BAC Forum
General Boards => Redecorating and Updating your Motorhome => Topic started by: Keith Oliver on March 08, 2013, 05:13:33 PM
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I am getting my new MCD blinds installed on Monday. In the front, the blinds will go all the way from A pillar to A pillar. This means an installation attaching the double roller to the underside of the fabric above the windshield, where presently the two partial blinds are attached, without valences. New installations I have seen so far use a fabric valence to hide the double roller. I doubt I will be able to find any fabric the same as what is there, so I am looking for other ideas for the valence. I have reviewed all of the postings in the "Redecorating" section, but have seen no new valences. If someone has redone theirs, I would like to see a photo.
At the driver's side window, I have removed the vertical valence that hides the curtain, as it is going, to be replaced by a double roller set of blinds. I expect to replace teh big vertical valence with a much smaller one, tied into a horizontal valence above, both of wood to match the existing. Unfortunately there is a fabric panel to which the curtain track is now attached, and I don't know if I can remove that panel and find good wood under(above) it. Has anyone done this? At that location there is the Tank monitor and Inverter monitor, on a removable panel, so I will be opening that up to see what I can access.
Any other ideas gratefully received, before I get into removing stuff that I may regret doing.
Once the blinds arrive, I will post some pictures, as by then I will know where they all attach.
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Wood stained to match the cabinets?
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Ipswich Pine in a Minwax stain matches perfectly.
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I am restoring a 1992 and of course fabric was pretty worse for wear so I decided to stick with the oak theme and added a key in the middle to make it a bit less of a picture frame and then came up with the thought of a decorative tile in the middle...I placed that one just to get a sense of things but I have ordered some very nice Southwestern themed ones, hand painted and even at they they were less than $20. In addition I am thinking I will affix them with some commercial style interlocking velcro so I can change them if the boss Lady tires of one or another.
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I believe I remember hearing last year from Scotty when looking at Coaches at BCS in Bend that the lady who worked on fabric work when Beaver was in business had bought all the extra bolts of fabric and went into business on her own with an eye to servicing Beaver coaches that were remodeled, damaged, etc. I think I was told she had matching fabrics for many/most of the Beavers made in the last few years of manufacturing. I don't have her name, but the guys at BCS would have it... of course, unless I had a dream about all this. Just so you know, I have been called a dreamer.
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I believe I remember hearing last year from Scotty when looking at Coaches at BCS in Bend that the lady who worked on fabric work when Beaver was in business had bought all the extra bolts of fabric and went into business on her own with an eye to servicing Beaver coaches that were remodeled, damaged, etc. I think I was told she had matching fabrics for many/most of the Beavers made in the last few years of manufacturing. I don't have her name, but the guys at BCS would have it... of course, unless I had a dream about all this. Just so you know, I have been called a dreamer.
You may be thinking of Elaine (last name I forget) who works with Jim Sizemore at RV Outfiters in Bend. She did our dining chairs, folding chairs and valences. She covered the valances with an Pendleton wool "Indian Blanket" pattern from the outlet store in Pendleton. It took 3 yards of fabric.
I've posted it before, but you can see a video I took where I tried to show the fabric: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8-wxx65Gtk.
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Keith,
We re-upholstered the valances and bedroom headboard ourselves and had the dinette chairs and sofa re-done to coordinate. Was a fairly easy job overall. We decided not to re-do the valance frames as the existing fabric was clean and tied the colors in the coach together well.
Steve
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We also replaced our windows surrounds in wood. We have wood stained with Golden Oak stain. Looks great. :)
See several photos at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/bradish.c/BeaverRenovation#5573625096200756882
go backward and forward to several photos of the wood surrounds.
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Now that's what I am talking about!
thank you all for your photos.
I have to remove the existing legs and bottom of the window surrounds to accommodate 2 3/8" depth of the MCD blinds. The valences themselves will need to be 4 1/2 inches deep to accommodate the double rollers. I will be building new valences and legs/bottom, that are dimensionally able to handle the new blinds. I plan (subject to a better idea occurring to me) to use Alder, stained correctly, with raduised edges, maybe some fluting, and with the legs joined flush to the top. I will post photos on completion.
The one across the windshield is the design quandary, as there is presently nothing there at all. I have toured some of the new coaches that have factory installed MCD blinds, and they have built the cabinetry down in front of the blinds, to act as a natural valence, That seems at the moment like too much work, but I may end up needing to do a makeover in that location. Other retrofits that I have seen have used a Naugahyde matching the adjacent surfaces, and they don't look too bad.
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Keith,
Have you thought of making a riser to attach to the wall under the valence to add the needed depth and reusing your current valences?
Gerald
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Kieth,
If your front cabinets over the windshield are like mine, the bottom of the cabinets is fairly thick. Seems that you could build a wood box valance and either cover it with a matching fabric or make the front finished alder to match the existing wood work. The box valance would attach to the cabinet bottom using angle brackets.
