The first coat of poly dried well, with very little debris - hardened and raised - on the backs of the lower drawer fronts that retained their plastic frames. I think those three will be set aside, they're done.
Putting on three coats of poly (one on the back sides and two on the fronts with a steel wool buffing in between) takes three Days!
As expected, removing the plastic frames GREATLY enhanced the ease, quality and speed of getting finish onto these doors. It was a good choice.
While drying, I started prepping the camper interior for next steps. I came across the sink and cut-off the old drain plumbing, then unscrewed the tail pieces from the sink drains. Laying the sink on the bench I ran the steel wool over the stainless steel surfaces and touched a wire brush to the screw flanges. Cleaning the plumber's putty from the edges and noting it may well need new putty on the drains themselves, I set it on the shelf out of the way.
Back inside the camper I noted these four spots still needing gimp stapled onto the furniture. Because I don't have a lot of good quality gimp in the original cream left over, I'm putting it on the vertical joints, but leaving it off horizontal areas, especially horizontal edges that would have the bead cut off anyway. I'm trusting the screw fasteners and primed wood surfaces between parts to limit or eliminate wood squeaks. And I don't think that sort of seal or squeak prevention is as important to the interior pieces as it might be on the exterior joints. At this stage it is more about visuals.
Here are the four spots.
Here are those same spots getting - or with - gimp.
And those four spots with the gimped furniture back in position.
On that last photo you'll note the cross cleat for the raised dinette floor has also been fastened to the camper box side wall. Here's how that came together.
The battery tray must go down before the battery compartment dinette furniture. It's too large to slip in through the top hole. There is also more work to do in the battery compartment to seal it for exterior venting. No - I don't yet know how I'm going to do that.
Resting the tray on the grey tank, I marked the cleats for pre-drilling. The fasteners will secure the tray in place and remove any bounce or significant weight otherwise held by the tank.
Once drilled and laid in position, I set the furniture in place, having already marked and pre-drilled it's fastener locations. Then it was a matter of securing the screws first in the holes that would draw the furniture in tight and straight, most importantly making certain particular surfaces would come out flush and/or square.
Along this floor edge I had replaced the cleat with a rebuild board for the battery compartment. I used longer fasteners on this edge.
Then I went back to normal fasteners on these floor cleats. You have to look close to get your eyes down into the right spot on the cleat where the screw heads are.
And these were all done while making measurements to keep things in proper alignment.
Then it came to marking and pre-drilling the forward furniture - the cross partition that encloses the fresh water tank. And installing it required more measurements and use of a construction square, forcing the position away from the earlier pencil marks due to both screws pulling the piece in tight and a better ability to make exact measurements after other components had been securely fastened.
Note on that last photo, there's a screw at the lower vertical mount, but I still need to add a cleat above it to secure the upper reaches. That's because I enclosed the original frame on it's back side to both increase strength on this partition wall, and to smooth the removal of the waste cans that had been tripping up on the original uncovered framing members.
So for better or worse, the interior furniture pieces are fastened in place - the systems build may continue.
