What a Mess!

“What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches.”
Soren Kierkegaard


Today was my last day at work for about eight weeks.  Having this eight weeks 'off' is truly one of the greatest blessings of teaching.  These days and weeks are the time of the year in which my soul is repaired and nurtured.  I have had lists of movies to watch and books to read during my 'off' time.   It is the sum of these moments that make me, as a teacher, "What the teacher is..." according to Kierkegaard.

Now, like most teachers, I will be doing a lot of stuff that directly relates to my work the other ten months of the year.  I am taking my final class for my library media specialist certification.  That class is an online class through National Louis University.  I'm excited about it because it is an application of technology in education; both of my passions in one class!  I have a multitude of projects for school that I have been waiting to have time to dream about and complete.  I'll work on many of them throughout the weeks, in between re-starting my exercise program that somehow got side tracked as the winter months droned on and on.  I have a hand surgery, for carpal tunnel, in a few weeks.  My plan then, obviously, is to have the teardrop completely 'finished' by the time of that surgery.  We have one trip planned later this month; we'll be taking the Carpe Diem up north; hopefully all the way to Canada!

With that, today was a cathartic day.  I was able to come home early and went right to work on the teardrop.  I decided that I was going to finish the door trim and insulation.  Like I had mentioned before, I had finally gotten the 'right' weather stripping.  I ordered the 1947 Chevrolet pick up truck weather stripping.  I had to purchase some specially designed adhesive for this application.  I also had to figure out how to mount the brass door latches.  These are the mechanisms that the lock snaps onto in order to seal the door and be able to lock it securely.  This required taking off the wood trim from around the doors and cutting it in order to place the brass striker.  You can see in the image below how the weather stripping is mounted and the spot where the brass striker is placed.

It was really hot out today and the sun made working on these tiny details exhausting.  I applied the adhesive and then gently worked the weather stripping into place.

You can see in this image how nicely it fit. 

It took a little finesse but I think it created a pretty good seal.  I am not sure I have the brass strikers perfectly in place; it takes a bit more pressure to 'snap' the lock into the striker's proper position.  I may try adjusting it a bit.

You can see from one of the images above that the inside of the teardrop was a mess; this is due to the fact that I hadn't cleaned up after myself in several days; especially after getting the cedar installed on the ceiling.  So, I decided not only to clean the inside of the teardrop, but also the workshop area.  My workbench and work area was a disaster and truly needed a good cleaning, dusting and sweeping.

My work table has become a dumping ground.

My workbench; I think it's under there.

My scrap pile of stuff I 'need' but am not using currently,  seriously needed some attention.

The workbench and tool area looking a bit more respectable.

Scrap lumber area organized and sorted.

Materials that are going to be used in the next steps of the teardrop project.

Reading light fixture.  Now that I have the beautiful cedar, I need to figure out another way to mount the light.  I'm thinking I may just pick up a nice piece of smooth cedar and use that instead of the one I covered in headliner material.

One last fixture to fix.

This was a 'rough' fit of the insulation panel on the door.  I used a piece of chalk to mark the areas that need a bit more tweaking.  All in all though, I'm pretty happy with how this turned out.  Special thanks again to my awesome daughter!

Totally cleaned the inside of the teardrop.  It really needed it.  I also installed the headliner on the door panels for the bulkhead and then put the sliding doors in place.  

I love my fish eye lens!  It works so well for small spaces like the inside of my teardrop!  It really does help get the idea of the 'full' view.  

Tomorrow my main goal is to finish installing the cedar strips (I'm going to decide whether to install it in the bulkhead and/or at the back of the shelf area.)  After that, I want to re-mount the reading light fixture.  I am hopeful that I can finish installing the insulation and headliner on the driver's side door and possibly get the other one started.  Then, if time allows, I would love to finish the AC power inlet and the possible extensions for the cabin area.  That's an awful lot of tasks; I'll get as much done as I can.

Sunday

Today was a very productive day!

I started by making a trip to Harbor Freight.  I bought two jack stands for $21.00.  They allowed me, with the help of the jack from my Honda, to lift the teardrop about two feet off the ground. In doing this, it gave me the chance to properly mount the storage boxes.   I ended up using the jack to hold each box in place while I screwed the aluminum angle onto the frame.  I was able to slide in underneath and work easily.  Not a bad way to work by yourself, if I do say so myself!  It's a little hard to see in this image, but the jack is on the axle and there is about a foot of space between the wheel and the floor.  That was a very good purchase.

After mounting the boxes, I cut the aluminum for the storage box lids.  I am so glad I re-did the aluminum because I think it looks TONS better in its shiny finish rather than painted black like I had originally had done.  After cutting the aluminum, I installed the headliner and then glued the aluminum pieces in place.

 

Doesn't that look awesome?

The next project was to install the aluminum angle that originally held the aluminum to the frame.  The aluminum was pretty badly cut and bent, as you can see from the before images above.  I installed a 1" x 2" green treated board behind the aluminum angle and it pulled the ragged aluminum into place.

That front section looks 'finished' again.  I had originally planned a piece of aluminum diamond plate, or my rubber idea.  It looks so good that at this point, the 'cover up' will still look great, but it won't be hiding anything.  

I took a little time to figure out how the reading light fixture would be mounted inside the teardrop.  The lights swivel and thus have a 'ball' like feature that extends below the plate.  I found that mounting it on a piece of 3/4" plywood was just about the perfect amount of space.  I'll cover this in the headliner material and mount onto the styrofoam to give it a finished look.  This got me excited about how the finishing touches are going to look.  

 My wingman showed up with a present.  He had a cargo basket that he was not going to use anymore.  He made me an incredible deal on it and it fit perfectly on the teardrop's tongue.  I had originally thought I would just buy one from Harbor Freight, but the ones they sell are bolted together and do not have a mesh bottom like this one.  This basket is all welded steel.  The great news about it is that I will be able to easily remove the basket and use it on the tow vehicle's hitch if we ever need or want to use it.  It has a fold up hitch mount that easily slips onto the tongue piece.  I am going to add a couple of bolts and one or two 'U' bolts to hold it on the tongue.  Lastly, I'm going to add a couple of conduit clips through the teardrop to help it ride firmly.  What a great addition to the Carpe Diem!

This image shows how nicely it rides on the tongue and how cleanly the aluminum came together by mounting that strip at the bottom.

 The next project was to replace the aluminum strip that sits on the end of the hatch.  This is the piece that I 're-tooled' to get it as straight as possible.  You can see that I painted it with Rustoleum to protect it.  I installed it with stainless steel screws.

The hatch is off, that's why this image is vertical.

The next project was to try out the new lock sets I ordered.  Unfortunately, it looks like the inner locks are not going to work for my rebuild.  Unfortunately, I would have to drill new holes for the handle in order for the latch to hit at the appropriate spot on the door.  It's right now when I am SO glad that I did not pitch the original door hardware.  A quick coat of Rustoleum and I think the original door latches and locks will work just fine!

 

The original outside door handles were in bad shape.  One of them was missing, the other had been mangled and was beyond salvaging.  However, I ordered these new beautiful chrome handles.  I will only have to slightly adjust the interior latches in order to get these new handles to work perfectly.

I may end up keeping the original latch for the hatch too.  It's on the lower left section of the image above.

After a thorough cleaning of the garage and putting all my tools and materials back in place, I was able to close down the garage and head back inside ready for the work week.  If I have any time this week, I'll work on the galley cabinets.  All in all, it was a great weekend!