New Trim, Lots of Rivets and a Silver Rustoleum Hammered Finish!

Huge day today! Maybe the most overall visible progress of the whole project.  I started out by installing the trim pieces.  I was finally able to cut and install all of the replacement trim along the bottom of the teardrop. Next, I took the teardrop off the jacks and gave it a thorough washing. 

Before shots.  Look at the residual paint and generally gnarliness of the skin on the teardrop.

 

I ended up re-using the wheel well trim.  Now that I knew I was going to paint it, I wasn't worried about the residual paint.

This was my first shot at installing trim.  I learned how to use my pop rivet gun; my hands were quite tired by the end, but it looks awesome!

I ended up using the trim's thicker side along the bottom; this allowed me to cover a lot of the imperfections in the skin.  This is especially true and visible in the image below.  I had some really yucky trim there at the back of the teardrop.  This allowed me to be able to mask this.

The other side's trim.  Once I figured things out, it was a breeze to install this trim.  I also went ahead and filled any earlier screw holes (the knucklehead before me just drilled right through the skin to install the license plate and brake lights) with pop rivets.

The following images are all 'pre-paint.'  I wasn't able to re-take all of these photos afterward, but tomorrow I will post some before and after shots.

When I decided that rather than sand it all down and polish, I would paint it, I started noticing just how 'bad' the finish was.  I'm so glad I decided to paint it.

Here are a few images of the painting process.  One coat:

 Two coats.

Three coats.

Some places, like the roof, actually got four coats.

 Finished and all the yucky tape pulled off.  It's not perfect, but it's a heck of a lot better than it was when the day started.

I am thrilled with how it looks.  There are a couple of areas that might need to be sanded down and re-painted, but all in all I'm pleased.  Next, I am thinking a cool racing stripe in orange, and painting the rims to match!  More on that and some more before/after shots tomorrow!

Lots of Electric Work

Spent a lot of this past weekend working on electrical projects on the Carpe Diem.  I am not a fan of electrical work.  I would say that the stupid butt joint connectors I worked with were the main reason I detest electrical work.  I can't imagine soldering the connections that are above my head as I'm clambering around under the trailer.  I used heat shrink butt joint connectors; let's just say that the percentage of them working as planned was pretty low.

Today I worked exclusively on the trailer lights.  I should say that I worked while waiting for it to stop raining.  Even though the teardrop is jacked up, crawling around on my back on the wet pavement was less than ideal.  Except for the butt joints, everything went as planned.  Unfortunately, I couldn't test the connections today.  I'm hopeful that next weekend will be beautiful and I can pull the Carpe Diem out to the road and give it a proper test.  All I can say is, those trailer lights better freaking work!  I don't want to have to crawl under the teardrop again to make all those connections.  I took my time.  I heat shrunk and taped everything very carefully.

Last night I took some images of the teardrop's lights.  You can see that I didn't get the spare re-mounted as of the images.  I ended up throwing everything in the cabin last night.  But, the lights work!  It wasn't pitch black out, but it was dark enough to see how the light looks.

I like the LED fixture in the galley.  It swivels and throws off a lot of light. 

The porch lights are much brighter than I thought they would be.  

Night vision red dome light.

Regular dome light.

The reading lights are as bright as the the dome light; but I really like the warm iridescent bulbs in the fixtures.

Here we go.  Short week.  Already looking forward to working on the insulation of the cabin.  Happy Memorial Day!

Frustration.

Today was less than excellent.  I met with a lot of frustration today.

It started out pretty good; I got my new fish eye lens for my iPhone and I had a lot of fun making interesting images with it.  Here you can see that I was filling the holes and then re-painting the drawers and the counter trip piece.

One of the only things that did go well today is that I was able to wire up the fuse panel and all of the electrical fixtures, even the galley light, worked perfectly.

This is 'mid-wiring.'  I like how the steel box worked out as a cover for the two 12 volt outlets.

I took the fish eye inside and I could finally capture how huge the teardrop is inside!  That was meant to be funny; but it really is pretty spacious.  Here you can see what it looks like when I am leaning up against the bulkhead; which is where you'll find me reading when it's raining out.

Here you can see the full span of the interior.  

About the only thing that did go well today was that I figured out how to get the wires from the marker lights and the LED lights on each corner, to the back of the teardrop.  I ended up being able to use the PVC pipe I had from another project.  I used insulated pipe clamps to anchor the pipe to the frame.  Pulling the wires through it was a cinch.

I need to figure out a water tight way of bringing in the marker lights and the LED leads.  I'm thinking of putting a piece of threaded conduit in the wheel well in such a way that no moisture will make its way into the electrical area.  I'm going to need to think about that some more.  

One reader, Emmett, noted that the floor is bare wood.  It's actually marine plywood that has been treated, but I am planning to take the teardrop to have an undercoating applied to it; or possibly do it myself once I compare costs.  I appreciate the head's up.  I had it on my radar, but sure do appreciate the reminder.  I'll remove the spare tire, etc. before the undercoating is applied.  

Thinking back on the day and realizing that what frustrated me so much was not having all the supplies I needed to do the job.  I had to go to the hardware store four times today for various bits and pieces.  That always frustrates me.  I also ran out of wire; another thing I obviously needed.  Oh well, this is a short week and a long weekend.  I'm hopeful that next weekend I'll be able to finish the electrical and begin insulating the cabin.