The Cuts

Making holes

Got the replacement fridge vents today, which will now sit flush, unlike the previous ones, so it was time to cut some metal.

I had three holes to make, a small square one for the fridge exhaust to go out, and two larger rectangle ones for the vents.

I decided to tackle the hardest one first, as this needed to be in the right place first for the exhaust to fit up against, which looks like this.

Started off by lining up the fridge into the right place in the van, trying to get it as far to the right as I could in the van as the sliding door could cause an issue with it hitting the vent cover.

Then it was a case of judging as best I could where it would protrude, I did stick a pen up the exhaust from the inside to help. Then I drilled a small hole from inside, to get an idea where it was on outside.

Once that was done, I drilled some holes around that, trying to gauge the diameter for the hole.

Once I had that done, I could get the jigsaw in and widen the hole to make a square shape that would be slightly too big but once the fridge is fitted in, the exhaust vent can be sealed up.

Pic below is not the finished hole, I did straighten it up a bit :)

And here is the finished item in place, the picture on the right shows it does actually get skimmed by the sliding door. This shouldn't cause any problems as the cover is curved and the carpet just hits it and no more then the door moves out on the rail.

So with that one done, it was time to tackle the 2 other vents, which were easier as didn't need to line up 100%.

First of all I marked them out where they would go, then put masking tape round to try not to scratch the paintwork (I did a little bit on the smaller vent.. oops!)

Then drilled a small hole to get a bigger drill bit in easier and drilled out the corners, and instead of using the jigsaw, I was going to try the angle grinder in it.

So first hole was done, did cut one corner too far down but this wasn't an issue as would be covered by the vent cover. Then put some anti-rust paint round it to help preserve it.

Then put some sealant round the inside of the vent, and then finally screwed it in.

Then it was a case of repeating the above for the lower vent, this time I managed to not over cut one edge and it fitted in better too.. practice makes perfect! 

So not only now does it start to look more like a campervan from the inside, it's also starting to look that way from the outside :)

Link to Photo Album