I’ve been spending my time recently on the front cabin interior. I bought some polypropylene auto carpet and fitted it over the carpet padding. Unfortunately when I tried to sew the seams up I found out how lame polypro carpet is. It’s basically astroturf and unravels unrelentingly. It also looks cheap, kinda sparkly like astroturf. I’m going to replace it with nylon carpet instead. I guess I now have a somewhat expensive full size template.
On a whim, I bought some dark red vinyl at the fabric store. With it, I made a headliner and covered the old passway pads. I was a bit worried that Laura wouldn’t like the color, so I took the opportunity to compliment her on some boots that are a similar color. I think it worked because she gave the thumbs up when visiting today.
I also had to spend some time doing preliminary wiring and mounting of the siren and dome light. Volvos, being essentially single layer boxes have very few easy paths for wire runs. I spent a lot of time fishing wires, drilling holes, pushing in grommets and cursing to do this wiring.
The headliner is a piece of SurePly with some thin headliner foam sprayglued down. It is followed by the vinyl stapled.
I also fabricated a bunch of bamboo panels to cover the flat surfaces. Here it is a cove piece with strengthening battens glued transverse to the grain. The silver stuff is more Damplifier constrained layer dampening material. Without it the panels would be pretty boomy/rattly.
I think it turned out pretty good.
And the passenger door
wesc
After truing up the ropes that lift the 4 corners such that each corner lifts the same amount, I am able to now spec the tenting. Total lift is 32″.
A piece of scrap Sunbrella duct taped to the bolt-tape that slides into the tracks. The actual tent will likely be light grey or tan.
and collapsed. It’s a little awkward at the corners because there isn’t much room behind the lift pole.
I may go for a design where the corners have to be zipped up, in which case the sides would lay much nicer:
or rolled up:
wesc
Last week, Eric came down to help me build a paint spray booth. The new shop is a much better place to do painting as the road outside is paved vs the dirt/gravel road of my old shop. This makes a huge difference in the quality of the paint job. I had to redo the flip-out flaps 3 times due to dust nits getting in the paint. With the new shop, I got a good coat the first try.
The new windows went in without any difficulty. The new paint is slightly brighter and more “lipstick red” even though it is the same paint code as the old paint. A few years of sun fading on the old paint must have made the difference. I’ve found with a mild abrasive rubbing compound I can quickly fade the new paint to match fairly well. I’ve done this on the door jambs, but not on large areas like the doors. I’ll try a “cleaning” wax first since the rubbing compound forever kills the gloss.
wesc
I had always planned on putting the floor in last so it wouldn’t get dented and scratched while other things are installed in Trog. However, I got into a few blocking issues where the floor needed to go in before cabinets could be installed. I got 50 sq ft of Mocha Moso engineered bamboo flooring from Bamboo Hardwoods which was just enough to cover the area. Flooring was glued to the subfloor using a polyurathene glue.
The floor and subfloor are floating — that is they aren’t directly fastened to the metal floor. Instead the various cabinets and seats clamp the floor down. The exception is the cowling that covers the transmission tunnel. In this case the floor is glued to that piece. I’ll set some countersinks into the bamboo so it can be bolted down.
I’m prettty happy with how it turned out, however if I were to do it again I would choose a blonde bamboo as it doesn’t show scratches as much.
I’ll cover it with some hardboard or plastic to keep it from getting dinged up.
wesc
I’ve finally gotten a chance to do some work on Trog again. The old windows and seals were in pretty bad shape. The driver/passenger windows both leaked and one side didn’t lock. The rear side windows were made of plexiglass or lexan and were pretty scratched up. And finally the rear window was never installed — just an aluminum panel where the glass should be. I spent some time tracking down new slider track for the driver passenger windows, but everything that I could source wasn’t quite the right size. So instead I ordered new 1600 series windows from Motion Windows.
The 1600 windows are available with mitred corners, but I think they look a little funny. So I elected to get the radiused corners. That means I need to fill the existing rectangular window cutouts with corner pieces. I also needed to block the edges a bit using some old oak flooring to allow for the window flange.
wesc
I got the new VDO 6K RPM tach installed in Trog when I redid the wiring. The trip to Mogfest was the first time to try it out. Turns out there’s too much noise in the ignition system and it reads high.
