Paint prep

Paint prep took forever.....

 I was so eager to get to the Zolatone that I forgot my wheel wells should probably go in first.  The plan was just to pull out the wheel wells from storage, give them a good sanding and install.   Well you know how plans go.....  I started to sand and they smelled awful, that same old  "50 year old trailer that was used as a habitrail" kind of smell.  Then looking closer,  all the rivets had pulled through the fiberglass and there were holes and cracks in more than a couple of spots.   Do it once and do it right, Right?

I stripped the paint off, repaired all the weak areas with fiberglass/ filler (particularly all around the bottom flange) and West System epoxy.  Then I even gave the whole thing a coat of epoxy to stiffen it up and seal in any odors.   Then I re-attached the aluminum top and sanded it all to prep for paint.

I installed it using butyl tape to seal it to the wall of the trailer.  Of course after I had riveted it all in place, I realized I had never removed the paper backing on the butyl tape!   So one of the wheel wells I actually installed twice. GRRRRRR...  Then there was the gray water tank inlet (covered in blue tape below)  that was blocked by the flange.  My trusty rotozip took care of that!  

I also buck riveted the door.  I have a awesome hand puller that I was planning on using but of course the rivets were too close to the inner edge so I had break out the compressor and the gun.  I have a really nice tungsten bucking bar that I love .  Its very heavy and compact.   I have small hands and I really hate how so many tools are hard to use because they are too big (like the hand riveters, they KILL my hands!)  And yes, I know they make woman sized tools, but pink tools (or god forbid floral , shudder) are not a big fav of mine! Anyway, this bucking bar is sized right and does an excellent job.   

I also made a patch for the water filler.  Back in the day Airstream just pop riveted random strips along side of it to close the gaps, Mine looks a whole lot better!  No mice highway here!

I had this awful area where someone threw up a patch to cover the old refrigerator vent.  The holes were very large and if I filled them with rivets it was going to look awful.  I opted to patch them all with Marine-tex.  Its a two part epoxy used to patch holes in aluminum boat hulls.   It did a great job patching the rivet  holes and was surprisingly easy to sand.  Which was a good thing because their "sag free" formula was not exactly sag free.

I promise the next post will be about Zolatone!

We have managed to have some fun this summer, just back from a week on the Cape, Great fishing - mine was the smallest fish at 21 inches and had to be thrown back so I got to take the picture instead!

Missing me?

It's been a while!

I've been steadily working away on Moonraker, sometimes sidelined by life but c'est la vie!

Mostly I haven't posted because the things I've been working on are tedious and would make for some very unexciting posts.

I've cleaned up and polished the window screens and reinstalled.  Used my old standby, Scotch brite pads and wd40 to clean and polished them with 3m compound.    I used solar screening and it's very dark but has the bonus of keeping some of the heat at bay and should reduce sun fading of materials.  I also stripped all the framing  for the windows, Not sure if I'm painting or polishing those but it's nice to know that I didn't lose one! That was a heck of a job due to the previous owner gluing velcro on with gorilla glue to hang the curtains! Then there was the one that had ancient duct tape all around the edges holding the screening in place?   Seriously dude?  not rocket science.....

 This is the window screen frame that is no longer made.  Its got some nice detail to it.   I'm missing a couple so if anyone replaced theirs and still have the old ones hanging around I'd love to negotiate a fair price!

The big news is the skins are in!   There was a lot of fiddly stuff.  I expected having to trim a few panels at the floor because when Colin did the shell off, he noticed it was not square and tweaked it.   But I did not expect to have to trim the bottom of EVERY panel!   Plus there were outlets to be added and holes to patch.  I think I put in (and out ) every lower panel at least three times.   I was pretty much working by myself, so it took me two weeks to get them all back in . 

On to Paint prep:

I cleaned everything with Krud Cutter. I sanded all the surfaces with 150 grit and an orbital sander and cleaned again.  When I stripped the panels, I didn't know if I was going to polish or paint them.  Paint won out and I really wish I had sanded them when they were flat!  Hindsight, learn from my mistake!

Then painted with a product new to me called Stix.   It's a Benjamin Moore product and claims to stick to glass and slick surfaces (including aluminum).

It's cured now and absolutely cannot be scratched off so I'm guessing it will do it's job

I've finally decided on a paint color.  Its Zolatone Flex paint in color 0032.   Its a cream base with lots of caramel overtones.  It's a newer roll on product and has a more subtle fleck than the original Zolatone. I ordered two gallons of the base and three of the topcoat.  I used a gallon of primer for two coats so hopefully this will be enough.  Cost?  roughly $400 for the Zolatone and another $50 for the primer.

My hands need a break!

 Oh, and I added a new accessory to Moonraker! A Silver GMC 2500 Sierra fresh off the line! A whopping 2900 lbs in Payload which made me do a happy dance.   Pretty sure the dealer thought I was crazy to get so excited about a door sticker.  It's fun to drive but not so easy to "bang a uey" in it! Or pahk it (sorry, only in Boston!)