Worrying and Planning

I woke up in the night 'worried' about the storage boxes.  Yes I installed them with a strip of aluminum angle, but I screwed them into place; and the screws are 3/4" screws.  That means that only half an inch is biting into the wood.  A few big bumps and... I can just see them skidding across the freeway as I went through a major city.  Yikes!  I am going to keep the screws in place, but I am going to bolt the aluminum to the frame.  Then I won't have to worry about it at all.  Now that I have the jack stands, its just a matter of jacking up the frame and drilling the holes for the bolts.  Shouldn't take more than an hour.  Famous last words...

So, once again, Harbor Freight has come through for me!

 

For less than $20 I will be able to have a jack that I can keep in my storage box for an emergency!  Plus it will ease my mind when I bolt the storage boxes to the frame.

Another problem I've discovered is that the new handles are a millimeter or so too 'thick' for the interior mechanism.  Rather than file down the handle, which is a really nice chrome, I am going to pick up a set of files from Harbor Freight.  These will allow me to file down the mechanism, which receives the shaft of the handle.  

 

Again, look at the price!  

I may work on the door handles this week too; it would be great to be able fully close the cabin.  The next logical project would be to put the hatch hinge in place.  I can just see me spending days working on the galley cabinets only to shut the hatch and realize that I can't get it to close by 1/8"!

It would also be nice to see how the insulation and headliner would look on the door panels.  I am planning to glue the headliner to the foam and then put the foam onto the aluminum.  Because the doors edge is part of the door seal, I'm thinking that I would leave a 1/4 inch gap around the top.  I will probably then add a layer of foam weather stripping, which will compress when the door is closed.  It will be exciting to see how the doors turn out!  It will also teach me a lot about working with the different adhesives, etc.