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.

Not Quite Back in the Saddle Again

I’ve finally gotten the ok from the surgeon to start putting weight on the bad ankle, and just as important, he says I can take the boot off the ankle so I can drive.  I’ve really missed my Airstream.

Since we’ve lived on a small sailboat with uncomfortable seating for 22 years, I really wanted two comfortable recliners in the place of the gaucho.  I’m not changing much of the original cabinetry in the trailer, but I’ve been planning for this one all along.  I purchased the two recliners with a center console just before I broke the ankle.  The plan is to replace that center console with my own, done in birch to match the original wood.  The console has an armrest that will transfer to the new one easily and also has brackets that hold the chairs in place so they can’t slide.

I’m still not fully back into work mode, but I got some 1x2’s this week and plugged in the hot glue gun and started making a rough mockup of the new console and the cabinet in the forward end (behind the chairs) that will hold the batteries, converter, inverter, and the circuit breaker panels.  This way I can plan the wire runs to the panels and also fit everything so that we maximize storage but still allow the chairs to fully recline.

Pam and her two favorite teddy bears tried out one of the chairs today.

My broken ankle made me miss the first anniversary of the Island Girl project.  Seems like a lot of time and not much work until I look at all the pictures from the past year and realize I really have done quite a bit.  A year after getting the trailer we also now have a tow vehicle for the first time, buying a first generation Toyota Tundra this week.  I’m pretty sure our old Chevy Tracker will fit in the Tundra’s bed.  Hopefully by anniversary two, while probably not done, we’ll be able to actually do some camping.

Norm, we now have similar spare parts

Back in July, Norm, whose resoration blog is Captain Wilson's Overlander wrote about an unfortunate slide into second base and resulting ankle injury that kept him on the shelf for awhile.  I joined the club this week.

Many of you know my wife Pam has Alzheimers and I’m her fulltime caregiver.  Sometimes you push too hard.  Three nights ago we were both were feeling poorly, weak, nauseous.  It came on quickly.  Weird thing is that Brissy the cat got sick too, so we’re thinking it was something environmental that got the three of us.  Anyway, it was nearly bedtime and I thought I should try to get her up in her berth on the boat before I felt too badly to do it.  Nearly made it—teeth were brushed, face washed, and loaded into her jammies.  I passed out and fell straight down and broke my right ankle.

Alzheimers really makes these deals hard.  I can’t leave her alone longer than an hour or so and it takes time to arrange for care.  And the care needs to be familiar as consistency is everything with the disease—we do everything the same way at the same time, all the time.  The surgeon wanted me in right now, I couldn’t do it, but yesterday I got Charlene, our regular respite care nurse to come here early and plan for an overnight stay and Jim and Rich, two of my best friends and the big part of my Alzheimers support network in the marina got me hauled out of the boat (not the easiest thing) and into the hospital.  I was back on the boat at 8 PM last night.

So, I’ll be leaning on my friends, especially for the next two weeks while I’m in the hard cast, and I’ll still be able to take care of Pam for the most part.  Everything is cool.

Island Girl, though, goes back burner for a time, except for the delivery of the new recliners on Tuesday.  I will be there for that.

-steve

A Year End Post About Little Jobs

Weather has mostly been either wet or cold or both and progress has been slowed, but I’m still plugging along.  Electrical is ongoing, but I’ve done a few other projects as well.

I wanted to use the knobs from the Hehr lifters to replace the black plastic knobs for cranking up the Fantastic Vents.  I cut the centers out of the plastic knobs and glued them into the old Hehr knobs and added a screw to attach to the shaft.

On the electrical side, I’ve been running wires.  I’m using marine wire, tinned and stranded, both for the 110 volt and 12 volt systems.  I’ll be mostly on the 12 volt side and using LED lighting for everything.  These puck lights from VTS will be in a row on the overhead.

Added an external 110 volt plug on the outside and converted the original socket to 12 volt, mostly with the idea that I could hang an LED light under the awning at times.

I’ve used 10 gauge wire to run from the feed studs for the solar panels and covered the connection with boots.

I’m using panels from Blue Sea Systems for both AC and DC systems.  The 12 volt is on the way and this is the 110 volt version.

It didn't rain today!!!

Seems like it rained every day in November, but December has started off dry and we even saw the sun. Looks like a couple of dry days ahead, so started mounting the Fantastic Vents today. One is in and the other tomorrow.

I'm really pleased with the old Hehr cover mod. Didn't really know if it would show, but that nice shiny inside with the Hehr logo shows up well from inside with the vents extended.

Based mostly on some VAP discussion of Fantastic Vent installs, I bedded it in silicone (as Vulkem seems not to stick to the plastic) and used stainless pan head screws (1/2" #10) with washers to screw the flange down. Didn't use the supplied gasket, just lots of silicone. Laid a blue masking tape line down around the perimeter and that controlled the mess.

One goof. I ordered the inside trim piece with the curve, but it's clearly too much for my roof (which is really pretty flat right on top). Should have ordered the flat trim piece, but it'll be easy enough to trim.

As a follow up on my trailer's history, I got a phone call a week or so ago from the son of the original owners. He says he visits his mom about once a month and will get some info together for me next time he goes to see her on the island. Told me he clearly remembers the trailer arriving (he was in high school at the time) and that his parents had gone to Jackson Center to pick up a Bubble, but had gotten such a good deal on the Caravanner that they went with the bigger trailer. R.J. Dial's site says only one Bubble was made in Ohio that year, so maybe that had something to do with it too. Anyway, it looks like I'll get some nice info on my trailer's past (he said it was their baby and went everywhere with it) so that's really exciting to me.