The First Few Panels Go In

The last few days I’ve been cutting panels and applying finish to them.  Using Waterlox for the finish, three coats on the back and four on the front surface.  First couple of coats really soak into the birch.

I had care for Pam today and had the first five panels all finished, so it was a good day to start putting them up.  Decided on a three inch spacing for the Olympic rivets, figuring using the spacing for the bucked rivets would just make way too many holes and going farther apart might let gaps pop up.  First is the all important Cleco shot, but it really shows the color better than the rest.  I like it, it’s light, but close to the original.  I want it pretty light in color after lots of years living with dark teak and small portholes  in the boat.

Happy with the way the rivets stand out making a nice contrast with the wood.  The rivet shaver was busy.

Ended the day with 5 panels riveted in place and the next two up for a trial fitting with clecos.  The next batch still needs to be cut out and finished, so it’ll be next week before they go up, finishing the end cap.

It is so much more fun doing this kind of work than ripping up old floors or scraping frame rust.  I know all the work I’ve done so far is really important for the trailer, but I sure like doing the pretty stuff.

13 Panels of Birch

There are so many great restoration threads at Airforums.com.  Many of them I’ve read over and over and pick up new ideas each time I go through them.  I do have a favorite and it’s  Carlos Ferguson's '62 Safari   Scroll down to around post #42 and see what he did.

Carlos is an artist and I am a hack, so I harbor no illusions about doing anything as nice as he did, but I think I can do something that will make me happy and that’s a reasonable goal for me.  I’m not doing the whole interior in birch.  I love my shiny 13 panel endcap in the rear and am planning to stay shiny as far as the forward end of the galley, and then transition to birch for the interior from that point forward.  Part of the reason is that my trailer has an ugly fiberglass endcap in front—it’ll get covered by 13 panels of 1/8” Baltic birch ply.

I used my rear endcap for making cardboard templates.  The fit is slightly different as my sloping rear has a different shape than the vertical front.  Here’s a rough first try:

Carlos used pop rivets on his but I’m thinking of using single use clecos (Olympic rivets).  I really like the way the rivets stand out in the rear endcap and it seems like the solid head on the Olympics would be closer to the look of a bucked rivet.  I think it’ll hold ok, going through two pieces of birch and then the fiberglass endcap.  Tried a couple today:

 

Tomorrow I go back to the doctor and hopefully ditch the plastic boot on my ankle for a normal shoe.  Can’t wait.

The Front Endcap Goes Back In

I needed a respite care day to get the forward fiberglass endcap back in.  It’s a big floppy piece that I can just barely handle myself, but knew I couldn’t do it with Pam in the trailer.  Today was the day, and it was really the first real work day in two months since the broken ankle.

I put in another layer of the Prodex insulation, but didn’t use the foam offsets to create a dead air space like I’ve done in the rest of the trailer.  The fit of the endcap was tight already and I didn’t want to try to fill so much behind it that I couldn’t get it back in.  All the wiring is now roughed in and ending at that forward end.  I’ve probably forgotten to add wiring for something really important that I can’t think of now, but today I did remember to add a run of coax and Cat 5 cable for TV and the computer.

One of my favorite current resto threads at Airforums.com is by Air19, 1953 Flying Cloud Project - Cabinetry Finally.  He’s been using lightweight Elfa storage bins for his drawers.  I’m copying his great idea in a few areas, the first of which will be these two bins for the cabinet between the recliners.

The plan for the old endcap is to use it to mount a 13 panel replacement made from 1/8” Baltic birch.  I’ve made templates from my rear endcap and really look forward to building it.