Steve
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I still as yet have to do the bedroom ones and after seeing the contrasting fabric in your upgrade Steve I am going to do something similar but with wood side and bottom as my fabrics are pretty far gone. I love that contrast...looks wonderful.
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THANKS John, I'll pass it on the the boss and chief decorator. (As you probably noticed in the light bar thread, my color recognition is questionable).... :)
Steve
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Gerald:
The current valences are ok, but the legs are not deep enough, so have to be made to attach flush rather than inside the valences. These are just plywood with some faux suede on them, so replacing with all wood is the better way to go. besides, the one over the sink is wood already, so I have an idea what they will look like.
I like the look of the Monaco Dynasty valences, like this 07 Dynasty, or maybe not quite as fancy. Easy to make and the design will allow me fit the new MCD blinds.
My "before" interior is the second picture.
Steve:
I pulled the naugahyde panels above the windshield to see what is behind them. the vertical one is screwed to aluminum framing, and removing it gives access to lots of stuff that is up there. The horizontal one is screwed to an Aspenite panel, and drops to the limit of the defroster pipes. There is no reason I can't replace the vertical panel with one that is deep enough to act as a valence. The hard part will be finding naugahyde to match, or maybe I'll end up with wood, all the way up. decisions, decisions.
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I added an MCD single power shade to my front windshield and made a wood trim piece (in my case cherry) to act as a valence. The whole MCD shade thing is a bit of a tricky modification for a windshield. The more vertical the windshield and curtain drop, the better it will work. I also used a little SC Johnson paste wax on my A pillar wood trim that i added to make the curtain work smoothly. A little patience on this project....
Later Ed
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I added an MCD single power shade to my front windshield and made a wood trim piece (in my case cherry) to act as a valence. The whole MCD shade thing is a bit of a tricky modification for a windshield. The more vertical the windshield and curtain drop, the better it will work. I also used a little SC Johnson paste wax on my A pillar wood trim that i added to make the curtain work smoothly. A little patience on this project....
Later Ed
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Ed:
Thanks for the photos. Looks like you have the same geography up front as I do. My A pillars are going to be modified to give a flat surface for the blinds to slide down. I have pulled tehm off and found that they are galvanized sheet metal, so can simply be bent to the right angle, maybe even without removing the Naugahyde. thanks for the tip re waxing them. Up top, your cherry valance looks good and encourages me to do something similar.
This afternoon I was aboard a 2014 Phaeton with MCD from the factory. The valence treatment over the door interests me, but they have the cabinetry act as a forward valence, so not something I can copy.
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My A pillars were galvanized metal and I handled them by pulling the covering and creating an angle board making the flat and using 3m contact spray adhesive to secure the Naugahyde back down. There was enough extra to rework it. We had some difficult issues to face with this install, driven by the sloping A pillars and the tight geometry. I decided that trying to do a dual shade was pretty impossible, but maybe your installer has some tricks. I found that the rod that is in the bottom of the shade would bow, due to not having a perfectly vertical A pillar. The slope puts a weight component from the shade on the rod. That bowing, along with the top to side configuration not being perfectly square, would have the rod on one side, come off of the A pillar while traveling down. I solved that by making some cherry moldings for the A pillar to provide a narrower opening between the A pillars. Now it is fine, but it took some reworking. This whole system really works best if you have a perfectly vertical A pillar. One other thing, we still carry a reflective foil interior windshield cover, and at times we unfold that and bring down the MCD shade, so the top of the foil shade will rest on the MCD rod. The MCD shade is good, but in extreme heat the foil reflector is still better. It is very nice to have the ability to lower the shade while driving and have a full width visor affect with no space for the sun to blast you when you have the dual shade arrangement. Photos of A pillar flat being created with a board. One with covering. One with molding detail and then one of the finished shade with the shade partially lowered. The valence is also a bit tricky. It had to be at the right angle and planed quite thin, maybe 5/16ths if I remember, in order to have clearance for the existing curtain to pass by, if you are keeping those in place.
Later Ed
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One last thought, if you bend the galvanized A pillar trim to obtain the flat you will no longer have the holes for remounting them line up. I used the wood wedges for that reason and drilled the A pillar trim and mounted the wood wedges with screws through the A pillar galvanized metal trim. After the wedges were secured with screws. I then recovered them with the Naugahyde and 3M contact adhesive passing the original covering over the wood wedges.
Later Ed
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We are having blinds installed. Using the original valances with a spacer.
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Got the job done today. The A pillars are out, to get covered, will be back in tomorrow. Then I will post some pictures. The original valences are almost deep enough, but about 1/2 of them had to be relocated out from the wall to give adequate clearance. Now that the legs and bottoms of the valences are off, the original wall covering is really looking sad, so I think there will need to be some improvement to those before the new valences go on.
