Another maxim success

Well the Maxim Skylight is in!

A while ago on the Airforums there was this thread about a residential/commercial company (Maxim) that  would make a custom skylight to your specifications.  They obviously have found Airstreams to be a niche market because they now have a page devoted to Airstream Skylights.

Many of the newer model Airstreams have converted their skylights to maxims but I only found mention of one other vintage rig, so I was a little concerned about how this was going to work.

I wanted to replace the Astrodome in the front with a Maxim.  There are reproduction Astrodomes made, but I was missing the Ladeaux lifters and knobs (known unobtainium) so going back to what was there originally wasn't feasible.  I've seen the knobs alone go for $50 on ebay,  much less the lifter.  I will lose the abilty to open the Astrodome but with the two Fantastic fans creating the equilavent of a wind tunnel,  I doubt I'll miss it.

This is what I started with!  

This masqueraded as an Astrodome.  I think it's a window off a seventies Airstream.  If you can identify it and want it, it's yours for the shipping.








The maxim is custom made so it was necessary to remove the old skylight to take accurate measurements.  My skylight frame happened to squared up (or rectangled up?) but it's possible that the frame could be bowed out in the center or out of square so I took take measurements in a few different places. I was concerned about the top of the frame having a channel.  Late model Airstream's are flat there and somewhat wider.  With the design of the skylight it was a non issue.

I called and gave them the actual measurements.  They build in a fudge factor of 3/4 inch  so you have a gap all the way around. My actual measurements were 13.875 by 25 inches and the skylight they made for me was 14.625 by 25.75.inches.

 I chose all three layers domed and clear, and a mill finish frame.  Just over $200 including shipping.   The genius about these skylights is that they screw into your original frame from the side!  Much less likely to leak.

I found the Maxin Company  to be simply amazing to work with. There was a slight hiccup in the process when they got my order wrong.  They cheerfully admitted the mistake and had the correct skylight made and sent the next day. 

And they are very strong, try doing this to a regular astrodome!
(Okay guys, this is a gratuitous use of two pretty girls trying to break a maxim skylight.  This is as good as this post is going to get so if you stop reading after watching this I understand! Totally....just saying....)

Go ahead click , I'll wait....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nxm47Rx_1Q

Anyway, this is what the skylight looked like during the test fit

Jut like the Fantastic Fans the hardest part by far was getting all the old sealant off!

I installed with #10 hex head stainless sheet metal screws.  Make sure you deburr the holes on the skylight, a few of mine needed it. Otherwise the screw won't tighten up. The skylight frame comes pre-drilled (and without hardware).

When I test fitted the skylight I predrilled the holes into the original framing because I wanted to be sure that the skylight was centered on the inside.  The predrilled holes on the skylight are too low to use a drill to transfer the holes to the original frame, so I chucked a bit into my dremel and used that.

Then I used a trebled up piece of Eternabond double stick tape and put a piece of the alumibond over that (just so the skylight wouldn't stick when I test fitted it. When the screw goes through the doublestick it will seal itself. 

I did use Tremco 635 on the exterior of the screws.  Here's the finished product.  Quite a bit better looking than when I started!

It's been leak free through several rainstorms.  I'm going to have to fabricate some kind of trim because the screws are visible from the inside of the Airstream. Late model Airstreams have a trim piece that will cover it, but the vintage rigs don't.The view from below.

Guess whats next?

We have roof closure...

We had a stretch of good weather lately and it was finally time to tackle the Fantastic fans that have sitting on my dining room since Spring.

This is what I started with, this hole was originally the air conditioner which was one of the first things tossed.

 A little closer

 A little closer still.....

I obviously can't be trusted with a zoom!

I've read other blogs where they have completed this project in a couple of hours (while holding a beer in one hand no less!). That was not my experience.   I spent almost 5 hours the first day just removing sealant, silicone and some type of martian spit,  I guess.  I used aluminum oxide abrasive wheels, brass brushes and such.  Lots of plastic scrapers/razorblades and fingernails, did I mention fingernails? Mine look like they've been chewed on by a beaver.

