The Bulkhead Pt.2
Thanks for sticking with us and I hope you’re all still enjoying the blog. I’ve got lots of updates to come as Ben and I have been working hard and making good progress.
It’s now June and pretty obvious that without a miracle we will not be ready to set off at the end of the month. Although initially sad about this both Ben and I have accepted that we have done our best and we are still really looking forward to the trip, whenever we set off. This project is a major undertaking and has been very physically demanding. I am proud of what we have achieved so far with little to no DIY experience and we know from experience that adventuring is always better when spontaneous!
Ply lining the bulkhead
After battening, insulating and applying the vapour barrier to the bulkhead it was now time to begin ply lining it, just as we have done with the walls so far. I love it when the walls go up it just brings the build together and gives you a real sense of progression.
We knew that with the size of the bulkhead adding the ply lining was going to be a tad tricky as it is wider than the largest pieces of ply that we could buy. After spending some time discussing the best way to add the ply with the neatest looking finish we decided to do it in two halves, much like we did with the previous stage.
We really wanted to keep the wall around the hatches as neat and clean and in one piece as possible. We didn’t have much marine ply left at this stage and its rather expensive at £40 per sheet, you definitely don’t want to mess up and have to purchase and re-cut another one!
We had some off-cuts left over from when we had the sheets for the walls cut to the right size. After sizing them up we realized that we could get away with using four of these on the lower half of the wall. The lower half of the wall is going to be inside the kitchen units/ behind the shower and therefore will not be visible. With that in mind we felt that it didn’t matter too much if it ended up looking a bit like a patchwork quilt.
We also cut a small hole in the lower right half of the bulkhead which will be used for a heating duct. We tried three different hole saws and two different drills before finally managing to get through the sturdy Mercedes bulkhead! I think we’ll be adequately protected from living room projectiles in the event of any hard braking!
We left the part uncovered with the ply so we’ll have room later to fix the vent to the cab side and ducting to the living side. I think we’ll definitely appreciate the heated cab when starting out each day in the more wintry states of the US & Canada. We found getting into a freezing cold car/truck to be less than pleasant in some of the colder states on our previous trip.
Next we moved on to ply the top half. We decided to make a cardboard template as the van curves inwards on either side at the top and needs to be scribed along the right-hand edge to fit with the curve of the wall. After another excellent round with the jigsaw for Ben and our newly cut piece of ply in hand we headed in to begin the tricky procedure of fitting the top half.
As you can see from the first photo the bulkhead starts flat then leans back at an angle and then goes flat again towards the top. This makes it a challenge to ensure a tight fit, especially with one person having to do all the holding and the other all the screwing in. We did manage the task well and we are very pleased with the outcome, I think it looks very neat! 🙂
Now to work on the hatch door!
Wow… Excellent work!!!! xxx