, the rest of that east-running line was uneventful. I got as far east as I could go, setting my back up to the neighbor's fence and then wrestled the machine to face north. These trenchers do not turn at all easily, you have to muscle them by lifting and shoving. So, once facing north, I started trenching southward, leaning and pushing west to offset the slight pitch of the yard.

 

future trench line

The next 40 or so feet (almost 15 meters) were efficient. I did not hit big roots until I got to the apple tree just outside the shop's main door. Even then, I only need the sawzall to cut a pair of thick roots. The trencher took care of the rest. Once I got to the 90* turn west to get to the shop wall, I wrestled the machine so I was facing west, moved it up to hand-trenched section and ran it east until I hit the fence. Similar to the other end of the long trench, I could not connect the big trench with the shorter sections without trenching in both directions. This meant wresting the machine over a trench at some point. Inevitably, those moves caused cave-ins. Still, the main trench work was completed, so I ran the trencher out to where it was dropped off at the start of the rental and hosed it off.

 

After work on Tuesday, I was out at the trench with a disposable plastic "go food" container, hand scooping out the cave-ins. I discovered that my last "cave in" was actually an incomplete trench where it turned 90* south near the garage (see 3rd picture from the top). I had to finish that trench by hand. It was at that point that I really appreciated the trencher. The clay soil in the backyard is as hard as a rock at this time of year. So just clearing less than a foot deep, maybe 18" long trench was a considerable effort. I was already beat-to-shit from wrestling a trencher in nearly 90*F (32*C) heat the day before and Tuesday was just as hot.

 

black "rollie" in the shop

We passed inspection for the trench this week. So, I will be filling the trench back in and then I will be able to move cars in and out of the shop again. While I did not plan to lose access to the shop this summer, I am so grateful for having electricity, even if it is just a sub-panel with no outlets nor circuits. We will be that much closer to having lights without depending on a partially buried 100 foot extension cord running from the old garage. And, once the trench is filled back in, I only would have had the path blocked for maybe a month.

 

We had a different inspector than we have had with our other inspections. This guy was a bit of a hard-ass relative to the others and inauthentic. I only bring that up because what he said to me and what he put into his report were not the same. He said everything was good except he needed some detail around a ground for the water heater (which wasn't in the scope of the work, but whatever). The report identified a bunch of other things that he never mentioned and were also outside the scope of the work performed. Needless to say, I'm unimpressed and hope he doesn't inspect anything around here again. I would have no reason to trust what he says, and expect him to add things to his report after leaving, including things which may have nothing to do with what's within the scope of the permit. Inauthentic sucks.

 

Wrap 

This got long, and I never got to any car stories. There are a few. I'll post on them, and whatever new ones happen, next time. Thanks, as always, for following along-

Returning to Oliver

The last week or so has been busy with lots of not-car stuff. We have had our young niece over a bunch while her mom had surgery on her wrist, and a bunch of social events. Of course, with the return of spring comes the return of recurring yardwork as well. So, I have not had the dedicated time for wrenching that I always seem to think will be available. I was able to get out to the shop for a few hours on Sunday, though. I focused on Oliver, the 1978 MGB, letting Hapy ('72 VW microbus) sit until Justin has his time with the injection pump in April. The rate at which the price of diesel fuel is climbing (passed $6US/gal around the corner), I may find that it costs more to fill his tank than to pay Justin for his time. That's totally upside-down. Anyway, back to wrenchin.

 

Voltage Gauge

remember Oliver?

I installed a Smith voltage gauge into Oliver where the original analog clock used to sit. The clock didn't really work very well, and it ate voltage from the battery when I let him sit for too long. This made the clock less accurate, leading me to pull the positive cable off the battery while not in use. This led to the clock being completely worthless. So, I pulled it out and swapped in the voltage gauge. It seemed like a valuable bit of info to have, but I had wired it into the "purple" or always-hot circuit. Like the clock, the voltage gauge slowly drained the battery down, albeit not as quickly. So, again, I pulled the positive cable while not driving. I changed that on Sunday.

