Devils Tower

Devils Tower

Monday, January 16, 2012

Hidey Hidey Hidey Ho...................

Well, since today is a Federal holiday I get the day off.  Nice of Uncle Sugar, huh?  So, I will try and get something done.






A precision hole left with a meat cleaver.
I have been pondering what I am gonna do with the left over hole from the previous water tank. 



So, I need to hidey hidey ho.....

See below....

Cab Calloway, the Original Hidey Ho singer...Minnie the Moocher.  This guy was rock and roll of the 1930's.



This is gonna take some ciphering.....That's hillbilly for pondering.

The original water tank extended through the inner and outer skins.
It has a hand pump and a whopping 7 gallon capacity, so out it goes.



I was wandering through Camping world and I saw this little gem. It is a city water fill valve with a built in pressure regulator and it is about the same size as the hole.

I needed a doubler that would help to strengthen the skin around the whole.  
There are 2 of these doublers that sandwich the outer skin.
This is the inner doubler after being trimmed to fit around secondary structure.
So, I marked the hole where the material needed to be removed.
The same thing had to be done with the interior wall.
I had a larger doubler that I riveted on the interior wall.  This shows the fill valve installed.
After a little polishing and a little drilling and riveting, the valve finds a home in the original hole.  

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Cool it buddy.....the Final Chapter


With the walls painted, it allowed me to finally button up the walls around the access panels.  I needed to make sure that there wasn't a huge gap surrounding the air conditioner when it is extended.  I  fabricated a u channel that would span the distance between the two access doors.  This would allow me to tie the two together with one piece of structure.  


This is where the piece will be mounted.  Sandwiched between the inner and outer skins.
I slid the new pice in and adjusted it to where it would just barely clear the air conditioner louvers and drilled it in.  This extends the surface that the gasket will mate against.


 As you can see in the pictures, I used a piece of aluminum angle and screwed it into the factory holes designed for the window installation.  This will be the face that I mount the seal to.  On the top of the air conditioner, I used the bracket that was supplied.
I stopped by my local big box hardware store and picked up this little gem.  Self adhesive weatherstrip seal.  This will mount on the angle and when the a/c unit is pushed out, it will press against the outer wall.
The corners wanted to peel up, so I just threw a pop rivet in each corner to keep it tight.  Probably not a good solution, but I'm a hack, so who cares.
I have added some pics to sort of tie it all together.  This shows the bed installation with the a/c extended.  The plywood inner structure acts as duct work.  There is room in front of the a/c for a fan.
This is not the type of fan I am talking about.

This is the type of fan I am talking about.



This should help move the air out into the cabin area.
I guess I will close this session for now, my family is asking for me to go hunt for food and provide for them. It's tough to juggle all of these tasks......



Operation Mammary Gland Pink Reduction

I had huge plans for the Christmas holiday vacation.  I was going to thrash like never before.  There was only one thing that hindered that progress.....
A Virus.  I caught it about the first day I went on vacation and it lingered for about 2 weeks.  It is one of those that travels from family member to family member dragging it out for over a month, so far.....


But, we still managed to get a little work done.  Our goal is to be through by Early June, hopefully sooner, but the days are ticking away.  June sounds like a long time away, but it works out to roughly 24 more weekends.  I feel like we have rounded the corner and the stuff we are doing now is more fun.


Operation Mammary Gland Pink Reduction kicked off and it was a mess.  Mama Root took a DA sander and attacked the pink monster with a vengeance, rarely witnessed by mankind.  She donned her warpaint and attacked.....


We didn't even know if you could sand latex paint without it gumming up the sandpaper, but it worked.  It made a lot of dust.
We took it down to the original finish or as close as we could get to it.  
It took about 3 days to sand out all the runs and sags left by the previous owners.  I am thinking this may have been the previous owner, or at least the guy who painted it.  This would explain a lot.....
You mean, I can pick the color and paint the trailer?








I can see why lazy people wouldn't want to tape this off.  It took as long to clean up and tape it off as it did to sand it.  


I was thinking about spraying it and after pondering it for a day or two I wussed out and used a roller and a paint brush.


This was close to the original color.  It wasn't intentional, it just ended up that way.  It's hard to tell in the pictures, but it is an off white.  All in all, Operation Mammary Gland Pink was a success.
Before


After
You be the judge.