So there I was. Dabbling in the camper metal. At long last - doing something with a part of the project that I knew was going to take some big work.
I had the smaller pieces down on the bench. I had the reusable trim basically cleaned and prepped for use and a plan in my head for how to make it work in spite of the shortcomings of some of the original engineering and design. I didn't know NOTHIN' yet! (Referring to the big sheet on the ceiling).
But with continued confidence and that "can-do" spirit that comes from a whole lot of time and effort already invested, I made the metal plunge and started into the easiest piece. The front wall of the cab-over.
There was a general order to the effort. But also a flexibility in what to do at a given time. Scraping the majority of the butyl tape (the green stuff was very strong and dense and hard to remove, but still pliable), hammering flat the edges and holes, naptha/brush cleaning of final residues, dry scrub brushing the back sides (dirt, fiberglass shreds, etc.), washing with water and a rag, washing with a naptha dampened rag, close examination of holes and edges with tears starting, drilling small holes at the ends of tears to stop the rips and finally - some hand sanding to get a feel of the sanding requirements.
The metal pieces - or most of them - were original cut by hand with hand sheers. Can you imagine? The metal was sharp anyway, but with lots of jagged edges, safety and care were paramount. I handled each piece tenderly and that helped me keep my head around the safety factor.
Here I have the vee straddling a piece of angle-iron to work and retain the bend.
Look at that jagged edge!
And how was I going to deal with this? I found it to be just one of the coming metal hole challenges.
I got a good hand sanding on that piece and set it aside (didn't get a picture) and moved on to cleaning and preparing the back wall pieces, seen here on top of the main front wall metal (cabover ceiling and camper box front).
Bottom edge, under the rear storage access opening (my dump access).
Those back wall pieces were templated up against the new back wall wood and clearance light holes were marked, as were all the various holes marked. Then I came back and highlighted all those marks with a pink highlighter so I could see it all at a glance; same on the cabover front. I didn't get pictures. And I did some woodwork and planning too for clearance light issues. Didn't get pictures. I'll get a few pics and provide a little narrative on that whole thing before we're done.
But for now that's good. This work has been lasting days. The back wall pieces are not yet sanded, but the whole roof metal is, at least a first sanding. But that's all to show after the next post, which will talk about the second biggest piece - the cabover ceiling and camper-box front wall, arguably the most dented piece (from rocks thrown up by traffic ahead of you). It was there when I started building new skills on body work.
