More insulation and paneling

This weekend I worked on the insulation and the furring strips in the Spartan.

I have a friend that has given me a bunch of Birch panels to use. When I went through them it turns out several of them are not birch, they look a little like Red Oak but smell very fragrant when cut like Cedar. Of course Cedar could be what the inner layers are made of.

I decided that I would install these panels on the ceiling and the Birch ones on the walls for a two-tone effect.  I experimented with several stains on both pieces and in the end we settled on just varnish for the Oak/Cedar panels and two coats of amber shellac and one coat of varnish on the Birch.

I put up the first panel in the front center of the ceiling.

Next was the panels for the curved part of the ceiling. I tried installing the panel but it would not bend.

 Here is my first attempt at bending the panel.

Needless to say this did not work, the panel straightened out once I took it out. I have since found out that you need to use hot water and towels. The hot water will soften the glue holding the plys together and allow it to keep it's shape once it dries.

In the meantime I continued installing insulation and furring strips, I'm using a lot of the original furring strips because they are in good condition, I'm making new ones for the ones that aren't.

One thing I find pretty amazing is that I am using the original 66 year old screws to hang the furring strips and panels. these are Phillips head screws with a flat tip so pre-drilling is required on the new strips I put up. I am  installing the old strips using the same holes so no drilling is needed on those. I would love to see someone try to re-use today's cheap Chinese-made screws 67 years from now! Not gonna happen!!

One of the challenges I had was what to do with the open areas where the pocket windows slide into. What I ended up doing was using 1/2" rigid insulation in these areas.

So after getting the first panel up I am wavering on if I want to do the two-tone thing or not. when I first came up with the idea I thought the panels might be Mahogany (it was dark in the warehouse). Now that I see that it looks like Oak I'm not too crazy about the idea. I'm not a big fan of Oak (I have some hang-up where it looks too gaudy 80's to me).

I may take it down and just use the birch. Of course this will require that I buy at least 10 new panels because the ones that my friend has are not top grade (another thing I didn't notice at first because of the dark warehouse). I can use them in areas that will be covered or partially covered but not in the open areas.

I need to make this decision very soon as I am running out of time before our first camping trip (month and a half).