trailgranny - took the family long enough huh? Amazing how many things you have to do in front of, and get injured over, before the loved ones get a clue and think "oh, I should help"! Seriously, a lifetime of personal contribution simply seems to contribute to our age related downfalls. But what a life we can speak of huh? 'Course, I ain't very good at video games, so I guess my life is incomplete ;)
First thing yesterday morning I sprayed some bronze on the brass painted knob. BTW, don't confuse the color of the brass paint-can cap with the color of the paint. There's a reason why one is a flashy metal and the other a false substance. But it'll suffice for now. I wiped off everything that didn't look like antique brass.
I went searching for more metal corners to assemble plastic door frames. I have few, if any, remaining original doors from Lil' Queeny - just the large bathroom door as near as I could figure. And it was missing one corner due to an owner modification.
But look! Another handle! And four hinges, one of which went right into the metal recycle bin as it was pretty rusty. The other three hinges and the extra handle went onto the workbench for a few days before they get put away. And the rest of the hardware from the door was removed and reviewed.
It was really kind of a pity to butcher the door like this. But it did have a number of other imperfections, like the hook style latch, or the fade image of the wall mirror on the inside surface. I suppose there comes a time in any camper's life where the owner is left to make "less than awesome" modifications. The camper is no longer new after all. And it is not yet "cool vintage". Even then you do what you gotta do, and not everybody has the same skill, money or time to invest in your baby as does perhaps someone else.
This door cut-out was so it would swing open past the aftermarket catalytic heater a previous owner had installed. The heater was trash, as it had been left uncovered and so the catalytic surface was poisoned, a very important issue for catalytic heaters. But beyond that, the heater position (especially as big as this heater was) was way too close to the combustible bathroom door surface across the hallway from it. Nice to open the door and send radiant heat right into the bathroom, but it intrudes upon already limited aisle space in addition to forcing the major, ugly door modification.
We have chosen a different positioning for our heater, and a smaller one. We'll talk about that further down the road, but for now the region of the galley cabinetry that held the previous heater will become a shoe storage cabinet with a new door to cover it.
I saved out four metal door corners for that shoe cabinet door. I'll have to make a door out of extra materials. I'll also make a door after all for truck wheel well access at the left front and have to make that door as well. It will incorporate some sort of effective weather seal. So I saved out four corners for that one too.
I'll have to keep looking and decide about four metal corners for the bathroom door, once I decide definitively how that will be done. Actually, I think I'll trade one smaller drawer front that has metal and reassemble with plastic, saving those metal ones for the bathroom door. That's a build that will be in "Bathroom" but for now I'll say the exterior surface is leaning heavy toward re-finished birch paneling, while the interior surface will be some sort of white water-proof bathroom shower surface material and magnetic seal on the frame like a modern RV shower door. We hate shower curtains in a small space.
So after I took apart the rest of the original bathroom door I ended up with this (and a few other trim pieces not in the picture).
I got ready to assemble doors. A pile of these right here. A pile of those right there. These doors get all metal corners. The smaller ones may use plastic.
The doors assembled easy. And the frames gripped so well I chose not to use glue - at least for now. I may have to come back and glue individual pieces, but I think what happened is the four poly coats (one on the backs and three on the fronts) added just enough extra thickness to the door width that the plastic channels of the trim pieces became slightly tighter than previously. And the relatively soft new poly will slightly dent or compress where the plastic edge squeezes, just enough to hold it in place very well over time. It was like putting together a snap-together plastic car model.
The first step was to line up all the holes in the trim with the doors. It was amazing how easy it was to match the correct pieces.
This small drawer front shared both metal corners here...
and plastic on this side.
These were the worst stains on a back hinge side.
Some other finished close ups.
And the group. This is most of them and only one has two plastic corners in it.
There are eight metal corners saved out for two other doors. I should re-do to save 12, as mentioned for the bathroom door. What is refinished and remains for assembly are just three or four small drawer fronts. And I still need to make about six doors for various existing and new "as-yet unmade" cabinet openings. Hmmmm, that's a lot of plastic corners to save too. Guess I better take apart the rest of the extra doors. Easier to store that way too.