 

Bearing in mind that any entry back into working on cars may not seem like a big deal to regular wrenchers, but I have really not done much car stuff in over a year. So, any steps taken are a big deal. Removing the gauge was simply unwinding the knurled nut holding the rear support and the gauge flopped forward out of the dash. I removed and taped-off the "purple" wire and started seeking a viable switched "green"source to tap into. Switched is available at a few spots, but I decided to run a dedicated line from the fuse box instead. I could say I did that to remove variables or variability in the voltage signal. The truth is that Oliver is parked so close to the side wall of the shop that getting in and under the dash was virtually impossible. I was not going to just start grabbing an unplugging things.

 

Smith voltage gauge

Running another wire is simple enough. I started at the gauge and worked my way behind the dash, center console, and glove box to the firewall pass-thru. From the pass through within the engine compartment, the bundle of wires run along the left fender to the fuse box. I tied the new wire into the existing green bundle and tested continuity with the multi-meter. Success! I installed the gauge, hooked up the battery and tested by turning the ignition to "run". The voltmeter slowly crept up and I could hear the fuel pump banging away. I recall that it used to get quieter with fuel in the pump. Satisfied, I turned off the key and looked for any other parasitic drain on the battery. The wires in the engine compartment need some containment. I am not liking the scattered multi-colored angel-hair look in the picture below right.

 

Battery Drain?

technicolor angel hair pasta wiring

Testing for a parasitic drain on your battery ought to be relatively straight-forward. Disconnect one cable. Set your multi-meter to test for Amps and then place one probe on the battery post and the other on the cable end. All 0's? Switch to milli-amps and try again. According to the internets, if the drain is less than 50mA, it is not enough to drain your battery. I got 0mA, which, honestly, I do not believe. I tested it multiple times, and even after cleaning the cable and the battery post, I still got 0mA. So, I checked voltage across the 2 posts (12.08V) and left the cables attached. I figured if the voltage drops overnight then my battery-drain test will be proven faulty. I have since tested the voltage the last 2 days. The battery loses 0.02V overnight, which I think I can attribute to the stereo. Regardless, I will need to add a float charger.

 

Red Rollie

new lock, locked

I have this old red Kennedy tool cabinet we call "Red Rollie". It houses a bunch of tools, and for most the nearly 20 years that I've owned it, the lock didn't work. Well, I didn't have a key for it. We got the cabinet at an estate sale without the key. Anyway, some tools were stolen from my next door neighbor's yard a few months ago, so that changed our vector regarding the shop. We were perfectly fine using it without doors, but I can't leave entire tool cabinets unlocked if thieves have found our quiet little neighborhood. While I think the theft next door was an inside job (they run a construction business out of their home), one can never be too sure. So, I found a lock that fits this old Kennedy cabinet (Kennedy 80403 High Security Tubular Lock), and replaced it.

 

Replacing one of these locks is actually easier than on newer cabinets. The lock is held on with a U-shaped tang that slides off to the side. The hard part is you can't see anything. With my fingers I was able to determine which direction the tang needed to slide to be removed (facing the cabinet, slide right), and then set a stubby slotted screw-driver against the lip of the tang. It only took one well-leveraged push to get the tang removed and the lock to pop out. To install, orient the lock so the little inner divot on the outside facing part of the lock where the key goes in is facing down (unlocked). Set the lock into the hole with one hand while guiding the locking rod into the rectangular hole on the back of the lock. Then, push the U-shaped tang in place to hold it.

 

Red Rollie

This worked great, and effectively locked the top 2 drawers. The 3rd drawer down, however, had been bent where the little hook pokes out the back. To remedy, I got a framing hammer and a 1/2" ratchet extension and beat on it until it was more-or-less flush with the rest of the rear of the drawer. For years I wondered why that drawer always set deeper into the cabinet than the others. Now I knew. Once the drawer had been persuaded, the drawer fronts lined up and that 3rd drawer locked as well.

 

Wrap

That's how I spent my Sunday afternoon. The shop still needs the 2 largest doors, but my tools are secure, and I am really starting to get comfortable in there. For example, there was a period of time while working on Oliver that the skies opened up and it started pouring rain. I never felt it. In fact, I could only hear it hitting the trees. The insulation on this shop stops the sound of rain on the steel roof. I absolutely did not expect that.

 

That's it for today. Next week is Easter, so I may not get out to the shop for much. I hope to put a little gas into Oliver and at least back him out to where I can give him a deep cleaning. 

