All Sealed Up

The cabin is about 90% restored to its original state at this point.  Today I re-caulked every internal joint, re-painted the cabin, and sealed the floor. 

Caulk drying in the seams and joints of the cabin.

Caulk dry and painted.

My three favorite ingredients in sealing the cabin.

I tried to repair all of the trim pieces that thankfully were kept by the previous owner.  The piece you see above goes on the bottom of the hatch and provides rigidity and helps it seal along the 'bumper.'  It was severely warped and misshapen.  I used a piece of the aluminum angle, an aluminum rod, my ball peen hammer, sledge hammer and several chunks of wood to re-form it to its original shape.  At one point I lost my grip on the aluminum piece and my hand slipped.  If I had not been wearing my gloves, I would have ripped an inch or more of my flesh from my hand.  I was very happy to not have that to deal with!

The hatch is looking terrific!

The hatch, and the additional trim pieces that I was able to re-shape.  The piece at the bottom is the 'bumper'  It was in terrible shape.  I love how Rustoleum restores the look of these parts!

This is the inside of the bulkhead.  When the previous owner placed the cabin on the new trailer frame, they did not replace the flooring in this area.  So, this area is the last section of the cabin that I need to repair.  I plan to use a 3/4" x 6" piece of treated wood.  It's a strange shape though, so I'll need to make a template of it and then carefully trim the wood to fit.

You can see in the images above, the area where the cabin was 'cut' to fit onto the new frame.  I don't like the ragged look of this and this is where I will apply some kind of rock guard.  It will act as a 'rock guard' but it will also mask this rough area.  I'm leaning towards using some material in black, just to tie into my color scheme of black and silver.  

I painted the trailer tongue today with Rustoleum.  It looks sharp!  I don't know if I've mentioned a unique element of the trailer tongue.  You can see the triangular piece of metal that is supporting the tongue.  This is a really rare design that is not seen in today's trailers.  Most trailers have a crank jack/wheel that is used when the trailer is off the hitch.  My trailer's design is  much more sturdy and won't 'roll' when in camp.  Jim suggested that I add a jack/wheel, but keep the triangular piece too.

 

 Above you can see my rough sketches for the galley area.  I intend to use Google Sketch Up to try some different layouts for the galley.

  Jim gave me the name of this place; Kendor Marine.  It's only 20 minutes or so from my house and it is essentially a marine surplus store.  They have over 40,000 square feet of stuff.  Jim thought it might be a great idea to take a look there.  I'm wondering if I can find some cabin lights and a fuse panel, etc. there?  I'll have to stop in there sometime soon.  Sounds like a cool place. 

Here is my list of next steps (in no particular order):

1.  Make a template for the mattress; consider how to trim futon.

2.  Make a cardboard template for the bulkhead floor area that needs to be replaced; trim board to fit.

3.   Order windows.

4.   Finish bolting the internal frame to the subfloor.

6.  Experiment with various galley layouts in Google Sketch Up.

7.  Mark out storage box for cabin floor.

8.  Consider laminate covering for the cabin and galley floor.

9.  Draw electrical diagram plan.

10.  Order electrical supplies:  fuse box/power center/voltage meter/shielded red/black wire/corrugated wire channel/easy disconnects, etc.
(Found out that there is a Delta Marine in Winthrop Harbor.  They have my fuse box and additional things in the store.)

These are the steps that are necessary before I can begin to plan for adding insulation, wiring, etc. to the ceiling.  The cabinets in the galley will need to be roughed in as well in order to layout the power center and wiring inside the cabin.  One good thing about putting the power center in the back is that there will be short wiring runs from the power source to the receptacles.