Blurry pic as I was driving, but it’s reading > 6K at 90 km/h. When I install the 123 Ignition the tach should read correctly…
wesc
Colby and I returned again to Mogfest this year. This time Colby’s girlfriend and Laura and Q joined.
Quentin’s first driving lesson.
On Sat night I took Trog thru a gully and got hung up. Trog was spanning the gully with the front and rear bumpers supporting it. Only a little bit of the front wheels bit into the hillside, the rear wheels were fully off the ground. A helpful Mog pulled me out.
And the damage — the rear bumper tweaked a bit.
wesc
Sorry I haven’t updated the TrogBlog in a bit. Life has been hectic with the shop move in, Mogfest, Burning Man, an East Coast trip, a wedding in Santa Cruz and other distractions. Back in the summer, before Mogfest, I installed the seats. Instead of using the adjustable rails, I chose to mount them in a fixed position — thru bolted thru the floor. This gives me another 1″ of headroom.
A little “cold forging” of the cockpit area with a hammer gave me another 2″ of legroom. 
It turns out with the seats in a fixed location Trog is still comfortable for normal height people to drive.
They barely fit in there.
wesc
I finally got Trog running again. After sitting for 8 months it started right up! I drove it without incident (and roof) to the new shop. I’ll go back to pick up the roof after I clear out more of the machines that are in the way.
I like how Trog looks swayback in this photo:
wesc
I’ve been pretty jammed into my current shop. Trog takes up a lot of space and I have acquired a bunch of tools over the years and it’s getting harder to use them because everything is in the way of everything. This week, I will be moving into a really nice new shop that I will be sharing with Colby. The space was previously used as a development shop for a computer graphics special effects company and was finished to a much higher level than most shops. It features a nice kitchen and a bathroom with a shower. A/C, heat and ceiling fans too. Before moving in, the owner put in a new floor. Here’s a few pics of the empty shop. Note the 6 ton bridge crane!
wesc
Yeeks, I’m pretty sure the fuel filter hasn’t been replaced in 30 years. It had a Volvo part # on it…though if the firefighters in Kungsbakka did replace it it would have likely been a Volvo part as well. I performed an autopsy…
yuk.
wesc
Trog’s air intake and filtration system is a somewhat flawed design. The plastic air filter box sits right above the carburetors. After Trog is turned off, there is a little bit of gas remaining in the carbs. This gas evaporates and soaks the air filter. In the event of a fire or backfire this is ready fuel (to quickly light the plastic air filter box). When the Swedish military renovated their fleet of TGBs they added a new metal air filter box further upstream in the intake system and just used the old air filter box as a manifold to feed the carbs.
I have been wanting to make the same mod to Trog, but have had trouble finding a suitable air filter box. I finally found one off a mid 90s Jeep Wrangler with a 6 cylinder engine, same as Trog, so it should be sized appropriately. Plus, this means that air filters are easy to come by. Most auto parts stores don’t stock the correct filter for the old filterbox.
The air path goes thru the new filter box behind the passenger and up thru a stainless tube to an intake box. A vent plate finishes the outside. I believe the vents will alllow enough air in (their combined area is almost the same as the diameter of the intake hose). If not, I will replace the vent plate with something with larger orifices.
The old route was thru a bit of flexible tubing with an intake just in front of the radiator. This took up some room in the engine tunnel and I found it somewhat untidy looking, as well as possibly prone to water intake.
wesc
The 30 year old vacuum hoses were showing some significant signs of deterioration so I decided to pull them and replace with new. Trog uses a vacuum based system for locking the differentials, engaging front wheel drive and the power take off (PTO). It’s a bit of a mess with hoses having to run up into the front cabin to be switched via manual valves. Volvo was a bit sloppy with this system. Where a nice neat manifold would minimize mess, they went with a series of T’s.
The front wheel drive actuator is controlled by a 12v solenoid.
