Day 24+

It's been a long time since my last post.  Let's just say that there has been a lot of Trixie activity, but not much in the way of photos.

My first Trixie vacation was to have been in late August, just after my last post.  However, we ran into some difficulties with Trixie's wiring/brakes.  I'll that say having grown up in a small town has its advantages.  People still talk to one another.  When a friend found out that Trixie wasn't going to be able to make the trip and that I intended to tent camp again, he jumped in to lend me a "substitute" for my week of camping on Assateague.  Here is what I had instead of Trixie or the tent.  I had a very nice 28 foot RV, complete with all of the trimmings (had I been camping where we had hookups, that is).  I was awfully grateful, too, as the thunderstorm warnings were nearly non-stop.

I also had wild turkeys in the vicinity most mornings.  You might need to blow this up to see it well, but this hen was about 20 feet from me.  She'd just walk through my camp in the mornings.

And, of course, the ponies have no regard for personal space.  Fortunately, the RV helped to ensure that these lovely creatures did not destroy everything at my site.

So back to Trixie.

It's time to do a final walk-thru.  I actually have two curtains yet to sew, but I figured you could get the gist of it from these.  I'm going to try some before/after shots, although I know that the angles will not be exact.  Here goes!

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After (bunk secured, versus "before" with bunk down):

Before:

After: the upper bunk is folded up in the "after" photo.

Now some photos for which I did not have "befores"

My neighbors have given me a few Trixie-warming gifts, including a mascot.  I'll try to get a photo of her tomorrow to share.

Enjoy!

Days 22 & 23

It got too dark last night for me to take pictures, so here are two combined days.

In short, except for the curtains and the cushions (she says as though that is no big deal), Trixie is ready enough to hit the road.  Here is a little walk around the premises.

Kitchen and hole in the wall where the icebox used to live. I don't know yet what will live in there, but for now, it is the tool box, Trixie manual and laundry rack.  Makes sense, right?

Non-functional bathroom and not-so-much drawers.

Dinette with table in place.  The table seems way too loose to me.  I used exactly the same holes as the original, but, of course, it may have been too loose before.  Who knows.  I'll see what kind of trouble it gives me, then maybe make an adjustment before the October trip.

Oh poop!  I see in the mirror that I still don't have the fan escutcheon up yet. Drat!!!

Both of the dinette seats need to be reinforced.  They are just too thin.  But that is going to have to wait.

Better shot of the dinette with back seat.  The photos from the other day didn't show the top of the rear seat yet.

The bunk is now stowed in the upright and locked position.  LOTS of mistakes on the stuff that I rebuilt.  Oh well.  I'll know better the next time. I'll mention one in the next photo.

I removed/replaced the rear and starboard windows.  When I put them back in, I installed foam insulation around them.  Good idea, right?  WRONG.  Insulation means that the window frame molding won't go back into place correctly.  Arg.  I had to install the curtain rod where the upper molding should go.  Hopefully it won't be noticeable once I get the curtains in.  Curtains?  What curtains, you ask?  Why the curtains that I have yet to make, of course.  All of the windows are an odd size, so there is no purchasing of curtains.  No.  Don't be silly.  I'll just whip up 7 sets of curtains.  Oh, the cushions?  Yeah, right.  Those.  Oh, did I mention my meltdown on Thursday?  No?  Ah, well, let's wait on that one. Moving on....

Yes, and we are back in the kitchen again.  The stove it assembled again.  It isn't functional, but it is all in one piece.  Also, the sink is not functional, but that's OK.  I won't need it next week.

So, Thursday night I stopped at the fabric store and got a whole new set of bobbins.  I got home, loaded all 4 new bobbins - two each with the two colors I need, so that I'd be all ready to go.  Lots of long seams, and running out of bobbin thread in the middle is maddening.  All went very well until I started stitching together the cording fabric.  Knots, knots and more knots!  What do you do when that happens?  Adjust tension.  Rethread the machine.  Check for something caught in the bobbin casing.  Change the needle.

I did.

I did, that too.

Yup, did that.

Did that next.

Did that again.

I did that already!!

Don't you think I tried that?!

I give up.

After TWO HOURS of butchering the fabric, I called it quits.  I was a woman on the edge.  Knowing that the sew/vacuum store opens at 9, I took off at 8:45a Friday morning and got there just in time for them to open. What?  No?  Not open at 9?  NO, OF COURSE NOT!!  Sign on the door.  "Not opening until 10 today.  Sorry for the inconvenience." Are you kidding me?  I'm out here burning daylight and you are opening an hour late?  Are you mad?!!  

