"She's Done!"

I can't believe it, but I think I can say that 'She's Done!'

I had a few of last touches that I wanted to do today.  Two of them were merely cosmetic, one was going to be very useful.  I have been waiting for weeks to be able to finally put my Carpe Diem decal on the hatch.  I think it looks incredible!

Moving to the front of the teardrop, I needed to apply my foam rock guard.  I decided against the steel diamond plate due to cost and weight.  I think the neoprene will work well for many years.  And, if it gets too messed up, I can switch it out for a very low cost.

After installing the rock guard, I carefully drilled the holes for my cargo basket.  The best part is that I've kept the tongue piece on so that if I wanted to, I could remove it and insert it on the hitch of our car quite easily.

I installed the 120 volt inverter under the shelf in the cabin.  Now we can use either 12 volt or 120 if we ever need it in the cabin.

The indoor/outdoor thermometer is easy to move about; it's simply velcroed to the side wall.  I also did a bunch of little things in the cabin:  I installed a few pieces of trim molding and put in a cedar floor in the bulkhead. 

My terrific daughter helped me finish these simple orange polka dot curtains.  They provide just the right amount of privacy while still allowing the air to move in and out.

And that's about it!  I have just a couple of small details to finish; one in the galley and one under the trailer.  Those two things will be finished easily tomorrow and then we can start planning the first road trip!  

I had the chance to show off the Carpe Diem today to a couple of friends who came by.  They were quite impressed!

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!