Main Lap Has Begun . . .
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 4:30 pm
What a gorgeous day. Such a lovely Type 4 engine, you must try it before it gets worn. Right now, it is the smoothest nicest air-cooled engine I have experienced (soon to go thumpy as the case opens up). Even the BobD can't match it for that most excellent Type 4 With Solid Lifters sound. This NaranjaWesty is driving lovely tight and smooth minus a little brake pulsing. So, the first sixty of this twenty thousand mile romp went splendidly, 17.9 mpg, no idea of cylinder head temps, but the freshly painted ash tray gear pattern gets to stay in place for the time being. Decided to paint the headliner with a WalMart-issued Rustoleum 2X "heirloom white" because "heirloom white" seems a modest color. Well, no, it is a glaringly blue-ish angry Frigidaire chest freezer white. But wait, the pile-up has only begun.
Found a lovely abandoned old Georgia farmhouse nestled on a hillside, and parked in the over-growing driveway:
Ripped off the moulding along the top of the headliner board. Fred The Over-Sprayer had not figured out that a credit/motel card with some lanolin hand cleaner would allow the moulding to slip over the edge of the composite birch/foam/brown vinyl panels. These headliner panels have waves of smushed-up vinyl with a twenty year memory. I detached the edges of the vinyl and used super glue droplets all down the panels and pulled and pressed the vinyl to the real edge. No dice, The foam held fast, but the vinyl kept contracting to its smushed profile. Let's call it a "mess" and continue, shall we?
OK, painted the first headliner panel, the one over the right rear window. Discovered that the white was way too cruel, a cold fluorescent light in a leaking cinderblock basement sort of white, a cold bright street light on a rainy cold night sort of glare.
But what-the-f***-please no, please?? Must our new modern world reach its cynical fingers into all that is good and just muck it up? Yes. The paint will not dry. The paint will not dry. Not after an hour, not after a day. "Dries to the touch in 20 minutes, can be handled in an hour, fully cures in 24 hours," says the miniscule letters on the can somewhere, ". . . may take longer in cool temperatures."
Managed to hang the sticky gnat-catcher panel in its groove and get the screws started all the while holding it like a record album ( old music disks that we had to hold only by the edges, kids).
"This will not do," said the Itinerant WalMart shopper. Found the receipt smashed up inside the Walmart bag, and drove to a WalMart sixty miles north of the one that had sold me this defective mean heirloom paint. The new WalMart was in Dalton GA, and the return clerk could not have been more accommodating. Exchanged for two new cans of Ivory Silk. Well that is a dumb name for an almost almond paint. Ivory is tooth enamel. Ever seen a real piano keyboard? It has white keys. Ah, whatever, it looks close enough. Now, I was hopeful, I had a project that I wanted to do, I found a beautiful pine tree preserve overlooking the town of Fort Oglethorpe, I camped in soft breezes and twinkling lights, here are the morning shots of my first night on the main lap of the 2016 Itinerary:
Tore out the mouldings again, pulled down the headliner boards to the front headliner, decided to leave that one alone for the time being. Re-glued all the edges and praaaaayed that Lord God Creator of The Universe might help me hold the stupid edges. Found out that Fred The Destroyer had busted the headliner panel holding the fluorescent light fixture, and I found out WHY he did, later. Epoxied the panel, painted the others came back to the epoxy and gingerly removed the aluminum prophylactic wrapper used to prevent the vise grips from sticking to the birch. See the room card epoxy mixing station? See the new Ivory Silk paint job?
Did sundry other chores while waiting for the paint to dry to the touch in 20 minutes at 80* 70% humidity. Waxed the perimeter of the roof under the poptop. Did some touch up of the wheel wells with paint that dried in ten minutes. Took down the plastic trim strip below the upper bunk and tried to heat it with a magnifier to get the waves out.
Nope. Next effort, HEAT GUN . . .
Yeah. See the defective paint not drying? AGAIN? After three hours it lifted perfectly into my finger prints as though I had just painted them seconds before. Now I am in a mess of a mess on my way to Tnjed, the first call of the main lap. It is a beautiful planet, it was a beautiful day, and it was a most enlightening conversation with Rustoleum's Spray Can Division Production Oversight Engineer.
Found a lovely abandoned old Georgia farmhouse nestled on a hillside, and parked in the over-growing driveway:
Ripped off the moulding along the top of the headliner board. Fred The Over-Sprayer had not figured out that a credit/motel card with some lanolin hand cleaner would allow the moulding to slip over the edge of the composite birch/foam/brown vinyl panels. These headliner panels have waves of smushed-up vinyl with a twenty year memory. I detached the edges of the vinyl and used super glue droplets all down the panels and pulled and pressed the vinyl to the real edge. No dice, The foam held fast, but the vinyl kept contracting to its smushed profile. Let's call it a "mess" and continue, shall we?
OK, painted the first headliner panel, the one over the right rear window. Discovered that the white was way too cruel, a cold fluorescent light in a leaking cinderblock basement sort of white, a cold bright street light on a rainy cold night sort of glare.
But what-the-f***-please no, please?? Must our new modern world reach its cynical fingers into all that is good and just muck it up? Yes. The paint will not dry. The paint will not dry. Not after an hour, not after a day. "Dries to the touch in 20 minutes, can be handled in an hour, fully cures in 24 hours," says the miniscule letters on the can somewhere, ". . . may take longer in cool temperatures."
Managed to hang the sticky gnat-catcher panel in its groove and get the screws started all the while holding it like a record album ( old music disks that we had to hold only by the edges, kids).
"This will not do," said the Itinerant WalMart shopper. Found the receipt smashed up inside the Walmart bag, and drove to a WalMart sixty miles north of the one that had sold me this defective mean heirloom paint. The new WalMart was in Dalton GA, and the return clerk could not have been more accommodating. Exchanged for two new cans of Ivory Silk. Well that is a dumb name for an almost almond paint. Ivory is tooth enamel. Ever seen a real piano keyboard? It has white keys. Ah, whatever, it looks close enough. Now, I was hopeful, I had a project that I wanted to do, I found a beautiful pine tree preserve overlooking the town of Fort Oglethorpe, I camped in soft breezes and twinkling lights, here are the morning shots of my first night on the main lap of the 2016 Itinerary:
Tore out the mouldings again, pulled down the headliner boards to the front headliner, decided to leave that one alone for the time being. Re-glued all the edges and praaaaayed that Lord God Creator of The Universe might help me hold the stupid edges. Found out that Fred The Destroyer had busted the headliner panel holding the fluorescent light fixture, and I found out WHY he did, later. Epoxied the panel, painted the others came back to the epoxy and gingerly removed the aluminum prophylactic wrapper used to prevent the vise grips from sticking to the birch. See the room card epoxy mixing station? See the new Ivory Silk paint job?
Did sundry other chores while waiting for the paint to dry to the touch in 20 minutes at 80* 70% humidity. Waxed the perimeter of the roof under the poptop. Did some touch up of the wheel wells with paint that dried in ten minutes. Took down the plastic trim strip below the upper bunk and tried to heat it with a magnifier to get the waves out.
Nope. Next effort, HEAT GUN . . .
Yeah. See the defective paint not drying? AGAIN? After three hours it lifted perfectly into my finger prints as though I had just painted them seconds before. Now I am in a mess of a mess on my way to Tnjed, the first call of the main lap. It is a beautiful planet, it was a beautiful day, and it was a most enlightening conversation with Rustoleum's Spray Can Division Production Oversight Engineer.