My Tuscan House Is Covered!!

Catching back up again.  The past week has been AWESOME!!!  Finally making some visible progress!  Sunday, Sept. 4th, we put on the first piece of back paneling--the beginning of closing up my Tuscan house and putting her back together again! 

Had to take some time off due to inclement weather--like ex-hurricane Lee causing some heavy rains.  I was pretty ready for a break anyway.

Saturday, Sept. 10th--Back to work!  I made up my mind to learn how to use power tools.  The power saw was first--how hard can it be?  Hey, I got this one covered!  My biggest "setback" is that I'm vertically challenged.  There are ways around that--I just have to climb up on the table to saw the sheets!  Ted may have cut the first panel, but I did all the rest!  

Next, there was the pneumatic staple gun.  That took some practice too--but I'm getting pretty darn good at it!  Today, we even dragged Paul in on the work--lift, carry, hold!  By the end of the day, we're all a little punchy...
...but, we did get the front panels on with no serious problems.  The front panels still need some paint, but she's looking like a real camper now!



Sunday, Sept. 11th--We finished putting all the panels from front to back on!  What a weekend!  Once again, we used Paul for all the times we needed someone tall, strong or just for the extra hands--good thing he works out!

  It took a while to figure out where we needed full sheets of Masonite and where we would need to place the shorter pieces.  In the end, it all worked out and my Tuscan house is all closed up again!  I can't believe we're finally at this stage! 

Moving right along...

I guess I have just a little "catch-up" to do.  August 25th, Hurricane Irene headed towards us.  My biggest worry was whether my little camper in her incomplete state would make it through a hurricane.  After all, she's basically just 2 walls on a frame at this point!  Not good when they're predicting sustaining winds of 80 mph!  Even if the winds don't hurt her, the rain could pool in her tarps and collapse her walls!  OH NO!!!!  So, Ted and I spent Thursday wrapping her all up nice and snug in 3 layers of tarps!  She looked like a Christmas present!  The good news--She held up like a champ!!  The tarps all stayed in place--how could they not when Ted did such a good job of tying them all up?  And she was totally dry inside--not a drop!  Much happiness!!!

Ted has been busy doing his parts--making a "box" under the bed to house the electric cord for my Tuscan Casa.  The front has a hinge so it can be accessed from the front of the bed area--that was my idea! 

He also started working on the electrical system (I'm TERRIFIED of working with electricity)--putting in the fusebox and running the appropriate wiring for my lights, appliances, and outlets.  I had to figure out where I wanted outlets and which appliances were going where.

In the past week, I've been dreaming, planning, measuring, sketching, window shopping online--getting myself up and motivated again after such a long break.  Of course like every ADHD person, I've been putting a certain amount of time on things that she won't be ready for until much later in the rebuild process.  But you have to dream, right? I've changed my idea for my curtains--using different material for the dinette area and the bedroom area.  I found the coolest little wooden hat racks that look like cordovan-colored shutters--and decided to do all the trim in the camper that color.  I was perusing the aisles at Lowe's and found MY piece of Formica laminate with a nice-sized crack in it--and got the $58 sheet for $20!!  BARGAIN!!!  Today I went into Tuesday Morning and found two little wrought iron "gates" to use outside of my Tuscan Casa--no self-respecting Tuscan home would be without wrought iron!

All in all, it's been a hell of a week!! 

Another step towards the finish!!

It's been a busy week--an a productive one!!  I put flooring down under the area where the bed will be.  Found out that the old tiles that were a box in the camper are useless.  The adhesive was really sticky but would not adhere to anything.  So I switched to my new tiles. 

I  painted 2 coats of Kilz on all the walls and 2 coats of my paint on the rear side walls.  Ted and I got the bed frame put together--his design and it will hold just about any weight! 
And the supports won't move anywhere, even if they get bumped from the storage area.
     

 Hey, it looks just like a bed--okay,without a mattress, pillows, comforter...!!

I think I'm actually seeing more of what my Casa Toscana is going to look like when she's finished!  I think I'm actually going down the road of putting her back together--FINALLY!!

A small step

Today ended with a small step towards my little Scotty being rebuilt.  With the gaucho frame out of the way and the old vinyl flooring removed, I had to remove the paper backing that was left over from the flooring.  I found some wallpaper remover in a cabinet and mixed it with some water.  It worked great softening up the adhesive from the vinyl flooring so I could scrape it all off.  I was left with the plywood floor.  I let it dry all day and then sanded it to smooth it out.  Then I ended the day by painting a coat of Kilz on the area.  Tomorrow, I can actually put some vinyl tiles down--closest thing I've gotten to actually REBUILDING the Scotty!! 