 I did it from the inside, perched on the top of a ladder for so long that my feet went numb and the next day I had a narrow bruise that ran all the way around my rib cage from the edges.  THAT was my experience!   And I had the good fortune to repeat it later in the week!   Lucky, lucky me!  Note to universe; I would just like one project on Moonraker to go easier than I think it will!

This is were I was after 5 hours and a good cleaning with acetone.  You can see where I marked it for cutting.  The hole needs to be a little bigger for the Fantastic fan.  I just used aviation snips to cut it and then rounded the inside corners with a small round file.  And hyperventilated while doing it!  Nothing scarier than cutting into the skin!

I used Eternabond doublestick tape for the seal between the roof and fan. I then went around the whole perimeter with Tempro 635, this was because I was concerned the sharp edge of the flange would  create a stress point. Then I used Eternabond tape (actually the 4 inch Alumibond, that has a shiny foil surface) on top of the flange and roof .  I  pre-drilled holes with a 1/8 inch bit for the screws.  

I guess its the OCD in me but in my mind this makes for a much cleaner looking installation and no little piles of white doggie poo (aka Tempro) on the roof of my Airstream.  It will also be much easier to inspect for leaks, and if it starts to lift I can repair it. 

I did the two installations slightly differently.

The middle one I used 1 inch #8 SS pan head screws and washers like recommended by Colin Hyde.  Unfortunately, that made it harder to use the roller to get the Eternabond tape down. Kinda key because pressure is what activates the glue in Eternabond.  On the rear installation I used stainless steel machine screws this left a smooth surface on the flange of the fantastic fan that was much easier to roll. I'll check back and tell you what works better! 

There was no rain in the forecast but immediately after I installed the first one with just the doublestick and screws, it POURED, and kept pouring.  I was amazed that even without the Trempro and Alumibond tape that the installation was leak free!  I'm hoping these will remain leakfree for many years to come!

A couple of notes if you haven't installed yours yet, make sure you do a dry fit to see if the Fantastic lays flat on the roof.  I doubled up on the doublestick tape in the one area because the roof starts to slope down by the end cap. I had a much bigger gap in the back than the front.  In retrospect, I wish I had trebled it.  I ended up using a rope of the doublestick to fill in the gap. 

Also, on the second go around, I drilled out the original fan housing , pried it off the roof,  then I painted on Citrastrip, covered it in plastic and left it overnight.  It turned a five hour job into a two hour job.  Got up the martian spit nicely!   Of course nothing really touches the silicone, but I think it even helped there.  So if you have the time to let Citrastrip do its job I highly recommend it!

I used acetone to clean the roof really well before I taped it.  Don't get it anywhere near the fantastic fan though because it will dissolve the plastic (ask me how I know....)   Use mineral spirits for cleanup instead!

Finished Installation. :)

And look what arrived in the mail!  Just in time to plug the other large hole in the roof!  Any guesses?

windows, windows windows!

If you've ever thought about painting the interior trim to your windows DON'T!  Because eventually the paint will start to peel and then you'll have to remove it, or do what a previous owner did, just paint another layer!!

  Do you know how many hours it takes to get from here....

to here??

Lots.  With lots of Citrastrip, wooden popsicle sticks, and gray scotch brite....and swearing...and swearing holding a wineglass in one hand and an icepack in the other because your hands are in spasms. Seriously, put away the paintbrush.


Here's what lurks beneath when you use a lot of silicone in the attempt to seal the window.

Ugly huh?   The water was trapped against the skin and the result was significant corrosion.













With a lot of elbow grease it can get better but won't ever go away.












I was going to write this post on how to restore your windows, but better people than I have already done this.  See here for a few threads:

http://frankstrailerworksblog.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html
http://vintageairstream.com/window-repair-1954-1958/

So instead I'm going to do a handy hints post!   How to do it right the first time and tips/tools that help the process go smoother. Including how to get that pesky window spacer back in!