OK.  I needed #8 and #6 screws, I so I spent the time getting supplies.  No sweat.

After an hour at the sew/vac, we figured out the problem.  Wrong bobbins.  No. Really.  Wrong bobbins. They were just "this much" different than the bobbins I had been using and they were getting hung up.  Jiminy H. Crickets!  So that is a good problem to have, because it can be fixed in seconds.  Phew!  I lost a bunch of hours, meanwhile, but at least I didn't need to get a new sewing machine.  Poor guy at the sew/vac.  I think I scared him a little.  He seemed awfully happy for me to leave.  

Day Twenty-one

It took me a long time to get the support right on the long bench.  I put back exactly what I took out, but nothing was square or level, so it was a real trick trying to figure out how to make everything come out OK in the end. It might have been wiser for me to take the whole thing apart and start from scratch, but I didn't.  It's OK, though.

I meant to take a photo of it all open.  I'll try to remember to do that next time.

New piano hinges should make it easier to open and keep the hinges from tearing out as easily.

On the dinette side, I got the top put on there, but that was a little messy also.  Apparently, the plywood used to manufacture this camper in 1972 is no longer a standard thickness.  I can get it thinner or a lot fatter.  I used the stuff that I already had, which is thinner.  I thought that better, since the two "boxes" and the table in the center need to be the same thickness when the table is converted, so that it creates a bed.  I didn't think it would work well to have the two ends higher than the middle.  But that also meant that even the little bitty screws for the piano hinges went all of the way through the plywood and into the rear framing.  NOT GOOD.  This will have to be one of the things on the ever-growing "things to worry about after the first two trips"list.

The top of the rear bench is cut and ready to go, but I still have to build supports for it.  As weeknights are set aside for cushion-making, it will have to wait until next Saturday.

Tick!  Tick!  Tick!  Tick!!!

Day Twenty

Oh boy.

Here's the thing.  If I'd started with any real carpentry skills, most of this would have gone much faster. As it is, though,  my carpentry skills were rudimentary, at best.  If the good soul that is Jim had not come earlier this week to give me Molding 101, I would still be outside destroying 1/4 round.  God bless him.  Be that as it may, I went through LOTS more than was necessary and got more than a little frustrated in the bargain.  

BUT!  There is progress to show.  We have molding!  We also have more than a little caulk.  Jim told me an old saying that essentially means that caulk and (was it paint?) makes me the carpenter I ain't.  My buddy, G said the same thing (only a little differently, I think), but the fact is, it is TRUE!  Molding was a real struggle for me.  I'll get all of it painted in the morning and you'll never even know!

I also took off the lighting fixtures, went over them with first coarse, then fine steel wool, primed and sprayed them with a nickel finish.  Obviously I have not yet removed the tape and paper.  I fear that removing the tape is going to remove the original stripes.  If that happens, I'll go over them with the deglosser and remove the lines entirely.  I kinda hate to do that, but I'm not sure that the product used to put on the stripes can withstand the Frog tape + 40 years of wear and tear.

Let's see.  What else.  Oh!  More molding.  Quarter round in the corners and 1/2 round across the center.  Just LOOK at the dirty fingers marks on that pristine paint!!  Arg.  Oh well.  I still have the window molding to put on, so I figure I'll get all of that on, then devote a day to touch up.  

Pfffffff!!!!  Who'm I kidding!  I don't have a day to devote to touch up.  My first camping trip is less than two weeks off.  God help me!

Oh yeah!  I got the bunk back in.  Jiminy H. Crickets!!  What a chore that was.  AND, to add insult to injury, I completely wrecked the laminate that I'd just glued back in place.

OK.  Repeat after me....in through the nose, out through the mouth...no one will notice. Repeat until you believe it.

I, uh, kinda wrecked the paint job in any number of places getting the bunk back in, but it went well, all in all.

A couple of scrapes.  A couple of dings.  I can fix that.  I'll weep now.....patch later.

Remember the long bench on the starboard side?  Here it is all primed, with one coat of finish paint.  I'm hoping to get that in tomorrow.  Well, the fact is,  I'm hoping to get it in, get the top on, put tops on both of the dinette benches, do all of the touch-up painting and paint the cabinet and drawer handles.  Hey!  It could happen!!!!