NewOld Kitchen progresses

Quick check-in post today on the state of the kitchen. Most of this work is being done by others while I work my 9-5 and then Boo and I clean up or move stuff around on the evenings and weekends. The construction has been moving at an incredible pace after so many months of seemingly slow-go. To be fair, I was only really getting after it on weekends versus a crew working multiple days. So, it's probably not fair to me to compare. On the personal side, my band's EP (find detail here) released on Groundhog's Day (2-Feb) and my sister came to visit for the following week. 

Where Were We

current state

Once the floors were finished, we could get moving forward on the kitchen. Consider, we have been living without a kitchen for about a year. Instead of a kitchen, it has been a version of an efficiency apartment where we have a fridge, but only a crockpot, a single burner hot plate, a microwave and a hot pot for making food. I suspect most folks, at least Americans, would have lived on take-out food. Had this project only lasted a few weeks, we might have gone that route. Into our 12th month like this, however, yeah, we could not afford that. After the plumbing work I described last time was completed, our electrical rough-in was done by our friend Gary.

Electrical Started

For electrical, we simply focused on the "sink wall", making sure we had juice where we needed it for the dishwasher and disposal, as well as some over-counter outlets. Last, he ran a line for task lighting over the sink. Since that initial work, he returned to run the 220V for the wall oven and the 110V for the fridge. He will return to run lines for the stove and some additional outlets.

Drywall and Cabinet Set

rough plumbing done

With the electric on the "sink wall" done, Ray, our general contractor was able to get the drywall repairs completed. This included some of the rough bits around the new rear door, the holes for the old furnace location, the false beam where I removed that wall and everywhere else in the main kitchen space. Once drywalled, mudded and sanded, they primed and then painted. Once dry, the "sink wall" cabinet was cut down to fit the dishwasher, and both were set in place. They continued by installing the pantry cabinet and fridge, and then the cooktop peninsula. The cooktop peninsula, similar to the sink wall cabinet, was cut down to fit our space. Again, most folks design and buy cabinets to fit the space. We bought and are customizing. Considering the cost of new cabinetry, both in terms of dollars and environmental impact, this path is far less expensive on both counts.

So we could get a sense of the workability of the space, Ray cut down some 3/4" plywood for countertops and pin-nailed them into place. The cabinets along the once-furnace-wall have not been cut down and installed yet but already it feels like there is considerable space to work in. We have not had a kitchen in a while, so it is more pronounced for us, but visitors have made similar observations: for what looked like a really small space from outside, it is looking like it will be very functional with lots of counter space. Boo and I have been calling it the TARDIS-effect. Dr. Who fans unite.

Water and Gas

setting pantry depth

For the water rough-in, the plumber did everything he could that did not require a permit. From that point forward, the work is either mine to complete, or I need to get permits and farm it out. Boo and I decided to split the difference: I do the work, but have the gas plumbing inspected by the gas company. Fortunately, the water is quite simple these days: shut off the main, release the pressure (dumping water down the drain) and do the work. In terms of the work, there are shark-bite valves that are no-solder connections. I simply cut off the closed nipple on the end of the pipe and attached the shark-bite around the pipe. It really is that simple. Once the valves were on, we could re-pressurize the system and check for leaks. Seriously, it was that easy; I have no idea why that part of the plumbing needs a permit while the pipes in the walls don't. 

For the gas line, we ran 3/4" pipe from the "T" near the furnace over to the peninsula in the crawlspace, but did not connect it. Instead, where the union will be, we capped it off. At the peninsula, we necked down the 3/4" pipe to 1/2" per standard to pass through the floor. Above the floor, we added a pressure gauge. All of the joints were coated with pipe-dope, of course. We applied air-pressure into the pipe run (from cap near the "T" to the pressure gauge) to 15 psi to verify there were no leaks. As of the publishing of this post, the pressure is still holding at 15 psi. We did all this so we could document it with pictures for the gas company inspector. We do not have the inspection scheduled yet, but after 5 days of holding 15psi, I think we have demonstrated we are good. I expect to finish the gas line next weekend.

what's next

That's as far as we've gotten in the last couple of weeks. It has been a whirlwind of activity, though. Next up will be the construction of a cabinet to hold the wall oven, installing the oven into that and then installing the cabinets along that wall. We have not made any decisions about upper cabinets in the main work area. At this point, however, we are considering leaving the walls without upper cabinets nor open shelving. We have a cabinet we call "the Archie" that we expect to install next to the oven cabinet (on the all in the picture on the right, here). It is possible that it will be the only upper cabinet. Again, we'll see how it evolves.