Going into this I foolishly estimated a day a window.  In reality,  I averaged about 14 hours a window. I'd like to say this job is completely finished (and it's true all seven windows are in and leak free) but I still have strip and clean all the hardware, so I can't say that this job is done.....  hold on while I go breathe into a paper bag!! It would be nice to cross one big job off my list but I'm putting the hardware aside to do this winter.

In no particular order here are my tips!

• Set screws  Above each window in the middle is a set screw.  You'll probably have to bend the drip rail up to access it.  It holds a little plastic piece in place that stops the window from sliding left or right.  This is important because if you try to close the window when it is not aligned you will bend the upper hinge.  Not a good thing trust me!   The plastic piece I'll get to later but the set screw removal is easy once you know the trick!   Place a flat edged screwdriver at a 90 degree angle to the head, whack it a good one, do the same on the other side.  Clean out the set screw head really well with a dental pick, if it's really rusty it helps to use a liitle sandpaper on the head to be able to see where the  threads are.   Use a Phillips head screwdriver that fits VERY WELL and deep.  Keep trying different screwdrivers until you have one that fits.  Don't use one that doesn't fit, don't even attempt it because you will strip the screw so fast.........   slowly back the screw out, once it gets started you are home free and can switch over to needle nose pliers if necessary.    If your first try doesn't budge it,  hit it a few more times with the hammer and screwdriver.  It is crucial to break the rusty bond. The first window I worked on the screw for three days with PBblaster and such before a forums member sent me the above tip  (Thanks Scott G!)   By the way, this tip works equally as well on the screws holding the window hardware on.  Unless they are painted like mine were, then its best to strip the paint as much as possible first.  Its amazing how much a little paint can "glue" those screws in place.

• When you are trying to get the window lifter out it helps to cut the plastic thingy in the track and then reach in with a pick and pull out the small spring, then you can just wiggle the arm out. This is the plastic piece after I removed the arm.

• Plan carefully on how you want the window to slide out.   Otherwise you'll end up with one of these . On the new aluminum panel no less! Grrrrrr  The curvature of the trailer was just enough that the window grazed it while I was sliding it out.  Don't forget to catch the little plastic piece that drop out when you pass the halfway mark!

.

• Glass - I ordered the first window with 3/32 (single strength) glass because that's what the forum said was original.  Well, that glass is THIN, so thin it bends in a stiff breeze.  And when I compared it to what was original it was definitely thinner!  I reordered in 1/8 inch (double strength) and was much happier.  Glad I ordered one as a test! 

•  Tempered Glass - I ordered the large front and back windows in tempered thinking that these were the most likely to break.  When the glass shop has them tempered they put a "mark" on them to signify it.   I positioned it in the upper left corner and it is hardly noticeable.  If this "mark" is going to bug you then you can request that they leave it off.  I forgot and thankfully the mark was very faint.

• Cleaning up the window frames and the back frames is tedious, tedious, tedious.    I tried lots of different methods, once I got sick of sandpaper that is  Anyway, frankly sandpaper wasn't working great anyway,  I ended up using 3m maroon scotchbrite and WD40, followed by the gray scotchbrite pads and wd40.  Way easier, less steps and very good results.  I used truck box polish from the big blue box store to hand polish the frames. Yes, I said hand polish! With all the nooks and crannies I found that I was getting better results by hand.  Note, these frames are aluminum extrusions, I'd be very hesitant to use scotchbright on alclad. 

See how corroded it is to the left?  The right side was cleaned up using scotchbrite and wd40 for just a minute or so.  Lots more to go








 

•  Putting in the gray rubber trim into the window back frame.  The flange on the bulb trim is longer on one side than the other. The short side goes to the back. I know VTS recommends you put the short side in first and push in the front, I found it way easier to put the front side in first and push the short side in the back with a small screwdriver.  Position the beginning at the middle of the top under the drip rail.  Where the two ends meet I cut a small piece of tube off, slit it horizontally, rolled it up and used it to join the ends (just slide it inside).  Makes a neater and leak free junction.  Here's it cut off and rolled up, ready to insert into the ends of your window trim.                                           

• Its not necessary to break the glass out into a million pieces that you then have to chase around cleaning up  (unless that kind of thing is enjoyable for you, that is!)  I set the frame out in the sun to get good and hot, and was able to use a putty knife to pry the glass away from the frame pretty easily.  A heat gun will do the same thing, Heat is the secret!

