Home again! 🏡
While not chasing our dreams aloft out in the great wide open, we find ourselves back “at port”. Here we can utilize the ample resources to we can get back out and begin the chase anew. ⛵
In other words, we were home where I had tools, and I had plenty to do!
Laura and I already had plans to hit the road again in the first weekend of August, so we wanted to make sure any projects I might be about to open up were going to come to a close by then.
While we were gone, I had some packages arrive in the mail. Remember the marker light I had put where the old license plate light was?
Yeah, that one that I really didn’t like and I swore I would replace. Well, I had ordered a Toyota emblem light in the mail, so I started off by installing that.
It turned out to be pretty neat! It actually works like an infinity mirror, so it was quite the upgrade over the red marker light.
I ordered it with white lights. I had originally wanted blue, but after researching the laws it turns out Alaska is hardcore about no blue lights on the outside of a vehicle on the road; so white it was!
We had our first company over in a long time- Joey! I finally got to show off the sky bench seats she had so kindly given us.
And of course we had to let her enjoy the view from on high!
On our shakedown, the new car seat covers I had installed (the driver’s headrest piece in particular) had worn a hole from rubbing up against the edge of the wall behind it.
We had found some interesting foam corner molding at a thrift store, The Bargain Basement, in Kenai on our way down the peninsula. We ran a bead of Lexel along the back…
…and then ran some small streaker head screws to keep it in place.
In the end it was a much nicer fix!
Another problem I had ran into on the road was that the driver’s window was having a heck of time rolling up and down. It also was not letting the window roll all of the way down. So I opened up the door to investigate.
In the end, I found the window regulator to be the correct one, the window looked like the proper window, and it seemed to be installed correctly.
I researched the issue and could come to no logical conclusion of what might be wrong. I lubricated the window gasketing and the window moved much smoother, but the overall issue still remained. I decided I would ask other people when the proper time arose to see if someone else might have an answer…
Another thing we had ran into on our travels was that the backing for the couch cushions turned out to be insufficient. Not being able to obtain proper vinyl locally, we had experimented and used vinyl shower curtain material. It was cheap and it was available.
It had seemed to work until we ultimately put it to the test on our shakedown. The vinyl was not of enough quality for the vinyl cement to keep it’s bond.
So also on our way down the peninsula we stopped at Joanne’s fabric in Soldotna. We found a well priced vinyl remnant on clearance and picked it up. It was a much better quality and durability. We put in the new vinyl and it worked like a charm, and still is.
I made sure to warn RJ about the shower curtain vinyl, since we had used the same thing on some of her cushions in The Ithaca as well.
Next I was back to the continuing battle on firmly mounting Kalcifer down…. 🤦
I was determined to go ahead and mount it down with molly bolts, but to do that I needed to increase the mounting hole size in the tile. The current hole size would not allow a molly bolt to go through the tile.
I bought the proper sized tile drilling bit I would need, but the shank was too big for my drill chuck. 😖
After calling and trying a few places, I stopped by D&D Welding, and asked Mike Devaney if I could borrow one of his drills.
He was happy to loan one, and insisted I take a plug in one with a grip as well.
I’m very thankful he did! That drill ended up being the tool for the job.
After a bit of drilling an spraying lubricant to cool the friction, we had our holes.
Then installing the molly bolts went smoothly, and we solidly mounted Kalcifer into place. He has sat tightly, and happily, down since!
Right around this time another thing arrived in the mail, something we had been excitedly working towards for awhile; our new custom plates!
We ordered them to say ROHANA (Our Ohana).
I added a small dash in between the R and the O using electrical tape so they read R-OHANA. 😁 I figured if the dash ever was an issue I can just easily remove it if necessary.
And with this moment, Laura finally got to reclaim this portion of the driveway.
If The Ohana needed work I could back it up temporarily in place to get closer to the shed, but it was finally time to start keeping her in her official parking spot.
As much as I like staring out our window at our rig every day, Laura likes looking out at our lawn more. 🙄
Makes sense… I guess. 🤔
🤣
Moving on… now it was time to start on another dream project I had began the season not even expecting to get to this year!
So once again, remember those aluminum stairs I had found at the landfill? Well it was time to make some magic happen with them.
When I was at D&D Welding borrowing the drill, I asked Mike if I could try and slip in their busy schedule for my small project. He happily gave me the go ahead.
So for the next while I made plans to drive over to his shop each day and design our little own stairway to heaven. 😉
I began the process by cutting the outermost lip of the door trim so the pads at the top of the steps could sit flush with the side of the RV.
Once I had cut the openings in the trim, I was able to determine that the pads were still being lifted away from the RV side, and that the brackets we would be stepping on were not even close to level. Long story short, my salvage steps were too tall.
So let’s cut them down, shall we?
Now that my stairs were shorter, I wanted to give them the versatility to adjust to different heights of surfaces we might be parking on.
We had ended up with these left over cargo tension bars when we built RJ’s under the bar cargo net in The Ithaca.
I had just the use for them, so I cut them down. They would become the new feet to our stairs.