Thanks, as always, for following along. Hapy broke his speedometer cable a couple of days ago, so I will be posting on that replacement as soon as I've completed that.

Kitchen Planning

Around the furnace work and getting Hapy operational again, Boo and I have been trying to move forward on having a viable kitchen as well. Today, I will post briefly about that progress.

Cabinets

rough kitchen thought

It probably makes sense to start somewhere near the beginning. Shortly after getting this house, Boo and I hit the rebuilding center looking for all kinds of things. What we were NOT looking for were kitchen cabinets. The old ones were still in there, the kitchen needed serious cleaning and fixing, we didn't have a place to put new ones, etc. Well, there was a full set from an old house that had rounded corners and such that they looked perfect. At $420 for an entire kitchen's worth of cabinets (plus a bathroom vanity and a couple cabinets for a laundry, we think), we pulled the trigger. Through the help of Boo's ex-husband, and his minivan, we managed to fit all of them into the van and the pickup in 2 trips, and loaded them rather unceremoniously into the garage. Fast forward over a year and they were still there though the kitchen is now getting some focus. Still, they have been safe, undamaged and long-since paid for.

We recently engaged with a contractor to help get things moving more swiftly. Had we not done so, I suspect those cabinets would have sat in the garage for another 6 months while I finished the furnace work and then got going on some kitchen rough-in. Instead, I spent a few hours in the garage freeing the cabinets from the things that had been buried on top of them.

Cleanup

cleaning the line

The old kitchen was somewhere between a cold-room, a tool shed, building supply storage and the pass-through to the laundry and backyard. As a result, it was a mess. Oh, and I did tear down a bunch of drywall when the weather was warm so the whole area was cordoned off with a floor-to-ceiling plastic sheet. It was not exactly welcoming for the holidays. When I removed that non-supporting / secondary wall, I had left extra space below the ceiling. I wanted that line clean before I did anything else. So, I measured again the height of the passage I was mimicking (7'4") and sent in a screw to mark the spot. From beneath that screw, I pushed up with a long section of door trim (knowing it was straight). Atop the trim I set the level and then sent 2 screws through the trim into the drywall so I had a fence to cut along. With a handheld drywall saw I cut the line, knowing it was level. After the fact, I realized that having the cut leveled would have been best done after getting the floor perfectly level... which it isn't. We have moved the floor leveling to the front of this active list and that line will probably need to be fixed with a subsequent cleanup cut or some drywall repairs. Oh well. With the wall pushed up, we can better imagine the kitchen space, so it was not a total waste of effort.

With the line cut, my demo was done; the contractor will be handling the floor and anything else that pops up. So, I could clear everything out... the work table, construction material, the construction waste I just created, etc. leaving just an empty room. A couple hours of sweeping, vacuuming and mopping left us a room that was ready for some imagination. Before we could really do much else, though, the hole through which we lowered the furnace needed to be temporarily covered. Boo picked up a 4-foot-square sheet of 15/32" plywood that more than covered the hole. In fact, it helped us consider the swing-room for the door as we started plopping cabinets.

Try Before You Mount

sink thinking

Boo and I had her sister, her niece and their respective partners over to haul kitchen cabinets from the garage into the demo'd kitchen. One by one, we hauled a cabinet up the 2 steps and thru the doorway. Once the first end fit through, we slapped a moving dolly underneath it. When the other end made it through, it was placed onto another dolly. Once on dollies, the cabinets could roll around the floor. A few weeks ago, we bought a half-dozen moving dollies from Harbor Freight (they were on sale) for this purpose.

Most folks do this in a completely opposite way: hire someone, have that someone take measurements, with those measurements they plan a kitchen, cabinets are built to that plan, and then they are installed. We started with buying a rando-set, so in order to figure out how they could fit, we could have measured things, and gone virtual planning. This felt much more visceral. We moved them around and played house by pretend cooking a meal and using the sink to get a sense for how the space really works for us. 