•  The Butyl tape is positioned on its paper so that if you line up the edge  and put it directly on the outer most edge of the channel it will be aligned perfectly, I used a small popsicle stick to run down the edge and fits in the track perfectly.  Accept the fact that you will make a mistake and drop a piece of glass in wrong, it's gonna happen.  The good news is that you get to play with the wrecked butyl tape.  Anyone remember Gumby?

OH NO Mr. Bill!

• Window trim.  By far the hardest thing is to cut the corners of the gray window trim so they fit well, look nice and are leak proof.

ORDER EXTRA!  I ordered two extra pieces which I bungled early on - so basically I had to hold my breath for the last two windows and hope I didn't screw up! 

I used a woodworkers trick for cutting the trim called coping instead of simply mitering the joint (cutting on a diagonal).

First lay your window frame so the top is up.  At this point make sure that  track that the gray molding pops into is ABSOLUTELY spotless and clean from debris. The bottom piece goes in first and that is butt cut (90 degrees) on both sides leaving a little gap for the side piece to fit into.

The side pieces are coped at the bottom.  This will allow water to shed rather than penetrate the joint.

I measured by popping the gray molding into the track an inch or so away and sliding it down into the corner, you can do this a quite a few times.  Just be careful not to twist the molding too much ( I soooo should have videoed this..... Sorry!)  Once you have cut the angle right pop it out one last time and back bevel the edge  (using a razor blade shave the diagonal at a 45 degree angle).  This will allow the side piece to lie flat on the bottom piece and create a really nice tight joint.  Put a dollop of a clear sealant (I like Lexol) in the corner on the bottom gray molding and one last time pop the molding into the track an inch away and slide it down into place.

I had good pictures of all of this but they've taken a walkabout on my computer!   Here's a picture of the top edge and a coped  joint.

 See the space I left at the top in order to slide the mitered piece into place?

Here's where I back beveled it with a razor blade..














Continue popping the track into place toward the upper corner when you get close trim the end at 90 degress and don't forget to leave a small space at the top for the top piece,   I tried a bunch of different tools to pop the molding into the track.  If you press too hard you'll get white spots so be careful!

 In the end I found the perfect tool, big enough to get leverage with, and the black rubber triangular end really gripped against the molding.  It's a tool used to grout!  Hopefully you've got one lying around.!



Once you've got both side pieces in, its time to do the top!  This is by far the hardest because BOTH ends need coping.  Cope one side, then measure carefully and cope the other.  It doesn't matter which end you start with.

They sure do look nice when they are done!

Because I managed to lose the photos here's a mock up of how the trim is cut (in miniature!) Cutting it this way makes the joints far less likely to leak.

That's all I got folk!  Oh yeah, one more,  I promised you the secret of how to get these in, right? These are the little plastic pieces that the set screw goes through in the center of the top of the window.

Well, I spent the first dozen attempts lining these little pieces up to match the profile on the window hinge while trying to slide it in.  The secret is you need to position the plastic piece as if the window was closed.   You see the window hinge will slide in and rotate 90 degrees down but that plastic piece does not rotate.  It has to slide into the window groove already in its' final position.  It won't line up with the window track at all, in fact it needs to be 90 degrees different.  Hope this makes sense!  Once you've done one, the rest will be easy! Well relatively easy!

Happiness is...leak free windows!  On to Fantastic fans......

Out, Out Damned spots!

