#vanlust

[lellewynn]

more #vanlust! the hammock, the kitchen, the flip up bed... madly in love! #vanlife #lazygirllifestyle #loungelikeaboss #

[vanlst]

If anyone has a recommendation on what to use to remove the remaining insulation and glue, I’m all ears.

Vacuumed the old boy out - really looking forward to having a shop vac in the new house – $2.00 for 3 mins...ain't no body got time for that!

[vanlst]

With the headliner out, it was time to rip out and dispose of the exposed insulation. I suited up with some fresh goggles, gloves, and a mask and made quick work of it – had everything out in about 15 mins filling a full trash bag in the process.

What's left is a layer of flaky paint, a handful of surface rust spots along with the base layer of adhesive and remaining strands of insulation. 

Next steps are to vacuum this thing out real good and get on to removing the rusty headliner flanges. 

[vanlst]

The most worrisome rust the headliner removal uncovered was this strip just above both the driver/passenger doors and above the sliding cargo door.

Not sure if I can safely remove it or if it serves a purpose and will need to be replaced.

Update: After a bit of key smashing and web surfing I came across this detailed post from a bloke over in jolly ole' E that identifies these flanges as nothing more than rubbish tacked on with some spot welds. Off to the hardware store tonight for a fresh chisel and hammer...

[vanlst]

Once we got the majority of the headliner ripped out, a few things were clear – mold, surface rust, and lots of old glue.

Next steps: remove the rear seat, tear out the remaining carpet, buy a mask and some googles and gloves to get rid of that awful insulation, and vacuum the hell out of this thing.

[vanlst]

Once we said goodbye to the floral layer, we got started on ripping the headliner out in pieces – started in the middle then worked our way out.

It's a shame the original headliner was so brittle – the tension was great and the color was perfect.

[vanlst]

Starting from the middle of the bus, we ripped and cut away pieces between the tension rods and wrapped the remaining material around them as we went. This gave us some good leverage to pull the tougher pieces out and made it much easier to dispose of when we were through.

At this point, shit was getting real, bits of surface rust and debris began to fall as we peeled back the 40+ year old membrane – it was clear nothing was salvageable. The good news was that the cabin lighting is now exposed with some wiring still intact – really looking forward to getting that laced up in the coming weeks.

The rear cargo door was in pretty good shape once we removed the glued-on carpet. Sounds like there's a bit of rust/debris floating around in there though, so I'll need to give that a thorough cleaning once I move on to applying the insulation.

[vanlst]

The PO did a real good job of making this thing presentable even though it's largely a glue job with a bunch of super shitty materials all in the name of "sound proofing".

We started in the cargo area by removing the handful of screws that sadly held the deluxe trim in place.

I was sad to see the floral headliner go, but I've enlisted my mom in this process – she's now tasked with dialing in the curtains, so I'm sure we'll get a nice surprise in a few months.

This was just the beginning.