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!)