The new A pillars are made of plastic, bent at 90 degrees and cut to fit around the blind rolls at the top and close to the dash at the bottom. Once covered with new fabric, they should disappear. Wait for tomorrow's pictures.
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Pictures: Sorry, I have forgotten how to shrink my pictures to less than 1 MB, so can't post any until I get that sorted out.
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Keith, you can set your camera to take a picture that has an e mailable or up loadable file size. I went from a non uploadable file size to one that uploads in a couple seconds by changing my camera settings.
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Or, take picture as normal. Load into PC. Select picture. Click on Picture on toolbar. Select Resize. Options are document, web or emaal, resulting in smaller picture in that order. Document usually works OK for Forum. Save work and they are ready to load on forum page. You may want to make copys first as this permanently resizes them.
Steve
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Oops, "Select Compress Picture", not "Resize"
Steve
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Steve:
I looked on my computer for the things you mentioned, but didn't find anything at all similar. When I tried downloading a program to "resize" photos, I got a whole lot of trouble, some horrid programs that took over my computer and altered a bunch of stuff. I had to stop it all and reboot. At this point I don't believe resizing is that important. If I ever get small photos, I will post them.
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If you have a Windows photo program or other brand of photo processing software, or even one supplied with your digital camera, you may be able to use it. Different providers use different terminology, "resizing" being one, but most work similarly.
Get your photo into such software, then click on the File menu button far upper left corner. Choose "Save as". It is likely that somewhere in the "Save as" window that opens is a button, or a link to one via an "Options" button, that allows you to reduce the size or resolution quality of the image, although some simple image editing applications ("Paint" for example) don't include resizing capability. Some let you pick a number, but many use a slider bar where you move to a percentage of size or quality less than 100%. After adjusting that setting, back at the "Save as" window you make sure that the "Save as Type" field has "jpeg" or "JPG" selected, since jpeg format is commonly acceptable for uploading to sites like the Forum. Then click on "Save" or OK to save your changes. The resulting image copy should be fine for uploading to the Forum as long as it is less than 1MB.
Usually, the first thing I do before all that is make a copy of the photo in question in the computer's photo album (My Pictures or whatever). The copy ends up in the album right next to the original. I then only edit the copy, so when it is "Saved as", I have both the original at full resolution and a a copy at a lower resolution for future use. In theory, when you pick "Save as" from the File menu rather than "Save" after editing an image, the original remains automatically untouched in the album alongside the new copy, but I've never trusted that theory with all my programs.
Joel
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Kieth,
Are you running Windows? If so, what operating system; XP, Windows 7, etc.?
Steve
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Steve:
Windows Vista Home premium.
I tried your suggestions, but alas, no "save as" or similar anywhere i have looked.
On other projects at the moment, but thanks for the help.
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Keith,
Can't help with VISTA but that explains why the instructions didn't work. Maybe another Forum VISTA user can help.
Steve
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Sorry Keith. It can be frustrating without easily available appropriate programs. I have PhotoStudio 5.5 and Roxio Creator, each useful depending on the task. I can also use Windows Photo Gallery, the included Picture sorting program on my Vista laptop. If you wish when you have time, try the following:
Programs > Windows Photo Gallery, and open the photo you want to resize.
At the top right choose the "Open" menu, which drops down. A list of available programs that can be used to work with the image is there.
If Windows Live Photo Gallery is one of them, you can click on that. Then at the upper left of the window that opens, pick "Edit, organize, or share". Then Under the Edit tab select "Resize". There you can choose from some smaller sizes or pick a custom number.
Another program that may be on the list of available programs in the "Open" menu is Microsoft Office Picture Manager. This one is designed for just what you want to do, shrink image size for emails or web posts.
With your picture open in that one, you simply choose the Edit Pictures button at the top, then "Compress Pictures" at the bottom of the box that opens along the right margin. Then in the case of images for the BAC Forum or other website, choose "Compress for: Web pages". Click OK, then under the upper left File menu, select Save as and in the File name field, add the word "copy" so it will be saved next to the original rather than totally replacing it.
Not knowing what all is on your system, I'm not sure what other options you have available. It should be easier to resize for posting on websites, like my email program that automatically downsizes attachments if I so choose.
Joel
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Try placing your cursor on what you want to copy, and right click. Look for the save as.
Larry
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Steve:
Windows Vista Home premium.
I tried your suggestions, but alas, no "save as" or similar anywhere i have looked.
On other projects at the moment, but thanks for the help.
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trying again:
The picture of the finished A pillar didn't work, It is simply a piece of 1/8" ABS plastic bent to a 90 degree angle and cut to fit th espace, then covered with matching fabric. It actually looks good.
Now on to the new valences! I am thinking I will copy some I have seen in a Foretravel, as those look best and easy to make. This won't occur until I get home for the summer, where I have access to a decent wood shop.