The piece I chose from the original camper front wall was the oft spoken of 5/8" plywood covered by 1/8" paneling. These areas of camper walls seemed to have the panels partially glued, but mostly held in place with staples in the hidden places, and decorative nails where visible. This piece was no different. Because I chose a "minimally marred" piece, and removed specific staples from the saw's cut lines, the paneling became less and less fastened to the plywood. Removing four final staples from a hidden area allowed the piece the come completely off.
I cleaned up all the surfaces with a scraper (for the brittle and dried glue) and 60 grit sand paper. I also ran the 60 grit over the portions NOT to be glued, and found that segment's paneling well enough attached. Then I glued the loose piece in place.
Dues to the visibility of this piece I chose where I could locate staples, and where I had to clamp. Gathering every clamp in the house, I made the final adjustments and set the piece aside.
Next came the galley face. Here's what I started with.
Bottom left. Not bad.
Bottom right (of the left side). Not too bad. A little to fill and slightly splintered.
The new door cutout at the one propane hole. Also you can see here the metal "wavey" fastener where I cut through them between framing boards. I don't know what they're called, but I don't like 'em. They may be handy for a manufacturer to use in an air gun, but they can knock out entire chunks of wood!
Bottom opening edge of one of the water heater access door openings.
These holes are all caused by backing out finishing nails, in this case 8d nails. These were caused back when I didn't know what I was doing. On more recent similar spots I pulled the nails through the back side, actually creating much less damage to the back than what you see here on the front! And in doing so, I was able to leave the original face-wood "filler" in place - and in excellent condition.
The correct process is similar to pulling an arrow through your body. Any one of us who have been in battle against an army using bows and arrows knows this; I had simply forgotten, because that was so long ago; but I won't be forgetting again. I hope. What were we just talking about?
Oh yeah. Arrow holes! Here are some more. These arrow holes are where under cabinet partition walls were originally placed. They were heavy 3/4" particle board. Yep, arrows fastening through the face, into the particle board edges. Now talk about some damage. The factory cabinet-builder general knew exactly how to cause major damage with his company of archers.
Removing what was originally an entire cabinet, including end cap walls and a 1x2 wall support cleat for the back edge of the counter top mount, was quite a chore. I think the cabinet was built on a bench to be self-supportive, then gently carried to the camper wing and screwed in place. There was little thought about using the cabinet itself as a camper structure, or even all the extra weight and additional cabinet partitions and walls that did nothing much but allow the cabinet to stand on it's own before installation. I got rid of all the particle board partition walls and the plywood end caps. I'll use cleats and custom designed supports instead.
More arrow holes. Note the holes (in this and the previous photo) along the bottom edge of the upper half of the face has holes marked with a washer impression. Those are "to be used" mounting holes for a screw with a decorative washer. I use those and make more.
Also note in the above photo, the same guy who ran the router on the exterior wood framing for wiring used the saw to cut this range opening. I can see his "signature wave" in the cut. He also did the opening for the breadboard if you look close, and the install for the original range hood, if you can remember back that far.
Then the first sanding started. I ran 60 grit over every opening and outer edge, and across the back side. Then I ran 100 grit over the face. Along the way I used the scraper and a rough hand plane to knock down any splinters and high spots on the back side in prep for primer.
Then I moved the piece aside, opening the garage doors to wind tunnel setting, and "brushed down" and "swept up" everything. Then I closed the doors, turned the furnace back on and took a look at what I had.
Alrighty then, let's fix some arrow holes!
