Today we work the small wood pieces on the front box wall, similar to yesterday's back wall tailgate opening treatment - and get both front and back installed.
The front wall is less in all aspects. This photo shows the new boards alongside the original 2x2s.
If you look close, you see the originals had some jagged chisel work on the near ends; that is to fit around the characteristics of the metal under-grid jack system. It has welds and such so each board is trimmed to fit that spot.
Also, the originals were nailed and fastened with corrugated staples, neither of which method I was to reuse. I cannot easily access the top of the wing on the fridge side, so as to run a fastener down into the center of a 2x2. Running a screw from below up into the wing would only provide 1/2" or less of purchase and maybe the point would come up into the dinette cushion (and perhaps my behind). Even worse, on the driver side a screw point might puncture an electrical cable. Why does this require a 2x2 anyway?
I chose 1x2s. Pre-drilled and fastened from below up through the wing and into the front wall edge was a better choice for me. And if I were to fasten a 2x2 in that manner, there might be a rocking or rolling tendency that would prove non-beneficial to the caulking I plan.
Now to fit and trim the ends, pre-drill the screw holes (after marking to avoid other screw heads), and run some sand paper over them.
And to check fit. Driver side.
And on passenger side.
I set them aside for paint.
Now back up on the roof I looked things over.
These holes are for an interior light fixture. The large hole is for the wires and the three small holes in a triad are for the mounting screws. I didn't like the "thin wood purchase" for mounting a light, never mind it is very lightweight. I guess theoretically if you strip one out you can twist the fixture slightly and make new holes, but that sort of short-cut never did appeal to me.
Here's another one. Note on this bathroom location, one mounting screw comes up into a roof rib.
Here's my lights. Originals I'll be re-using as part of the character retention. Besides, I'm not real big on interior LED lighting. I guess they're coming around to more choices (warm light spectrum), but they've always felt too cold to me (as in ambiance). Yes, incandescent puts off heat, but more often than not in OUR type of camping and travel we like the coziness that provides.
Between our two campers we had eight usable fixtures, but only three non-damaged lenses. I located one more lens from 5-Star RV in Denver giving us four total, although there are two different styles of lens. We'll discuss that more in Electric before too long.
I cut some small wood blocking, scraped the splinters flat around the holes, and glued the blocks into place. That'll hold 'em!
Entry way aisle.
Bathroom.
Aisle near fridge.
And forward bed-chamber.
All locations original.
Then I primed.
Then I painted.
And it was time for installation.
And out back to finish up.
Now like yesterday, let's look at some reminder pics of the front of Travel Queen campers.
Here's that 1964 from Durango, CO again. Notice how the piece has a little doo-hicky hanging down to cover a view of the jack system hook? They did away with those eventually; unprotected doo-hickies have a tendency to become damaged.
Another 1964 in Washington state.
Our '66 left and '68 right.
You may have noticed I primed the full back wall and the front box wall. That's not all I did. The outer surface of all the framing is also now primed - in preparation for additional covering. You'll see that in next post pictures, but it will get discussed later when we wrap the little camper in warmth.
I think tomorrow I'll see you over in Electrical.