I have to keep my sights on the finished product.....

More on the wheel well reconstruction

A new day and time to rivet!!  First thing today we riveted all the tabs to the original metal.  Man, there are some tight spaces to get that riveter into!  But, we got everything that needed to be riveted riveted! 

Then the entire edge where the tabs are got two coats of Herculiner--what great stuff!!  It's really made for coating truck beds, but according to many of the people on the Scotty groups, it's a great sealer.  We also put two coats on the inside where the rivets are.  All in all, the wheel well is looking AMAZING!!  It should be finished in a day or two...

I noticed the drill with the wire brush attached and decided to give a try cleaning off the brake drums which are pretty rusted.  Gotta get them ready for a painting.  Man, the before on the left and the after on the right!





We also took apart what was left of the bed--which wasn't much.  We're planning on making a permanent bed instead of the gaucho couch.  And it will be a little higher than the couch was.  I felt it was just better to take the old one completely out and start from scratch.  I also have to remove what's left of the flooring under the bed area, sand, paint, and lay new flooring tiles before we make the new bed.  Man, that almost sounds like a move towards putting her back together!!!!

Windows and Wheel Well

 Wednesday, August 10, 2011--

Ted was busy with the wheel well so I decided to start the long, tedious process of cleaning windows--yeah, I guess I do windows!

I tried this stuff called Never Dull--it's some cotton-type stuff in a can that has some cleaning agent on it.  You tear off a piece and wipe down the aluminum.  It worked okay, but there were alot of parts of the window frame that were pitted, etc.  I turned to Brillo Pads instead and they worked really well--you just have to rinse them off really good to get rid of all the tiny little shards of steel wool.  I took off the dried, torn up seals which I may have to look for.  And of course, there was LOTS of old putty tape to get off.  I got all the windows done except the large front and rear windows--gotta leave something for another day, right? 

Meanwhile, Ted took the piece of aluminum we got from the salvage yard and cut it to fit the wheel well.  Then he cut tabs into it that he can fold over the existing wheel well.  He fitted it over the wheel well and folded over the tabs--OMG, it looks like it's going to work!!!  He went to our friend, Rhonda, at the glass shop she works at.  She got him some of the rolled butyl tape that they use for sealing windshields.  He took that stuff and laid it on the top edge of the original wheel well so it will seal the tabs.  Then he put the new piece on.  The next step is to rivet each tab down...tomorrow!

I was online with our great NSSO group and Gail said she had the edge trim for the new, improved wheel well.  It's in the mail as of today--THANK YOU, GAIL!!!  I really don't know what I would have done without these groups and the wonderful people there--yeah, I would have been out of $1000 for a leaking, piece of crap camper!!  This would not be happening without them!

Who butchered the wheel well??

I finally involved Ted in my camper rebuilding--the wheel well was a real hack job!!  People on the NSSO and SSCE groups have said that it's the worst butcher job they've seen! Someone actually took a saw into the section and even cut off part of the metal wheel well!  This doesn't have to look back to the original, but it sure needs to be repaired!!

First, the lower skin had to come off...

Next, the plywood around the wheel well was cut out...measurements taken....








 
  ...drew out a template from the good side, and cut out a replacement piece of plywood.  It looks like it's gonna work!!

So now we're visiting hardware stores, salvage yards, and auto stores in search of all the stuff we need to finish up this job.  We made good progress so far, but it's just too hot to work outside--tomorrow will be cooler and we'll get back to it!! 

While Ted has been working on the wheel well fiasco, I've been finishing up my demolition of the inside--took out the two storage cabinets in front of the sofa to make room for a permanent bed.  Also took out the sheet vinyl flooring they had laying in the main area and the bad parts of the original flooring from under the sofa and inside the galley cabinet in preparation for my new flooring--to be revealed at a later date.

I've finally gotten to a point where I can actually sit back and visualize what I want my camper to look like when it's done.  There's been too much clutter--debris, tools, etc.--in the camper to even see what the possibilities could be.  I can't wait to start putting her back together!  I still have so much to buy for the rebuild.  I've priced almost everything and already purchased some of the things I need.  However, my biggest problem is finding the paneling.  I just can't seem to find what I'm looking for--even though I'm pretty open about it.  1/8" plywood is basically non-existent.  And just some plain old wood paneling doesn't seem to be much easier to find.   Once I find the paneling, I can start to rebuild her....