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A project that might yield an MH someday from the ghost of an '86 Conquest


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The cowl drains are hoses at the outside edge of the cowl plenum.

On some badly abused Toys the plenum is filled with rotten stuff that has trapped water and rusted a hole in the bottom and that where your leak is.

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47 minutes ago, WME said:

The cowl drains are hoses at the outside edge of the cowl plenum.

On some badly abused Toys the plenum is filled with rotten stuff that has trapped water and rusted a hole in the bottom and that where your leak is.

So I loosened the cowl. The cowl air inlet mesh covers still exist, and I havent shined a light inside to see if things are bad. But it does not look like it has too much dirt just underneath the cowl. The paint is still fine under the cowl. I will have to learn how to take wipers off to check whats inside.

There are outlets for fluids on either end of the plenum that would drain inside the hood. That seems to be a clear path. But there is also easy entry for water through the air inlets, and there should be a corresponding drain.

I am covering up the cowl inlet (its not going to be driven anyway), blowing hot air with a heater into the cabin and let it dry. When the coach is farther advanced I may return to this. I am doing vinyl on the floor and it just got afresh coat of primer. That should give me some time to chew it over.

How do the wiper arms come off after the nuts are taken off? Is a bit of hammering the only way?

Linda, I will still look for this drain and the ac drain. Probably buried in the fender wells. will report if i find anything.

On a positive note, I hope to put down flooring over the weekend. Thats walls painted, floor primered. On top of the last list. It will just be putting in cupboards, appliances, and furniture for the coach. Painting is done except for cabover thats stuffed full until floor goes in. But that too is primered, so hopefully coach is now only a month or so away.

Also, yes, the shrader valves are behind the driver seat. Nothing else should take air in the truck like that. Presume safe to blow some in and see if the bags inflate?

Edited by neubie
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Floor mostly done --kilz, then insulator+2mm sound deadner, then vinyl plank all over. Now they call them vinyl planks and the distressed wood appearance isnt bad looking but all it is, is the same old linoleum crap. I would rather do wood, but am unconvinced things will stay dry yet. Its fully floating on the sound deadner, there is a bit of uneven space between osb subfloor in one place but this stuff wont squeak and is long 3 foot planks so stays down.  Not worth scraping or patching to make totally level.

As usual now that its down it stays until worn out, which should be a good while. Its not cheap plastic, hopefully that means not terrible quality. Made in china notwithstanding.

Just the generator cabinet space left to encapsulate, then only carpentry would be left in the coach. The cab simply wants its vinyl flooring that one hopes arrives sooner or later. Cabinets arent really my thing but there arent many of them so one hopes not the end of the world. Two sink counters -- kitchen and bath, 3 feet overhead cabinets, and fridge cabinet. The odd medicine cabinet and shelf and such. Probably a full month of work for me. But all parts are here and waiting, so it will go slow or fast as it does.

Hood has had some attention before, but hood and underside should be on december agenda by the look of it. Need to top off the brake fluid to begin with. What kind does it take?

On a serious note, I didnt plan on doing this level of reconditioning. It grew into a far larger project than one would anticipate. Given a choice between a little bit of cleanup vs "project", always choose the lesser work. There is no way you can economize the repair in a project vehicle and hope to get some use out of it. And you will lose at least one, and usual case two camping seasons. And spend twice. Mistreated vehicles deserve professional reconditioning OR a decent burial.

Edited by neubie
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Well, the floor is in and covered up for its own good. As it turns out if your old water heater is suburban, then buy suburban. Otherwise, buy the one that was in there before. Two good reasons, size of the hole and holes from screws that held it. And propane piping location. Then there is a new door to buy if you switch brands. Wait, there is more!  As Billy said, just buy the brand thats in there. For conquests, thats likely not a suburban. Though another change may have happened at sometime. The furnace is a theraflame. Not sure what the oven is, its markings have been long lost to the ravages of time.

