Tuesday, July 28, 2015

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!

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