I finished the basic mechanical fastening of the roof conversion today. This has been an absolute monster truck of a job.
Yet to complete is the filling of the cavities above the side door, rear doors, then final trim sealing via caulking, automotive filler and finally paint. Given how far I've gone with my deep dive into auto body mods...these are minor tasks, though certainly not fast jobs.
Today I sealed and riveted the top-rear and top-front panels and completed the rib-joinery. 204 rivets total for the job. 75mm (3 inch) or 150mm spacing depending on the location. Each hole was de-burred on both sides of all panels to ensure a flush mating and maximum rivet crimp. This means every hole was visited six times or MORE. Drill (1 step), deburr both sides of two or more panels (4+ steps), rivet (1 step). A far cry from the way you'd slap together a tin shed that's for sure.
The sound paneling I mentioned yesterday was absolutely horrible to remove. Just horrible horrible, time consuming messy horrible. Yuck.
I had a bit of a Silastic smear fiasco across the front of the van when trying to install the front-mid roof. This was expected and unfortunately unavoidable while working solo. A big cleanup job is required later with an orbital sander when I get to the trim-work and final cleanup stage in the future.
Man I'm tired.