There is a suburban sw4de? dsi in there now. it sits in the old space, wouldnt call it fits yet. The theraflame will go in an sit there just for clearing up space, and the oven needs a coat of paint before it goes in. It has nowhere to go in yet. I need the space  empty.

Either way, the time to carpent is at hand. Is there a good reason the bathroom cant get a proper door? For me, this would make sequestering the pets when they cant be kenneled so much easier. They arent real respectful of screens. I have tried those.

Edited by neubie
a missing letter can change the meaning
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1 hour ago, neubie said:

Is there a good reason the bathroom cant get a proper door? For me, this would make sequestering the pets when they cant be kenneled so much easier. They arent real respectful of screens. I have tried those.

Don't know what you've got at the moment, but pocket doors for rear bathrooms are pretty common. Dolphins and Warriors have them.

I don't know what kind of dogs you're trying to contain, but you can buy dog gates. Baby gates will work sometimes too.

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11 hours ago, Derek up North said:

Don't know what you've got at the moment, but pocket doors for rear bathrooms are pretty common. Dolphins and Warriors have them.

I don't know what kind of dogs you're trying to contain, but you can buy dog gates. Baby gates will work sometimes too.

Still the conquest, a work in progress. The animals are cats/kittens. The little demons dont take long to destroy mesh screens, curtains, and generally anything good for scratching or climbing to get a better look. Tested containment at home, they can sniff out the weakness in any design of restraint by making themselves small as a penny, jumping over practically any height screen, or resort to shredding.

Of course, there is still crying left if all else fails.

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Kittens and cats typically have a feel for wood even if it is painted and smooth and pick on it for scratching and marking. Scratching feels good because it cleans the nails and paws, creates noise to bring attention if needed, and has the distant possibility of breaking to freedom. Plastic I havent tried, but at this point, it may well be solid for additIonal reasons below.

I have a quarantined kitten right now thats trying to fit under the 1/4 in space between the door and the floor. And for the good of it has managed to utterly shread bath curtains, scratch every bit of furniture and take down two shelves. With trimmed nails for the most part. All of 6 pounds of terror, all put on while in there, while sequestered for a curable and now cured malady on vets instructions from when he was discovered.

He has a state scholarship, so my costs are really loss of sleep and sanity, time, space, and a bit of scratched furniture. Fortunately, he gets in line for adoption tomorrow. I will miss him even if I do start getting a good nights sleep. But if he gets older without surgery he will start peeing up the walls. They go to their adopted homes after surgery.

I dont plan on taking state wards for a ride. And my own cats are not like this. But they are also outside cats taken in as adults and domesticated all by myself. They only try to escape when frightened (which is incredibly easy for a cat). Never have marked on one bit of wood. Of course, they have free run of the house. Otherwise, they are equally capable of waking the neighbors.

Screens are a bad idea with cats. You really want something they cant see interesting or scary. And only fabric covers if you can help it.  Even trapped cats can be calmed down with just a towel on the trap preventing sight of scary things.

Of course, mine havent traveled free in a vehicle before. They would be sitting on my shoulders if I tried it with the other set of wheels. I am just doing a conventional door. There is space for it and the wood is already here. 

 

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Been painting before sticking stuff together to make furniture like. bigger stuff gets two coats of kilz, lids and doors start out with the rustoleum cabinet paint. There is only a few hours near 60 these days, while they say you can paint above 50 degrees it takes forever to dry.

The rustoleum cabinet renewal is a system more than its paint. Takes countless steps, and hope it will turn out ok in the end. I started with black painted wood, or red. Either way hard to hide. There is three coats front and back then glaze then top coat. You may want four sometimes. Either way, each coat wants hours in between. And you start out sanding and deglossing. To get all the eight nine do overs you need a week in the summer.

