Plodding Along

One is almost always a slave who cannot live on little.
Horace

I'm not getting a lot finished in the main project but I am using my spare time to continue working my way down the list of loose ends. Lots of the little items that need cleaning and painting are being cleaned and painted.

Dashboard vents, bumper brackets, towbar etc are all being carefully sanded, wire-brushed, primed and painted. I am also working on some of the camping equipment - gas bottles, cookers, tool-boxes, folding chairs all need to be taken down, dusted off and tidied up.

Unfortunately I discovered that my secure storage room had sprung a small leak in the roof. Most of things that I have put away for safety have been rained on regularly for the past few weeks, oh crap!

Luckily the mildew and the mould had not completely taken over. I laid it all out on the grass during a gap in the weather and most of it is still perfectly serviceable. The now-dried mould came off with a wire brush and the canvasses have been carefully repacked and placed back on the now-dry shelves. The sleeping bag, Marigold's curtains and a few other bits are sadly beyond use and have been tossed out. Lots of rusty nuts and bolts will probably be easier to replace than to try and restore. A pity but there you go, onward and upward. The leaky roof has been repaired so we should be warm and dry from now on.


Thanks for stopping by
CooP

Nice Pair of Hooters!

Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today.
Ernest Hemingway

It's amazing how your mind can wander when you are browsing around an auto-spares supermarket. When I asked the young lady to show me her hooters she barely blinked. I explained that I was looking for a nice pair, not too big and on the cheaper side of the market. She started frowning and looking towards the security guard when I asked her opinion on size and shape. She sidled away before I could get her view on whether anything larger than a handful is a waste. So, as usual, I grabbed the cheapest pair and headed for the checkout.

Am I the only one that finds this funny? Or am I turning into that creepy old man that our teachers used to warn us about?

I've cleared most of the crammed-in crap spares and equipment from the interior of the project and thrown it away/cleaned it/stored it/hidden it as applicable. Roof-racks, bumpers, a complete dashboard, ventilation systems, chairs, tables, stools, cushions, cooking equipment, gas bottles . . . Much of it will be re-fitted inside Marigold, a lot of it consists of duplicated parts that I shall probably sell, trade, gift or dump after the main project is complete. Click on the pics to enlarge 'em, go on.

I scraped most of the souvenir stickers from the right-rear window, the left-rear shall be attacked with a scraper-blade on Wednesday. I also removed the two side windows, the ones immediately behind the cab doors. The rubber seals on both were badly perished and cracked. They will need to be replaced with new ones.

My ever-friendly neighbour has invested in a new toy - a pressure washer that is remarkably powerful; for it's diminutive size it packs quite a watery punch. He made short work of removing the collected dirt, mud, insect nests and small garden of live moss (really!) stopping up the sliders. They slide back and forth just lovely now. The water jet even managed to put a little shine back onto the worn and weathered aluminium frames, thanks mate!

More soon, we've still got the last of the wiring loom to solder up (in? on? together?), should be able to make some progress later this week.

Thanks for stopping by
CooP

Cleaner Air

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
Anais Nin

I didn't get much work done this week; my friendly neighbour and I were busy working on one of HIS projects for a change. We are supposed to alternate on Wednesdays but my projects have been hogging the labour force lately so I can't complain. I have used some of my spare time to tidy up the oil-bath air filter. As usual you can click on the pics to enlarge them slightly.

In a previous post (Click here to view) I gave this device a mini-service by making new rubber O-rings and refreshing the oil. But it still looked a bit shabby to me so I sanded down the worst of the old paint and gave it a couple of coats of new.

I couldn't bash out all of the many dents because of the double-walled design of the main cylinder. But it certainly does look better to my little eye. Another job has been jobbed and we are one more step closer to the end. Next week I hope to finish the joining together of the main wiring harness.


Thanks for stopping by
CooP