Today was another full, sunny day of RETROvan work, taking advantage of dry, albeit chilly fall weather. I spent most of it rewiring some circuits and replacing the bad Ancor grommets with my good ones. No easy task, considering you have to disconnect and pull cables to do it.

I got all the aft LED lights secured with #4 1/2” screws and popped their chrome trim rings in place. And boy, they look beautiful!

I moved the two Fan-tastic Vent circuits off the Rover’s direct-connect load terminals and onto a dedicated circuit on the DC panel in the helm. So now they show up on the DC Ammeter as a dynamic load, moving the needle up and down as their thermostats reacts. Very cool. Literally.

So now that needle will reflect all DC loads including the vents, lights, entertainment system and gadget chargers.

I got the T3 cavity insulated and the panel installed. The T2 cavity is next. It’s directly between the helm and the galley cabinets, so it’s got a big concentration of electrical cables running through it — plus the TV mount which will need piecemeal insulation above it. The T1 (forward) cavity will be easier, but its insulation must be cut in a trapezoidal shape and I’ll have to dodge the aluminum angle brackets my Dad and I added up there to strengthen the roof over the cockpit.

I also made more of my AppRadio’s connections permanent since the left front speaker was crackling every time I moved the wires. For that I used 16 AWG spade connectors which can be unplugged at will.

I didn’t make it over to the paint shop today to pick up my my cabinets, but I’ll do that tomorrow while it rains. They did tell me the final cost: $900. Fine with me!

And finally, the RETROpad concrete is still a bit gray, so I’m going to wait another few days. Not happy that didn’t get poured while there was still some summer heat. But oh well. Gary said it’ll be stronger if it cures slower.