My philosiphy has been paint it brightest bright white. Latex where possible but white anyway. This generally works by improving lighting to a point where you dont need as much lighting and it helps reduce the delapidatedness by at least looking clean if still dated. So far its lead to acceptable results on the walls, ceiling, and subfloor.

The cabintery will also be white. A few coats in I still have doubts it will look acceptable, but at this point I might as well go through with the system and see where things end up on the other side. There is only a little you can do for the weave pattern and all the edges in the original cabinets. Lets see what they look like finished.

I have seen folks redo cabinetry completely. But frankly even modern commercial cabinets still somehow dont "fit in" into the overall appearance. Look kludgy for the most part. Still looking into the appearance aspects to keep the space from looking like it was put together by a left handed novice using left overs.

At least a week before the final appearance becomes visible. And thats if it doesnt rain cats and dogs and freeze everything over.

 

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14 hours ago, WME said:

Bathroom had something very similar to this that I ripped out. I suspect it may have been just this. It may work with well behaved pets, With mine probably doesnt stand a chance. Its only about as thick as a good shower curtain. I have to replace those often.

 

Its been raining here nonstop for a day and half. The roof has held up generally well. The only moisture was around the front vent (I had "touched" the vent cover the last time I was up there), I put some more temporary foil tape screen to ward it off for now. Need to go up there and change the vent lid again. Water still pools in the void left by the ac. Despite new beams to support the roof. Its not a lot of water probably a cupful or two. But the scope is there for rusting the vent and making further holes in the ceiling. Will need to create some abatement until the ac goes on again.

There wasnt much water in the footwell now after cleaning the cowl. I forgot to cover up the cowl but there was only a few drops on the driver side. I will do another round of cowl cleanup, this time with the wipers off tomorrow.

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Turned on the furnace. Its a hydroflame direct spark ignition middle capacity (16500btu?, 38watt?).  Outside with a portable 12v source. blower turns on as expected. Need to clean and rehab it before checking if the spark/gas portion is functional. Painted the oven. Cleanup wasnt easy, but rustoleum high temperature paints (grills and such) generally hold up ok. Painting the furnace lid and the oven white, just like everything else so far.

Was planning on putting up kitchen shelves, but got distracted with rain cleanup and decided since it was relatively warm in the afternoon best to get painting over with. Shelves next.

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Tested the furnace with a modern thermostat. RH comes out and goes to the white thermostat. W takes + 12V from the battery. Any millivolt thermostat should work. Nest etc are NOT millivolt.

This is le oven after a coat of white paint, non gloss. burners etc get cleaned. Unless I have goofed and there are paint splatters inside, it is ready to go in. There is only the burner bar and switches that are untested, but they can be replaced if necessary. It should be ok. There is not much to it. Will probably get replaced in due course but for now a good clean and 3.86 worth of paint moves things along. You can see the new thetford sitting under it. Also waiting its turn. The plywood etc are packing the motorhome bathspace requiring that this stay in its pakage.

Has anyone installed vinyl truck flooring recently? My situation is sound deadner foam, then regular underlayment jute or whatever that is, then vinyl. Recommemdations on stretching, cutting etc?

 

edit -- what purpose does the one conductor to the overn burners serve? I dont recall the oven being connected to anything but there seems to be this one cable. There is a makers stamp on there now that its degrimed. Its an elixir. anyone got a manual for a four burner elixir?

20171118_200926.jpg

Edited by neubie
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Temporarily hung up the kitchen cabinet base, and the set down the fridge base cabinet, raised as much as I could without losing the access vent. 5 inches from floor. But it does give me a few square feet in the aisle that were going waste because the fridge previously would extend farther out with a ton of wasted space all around. There should be space for a small drawer and routing of propane and cabling underneath. Need to size this cabinet configurably so I can reconfigure the fridge space after using it a bit. And then above the fridge and around the dually tires.

