When we bought the bus there was a ceiling speaker and vent duo attached overhead where our bed would one day be. The bus smelt damp and you could tell that moisture was getting in. Buying an LDV we weren’t surprised that there was a leak, but it quickly moved up to the top of the priority list.
So, on the first weekend of the van build we ripped the fan out. It came out with (worrying) ease, the rivets did not need to be drilled out and Rob simply pushed the speaker up from inside the bus and away it came, duct tape and all- no wonder it was leaking.
It was mid afternoon in February by the time the vent was out so we knew that it wouldn’t stay light for long, we were against the clock to get the new one fitted. This task was tricky enough as the roof is made of fibreglass so standing on it is a no go. The time pressure mixed with the inability to stand on the roof made for an uncomfortable installation, hanging off of a ladder trying to get to the centre of the bus’ roof.
Rob had decided to make a wooden box to frame the fan so that it was sat low enough on the roof below the metal struts to be in line with the ceiling. He measured twice and cut once, taking time to cut this precisely. It was only as he put the four separate pieces of wood together that he realised that even though he’d measured twice, he had still cut it wrong…. We had ended up with a rectangle when we should have had a square… and no spare wood…. ooops.
After bodging the wood together with a metal strip to make a box like shape we used a sealant called Sticks Like Shit to attach the fan to the roof. I mean with that name, we hoped it would do just that. We worked quickly to get the new fan fitted then held our breath and crossed our fingers, hoping that we had done the job well enough.
We live in England, so we didn’t have long to wait for the rain. One wet evening we made our way nervously to the van to be greeted by a wet wooden frame surrounding a fan that wasn’t much drier. Even though it was leaking it was still better than the leak we had before and with other leaks and rusty patches to fix, the fan moved to the bottom of the to do list.
A few weeks later with the sun out, a new sealant (sikaflex) and a fresh piece of wood we were ready to try again. It turns out Sticks Like Shit is a very good sealant, it sticks to everything, except our fan….
This time around, we used methanol to give the area a thorough clean. Rob admitted that he may have been a little ambitious with his hopes of using a sealant to fill a sizeable ridge. We purchased a waterproof membrane tape that we used to pack out the gaps around the fan to make them the same height as the rest of the roof. We applied the sealant liberally to the fan and surrounding areas before screwing the top section, the wood and the bottom section together.
Several rain storms later, we may still be taking on some water but none of it is through the fan. If you’re thinking about installing a fan on your build learn from our mistakes, even if you measure twice make sure you have a spare bit of wood!
Rob and Adele
Products used for the fan installation:
Makita Drill: https://amzn.to/2WnqCwH
SikaFlex Adhesive Sealant: https://amzn.to/2JPWYyr
Membrane Tape: https://amzn.to/2UmtlZC
Makita Jigsaw: https://amzn.to/2UiT05s
Fiamma Vent: https://amzn.to/2WxeCIK
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