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Haven't been there yet (about 450 miles from me). I was actually thinking about heading out there in October when it gets down to the mid-80s during the day
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Working on the M1078 LMTV
- Thread starter mkcoen
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AC is in and running. Thanks to Keith Knight for advice and Keith_J for the work. We're getting about 65° at the vent (outside temp in the low 90s). We took it for a drive and it stayed comfortable but certainly not as cold as a passenger vehicle.
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Good job, great to hear the project was a success.
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If you go to Big Bend, stay at least one night at the Gage Hotel.
Another Ahab
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Is it like an Old West saloon or something?
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No, just a beautiful old hotel in a beautiful setting.
http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/gage-hotel.html
Another Ahab
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That IS a good-looking hotel, and the chow looks really good, too!
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Only thing today was getting the front lower guards back in place. Funny thing is the smaller one took longer to get in position and I actually had to use a c-clamp on it to hold in place while I got a bolt started. The longer one I was just able to push up on it with my shoulder to hold it in place. It would definitely be an easier install with 2 people handling things.
TexAndy
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Nice. We're in the dog days of summer, so I'd say if you can honestly call it "Comfortable" while fighting against 100 plus degrees outside and the engine heat directly below the cab, then you're doing great.
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Come up and help change tires and I'll take you for a "comfortable" ride. You'd probably be happier in the air conditioned seats of the F250 though
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I barely got started on insulating the roof this morning when I had to make a run in to town. By the time I got back it was really too hot to continue so I'll have to wait until this evening or tomorrow morning to continue. It is interesting to see how well this stuff works though. Pic one is on the bare metal and pic 2 is on the insulation. Both were held approximately the same distance from the area being measured so don't believe ambient temps would alter the readings. A 33° difference if fairly substantial.
Edit: Went back and shot it again at noon - 150° uninsulated and 100° insulated.
Edit: Went back and shot it again at noon - 150° uninsulated and 100° insulated.
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TexAndy
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Sweet. So are you saying you're going to install air conditioned seats in it, too?opcorn:
opcorn:
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That's a big difference!
Cheers
Cheers
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Oof, I finally got the roof insulated. Let me say I hope to never have to do that again. While it will look good when covered and do it's job with sound/heat deadening, right now it looks like a patch work quilt done by an eight year old and that might be an insult to eight year olds everywhere.
One of the challenges also is getting the roof inserts off the old push pins. They're the same kind of pins used to hold the door panels on but you don't have a hard surface to pry against like you do with the door. What I finally wound up doing is heating them up with a heat gun to soften the "threads" on the pins then pulled them out. That worked great on the edge of the turret ring where there was a hard plastic edge but not so great on the inner pins of the headliner itself (actually melted a spot but thankfully it's on the unseen side). I finally just had to bend the pin heads up all the way around to make them smaller then pulled them through the liner. After that I could heat the threads up and separate them from the inserts.
Another issue I found after test fitting the ring cover is that it doesn't go all the way to the edge of the ring opening. That means I'm going to have some of the messily installed insulation partially visible (if you're looking right at it from the seat of the truck). So instead of having shiny aluminum showing through I took some flat black spray paint and shot it real quick. The other sections of the headliner will come close but now hopefully these parts will blend in with the shadows versus being glaringly obvious.
I'll take some temp measurements later this afternoon. It's supposed to be over 100° today so it'll be interesting to see what the temp on the bare metal of the edge of the roof, the insulated section, then the section with both insulation and headliner.
One of the challenges also is getting the roof inserts off the old push pins. They're the same kind of pins used to hold the door panels on but you don't have a hard surface to pry against like you do with the door. What I finally wound up doing is heating them up with a heat gun to soften the "threads" on the pins then pulled them out. That worked great on the edge of the turret ring where there was a hard plastic edge but not so great on the inner pins of the headliner itself (actually melted a spot but thankfully it's on the unseen side). I finally just had to bend the pin heads up all the way around to make them smaller then pulled them through the liner. After that I could heat the threads up and separate them from the inserts.
