Time is passing quickly

Here we are, three weeks into the month. 

We're making good progress on getting Igor ready to go by July 31, but with only ten days left we're going to have to continue working hard. Especially with my mother moving next weekend. Fortunately, she's staying in the same building, just moving apartments... and she doesn't have very much "stuff".

It seems every time I start a project on Igor, something stops me from completing it.

For example, I wanted to replace the fridge access vent cover. It had been held in place with duct tape and they had made a mess of it by trying to rivet some structure to the inside of it. I could have bought a brand new one from Airstream, but it was going to be almost $500 by the time it was shipped up here. So I bought a used one from an RV Parts place in Saskatchewan. It arrived, and looked fine. But, the inside lip was not identical and was going to take some modification. And, it was white so I was going to have to paint it.

Then, when I went to remove the old housing from Igor, it proved to be a real job. I wasted an hour trying to separate the housing from the body of the vehicle without damaging Igor's sheet metal or paint. Then I learned that there was just as much caulking holding it in place from the interior, and the only way to get at it would be to remove the fridge. Arrrgggh.

Ruth then suggested "why don't you just replace the door, rather than the whole assembly?"

I felt like a bit of a dumbass because I hadn't thought of it myself! 

That wasn't a simple job either. The door is held to the housing with rivets and of course the old rivet holes and the new ones weren't in exactly the same place. And, I needed a drill, and drill bits, and a rivet tool and rivets. And paint, and sandpaper. All of these things add up. I bought a drill because I needed it for other things as well. But I am borrowing a rivet tool from Ruth's brother when we see him this evening.

Another little project I did yesterday was to turn the drawer under the couch into a cupboard instead.

This opening used to be a drawer. I removed the facia from the drawer, and attached some hinges.

But there was a lot of wasted space in behind the drawer and it was difficult to access. You had to remove the drawer, and it was fairly heavy and awkward. I had read on the Airstream B190 forum where some people had made this into a cupboard access instead, so we decided to go that route. I bought some hinges, and already had some magnetic latches leftover from the package I had bought to do the upper cupboards.

Done!

There, that's better!

But, it turns out the facia piece is a little bit warped. Not enough to matter aesthetically, but enough that I'm going to have to mess with the magnetic catches to get it to stay closed properly. 

Besides the vent door for the fridge (which I will paint today) there are still quite a few minor things to do, but only four major jobs left. 1) Installing the new batteries and DC to DC charger. I've got the batteries, but the charger arrives tomorrow. 2) Removing the old toilet and installing the new compost toilet (more about that story tomorrow!) 3) Repairing the support for the upper bed. I won't be doing that until we get to daughter Lindsey's place in Nova Scotia. We will be sleeping on the jackknife sofa during the drive out there. And 4) Installing the solar panels. Also will be done at daughter Lindsey's place next month.

Back to work!

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