It's been about three weeks since I made a post here in Galley and Greatroom. Seems like just yesterday. I thought, 'where have I been'? So I went and looked. Holy Mackerel Andy, I couldn't believe what's been done in three weeks!
I did a range restoration in Propane, the main body color paint in Finishes and Finishing, both 120 and 12 Volt wiring in Electrical, and a drain flange in Fresh Water. My how fun flies when you're having a time!
For those who may not know, this resto-mod is reported in categories, or parts, or chapters - all interchangeable terms on this thing. The Table of Contents links are found as the first post of each category on page one. That acts as a directory for finding your way through this massive project, going on almost three years now.
But I have a goal to get this thing ready for the road by it's purchase date anniversary, in April I think it was. Even so, that whole upcoming upholstery thing might derail that whole plan.
But today I have some finish touches to report on here in Galley and Greatroom. Having completed wiring runs over the archway, and under the dinette floor, I enclosed those, but first - with the vehicle umbilical connection at the left front camper box, just outside the fresh water tank, it was time to cut my access hole for reaching it from inside the camper (access while loaded).
Now if you look close you'll see my mistake holes drilled at the top corners. Doh!
You see, based on the door size, the cut out needed to be 10 1/8" by 13 5/8". The right edge was 2" from the wall (measuring point) and the bottom edge was 5" from the floor. So the top holes needed to be 15 1/8" from the floor. But the left edge holes needed to be 15 3/8" from the right side wall. See that? 15 1/8" and 15 3/8"? Sheesh, could I have made it any harder?
So there's that to fix (and there's a few places like this on the camper). Someday I'll probably do a "mistakes and damages" post.
Anyway, moving forward.
The latch piece on the box extends past the 1/2" plywood. Originally there was a little block of wood here to prevent edge grabbing. I may frame the entire opening in conjunction with that, and in repairing the mistake holes. The camper is 48" wide and the distance between my truck's wheel wells is almost 51", so I have some space for some box bottom edging, and I have a plan and materials to do so in an attempt to protect the bottom wood corners. More on this at a later date.
The door fits very tight so I'll add a thin stick-on weather stripping to the plastic framing for a weather-tight seal.
And gotta watch those door handle swings to not damage wood finish.
Remember this board? It's the only one in the camper that didn't get primer. It's an original piece to the camper and it has that "old camper smell". You know which one I mean - not the offensive odor, but that one that contains lots of happy memories? It's important to feed all the senses in project like this. Besides, the day I built it I didn't want to take time to let paint dry, so there's that.
But by adding surface mount speakers to the dinette floor area walls, I interfered with the slip-in placement of the floor board, so I had to remove some material.
And screwed it down. Skipping centered end holes (with this change and wiring runs nearby) I added four corner screws, for six total.
Now for almost this entire project, at least since I discontinued hanging the trouble light through the roof vent hole to protect the roof surface, I've been hanging it on the propane conduit in the ceiling archway.
But now it was time to enclose. Like the door down below, I was so happy to have completed the finishing work long ago. Putting up "new" stuff is fun. Finishing work is getting very old. But first I had to run the steel wool over the trim pieces. THAT part had not yet been done for these last two strips.
And this one end was the worst portion. Notice these were stapled in place and the board sort of snapped in between them.
It was tight, but I got it to work.
And with the loss of my trouble light hanger, it was time to install lights!
