HoodCanalNorth: We're so glad you found Tow-Mater! If you've enjoyed the Lil' Queeny build, this should certainly show a different side to us. Your comment made my day. :)
Today - painting the wardrobe, poly the camper walls, fixing the ladder, painting the hardware, fixing the clothes rod, fixing the mirror mount, prepping the ceiling light medallions.
First up, DW primed the interior of the wardrobe, then painted.
The day before, she had primed the plastic ceiling repairs (after I lightly sanded) and now she got paint on them too!
Remember, eventually both of those areas will be little cubbys, shelves with front retainer rails or something, and the forward facing orange plastic lens windows from our "landfill" Travel Queen parts camper. We think these cubby areas (repaired areas) resemble the shape of the "front-bunk" model of the camper itself.
And of course, all visible paneling edges will be receiving trim - eventually.
While DW painted, I made new wardrobe shelves, cut from a sheet of 1/4" plywood I bought while on my shopping trip the other day.
The shelves are 18.75" by 24.25", then notches cut for corners. One will go up against the ceiling and encapsulate the roof paneling water damage, while the other three will become shelves.
Check out the condition of the old shelves. They used up scrap for these right from the factory! And they were warped and sagged.
The new ones will be stained and poly-ed, while the cabinet will be painted and poly-ed.
Meanwhile, I cleaned hardware in vinegar, to etch the brass plating. It didn't work, not like it had affected zinc. I rinsed the hardware in hot water, ran the wire brush over the pieces (some rust, some crud) and rinsed it all in a small bowl of lacquer thinner, then laid each piece out - upside down.
I got one side sprayed and thought, "oh, screws".
So laid them out, then found the clothes rod from the wardrobe. The brackets were real tight to the rod, but I eventually worked them off and ran steel wool on the rod, cleaned the brackets and added them to the paint booth with the screws.
Note the 90 degree bend in the brackets? Re-design. If I'm covering the wardrobe ceiling, I'm losing the original fastening surface, so grabbed another surface and bent the brackets, before paint.
Here's how it started out.
And bent like this in the vice.
Through the day the hardware got turned and a couple coats each side. I hope that holds on the brass plating surfaces. The kids don't care for the brass look. They are silver metals kind of people. We can accept that, even if we can't understand it. ;) But everyone has their tastes and we can use those facts to try some cool, new stuff. Win - Win!
After DW completed a good thick coat on the wardrobe...
She came inside to the garage and stained the shelves. While I went out to the camper and vacuumed the bunk, prepping for stain.
I prepped the two small pieces that bracket the ladder up in the bunk for storage and transport, and set them on the stain table for DW. Then grabbed the ladder itself. I had wanted to rebuild this. Now that we were moving faster, I had to re-evaluate the level of rebuild.
Let's start with the break and the poor repair.
In a perfect world I'd remove, clean up surfaces, make a good fit, clamp and drill for dowels, glue in the surface and glue in the dowels, wood fill, sand, etc.
But DW had a wet stain rag ready, so I removed the screws...
Cleaned up the surfaces, glued with Gorilla wood glue (because I grabbed the wrong bottle off the shelf the other day. I wanted more of that foam expanding stuff.) Then clamped it with new screw treatment and duplicated the look on the other side, pre-drilling for this dryer, old wood.
I'm not sure if the ladder is a cool mod by an original owner, or a factory last minute thought to build the accessory.
The same original repair screw holes caused the same mis-alignment now.
Here's the non-broken side, for the balanced look.
Then sanding and shaping, make it look at least a LITTLE special.
The bottom of the ladder was cut 90 degrees to the run, so only a wooden corner hit the floor. I scribed the angle and cut the ladder to fit the floor, then added some rubber feet I made out of some old rubber that came off a Cold War era computer, called a Teletype Machine.
I planned the sizes out and sunk the screws below the rubber surface.
Then, because DW was now doing poly in the camper, I opened up the stain and using DW's stain applicator saved in one of the plastic bags, got the ladder stained up all nice. After wiping it down good, I took it out to the camper and stowed it, fitting in the original brackets, the one piece with a little new position for the altered feet angle.
And finally leaning the ladder with the garage pile waiting to receive poly.
What next?
Work Surface real estate was getting sparce. With projects galore: house painting, greenhouse remodel/restructure, Lil' Queeny, Tow-Mater, I finally had to clean up the workbench to get the wardrobe door where I could work it.
Just a few more objects to put away.
Let's see... I got Porti-Potty deodorizer, the smoke alarm, the wheel well trim, the towel rod, the cot-bunk brackets, all staged. The screen materials...
The clothes rod, and wardrobe shelf brackets on the one bottom shelf.
Okay, the wardrobe door. It held a mirror. The original longer mirror had broken and this shortened version was re-fastened. Note the jagged edge.
It had been done early on because the sun faded wood was to the smaller size, not the original. Although the original mirror bracket holes can be seen below (no pictures of those).
We had bought a $5 wall mirror from Walmart with an orange frame, but it was too long so we took it back. Other mirrors were too much to justify. To make the original work, I steel wool cleaned it, then framed it with plastic edging I had left over from a Lil' Queeny mod. Mitered the corners, chose the mirror brackets, then got the silver (nickle) paint onto them.
Look at the patina on this door. :)
What else. Oh. If we're going to get poly - two coats - on the ceiling, I should get the ceiling light parts ready. The fixtures are silver (LED - the kids love LED), but the new fixtures are too small for the old fixture wood fade marks. So we bought a couple of ceiling light medallions.
And started off with the highlight color being orange. Same paint as the wheels.
Too vivid. Let's tone it down inside. It clashes with the tomato-soup red of the inside paint, so we'll just keep this color on the outside.
Black, yeah black.
That's the ticket.
All this time, DW was applying poly in the camper. She didn't get a first coat everywhere, but well more than half of the walls. And she bought a new type of gloss poly with the tint we've chosen in a form that can be applied with a pad! That is going to make the ceiling so much easier! We're excited to see the results.
For now though, the walls. The gloss poly on all the surfaces make cleanup (after camping, or after a dusty dirt road into a camp-site) easy peazy!
One coat (sucking in crazy like), and then a second. Possible third in some spots, but two is the target.
Here are some examples of the progress.
Here's that "loader damage" area at the left rear.
And the water damage warp above.
That was probably the worst spot on the interior that is now getting finish.
More places. Taking on that old cabin, lodge feel?
Countdown to camping - 5 days!