I had to call it a day because a "big storm" was rolling in.  It was terribly impressive for about 5 minutes, then bupkiss!!!!  Oh well.

Tomorrow is another day!

Day Nineteen

Lots of progress today, but not a lot in the way of new photos.

Remember all of the that work, earlier in the job, applying new butyl tape and reaffixing the J-rail?  I'd never trimmed any of that, so I did today.  I also think that I located the leak location on the roof and got that sealed off.  We'll see if I was right.

Also, I put on all of the running lights and got those sealed.  I also saw my friends at Home Depot and got something that will hopefully put some life back into the aluminum trim on the interior.  It looks pretty sad now that the walls are looking pretty good.  I got a trendy polishing attachment for my drill and rubbing compounds for aluminum.  We'll see.  I think they might need a bit more in the way of friction, but what do I know?

Painting is finished on all of the cabinet doors and drawers and I started affixing the new hinges.  I ran into trouble on the doors under the sink, though. Although the old/new hinges look the same size, the distance between the hinges themselves and the piece that attachs to the doors is about 1/8" wider.  So for two doors that abut one another, that leaves me with an overlap of 1/4 inch.  Whoops.  I'll worry about fixing that another day.

I have a LOT of punch work on the painting on the cabinets.  I did all of it outside and that played havoc with how the paint went on.  Not my best work.  I'll let it all sit for a few days before I start trying to repair it.  The humidity makes it all a bit gummy.  Oh, we won't mentioned the birds making deposits onto my newly painted door fronts.  No.  We'll just leave that bit out.

That'll do it for now, Campers.  Until next time......

Day Eighteen

18 days!  All of this is taking far too long!!

OK.  I'm better now.  Moving on.

Jiminy H. Crickets.

I started at 6:30a this morning and know that much was accomplished, but there doesn't seem to be much to show for it.

The List:

Put new springs on brakes:  Check!
Test brakes:  Check!
Charge battery:  Check!
Affix all running and other outside lights:  Check!
Wire fan and other interior DC fixtures together:  Check!

Mind you, I deserve NO credit for the brakes or the exterior lighting checks.  My gearhead buddy helped me today.  I'd hoped that my carpenter pal was going to show up and teach me how to cut molding correctly (as CLEARLY I am doing it wrong), but he had paying clients to worry about.

New License Plate holder and light cover!!!  I even have a license plate, but I didn't get as far as putting it on.  I have only 29 more days to have Trixie inspected.  I guess I'd better get a trailer hitch on Trixie's car soon, right?  Oh.  I didn't tell the blog that Trixie's original car got totalled.  We're on Trixie Car II.  Nevermind.

A second coat of finish paint on the cabinet doors and drawer fronts.

While you're at it, you may admire my garden phlox and Mathilde Jane (Tilly).

The second NEW fixture is now in (after the ceiling fan). The first LED light.  It's ugly, but very bright and efficient.  And it works on DC power.

Using the heat gun, I took up the broken green/white tiles.  I'd originally thought that I'd take up all of them, but I'm not sure that is necessary.  I plan to put down trendy indoor/outdoor carpeting for this summer, and I don't think I'll really notice a big level difference, so I think that I'll just lay down the carpet over this lovely stuff.

Tomorrow?

• Finish painting the cabinet doors and drawers.
• Fasten the rear settee bench to the rear wall and add the support framing so that I can put a seat back on the top.
• Reinstall the bunch supports
• Get an 8 foot 1x3 to install for the rear wall bunch support (that'll be a doozie of a job)
• Clean and prime the long bench (the one that goes from the door to the access panel that you see in the photo above.  It is NASTY!!!  I need to move all of the cabinet fronts and drawers out of the way to make room for that.  It's a biggie.

That's it for now, Campers.  I'm POOPED!!!

Day Seventeen

Well, there was a lot of progress today, but not much to see.  The whole inside of Trixie got two full coats of finish paint today, but she needs one more.  And all but two of the cabinet doors/drawers got primer.  I had to go over all of them twice with deglosser/cleaner to get off all of the grime - EEEEYUKKKKKKKKKK!!!  But they are now happily coated with 1-2-3 and ready for their first coat of paint.

There won't be anymore photos until next weekend.  My after work time must be devoted to knocking out the cushions.  I got the zippers yesterday for most of them.  Hopefully I can assemble the long ones for the bunk Monday/Tuesday, then start cutting for the 4 dinette cushions on Wednesday.  We shall see.

Have a good week everyone.