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Saturday, December 17, 2011

Street side cabinets are in place


The patina does vary from cabinet to cabinet due to veneer, sunlight, etc, but since they are original cabinets we are happy with the results!  

We polished the trim around the window to give a fun effect

Placing the cabinets back was easier than we thought.  It feels like we are finally getting to the fun part of the trailer.

Electrical cabinet update

We are commiting a back closet on the street side into an electrical cabinet of sorts.  It will hopefully house two group 27 batteries and various electrical accoutrements!   Our Progressive Dynamics converter and AC/DC distribution panel will be going on the side of the cabinet. All of the electrical wires enter this cabinet in varying stages of disorganization! 

This tool tore up the formica pretty quickly!


Please note the bandaid is not due to the exacto knife. 




   The wall of the closet next to the future toilet had been covered in contact paper and the wood underneath it was marked and ugly.  We decided to add slightly more stability to the wall by adding a layer of formica.   The pattern was called SISAL MAT and we ordered it from Home Depot.   We found out formica is not the easiest material to work with.  We tried various cutting methods including electrical tin snips, cutting shears, etc. until we found out that we could cut it fairly easily with a sharp exacto knife!!   The glueing process was also nerve wracking- we had one shot to lay it down correctly.   We cut the formica oversized on the curved edge.  After the glue firmly set, we used a Dremel to make the edge exact. Above are the photos.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Bulkhead Wall Moulding Woes!

So we hit a snafu riveting in the bulkhead wall moulding back into our trailer. The rivet gun head from Vintage Trailer supply, and the pneumatic rivet gun from Harbor Freight both had too large of a head to seat the rivet snugly into the moulding since the metal ridge gets in the way.  We went to Sears to try to get a narrower head and although better still would not let us completely seat the rivet in.   We ended up making a wedge out of a piece of belly pan aluminum so that we could seat the riveter head over the rivet squarely.  The wedge allowed an even distribution of pressure around the rivet head so that the rivets seated evenly.   This is a bit hard to describe but we thought we would try since this may help others with replacing their bulkhead mouldings.



The rivet gun we found from Sears with a smaller head

We bent the rivet slightly for better access

Notice the wedge shape of the piece of aluminum

Initially rivet placed into hole

Rivet head seated into hole

Wedge placed into to allow even pressure with riveter


Rivet in place

small head size of Sears Riveter

Vintage Trailer Supply Riveter was too big

Shiny doors

Decided to strip the interior of the door and make it shiny.  Used citristrip multiple times and got down to some very oxidized metal that had us slightly worried about the polishing of it.  See worrisome photos above!   We are going to replace the door latches since Vintage Trailer supply stocks them and stripping them would be a royal pain.   We protected the precious door handle as best we could.   Although this was a very crude polishing it actually started to turn out better than we expected.   The whole reason we are doing this is to showcase a door guard that we got for our wedding anniversary (yes we are pathetic).  Peter and I both went to Ohio State so when we saw the Buckeyes on the door guard we fell in love.   Mind you this is the first frivolous purchase we have made for our trailer.  Fixing axles and frame and floor is all fine and good but terribly terribly uninspiring!





After two layer of Citristrip there is still paint left 



This was the oxidation under all that paint






3/4 of the door is polished





Cabinet placement





Woohoo!  Today we finally put our first cabinet in!   We redid the cabinets this summer by stripping the shellac off, applying multiple coats of Watco stain (natural) with ever finer sanding between each coat.  They are pretty rough on the bottom but we hope to cover up the bottom with Marmoleum click flooring so they should not look too bad.  Previous owners had stained them darker unfortunately, so we are left with a patchwork of light and dark(they only stained the exposed wood) but since we are putting the cabinets together in the same plan it should work out.  We were really on a roll when my cow vet of a husband got a call on a cow with a prolapsed uterus so we had to stop.  Here are some photos of our progress!  We used cove cabinet welt from Vintage Trailer Supply between the cabinets and the walls.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Painting the floor




Well we decided to paint the floor to protect it more.  It was a difficult decision because we did not want to cover up potential leaks that we could see easily in the plywood.  We decided to paint 98 percent of the floor and then leave a rim of exposed plywood around the edge to check for dampness.  We will see the painted floor in the cabinets and under the bed so it will give it a more finished look but the  actual exposed area will be covered with marmoleum click.   We used a Desert Sand color from Benjamin Moore which is sort of the same color as the plywood. We used an oil base indoor /outdoor porch paint for maximum durability.  We put bondo over all of the recessed elevator bolts and sanded them lightly before painting.   Note the grey tank holes next to the wheel well.  Those we are going to vent through the cabinets.  One of them will be unfortunately exposed next to a recessed bureau because of the fact that the person putting it in thought we had two twin beds instead of a double bed but I think we can work around this issue.



Update on floor!  Hated the color but initially decided to live with it since we are going to cover it up with marmoleum.  Decided to repaint the floor a "straw" color of same brand of paint since we are going to camp with the painted floor for at least one season to ferret out any major leaks the trailer might have.  The thought of covering up the entire floor with marmleum only to have it secretly leak was too terrifying.  We will live with the painted floor for now.  Frankly, there will be very little open floor space anyway so we will either stencil it for now or buy some cute throw rugs!

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Interior skins and painting








We finally got the rest of the interior skins in.  The secret is patience and LOTS and LOTS of clecos!  Here are our before and after photos of the interior skins.  We hemmed and hawed over the use of Zolatone and another alternative called Multispec before we finally decided to paint with Benjamin Moore paint. My husband loved the look of zolatone whereas I was sort of ambivalent toward it.  It would have been prohibitively expensive for us to do it and we elected to put the money into other areas like flooring and electrical supplies instead.  I hope we do not regret this decision but hey, it is our stinking trailer so live with it!!  The primer was plain white, but the final color we chose was called Filtered Sunlight which is a soft creamy yellow. I love it!  We kept the trunk panel the original Zolatone  to remember it!  A big shout out goes to my twin sister Shelly who helped us with painting.  She is the Martha Stewart in our family (without the prison sentence!).  Our next issue to have angst over is the flooring.  We want to go with Marmoleum but not sure if we are going to DIY with the planks or have a professional put in the sheet flooring....decisions decisions.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Replaced water filler and replaced porch light





















before light was replaced





















Could not find an original water filler worth anything and decided to replace it with a marine water filter which we purchased at Boatersland Marine.  It is a Scandvik Deckfill Water filler and we think it looks nice.  We also got an original porch light off ebay and replaced the bulb inside with a livewell LED light  from West Marine which fit snugly inside of it.  The light is fairly dim which I like since it is not a bug attractor but it is enough to see the handle and unlock the door.  Outer surface of chrome light has some chrome defects but decided not to rechrome it due to cost.