Conquest comes with an L bracket on top of the passanger side dually tires. Attached with bolts through the OSB to the frame and the other end of the L with six screws holding the wall. Looks structural. It eats up a lot of useful space and makes organising this space a royal pain. There is probably 2/3 cubic feet lost there and it makes improving the protection of the thin plastic dually fender/tire well damn near impossible.

Still, this is some kind of progress. If only 4 screws worth. Lets see what the fridge side configuration looks like eventually.

20171119_192416.jpg

Edited by neubie
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when you buy carpet or vinyl for your truck, specify either extended cab or motorhome clearly. Otherwise you will not get it long enough in one direction. They also skip on the length of the jute underlayment/backing. It invariably never extends to the back of the cab. Lastly, let the vinyl sit for a good long while unfurled and flat. Only then make any cuts.

Having said all this, a good vinyl floor is absolutely the way to go in the truck.

Have been making stick jenga figures for kitchen and fridge cabinetry. Along some way, good long way to go. After this, bathroom cabinetry. That would finish major woodworking. Hopefully in the next two weeks the space will resemble a motorhome again.

I am thinking of doing a round table instead of the stock square 2x2. For some reason the damn hole in the floor doesnt hold the table as upright as I would expect. Its trivial to get it to go south any which way. Doesnt topple over but leans enough to throw anything sitting on it. Perhaps the ends of the pole are bent out of shape from being used as a tire iron. Either way, some new arrangement is needed at the table. I would also love to just do with the hole in the floor and not the screwed on protrusion that goes on the pole at the floor level. Just from a dissassemble flat perspective.

Tons still to do. Truck wants the carpet in, then all the ugliness behind the seats -- the space between seats and coach to be redone.

Very slow progress.

 

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I made a door. That is to say I cut a 3/4 inch piece of plywood into the irregular hole that is the entrance to the loo and hung it there on two hinges. This took days. Because doors expect rectangular holes to go into, the entryway isnt. And the floor while generally acceptably flat isnt flat enough to open a door on. In the end where I wanted little or no space between the frame and the door, there is a good 1/8th in. Because 3/4 ply is hardly easy to cut through with a multitool when hung as a door.

It will need door-ification, a strengthened door frame, door hardware, and the door itself wants a frame to not look like a piece of ply.

Its on there and swinging. Now I just need to finish hanging the rest of the cupboards and then get back to beautification. Mainly, the fridge vent.

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Only bathroom cabinet framing is left. It is tricky because I am rerouting the abs to the black vent, and there was no sink there so its almost a new vanity. The back closet -- this is a rear bath configuration -- is done so if I can finish the framing in the shared wall then only plywood installation will remain.

The kitchen cabinet on one side is framed. The kitchen counter only needs holes cut for sink, faucet, oven. The fridge cabinet is framed. The fridge vent is sort of framed. Needs fridge dimensions to be fixed first.  So bath vanity/cabinet, and a decision on the cabinet over the fridge vent remain.

Still hoping to finish the carpentry this month. Cleanup and water/gas connections now looking like next month tasks. But that is all that remains now.  Putting things in and finishing up. Every section has its todo list just as long as it ever was, but now it deals with new/clean stuff. Hopefully, cabinets are at least framed this week. There is not that many sticks to cut!

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There was some rain, on my parade.  Front window still leaks on driver side. Fortunately, I was prepared for the poor workmanship of my repair ( havent taken it off and resealed it), so the aluminium is still bare in the cabover for access. Still sucks to be chasing leaks.

Otherwise, what little working time there is, gets spent carpenting. Still days to go in framing and cutting.

 

ps: battery warranties need original receipt.

Edited by neubie
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Sounds like a replacement is next in line.

  • Looks like you have a shorted cell. 2v + 11v =13v which is a resting battery
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1 hour ago, WME said:

Sounds like a replacement is next in line.

  • Looks like you have a shorted cell. 2v + 11v =13v which is a resting battery

coming to that conclusion slowly as well. Overall investigation: 1 harbor freight trickler, 1 black and decker trickler, 1 noco genius trickler, a schumacher 15amp charger, and the convertor charger of the toy.