Another issue I found after test fitting the ring cover is that it doesn't go all the way to the edge of the ring opening. That means I'm going to have some of the messily installed insulation partially visible (if you're looking right at it from the seat of the truck). So instead of having shiny aluminum showing through I took some flat black spray paint and shot it real quick. The other sections of the headliner will come close but now hopefully these parts will blend in with the shadows versus being glaringly obvious.
I'll take some temp measurements later this afternoon. It's supposed to be over 100° today so it'll be interesting to see what the temp on the bare metal of the edge of the roof, the insulated section, then the section with both insulation and headliner.
Another Ahab
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Don't sweat it; they got to learn to grow up (and that means taking the good with the bad).
It looks great to me. I'm impressed that you tackled the job and got it all done.
![[thumbzup]](https://www.steelsoldiers.com/images/smilies/icon_smile_thumzup.gif "Thumbs Up [thumbzup]"){kind=icon}
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Thanks AA but it looks better in pics than it does in person.
Well I think I found another level of Dante's Inferno - heat and all.
These stupid little clips that go on the edge of the roof that the push pins go into are a royal bee-atch. I "test fitted" the driver's side of the headliner about 10 times including having to pull the large push pins that go into the roof out repeatedly trying to get everything lined up. The clips have about an inch of play side-to-side so you have some wiggle room but I found out too late that they don't have enough lateral play so I'm missing the slot on most of the door side of the liner. It's about 98° outside and 110° in the cab right now so I'm feeling like a limp noodle and am done for the weekend (church and a wedding to go to tomorrow).
There was another big opening in the headliner above the rifle racks (I'm assuming for barrel protrusion) but instead of painting that I took a piece of my old cargo cover and put it on the back side of the headliner with some contact cement. We'll see how long that lasts. But here's half of the roof done if not completely at least you can get an idea of how it'll look when done.
Well I think I found another level of Dante's Inferno - heat and all.
These stupid little clips that go on the edge of the roof that the push pins go into are a royal bee-atch. I "test fitted" the driver's side of the headliner about 10 times including having to pull the large push pins that go into the roof out repeatedly trying to get everything lined up. The clips have about an inch of play side-to-side so you have some wiggle room but I found out too late that they don't have enough lateral play so I'm missing the slot on most of the door side of the liner. It's about 98° outside and 110° in the cab right now so I'm feeling like a limp noodle and am done for the weekend (church and a wedding to go to tomorrow).
There was another big opening in the headliner above the rifle racks (I'm assuming for barrel protrusion) but instead of painting that I took a piece of my old cargo cover and put it on the back side of the headliner with some contact cement. We'll see how long that lasts. But here's half of the roof done if not completely at least you can get an idea of how it'll look when done.
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Okay the headliner is more of a PITA than I anticipated. Not only is getting the little clips a nightmare to line up with the holes in the headliner but any movement of the unit while trying to adjust it would pull the large pin nut inserts out of the ceiling and the only way to get them off the pin was take the whole thing down so you could reach them with some needle nose pliers. After about the 15th time of trying to make it work with the stuff that came with it I broke down and pulled out the self tapping screws. I took 1/4 x 1" screws and 1/4" fender washers and used existing holes that were under double walled sections of the roof (so no place for the plastic pins to go) and zipped them into place. I've used 4 on the 1st side and might add a 5th. It's nice and snug and should be in place for good. I'll try and get the passenger side up tomorrow. Once they're all in I'll go back with a brush and some flat black paint to touch up the screw heads.
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Looks nice.
aleigh
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might consider nutserts. that's what I did when I had to put some holes in to mount my digitization rack brace to the roof.
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The way the OE installation works is the clips hang over the edge of the roof (except the 2 large pins that go in the center) and then the plastic push pins go through those. The sections I added extra support had no place in the roof or hardware to cover them so I figured the self tapping ones would work just fine. Each side of the headliner weighs about 5 pounds or so and spread out over a large area. The extra support (especially since it's physically screwed in) should be plenty.