better hurry up boy...

That is what my Grandfather would have told me. There are 15 days left until The Cherry Blossom Rally. I am far from ready, but am seeing a bright light down at the end of the tunnel.

So here is where I am... The black tank is in, the tub is ready to go in permanently, soon, and the vanity is done.

I wrapped the vanity in aluminum that was bent using my break...

I used contact cement to adhere the aluminum to the face of the cabinet. I then cut out the excess using a tracing bit in my laminate trimmer. All the drawer fronts and doors were re made.

Here is the finished project...

Another thing accomplished is preparing the cabinet for being clad in metal or maple veneer. The plywood has been de-laminating and needed to be stabilized first. Here is the general process I used...

I cut 11 mm off the bottoms of the cabinets to compensate for the cork flooring I will be using. I also cut back the frame to be able to install a new bottom rail in. I then removed all the de-laminating plywood and drilled blind pocket holes using my Kreg kit. I screwed a scrap of plywood to the back of the frame before cutting to keep the frame stiff and parallel.

Blind screws and glue...

Here I am stapling on some 5mm plywood in the areas I removed.

I used a tracing bit in my router to remove the excess plywood. Note the arch in the bottom rail, this is to allow for air to enter into through the bottom.

The narrow wardrobe is from the street side. I filled in the bottom 14 inches so that I can mount a catalytic heater on the front. I also added 5mm plywood shelves to convert this into a storage cabinet for linens and folded clothes. The curb side cabinet will have electronics in the bottom and hanging clothes space above. Both of these cabinets are about to be wrapped in aluminum, including the doors.

The third time is a charm...

I have found that, for me, three is always the charm. This is the third time around at painting the tub. This time around I also painted the toilet seat and all the associated hinge parts.

I used more of the acrylic urethane paint from PPG. Here is all the products I used. The most important item here is the measuring cup. Careful measuring is key to this paint system. You are creating a chemical reaction and it is that reaction that makes this paint so strong. The primer is K36 and it is mixed 5:1:1 with a K201 catalyst and PPG reducer. This stuff is easy to spray and when dry, sands up like butter.

The top coat is the MTK line. I do not recall the color number, but it is called "Deep Aluminum" This product is mixed 4:1:1 with a MH167 topcoat hardener and PPG reducer. The top coat is difficult for the "not so shinny rivet named me". It needs to go on super thin and super fine.

I put down three very thin coats about ten minutes apart. The last coat was a drop coat that was to orient the metallic flakes in the paint. No runs this time...

here's where I'm at...

My good buddy Rob will probably label me crafty after I let this cat out of the bag... For the past few months I have been secretly working on turning my bathroom into an aluminum clad room. I have a friend with a 1948 tradewind and I have fallen in love with the look of the segmented end caps. I also really love the way the old Spartans had all aluminum bathrooms, so I desided to recreate that look in Anna's bathroom.

I began by dividing the end cap into 13 segments. The inspiration for this project came from Carlos Ferguson's 1962 Safari project. He had photos as to how to template the space. I adapted his technique to come up with a hands free method. I screwed 1" strips of 3 mm plywood to the interior and used them to cut to the outside of the template.

I then cut out the pieces in metal...

Next I sanded the bottom edge so it was nice and smooth...

Laid out the holes for the rivets....

Drilled and clecoed...

And presto, end cap.

I wrapped the medicine cabinet too.

back to where I started...

I was able to get the inner skins back to where I was four months ago.

I purchased some Handi Fill at the orange box. This product appears to be an exact match to the original insulation.

I discarded the old nasty insulation and replaced the missing pieces with new.

I then riveted the new inner skins and the one recycled panel back in.

This is the exact time so many of these babies are put up for sale. Hey Rob, wanna buy a trailer?

I must apologize....

I am so sorry, I have been without internet for the past five days. I have not been able to post anything until this very moment due to my DSL being on LSD. Chad, my very friendly Verizon DSL technician, came to my house on a Sunday and straightened everything out. He put me in a new service line and isolated the DSL to my modem from the rest of house wires. Chad was more than helpful and could not have been any better at his job. I will be calling his boss about him....
I have been busy installing the new insulation and putting in the new lower skins. As soon as I find my camera, I will post some pictures.

She is back....

After a tow around town, Anna is now back in the yard. I feel better with her being in the yard so that if anyone wants to see her up close they will have to get past Cash.

Cash is my Chesapeake Bay Retriever. He is very friendly but comes across as very mean to strangers. Of course he is very hard to take seriously when he wears the "cone of silence".

The one I was looking for....

Ladies and Gentlemen, This beautiful rivet is the one I have been looking for. I have been looking for it in many ways. The first and most important way is the fact that this is the last belly pan rivet needed. The belly pan is now officially buttoned up. This is also the rivet I was looking for because everywhere I searched, they were out of stock. Fortunately for me Steve Klohn, AKA Byam Caravanner, had bought them months ago and was able to spare a bag of 100. Thank you Steve for helping a brother out, I will find a creative way to pay you back. You will note the still split thumb tip from weeks ago... Aluminum is sharp stuff and when it cuts you it cuts deep.

I got the rear of the frame painted a few days ago and tucked the belly pan up and in. I then drilled and clecoed it into place.

I worked the air riveter on the outside...

Monty operated his Buddist Bucking Bar from the inside....

And together we put her back together. Anna is now road worthy again, after three months of being torn apart at the seams. This is traditionally when most folks loose interest and sell their projects. To counteract this fact I am going out to hook her up and take her around town for a spin. Time to go show off my girl.