Okay, I posted this on the Jestco thread on the Airforums here, post #18 but I had spots on my trailer from undercasting the aluminum while polishing.  I guess if you use too much polish, or polish at too high/slow a speed (or basically even look at it funny!)  you can actually burn the polish under the surface of the aluminum. There it lies in wait until you try to get a mirror shine and then these spots start to catch and hold the polish, no amount of extra polishing will get them out.

 They looked like this

I am happy,  no ECSTATIC to report that they are now gone!  I owe many thanks to Becky, Vernon, Top and Frank for giving me options and encouraging me to press on.  And special thanks to Alansd for starting the Jestco thread as I was pretty sure I had burned thru the AlClad and was going to have to live with it! If and when I ever meet you all, the beverages are on me!

In the end, it was a case of not being aggressive enough. The first time I tried Nuvite F7, I used a new pad and I guess it didn't have enough " bite" to it yet. This time it worked perfectly although it took some time, they kept getting lighter and lighter.    I did have to resort to using Alumiprep 33 on one spot (I diluted 3 parts water to one part Alumprep and left it on 3 minutes), and I think there's another that I'll have to look at again in the morning sun.  But overall I'm a happy camper tonite!

And no Becky,  still no polishing pictures LOL!!!! 

Its a wrap! Cyclo wrap that is....

No worries, I'm still working on Moonraker, just finishing up windows and I'll blog about that shortly.

In the meantime, I've been using the cyclo.  It only took me a day to figure out that the method of using the one big piece of sweatshirt material and cutting slits and moving it around as advocated here at Perfect Polish.com is seriously like wrestling with a huge dirty diaper! It also adds weight to an already heavy polisher and having the clean space to lay it out to roll it up correctly was impossible as my tools keep migrating into the open area!

So I set out to make my own bonnets.   I bought sweatshirt material from wazoodle.  It comes 60 inches wide.  I cut 10x15 inch rectangles.  then using a zigzag stitch on my sewing machine I put round cord elastic around the edge.  Be careful not to catch the cord so you can pull up on the end, cut off and tie.








Voila!

Here it is on the polisher.  Its a generous size, I think I could make them slightly smaller, but I like the fact they stay on.











Was it more economical?  Well out of just over a yard of fabric (40 x 60 inches wide) I get 16 bonnets for just under $10 or $1.60 a piece.   The perfect polish material comes in a 10 pack for $68, one piece gives you 16 positions (assuming you can keep the cloth uncontaminated)  so each "position" costs  50 cents.   So no, not cost effective, (gee, I wish I'd done this analysis first instead of waiting til now!)   but all my bonnets stay uncontaminated in their own plastic baggies and can be washed easily.

 I couldn't find all cotton sweatshirt material locally if you can, you might be able to reduce the cost!  You could also just buy the perfect polish sweatshirt material and cut it up too, that would work out to 8 bonnets per piece or 85 cents a bonnet.

Finn didn't think much of my polishing bonnets but enjoyed the air conditioned comfort of being inside for once!

Close encounters

This past week I feel like I dodged not one bullet but two!  And this has nothing to do with my airstream!

 First Maggie, my Sheltie, was rushed to the emergency room with what turned out to be a burst gall bladder.  She was operated on in an emergency hospital and is recovering nicely now.   I really thought we were going to lose her.  I know you see Finn more on this blog but that's because, well..... He's always in my way!  Maggie on the other hand is my "once in a lifetime" dog.  She was a rescue, became an agility dog for my son and is the smartest dog I've ever owned.

Turns out that some Sheltie's have a genetic condition that causes a mucocele in gall bladder.  Kinda of like a ticking time bomb.  Thankfully my sis was here and encouraged me to take her in immediately and have exploratory surgery because the surgeon said that if I had waited she wouldn't have made it.

Second event was this morning, I was walking Finn on a trail, we usually go about three miles in the morning.  I hear all this crashing to my right and see a huge black bear running on a diagonal right for us!  Finn turned into a barking snarling monster and the black bear stopped,  faced us and then after what seemed like a million years turned and walked across the trail and entered the woods on the other side.   I was still about 1/2 mile from the car and I admit I covered that ground way faster on the way back! I'm not ever taking that trail again either.    I think I sat in the car a good 10 minutes with the doors locked  ( I know bears can't open car doors but ....)  before I stopped shaking enough to drive.