Battery goes to 12++ then rests in the 11s. May be desulphation will move it a tad so it can remain useful even if its not a starting battery anymore.

I am leaning towards a LiPo starter in coach (for heat management reasons) getting rid of a traditional starting battery. Any reason not to? The truck draws less that 600cca as far as i can tell (have not looked up any numbers). There is existing wiring, just move the isolator along with battery inside to the power center in coach.  No way for anyone to run away with the truck if they dont know what switches to turn on to send power to the truck. Well, short of jumping it anyway.

 

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le Optima is done for. I will try a couple drain/recharge cycles and then give in and recycle.Cant do anything to get it to budge from 11s.

My sticks are all in place. Need to cut some ply, and the various holes for pipes and cables. If I can get this done tomorrow it will be a rare planned event (serious carpentry over in november).

The vinyl flooring for truck has been laid out mostly unfurled for a while. Any special recommendations on how to stick it on?

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Lipo are a very energy dense battery and can do wonderful things. BUT they have a strange charge/discharge realm. Make sure you have the proper charger and battery manager

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Be very careful of any lithium battery there are prone to thermal runaway remember hover board fires and flaming laptops? The size does not matter it's the chemistry. Can't remember the aircraft number but they were grounded for battery fires. They have to be extremely well voltage /current regulated not something you would find in a vehicle.

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On 11/30/2017 at 6:54 AM, Maineah said:

Be very careful of any lithium battery there are prone to thermal runaway remember hover board fires and flaming laptops? The size does not matter it's the chemistry. Can't remember the aircraft number but they were grounded for battery fires. They have to be extremely well voltage /current regulated not something you would find in a vehicle.

Its the 787 that had famous battery fires. But they have also had issues on airbuses.

I can get away with a smaller battery with lithium and the hope is that enough has trickled down from tesla and toyota and the other hybrid/electrics by now to get a decent battery if one is not overly cost conscious. I have used lithium jump starters exclusively for some time and those have held up to abuse. They claim upward of 20AH in them these days. Given battery efficiency and all the other factors/differences, two of those can probably hold up against an optima yellowtop agm. The only challenge with those is that they want to be slow charged, so I want to buy something similar but with 12v charging.

There are stories on the net of folks off-griding with huge lithium banks. So this isnt a crazy idea, I just dont know the brand/model that fits the little truck yet.

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My major major challenge in the coach is fitting the bath sink, faucet and routing the abs around all the new obstructions. It was a straight pipe before. Now, thats where the sink goes. When that is done, all parts would have been at least cut to fit. Screwing, priming, painting of cupboards and finishing will remain.

 

Anyone put down vinyl in the truck cabin? Need to get a diploma there before I start cutting it. Spent a good deal of time taking off the carpet earlier. The floor is basically cheese because of all those screw holes. Cant imagine why so many were needed. I am not using any screws or adhesive this time. the vinyl will sit on sound damping foam and under the trim where there is trim. Only holes will be for seats/belts. No point in having vinyl if its still going to let water in below it from top. I doubt its going anywhere given its large size and thickness.

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I did a 1 piece vinyl floor in my Escaper. Removed the carpet and a zillion staples. Started with a cardboard cut, fit, tape, floor pattern. I transferred it to a 2 piece floor overlayment of birch floor panels ( they were 7 ply instead of the 3 plywood normally used). Screwed it and glued it to a clean original floor. I used water putty to fill the screw dents, then sanded everything smooth. Any imperfection in the floor will come through the vinyl in time

I glued the vinyl in the middle so that it could float at the edges when the temperature changed. I left a gap at the edges and used 1/4 round to trim the edges. The result was easy to clean and mostly water proof. But it was cold in the mornings so I added a carpet runner. Just take it out and give it an old fashion broom bashing every so often

Edited by WME
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58 minutes ago, WME said:

