Some days I don’t feel like doing a big plywood project. Good news is that there are plenty of other van projects to work on. One of those is window covers.
My window covers have three parts: Reflectix insulation, fabric, and magnets. The insulation will hopefully help keep the temperature in the van under control, but will also keep more light out, as the fabric I picked is pretty thin.
Making the covers was a pretty simple process, but the day I did this, I needed a neat little plan to follow before I got started. I took three minutes to scribble out the steps in my notebook, after which I felt ready to get started.
With the plan in place, I got going. In a day, I was able to make covers for all four windows. I didn’t sew in the magnets because that can be done pretty easily with hand tools on the road, and because they work even if you just put the magnets on top of the whole thing. Also I felt like being done for the day.
Fabric sleeve for window cover.
One challenge during the window cover making was that my van ate a bunch of magnets. When I was test fitting the front side window covers, magnets kept falling off the cover and disappearing into the depths. I looked under the seats from the front, from the back; I checked the space under my floor in the cargo area, the magnets were gone. I didn’t think there were that many places to hide in my little van, but of the four magnets I lost, only one has reappeared, and it reappeared weeks later once I was on the road.
