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Car improvements in progress
Mar. 28th, 2024 06:29 pm Double Wars is coming, and after that a fair few event road trips. Therefore we are spending the evening today doing car improvements. Yesterday Keldor started creating a roof rack for the van, but he couldn't instal the middle racks till we got the roof box out of the attic, which we did last night.
So today after work he installed the last two racks and attached the roof box. Now we will be able to put poles, spears and some other things on the roof, which will make loading the vehicle for long camping events much easier.
Since it was a car improvement day, he also took power tools to a few rusty area in the car body to clean them back to metal. Then he gave them a coat of zinc paint, followed by some black paint. While he had the paint out he even painted the roof rack.
Meanwhile I cleaned the cab of the car, including wiping down the dash and everything. Then he attached the new back up camera he bought today to the back licence plate, as per instructions.
This is where things got complicated. He tried hooking it up to the wires that should provide electricity to the bulb that should illuminate the licence plate, but it doesn't appear to be working. That bulb is burned out, and needs replacing, but there also doesn't appear to be electricity getting there at all. We tested bringing over a spare car battery, and if we hook the camera to the spare battery then the monitor displays the view from the camera, but we can't get it working with the wire that should power the light.
While he was working on attaching the camera itself, I put the monitor in place where a rear view mirror would be if the car came with one (but since it was built as a work van, with solid back doors, it necer had one, so i am really looking forward to having the camera), and tucked the wire along the window edge and around to the place it plugs in, so, once the camera itself is working, everything in the cab is ready for it.
Then I opened up the inner pannel of the other back door of the van so as to attach a bit of wood to the inside, so we can screw in a hook to the inside of the door, to have a place to hang a wet towel or rain coat if needed. Alas, when I went to put in the first screw, instead of starting to sink in, the screw fell to the side, and my arm holding the drill and screwdriver bit attachment moved forward fast enough to do damage to my left thumb. Oops. Wrapped it in a paper towel to keep from bleeding everywhere.
Now we are giving up for today, and will try dealing with the power to the cable issues tomorrow.
Edited to add: he left the camera hooked up to the spare battery for the drive home, so we can see how it works, and I love it! We can see behind us! It is dark out, yet still we see well enough from that camera to see that it is snowing!!! This is so cool!
So today after work he installed the last two racks and attached the roof box. Now we will be able to put poles, spears and some other things on the roof, which will make loading the vehicle for long camping events much easier.
Since it was a car improvement day, he also took power tools to a few rusty area in the car body to clean them back to metal. Then he gave them a coat of zinc paint, followed by some black paint. While he had the paint out he even painted the roof rack.
Meanwhile I cleaned the cab of the car, including wiping down the dash and everything. Then he attached the new back up camera he bought today to the back licence plate, as per instructions.
This is where things got complicated. He tried hooking it up to the wires that should provide electricity to the bulb that should illuminate the licence plate, but it doesn't appear to be working. That bulb is burned out, and needs replacing, but there also doesn't appear to be electricity getting there at all. We tested bringing over a spare car battery, and if we hook the camera to the spare battery then the monitor displays the view from the camera, but we can't get it working with the wire that should power the light.
While he was working on attaching the camera itself, I put the monitor in place where a rear view mirror would be if the car came with one (but since it was built as a work van, with solid back doors, it necer had one, so i am really looking forward to having the camera), and tucked the wire along the window edge and around to the place it plugs in, so, once the camera itself is working, everything in the cab is ready for it.
Then I opened up the inner pannel of the other back door of the van so as to attach a bit of wood to the inside, so we can screw in a hook to the inside of the door, to have a place to hang a wet towel or rain coat if needed. Alas, when I went to put in the first screw, instead of starting to sink in, the screw fell to the side, and my arm holding the drill and screwdriver bit attachment moved forward fast enough to do damage to my left thumb. Oops. Wrapped it in a paper towel to keep from bleeding everywhere.
Now we are giving up for today, and will try dealing with the power to the cable issues tomorrow.
Edited to add: he left the camera hooked up to the spare battery for the drive home, so we can see how it works, and I love it! We can see behind us! It is dark out, yet still we see well enough from that camera to see that it is snowing!!! This is so cool!