I did a 1 piece vinyl floor in my Escaper. Removed the carpet and a zillion staples. Started with a cardboard cut, fit, tape, floor pattern. I transferred it to a 2 piece floor overlayment of birch floor panels ( they were 7 ply instead of the 3 plywood normally used). Screwed it and glued it to a clean original floor. I used water putty to fill the screw dents, then sanded everything smooth. Any imperfection in the floor will come through the vinyl in time

I glued the vinyl in the middle so that it could float at the edges when the temperature changed. I left a gap at the edges and used 1/4 round to trim the edges. The result was easy to clean and mostly water proof. But it was cold in the mornings so I added a carpet runner. Just take it out and give it an old fashion broom bashing every so often

The floor wasnt going to be flat with just sanding, its three separate OSB planks and the edge of one by the entry was warped enough that it would have needed quite a bit of cutting and then Dap leveler or something to stand a chance with sheet vinyl.

 

I was not ready to open/reseal the OSB so just did minor sanding and kilz before flooring. There is 2mm foam protecting the OSB so changes are easy in the future. I did planks on the coach, and tiles in the bath with enough spare to permit dissection and surgery.

What about the truck? That is where I have to finish still. Its one hunking piece of vinyl. Its been unwrapped for a few days. Obviously it needs at least two cuts for the seats and several screw holes for each seat/seat belt. They ship it about a foot wider on each side, so its not easiest to work with. I dont have a YouTube diploma yet so am looking for pointers there.

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I used a after market carpet kit for the front. I cut to fit a layer of Reflectix for the under side and layer an extra layer over the transmission tunnel and the catalytic converter. Then came the carpet. The reflectix made a large difference in heat on the floor.

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7 hours ago, WME said:

I used a after market carpet kit for the front. I cut to fit a layer of Reflectix for the under side and layer an extra layer over the transmission tunnel and the catalytic converter. Then came the carpet. The reflectix made a large difference in heat on the floor.

Thats very interesting. Does one allow a heat dissipating path by underinsulating over the transmission or cut down on heat and noise by over insulating the hump? Various facebook and youtube postings claim to want to "ventilate the transmission hump for the hard working transmission". Never understood the merits of doing it from inside the truck.

I get the idea re. exhaust. Especially since the exhaust had caused three holes in the cab at some time.

As of now, first will be ample sound insulation. There is an existing glued layer, I will add a second. Then some reflectix attached to vinyl as backing. I am holding on to the jute layer until dry environment is assured and verified. Then vinyl on top.

How high does the vinyl go up the firewall? Do you unscrew the center console attachment  and install under it or just work around it?

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Never mind the theoretical stuff from the net. 2 layers of reflectix is cheap and works well.  Full blown heat proofing can be done but its $$$

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Its been a bit too cold and windy of late. Windy more the trouble than cold. Still hoping to get the vinyl in place this week.

Roughed up the holes for the oven, both sinks, and the black abs to the vent. That took a lot of courage given my non existent abilities and utter lack of experience.  Still the bathroom is mostly roughed up now. Waiting its turn to be primered, abs cemented etc. The vanity will stick out a few inches farther than I would like but it should work out.

Tons of little stuff, all water, propane, and appliance hookup. No end in sight yet.

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On 12/3/2017 at 2:49 PM, WME said:

Never mind the theoretical stuff from the net. 2 layers of reflectix is cheap and works well.  Full blown heat proofing can be done but its $$$

Got as far as putting down reflectix on top of sound deadner and then realised that holes for seats/belts need to be located through to next layer. Hadnt seen the bolts in months. Wasnt event sure I will find them. After going through approximately 1 million and four nuts and bolts there they were in all their rusted glory. I am not doing anything fancy with seat frames or bolts at this point. They get a treatment of WD40 and back they go in. Hopefully I get a youtube certification in cutting/fitting the vinyl tonight and actually put it down tomorrow.

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