FWD is engaged when any of the following are true:
- FWD switch enabled in the main cabin
- Gearbox put in low
- Hard braking (there is a pressure sensor on the brake line)
Most of the old hoses. They were replaced by Gates fuel line. The fuel line is rated for vacuum service and won’t degrade quickly with oils or gasoline vapors that will creep into the vacuum system. The vacuum system is “powered” by a port on the intake manifold of the engine. After then engine is turned off, residual fuel in the carburators evaporates and makes it’s way into the vacuum system (not much, but over time, enough). That gas can also degrade the membranes of the vacuum actuators (and brake servos), so I intend to put a charcoal filter inline with the intake manifold hose.
It took almost 25′ of 3/8″ Gates 27004 hose and 25′ of 1/4″ Gates 27002 hose to do the system.
I still need to redo the hosing for the vents on the various gearboxes. To prevent stuff from getting into the gearbox vents, Volvo has run a network of 1/8″ish hose connecting them. The output uncermoniously dumps into an interior panel stiffener box tube.
In the future, I want to replace most of this tangle of hoses, at least the ones that lead to the manual switches in the main cabin, with solenoid activated valves
I believe Skinner 3000 series valves should work, specifically 3133BJA7LNC4 RR T1J1 C1 12 VDC
.
The common manifold eliminates a lot of redundant hose. It is a little unclear whether the valve seating on this are appropriate for vacuum on the common side. Also, I’m not sure if the Cv of the valves are sufficient to move enough air to engage the actuators in a short enough amount of time.
wesc
With gas springs, gaskets, latching locks and bamboo inner faces installed.
wesc
Miguel showered with sparks while cutting a hole in the back of Trog for a vent to draw in cool air for the refrigerator compressor. Here’s a mess of pix.
wesc
I went to Bamboo Hardwoods today to pick up some 1/2″ bamboo for the drawer fronts and some more 1/8″ for door and cabinet panels. Here’s one of the front doors with bamboo panels and speakers mounted.
and an interior shot, taken later with the wire routing. interior insulation and speaker crossover visible. I also wired up a red LED light which will illuminate when the door is opened.
The seals around the windows are kinda shot. I have been ignoring the windows the whole project and now it is time to address them.
wesc
I saw this the other day. Not a bad idea — take a flatbed, strap on a shack and you are done.
wesc
I love the firetruck style rollup doors on Trog. However, they don’t work at all with a camper layout as the rollup tracks would completely bisect the living area. To fix this, yet retain the look, I have constrained the tambours using some aluminum U channel to make flipout flaps. They are hinged at the top.
When open, they will allow a lot of cross-flow breeze. I am debating whether or not to put an interior window of some sort on the forward flaps. The drivers side rear flap opens to gain access to a storage area. The passenger side rear flap will expose the exterior shower control and showerhead.
I think I will also repaint the flaps a different color. I am considering a metallic silver — something that will look like bare aluminum or stainless.
The flaps will be supported by gas springs — they just arrived in the mail today so I’ll put them on soon. I also need to figure out how they lock from the outside.
wesc
With the roof flipped back over I installed the Solar Panels. Two Kyocera KD-135 GX-LP panels to give up to 270 watts of electrical generation. That should be enough to keep up with the refrigerator, heating fans, lights and other loads.
I considered mounting them like this:
which would have allowed room for a roof rack, but I decided on the end-to-end format because I would still have the ability to use the pole-chocks for long poles for desert or other camping structures. It’ll also prevent me from adding a roof rack and loading the roof up with further weight. It’s already much heavier than I’d like it to be.
The solar charge controllers is a Blue Sky 2512ix maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller. MPPT controllers are more efficient because they operate the solar panel at the voltage where it produces the most overall power. Conventional chargers operate at battery charge voltage (typically 13-14V), while the MPPT controller has a DC to DC converter to convert the MPPT voltage to charge voltage.
The Kyoceras produce maxiumum power at 17.7V. More info on MPPT controllers are available in this PDF.
wesc
Today I mounted the bamboo cove panels on the roof.
Hopefully the bamboo won’t split lengthwise. I put some Damplifier butyl rubber sound dampening material on the back, mostly to dampen rattles, but it also increases the strength a bit.
This is pretty much the last thing to be done to the roof in it’s turtled state. As soon as I can get enough peeps in the shop to help flip the roof I can commence with mounting the solar panels.
I have decided to put bamboo panels in the doors as well. Here’s a sample panel I temporarily set into the panel guides on one of the doors.
wesc
