With the metal cleaned up and a good coat of paintable rust resistant undercoat applied, it was time to seal up the holes and re-enforce the floor. I picked up some more fiberglass mat…
…And got down to work! I prepped and fiber glassed not only the floor where it needed it, but behind the seats where there was gapping and silicone where the truck cab adjoined to the camper.
Meanwhile, we had our local Sandhill Crane family come to hang out with us. 😃
As the fiberglass set in the cab, Laura and I were headed to the roof to take care of a few things on our dream list!
We installed not only the cup holders on the front of the rear cargo pods we had been talking about for over a year now, but we also installed Laura’s Birthday Greenhouse on the rear as well!
Check out the slides below to see how it came out!
During this time we spoke to our neighbor Dave, who had bought the Wanderlust from us the year before. Well, it turned out he was not going to be the one to give the girl a new life like we had hoped… 😔
… But he had found someone who was willing to! 😄
He let us know that the buyer would be coming by that evening to pick up The Wanderlust along with it’s engine donor. I offered to help him tow them into place so that the new owner could put them on car dollies to go to their new home. We let Dave know we would be happy to talk to the new owner so we could find out where The Wanderlust was headed on the next leg of her journeys.
That evening we met Riley- The Wanderlust’s new owner! (Who loved the name Wanderlust by the way.) We were really excited an relieved to find out that Riley was a great match for the rig. His father was a retired mechanic and they would be working together to make the perfect small roaming home for Riley’s wife and child. 😊
In the gallery below, the first 3 photos are us getting ready for pickup. After that, the rest are photos Riley sent me of hooking the vehicles up for tow and heading out on the path to their new home!
Since some of the fiber glassing had gone in to where the driver’s door would close, I had to leave the door open while it set.
Leaving the door open overnight felt awkward, but the next morning we were ready to get back on it!
While I continued on the cab, Laura had a few projects she had made come reality for our little home!
Inside the cabinets we had a continuous problem. From the inherited water damage in the ceiling, we were getting a continuous sprinkling of old wood debris inside the cabinets. After discussion, Laura decided enough was enough, and ordered and installed this beautiful wall paper inside to seal up the problem. 🤩
Another thing she made happen is she researched and ordered a new water filter for our sink. It turns out it makes a huge difference for the way our water tastes! It turned out perfect!
During this time I hooked up a sanding head to the grinder, cleaned up the fiberglass, and got down to applying a second coat to the floorboards on the driver’s side.
While the second coat of glass set, I had a few chores to take care of under the hood.
Since I would not be changing the oil until fall, I built and temporarily set up the universal oil dipstick for the current level of oil. I made sure to stash the top pull ring in our glove box for when I set the dipstick level for it’s final positioning after the oil change.
Remember how I had broken the positive battery terminal clamp just recently? Well, I ordered and finally got to try out some quick release clamps for the new truck battery as well!
We had a few new accessories we had picked up for setting up the awning we wanted to test out as well. We had purchased a few new ratchet straps for securing the awning legs down at the top, so we rolled out the awning as set it up. We also ran the built in LED light strip and powered it off the solar generator.
We had also picked up a neat little thing called a “ninja stool”. It was a lightweight, portable, collapsible stool that could support my body weight, and give us that extra height for helping us set up the hard to reach spots on our awning.
It worked great! But we decided to order a second one for easier and 2 footed support, as well as additional seating options. 😀
The next day was an exciting moment; the fiberglass was set and hard as a rock, and it was time to paint on our first layer of bed liner!
After our second coat had dried our cab was looking sweet and waterproof! Next it was time to begin installing trim, seatbelts, seats, floor matting, and the center console.
The cab was finally fully re-done and re-assembled. The last labor of love was to go through and clean it through and through!
All Shiny Captain!
With our next big trip out of town on the horizon, we only had a few more tasks to wrap up before we got to test our new improvements on the road.
We finally installed the long awaited fold down cup holders in the seating spots throughout the camper.
We had to mow and weed our property to get it ready for our week long absence.
We would begin our trip with a nice big kick-off; a combination of our yearly friends get-together and Laura’s Birthday! 🥳
RJ was finally getting her rig set up for camping and was planning on attending the event, so we scheduled meeting up with her to help her re-familiarize herself with going through The Ithaca.
In anticipation for another big weekend at Cooper Lake, Laura changed the theme of our ceiling magnets to Mountains, Butterflies, Flowers, & Sunshine! ⛰️🦋🌼☀️
And as her small blessing of presents trickled in through the mail, we became more and more excited for another fun week on the road full of smiles and Birthday Fun!
Geoff Murphy 7/21/2021