The RETROpad concrete hasn’t quite cured enough to park on yet, but today was a full, sunny day of RETROvan work. Yep, it’s Sunday but our teams both have byes (Dallas and Seattle).

This R-Max rigid foam insulation is pretty easy to work with. It was an excellent choice and should be well worth the trouble and expense (over $30 per sheet). The only problem is, to get clean cuts I have to use a jigsaw. And that means measuring and marking both sides because the blade only goes about half way through the 2-inch material. Here’s one of the vent garnishes, which I used as a template.

I ran new 16 AWG speaker wire for the rear ceiling panel (T7). That cable runs through four holes in each top corner cavity, exploiting the holes in the steel braces my Dad and I added, and converging over the cockpit where the Pioneer AppRadio receiver is. You can see how the aft vent, the HDTV antenna, and the aft lighting bank’s bus bar fit into the insulation. All of the electrical cables rest under the insulation and on top of the aluminum. That keeps them away from the more extreme heat of the sheet metal hull.

And here’s the ceiling with four cavities now complete, thanks to Olivia’s help. The vent trim is screwed back on, and the six LED lights are connected and snapped in. They also take three tiny screws each, to keep them tight against the panels. But I’ll have to make a trip to Home Depot for those tomorrow before I can snap the chrome trim rings on.

This is going to look amazing with all the reflections, especially when it’s polished up. I’m glad I never pulled the trigger on ceiling tiles or powder coating.

It’s sunny again tomorrow (Monday) so my plan is to finish the ceiling insulation, wiring and panels. That will be a major milestone. And hopefully the concrete will be mostly white by then, so we can finally moor the RETROvan on the RETROpad for some good old-fashioned RETROfun. 🙂