Skip to main content

Side Project 1: Window Coverings

Fiona & I had a little project of our own to make some sort of window covering for the back of Digby that would block out the light when camping. Some of the more up-market Delica’s came with curtains & curtain tracks, but we were not so lucky. We watched a few YouTube clips and tossed around a few ideas and finally settled on making some snug-fitting inserts that would act as blinds that could be positioned right up against the back windows and held in place by the internal window surrounds.  For this to work, the blinds would need to be cut very close to the window shape, be quite stiff to hold their shape across the window, be able to act as a moisture barrier and include some sort of insulation material to stop any thermal transfer from the glass.
 
 
To achieve this we first purchased some stiff corrugated plastic (corflute), maybe 5mm thick, some reflective insulation underlay normally used under carpet, and some patterned material cloth that we thought would look nice on the inside of the van and conform to our tentative colour scheme for the interior. We also had some old black curtains that we would use as the external facing material of the blind, so that it would be difficult to see that the blinds were in place from the outside, especially at night.
    
Next, we created some brown paper templates of the various windows shapes in the back of the van that we transferred to make cardboard templates that we could use to trace around and cut out the corflute, the insulation and covering materials. We cut out and layered the various layers together, (inside material-reflective insulation-corflute-reflective insulation-outer material), and as Fiona is a bit of a dab hand with the sewing machine, we soon had four window blinds made up and we tested them in the van and they worked extremely well. We still need to decide what we want to do for the front half of the van and also the back window, but this little project was very successful. 
IMG_5173

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

So why a Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear..?

In late 2017, when we had finally decided that we didn’t want to spend a large fortune on a luxury overland rig, we started to look around to see what else we could consider, remembering that ideally, we wanted something cheap, easy to maintain, and hopefully reliable. Once you have excluded all the medium to high-end vehicles, you are left with either a car, an SUV, or a van, most of which can be purchased quite reasonably. We ideally wanted something with Four Wheel Drive (4WD) that would allow us to go off the beaten track when required and ensure that we can get through all but the most challenging off-road terrain. As Fiona often says, we want a vehicle that “will get us out of trouble, not into trouble”. Modern 4WD’s are generally a sophisticated blend of true mechanical & electronics drive systems that do their magic behind the scenes to get you through or a compromise between mechanical & electronic features that lead to an “All-Wheel Drive” system. Either way, not bein...
Post a Comment
Read more

Captain’s Chair Mod

I have spent about 9 months looking through various Delica forums and websites to find some information and guidance on how to move one of my middle-row Captain’s Chairs forward to the front passenger side location in Digby. This is a pretty popular mod for your Delica if you can have a Captain’s Chair or can buy one cheap, and I have found a good resource for this mod, ( here ), that show how the mod can be done with a degree of involvement and complexity.   Sometimes it doesn’t matter how much research you do in advance, something you didn’t expect comes along to throw you off…… When I removed the front passenger seat and lifted the carpet it became apparent pretty quickly that my simple idea of just lining up the rails and drilling some holes was not going to be as simple as I had hoped. Firstly, the bolt holes for the rear mounting on the front passenger seat were significantly wider than either the seat holes at the front of the passenger’s seat or the width of the Captain’s C...
1 comment
Read more

Side Project Wrap up

Over the past few weeks, I have been carrying out a few minor side projects while I awaiting the necessary funding to start the camper build proper. These “mini”side-projects are things that I can get done with little fuss & bother, and don’t cost too much to undertake, that will hopefully improve the general look & feel of Digby in an attempt to bring him back to near his former glory. The Grab-Handle – When we first purchased Digby on of the more obvious signs of wear and tear was the fact that the passenger side dash-mounted grab handle was missing, leaving two ugly holes in the dash and the unmistakeable indentations of the former handle. I pondered the fact of how this item could have been lost or removed by a previous owner…? I suppose excessive force of over-use could have pulled it away from its moorings, or the M6 nuts holding it from behind the dash could have come loose, but who knows for sure…? Surely it could not be too much bother to re-mount it…?     I ...
Post a Comment
Read more