While we did arrive at some ideas, and at least a couple cabinets set in their probable-permanent locations (sink base and pantry), we are left with unknowns. While the rest of us played with the cabinets, Boo's sister's partner Glenn measured and marked up a sheet of graph paper with the dimensions of the overall space. Boo and I will cut up little pieces of paper reflecting the remaining cabinets so we can arrive at the open working kitchen we are seeking. Ultimately, we will probably cut down at least one of the cabinets. Representing that is much easier by cutting a small piece of paper than actually taking saw-to-cabinet. It's obviously, much easier to undo as well. Before you ask, yes, we absolutely could do this with SketchUp or something similar. I started down that path and the amount of work necessary was considerable when compared to pencil, paper and scissors. While the paper plan is 2-dimensional (versus SketchUp or similar), we can arrive at a 3D experience simply by moving the cabinets around in the actual space. Or, at least, that's the current thinking.

Still Cold, Inside and Out

Progress on the furnace continues. I will post an update next time, but I will say that with every weekend spent working on HVAC, the $10K estimate seems more and more reasonable. Our overnight temperatures have been dipping below freezing with increasing frequency. When coupled with little-to-no insulation and an overtaxed electrical system, we have to pick which areas will have any heat, and those which do get some are not having it consistently. If fear is the ultimate motivator, I think wanting to be warm is a fairly close second. We are also realizing just how important it is to have a considerable part of the house electrical work done when Gary is here for the kitchen and hooking up the furnace. 

NewOldHouse is starting to feel like the house version of the old VW bus: there's always something to work on because there's always multiple things that need to be fixed. And, the answer to the question of "will it ever be done" is also the same: Probably not. Thanks as always, for following along-

Tear This Old Kitchen Down

If I had my way. Yeah, if I had my way. If I had my way, I would tear this old kitchen down. Boo and I have been singing that little tune (a take on Samson and Delilah) since we bought this old farmhouse last August. Well, we took a huge leap forward. So, today's post covers it, starting with where it all began.

How We Found It

"One day while Sampson was walking along, looked down on the ground, saw an old jawbone". In many ways, the NewOldHouse kitchen was a skeleton when we purchased the house. The guy we bought the house from had started the demo when Boo worked out the purchase arrangement. The doors and drawers were gone, the stove and fridge were gone and some of the uppers had been smashed. Oh, and it was filthy. It was the most disgusting kitchen I had ever seen.

First Round

during first round

Before I picked up the sledgehammer, Boo removed the remaining garbage that could be seen and then rough-cleaned the floors, walls and ceiling. By rough-cleaned I mean with a floor mop she would wash until the water turned gray and then repeat until she was so sore she couldn't anymore. That got rid of most of it to the point where we could go in there and not feel like we were in a bacteria-laden petri dish. Regardless, we continued to wear rubber gloves and dust masks.

I started with the garbage disposal, simply disconnecting the sewer line, the electrical and then from the bottom of the sink. The disposal looked hardly used, so thinking we will probably re-use it, I stashed it in the garage. Next, Boo and I removed the dishwasher. I was surprised by how little in terms of fasteners are used to hold a dishwasher in place: 2 screws along the front, holding the leading edge to the underside of the counter. Once we started pulling it out, however, we encountered more garbage. We threw our respirators back on and completed the yank into the middle of the kitchen floor. The insulation around the dishwasher smelled like human urine and there was more rat evidence behind it. So yuck. The dishwasher went into the to-the-dump heap, and the garbage went into the weekly street bin.

oh my gross

Feeling fully grossed, I shifted to the upper cabinets. We lacked a power driver that could remove the 3" long mounting screws driven into the studs. So, my method was a little more smashy: crush the cabinets with a sledge until they fell off the wall in pieces. Then, I would chisel around the screws in the rear wall until the real panel fell off. I removed the screws by loosening them with a framing hammer and then hand turning them out. Unfortunately, this gave me tennis elbow in my left arm that 5 months later I am still recovering from and I still didn't get all the screws out of the walls. Still, the uppers came out, went to the landfill pile and then on to the landfill about a month ago.

Sledgehammer Triumphant Return

Once the old house was fully vacated and repairs completed, we were ready to refocus on the kitchen at NewOldHouse. Since both Boo and I are suffering from tennis elbow, we splurged on a DeWalt power driver for removing the screws, and I tried it out on the screws remaining from round 1. Then, we teamed up on removing the iron sink into the garage (will probably reuse with a new fixture) and then removing the counter tops. The counter tops were glue-board with a thin Formica veneer that were attached to the base cabinets with construction adhesive, so they removed once I convinced them to... with the long-handled sledgehammer. It surprised us both how much smell this glue-board stuff retains. Clearly, once the rats get in, there is no escaping the smell they create without considerable effort.