Next up was the broken aluminum step ladder I had traded Nick for on our last journey.
I was just after a few of the treads, so I began drilling out the rivets to free them. The brackets on our stairs were much too thin to easily step on, so these treads would provide the appropriate amount of purchase for a foot to step on.
Perfect! They almost fit in place on our stairs without even needing cut, but not quite. So I trimmed them down just a little bit.
The treads would be welded on to the stair brackets, but we were going to need a way to support all of the tread that was not sitting directly on the bracket itself- so I made small side walls we would weld in to hold up the outermost edges of the treads from the sides.
After a good portion of the day, I had a pile of parts ready to start putting together.
So I began by bolting on the new adjustable stair feet.
I cleaned up all of my small random pieces I had made with a wire wheel to prep the edges for welding.
After quite a bit of measuring, cutting, and cleaning up pieces I had everything ready so that Mike could tack weld the stairs while they sat in place.
And away he went!
Once our steps were finally holding together to the new pieces with tack welds…
…we were able to bring the steps into the shop and give the new assembly some proper beads.
Then it was my job to clean up the new work.
Finally, it was time to say goodbye to the old trusty rusty step!
With a bit o’ cutting wheel here and bit o’ sawzall there…
… the old step was free!
And man was it heavy, might I add, in comparison to our new system.
We welded the piano hinge on to the top of the steps, and after it cooled down I installed them…
…and realized there was another step I needed to do.
The door wouldn’t close. 😮
So I carefully marked out some notches and cut the bottom lip of the door with a cutting wheel.
And we were back in business!
I also installed a bolt through the foot with an eyelet, so that we could tie a rope to it. I ran the other end of the rope up into the camper, that way we would be able to lift the stairs up from the camper when we wanted to store them inside with us.
So with my newly cut notches in my door, I had a bit of gap above my steps that could allow water to get in.
I ended up deciding to buy a aluminum and rubber door sweep. I ended up having to modify it a little bit to make it work.
But afterwards I had a nice gasket that lipped right over the top edges of the steps and blocked any gaps I had in the bottom of the door. 😊
We welded together a foot and tab near the bottom that I bolted on, so when the stairs are up, and the camper door closes it pinches the tab against the jamb and holds the stairs in place.
That evening I returned home to proudly show Laura our newly operational hinging stair system. I would still be going back so we could weld our stair treads on, but I was pretty excited that everything was working up to this point!
That night we took some Reflectix insulation and started designing our own custom windshield cover.
It took quite a bit of cutting and adjusting to each contour of the cab. It was a good thing we had 4 hands to work together to do the job, or else I don’t think it would have happened.
Once we were happy with our overall layout and pieces we used metallic insulation tape and put the whole thing together.
That night we retired finally having a insulated window cover for the cab! Also it folds up nicely so we can store it perfectly behind the drivers seat. 😄
Early the next day I was headed back to the shop.
Today I had the pleasure of working with The Beadmaster!
Er… that’s right, I can use his name; Tom
Tom, The Beadmaster! 🙇♂️
It was finally time to put some treads on these steps.
It once again began with a few tack welds to keep everything in place.
Not long later, Tom was doing what he does best; welding a nice bead along the edges of the treads.
Then we welded the end caps I had made to further support the treads into place.
Time for a little side story:
Mike came by the shop and I learned a valuable lesson that day. After we had finished the stair treads and were letting them cool, somewhere in our conversation, I had mentioned using WD-40; and that I use it on everything.
That’s when Mike told me he doesn’t allow WD-40 in his shop.
I was surprised. 😲
And had to know why. ⁉️
It turns out that WD-40 is a solvent- not a lubricant. It’s good for cleaning up parts, but it is a hygroscopic. Hygroscopic meaning it actually attracts and holds water molecules; hence causing metal to actually rust rather than being protected from moisture.
Which is crazy, because everyone I know runs around using WD-40 as a lubricant on metals… 😵 I mean, just look at the picture above when we were working on mounting Kalcifer. 😆
So wow…
🌠 The More You Know! 🌠
I asked Mike what he might recommend instead. He walked me around his shop and showed me a few products.
But not wanting to have to buy half a dozen products unless I really needed them, I ended up asking, “If I were to carry just one of these, which one would you go with?”
So here it is:
I hope that little bit of info may help you out one day. 😉💝🌠
Anyway, but I digress… let’s check out how the stairs came out!!!
Pretty sweet- huh? 😁
Overall, the stairs turned out beautifully- and are still working like a charm to this day. They are a complete game changer in our little Ohana world!
I once again want to say a million Thank-Yous to Mike & Tom Devaney at D&D Welding! Their patience, kindness, and skill have allowed me to create and explore ideas with Our Ohana I otherwise would not have been able to do! They are a couple of awesome people- so if you ever need welding done; check out D&D Welding. 😉
Alright, that’s it for now! Until Next Time Everyone!
I hope you are all having a wonderful kickoff to your week; while staying safe, happy, and human! 🤙
Geoff Murphy 9/21/2020