Our Dormobile

Our Dormobile
On the Mojave Road

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Air Conditioning in the Dormobile - Part 1

I have been asked lately why I haven't posted anything.  Well, as most of you know, I live in Tucson, AZ.  So, it hot, really hot, and the Dormobile doesn't have air conditioning.  One of the conditions of the purchase of the Dormobile was that my husband, James, would install air conditioning. 

We have owned the Dormobile for 5 years now, and still no air conditioning.  I must mention that we have had a few set backs over the past few years.  Things like two broken axles.  Now that the car can run, it
is time to get the air conditioning installed.

My motivation is we were invited to Monument Valley at the end of August by another AZLRO member.  I really want to go, but it is a long hot drive to get there.  Therefore, I decided I would help with the less technical parts of the installation.

First step is to put in heat and noise insulation.  We purchased a heat and noise insulation that you paint onto the firewall and seat box.  I thought this would be pretty simple.  So, two weeks ago I went out to the Dormobile thinking, I will scrub it down and hose it out and then I can start painting.  Easy!!

I forgot my own rule.  Nothing is ever easy when you are dealing with a 40+ year old car.  I soon discovered that the Dormobile had some old stick on sound and heat insulation all over the firewall and seat box.  It had to be removed before I could paint.  Here is the transmission tunnel with the adhesive stuff on it.



I got out a screwdriver and putty knife to try and get it off.  Some came off really easy, but a lot did not.  So, we bought adhesive remover and a floor scraper. It took about 4 hours to remove the black stuff. Then I had to remove all the residual adhesive that was left on everything. One large can of adhesive remover later, I was ready to get the hose out. 

Here are a few pictures of what it looked like before and after removing the adhesive.

Before:

After:


Next step is to paint on the heat and sound insulation.

Here is the inside with the heat insulation:


More to come. . . .
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