Here's hoping this coming week will be less eventful, there's only so much excitement a gal can take!

New locks for the compartment doors

 Here's my compartment door lock, corroded and without a key.  Time to replace with something better!

Does anyone remember Mello Mike?  He used to post on the Airforums, (had an Overlander) but now runs a very informative blog here.  He wrote a post about baggage door locks that I found to be very interesting.  Ditching the worthless CH751 rv locks!


His comment about the site being confusing was spot on,  but they were very nice on the phone, just have your old lock in front of you when you call and Brenda will walk you right thru it!

 A couple of days later these showed up in the mail, they are very well made. Made in USA and have good instructions. Note the instructions are only in English and a single page!  No extra trees had to die to produce instructions in 14 different languages!

Note:  I ordered the same lock cam (the straight piece of metal in the picture that holds the door shut) as my original.  However, because I beefed up the interior seal (I wanted the compartment door to lie flush with the outside skin) and by using this medium D seal the cam no longer fit. 

I had to call the company back and sheepishly admit I'd ordered wrong one and asked for  the 1/4 inch offset that looks like this.

Brenda was very nice and shipped them out the same day for a very nominal fee of $1.50 each.   Excellent AMERICAN company with great service.   They also guarantee that no one in your geographical area will have the same key as you do!  They assign a key code to you the first time you call and if you wish, all future orders can be made to have the same keying.  There's also a special key they send you that will "fix" the lock if it ever jumps out of alignment.

OKOKOK   I know you want pricing and they are a little more expensive. At the time of this writing I paid $11.35 a lock with $3.00 for the additional dust cover.  The dust cover protects the investment and looks cool IMHO. 

Installation of the lock was pretty straight forward with just a few speedbumps.

The directions don't say to install the lock dust cover after the washer but I assure you it doesn't look right the other way.  How do I know?  I had to re-drill all the rivets out of the compartment door and start all over!

This is the correct way.... notice how the hinge is slightly offset, this insures it won't scratch your freshly polished aluminum skin.

 Then add the mounting nut (slightly bronzy in the picture)

The next metal piece is called the governor.  It sits snug up against the lock, I pulled it out a little so you could see it

 Now temporarily add the nylon mounting nut, just slightly snug.  No, you don't really have to do this, but if you don't you'll wish you had.  Read on..... well someone's got to read to the end of this post!LOL

 Rivet the back door in place.  If you didn't add the nylon locking nut you'll risk the governor falling down into the space between the two doors.   Raise your hand if you know where this is going!  Yep, the first time I did this I had to redrill all the door rivets out again to retrieve that little piece.

 NOW take the nylon nut off and add your cam (with the correct offset of course) there is additionally a little square space you can add if it improves the fit (it comes in the kit)

 Ta da ! , The finished product!

New life for the compartment doors

My compartment doors all leaked, big surprise.   So I decided while I have the skins out to remove them from the trailer and clean them up.



And there was plenty of cleaning to do on the frame, I used  both Citrastrip and mineral spirits (no - not at the same time!) to clean off the gunk.   It took a while. That is an understatement.  I used a lot of good old fashioned hand work.







I drilled out the pop rivets on the sides of the door and revealed the interior, thankfully minus any skeletons.  There was a surprising bit of corrosion, due to water intrusion I'm assuming.  I did some fairly serious grinding with a dremel to get rid of it.  I contemplated getting a glass bead blaster like this but didn't know if it would work.  Anyone use one of these?



Re-insulated with Prodex using strips of Prodex to maintain an airspace.

I just used Tremco 635 as an adhesive, my intention was to use 3m 4200 adhesive but it runs $30 a caulking tube and has to be used up within a day or so.  Still planning on using it for the rest of the insulation but not worth it for this application.