The power driver made the removal of the base cabinets much easier than the uppers were: remove the screws and then pry the cabinets apart with a wrecking bar - the base cabinets had construction adhesive between them. Boo and I removed them from the wall and then out to the landfill pile one at a time. Of course, just like we had a discovery under the dishwasher, we had guh-nasty discoveries under the cabinets along that wall (see picture on the right). Again, once the gross was discovered, respirators went on and the mess was cleaned up.

UnFlooring

flooring coming up

With the cabinets gone, we swept the floor, washed up and grabbed a late-afternoon sandwich. Boo noticed that the linoleum that had been under the cabinets was curling up along the wall. So, with safety equipment back in-place, she started pulling up the linoleum flooring, but her arms (tennis elbow) stopped her after a few minutes. Curious about what lay beneath, we lifted some of the plywood underneath to reveal the original wood flooring. We had been concerned that perhaps there was old tiling (and possible asbestos), but were delighted with original, but damaged, wood floor. So, with a 1-meter wrecking bar, I set to lifting the plywood and linoleum together. As the wood split into pieces Boo collected the debris out to the landfill pile. In a couple of hours, the linoleum and plywood were gone. We swept up and called it "good enough" for the day. Many nails remain stuck into the old flooring, so we will be pulling nails before we can wet-mop the gross-dust on the floor. Between then and now, Boo intends to run our "for nasty things" vacuum on the floor to lift out as much of the dust as she can. For now, we have laid down old carpet on top of the floor so we don't track that dust into the main living space.

done for today

We were fortunate to have a dry relatively-warm weekend day to do this work. We had the windows open, the music playing and got more of the job completed than I think either of us expected. We are thrilled to see that the original floors are there. From this last picture, you can see that the flooring under the sink had probably become damaged as the flooring was replaced with what look like old cabinet doors and drawer faces. Since this will again reside under cabinets, it would not be necessary to finish that area with hardwood. I expect we will replace the hack-job with real water/rot resistant sub-flooring instead. Tuukka was our Safety Agent, making sure we stopped frequently for water and petting breaks. At the point of this picture, he was telling us the workday was over, and now it was time for his dinner. We agreed.

Thanks, as always, for following along. This was not technically difficult, and it wasn't really all that physically challenging until we got to the flooring. For that, I was sweating like it was summer and breathing hard. I cannot wait to get the nails out and see what this flooring looks like after a good mop. Knowing that we will be expanding the doorway into the main living space, we may find that the flooring needs some replacement, but we'll deal with that if/when it happens.

Enter the Headbanger (Part 3)

I thought I had gotten as far on the headbanger as I intended to for this camping season.... but, today, I wrap this puppy up. Pretty much. I designed, assembled and wired it in Part 1. In Part 2, I figured out how to mount it into the bus, filled in all the gaps with cardboard and applied trunk carpet everywhere a headliner would not be. And, of course, there was more wiring. Today, we complete the headbanger enough for use while we consider how and if it could be improved.

Before I begin, for my US readers, Hapy Flag Day. Earlier this year, I mentioned Phil and Phrends touring through the PacNW. We did that run, and I'll post on that adventure here shortly. But first, the completion-ish of the headbanger.

Headlining the Headbanger

The next logical step was applying headliner to the parts of the headbanger that were still exposed cardboard and OSB. I had a section of material that had been cut off the start of the roll that was about 2 feet deep (56" wide). I needed 19 inches. With the extra material, I was able to get the lines in the headliner to align with the bottom straight edge of the headbanger. I set the cabinet upside down on the tool cabinet with the rear edge facing me. I flopped the material over the speaker boxes and set the lines parallel with the rear edge. I rolled the material back on itself and applied contact cement to the OSB (2 coats) and then a light brushing on the headliner backside. I set the edge and flattened it with my hands. Once set, I rotated the cabinet 180* so the just-cemented part was facing away from me. I worked my way towards me, applying generous amounts of contact cement from side to side in about 6" wide swathes. I double-coated the cabinet, while single-coating the headliner. At each step, I smoothed the headliner down so there were minimal wrinkles and pulls.