Two layers of Prodex because I am an avid admirer of overkill!

Test fitting

Instead of  Tremco 635 or butyl tape I decided to use Eternabond to attach the compartment frame to the airstream skin.  I figured in tape form it would be cleanup friendly, and it's praised highly in other RV forums.  Plus if it doesn't work out it's one of the few areas I could uninstall and install without removing the interior skins again!

Clean frame, ready to go with Eternabond already applied and holes punched with a bamboo skewer.  This stuff is STICKY. I butt cut the corner seams horizontally as a vertical seam is more likely to leak.

Ready to rivet, actually I discovered I didn't have 1/8 inch rivets so I drilled them all out to 5/32 and replaced the gold clecos with the black ones.   I actually test fit this before adding the Eternabond.

Did I mention this Eternabond stuff is sticky and that it never really hardens or forms a skin like Tremco?

I cut away any "squeeze out" with my plastic razor blades the remaining Eternabond would stick to itself (reminds me of the postertack that you use on your walls to hang posters without damage) so I used little balls of it to clean off the residue.

With some work I was able to get a good clean edge.  I have my suspicions that it's going to catch and hold dirt, but it was leak proof in the last few down pours!  We'll see - I'll report back later on how well it's doing.  I intend to use it to install my fantastic fans, but in that application it will be covered by 4 inch wide aluminum Eternabond tape so "squeeze out" removal won't be an issue.  I liked it well enough that I'll use it for the rest of the compartment doors.

I used this hand squeezer for buck rivets from VTS to buck rivet the compartment door in.  You'll need to buy both squeezer dies here and here.  Don't be like me and buy only one die, the shipping on the second little piece is a killer!

As usual,  it comes with no instructions but I assure you the dies do fit into the holes on the "c" of the  puller,  it's just a tight fit! Here they are just barely pushed in.   The cupped piece goes on the tip of the "c" while the flush piece goes closest to the handle. Put a piece of blue tape on the cupped end, it won't slip off the head as easily and won't transfer any marks on the die to the pulled rivet. You'll have to replace the tape frequently.

  The pull can be adjusted by turning the bottom piece (that the flush die sits into) like a screw. This makes all your pulls the same.  When my squeezer came that piece was really stuck, I had to clamp the squeezer into a vise, lubricate it and use pliers to get it moving.  Some instructions would have really helped, especially since I didn't realize it was adjustable... I thought you just pulled it until you were happy with the tail....thank god for youtube.

Anyway, with a little help from my daughter I got the compartment frame buck riveted on.  It was a little tricky because the aluminum extrusion got in the way of the rivets expanding but it seems to be on firmly, definitely was a two person job.  She put the squeezer die on the head and held it there while I squeezed.  It was also tricky to get into position, tight fit.  Once you have it on you leave the  squeezer in place and just slide it over to the next rivet.  Hope that makes sense, it will once you realize how hard it is to get the squeezer into a position where it can squeeze. That's gonna take the cake for the most incomprehensible sentence I've written since I started this blog!

One last little note, the rivets that hold the door hinge on are something different. They are tubular rivets DF11-*-ST rivets  I did manage to track down a replacement, for anyone who is a purist you can find them at Hanson Rivet and Supply Company. The"*" is the length in 32nds  I just ended up replacing them with pop rivets because I didn't want to buy another set of dies for the rivet squeezer. 

Incidentally, these rivets make a good replacement for the tubular steel rivets on the arms of the jalousie windows.  If I ever do pull that window apart, (which f you know me you know  I will!) I probably will use them there.  The steel ones are an rusty eyesore (even if you hit them with aluminum paint like the PO did,  Lol). 

The one on the bottom right is the tubular rivet, I wish I had thought to take a picture of the other side.  The post is hollow and the die rolls back the edges.   I'll add a picture when I pull the next compartment.

Here's the final picture, note the lock because that's my next post! I still have the final polishing to be done and the aluminum gutter..... baby steps, people.