With the main section covered, I considered the sides. I had enough material so I didn't need to cut completely separate pieces, but I would need a seam. I decided to make a long seam along the angled section rather than a short seam along the flat bottom at the rear. I did this for 2 reasons. First, the lines of the headliner run straight up-and-down like this, and they would have been running at an odd angle had I just folded along that edge. Second, I was having a hard time visualizing where to make the cut along that shorter edge. I made the fold, applied the headliner with contact cement and then cut off the extra floppy bit. In the end, I am not thrilled with the seam and will look for ideas for how to cover it with something visually inobtrusive. From a distance, it looks fine, I suppose.

All wrapped with headliner, I needed to remove the section in the middle. This cut was not my finest work, and after the less than perfect seams along the outer edge, these cuts further confirmed the need for something to clean-up the transition from trunk carpet to headliner. a small plastic 90* strip might work. Anyway, last, I cut the holes for the speakers and then poked holes through the headliner from inside the speaker boxes for the speaker mounting screws.

Install

I had hoped to have the headliner on the rear ceiling before installing the headbanger, but it's not in and I want to get Hapy on the road. So, I jumped to the install, and ultimately, this was a good thing. My method for raising the cabinet for install is unorthodox, but it worked. I set a plastic recycling tub onto the rear bed cushion. Onto that, I stacked the top and bottom cushions for the rock-n-roll bed. This wobbly stack sets the cabinet in the perfect spot to send through the rear bolts. These are all M4 bolts with lock washers and plain washers. These line up perfectly. Added to the left-center bolt are the grounding ring terminals for the USB chargers. I sent the bolts through enough to loosely hold the rear of the cabinet in place. While I could still reach them, I plugged in the speaker and the USB wires. Then I moved around to the front.

Up front, I discovered that the outer mounts were not going to work. The passenger side mount had the riv-nut in the wrong place (just barely, but wrong). The driver side mount riv-nut did not set, falling out as I tried to thread into it. I discovered that the location was too roundy for a riv-nut to really grab on after trying to set another riv-nut and failing. I know, I posted that I checked the alignment in part 2. I did, but checking the alignment and actually installing are 2 different things, and they are apparently different enough to matter. Lesson learned. So, the front is now held in place with 2 M4 bolts instead of 4. These were sent up the center, around the leading edge "gap filler". Now that it is all together and in place, that center gap fill probably could have been eliminated. As it is, it is very close to the rear light fixture. I may remove it in a later version, but it really does finish off that top edge, and it does pull the 2 speaker box sides together. As to the front edge mounts, I may send through a couple self-tapping sheet metal screws to help hold the cabinet up. It pains me to think that way, though, and as of right now, the cabinet it holding firm to the ceiling.

Once I had the front bolts torqued down, I torqued down the rear ones, and made sure the cables were tucked up out of the way. Satisfied, I pulled the rock-n-roll bed cushions and the recycling tub down. You can see the cushions through the rear window in the picture below.

Speaker Install

Installing speakers is not exactly new ground to cover. The only thing that made this interesting was that I was doing it upside down. Quick side-bar, though... I was able to get in and out the rear tail gate much easier than I expected to. In fact, it is easier to get in/out that way now, than it was 10+ years ago when the original 1972 Westfalia shelf was in there. Figure that I am not getting more nimble; this much smaller unit, and, with the angled front (front is front), it is not nearly as intrusive as the old shelf. I was able to sit upright on the bed (no rock-n-roll parts yet). I would wager that if I sat up suddenly in the middle of the night from a dead sleep, I would not slam my head against the underside of this cabinet. More and more winning.

Anyway, about the speaker install: One speaker at a time, I stuffed poly-fill into the speaker boxes... well, I stuffed poly-fill into the sides and corners of the speaker-boxes. Putting it anywhere else, it would have just fallen out. Then, I wired up the speaker and held it in place (with the cover) and screwed it into the headbanger. Repeat for the second side. Once wired up, I flipped the switch to turn them on and shazam, we have more sound blowing. Anxious to try it out, I closed all the doors, hopped into the driver seat and cranked up whatever was playing on the hard rock station at the time (Cowboy by Kid Rock). Wow. So much sound. After Kid Rock finished, Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" started, giving me a sense of the system's fuller dynamics. This is gonna be fun.

Well, that's it for now. I will probably revisit the headbanger when I lower it to put the headliner on the rear ceiling. We are going to drive around like this for a while, though, to see whether we really need or want to change anything. Right now, it seems pretty great.

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-