June was upon us! In the last post I had forgotten to add this fun fact. Originally, back in November of last year, Laura and I were debating on going with a colored Gaco. I took a photo Laura had shot of The Ohana and I applied different colors to it for a concept photo. I sent it to the original owner to show him the idea. Here is my concept photo, and here is how she looked at the beginning of June, 8 months later!
Pretty sweet! It is so awesome when a dream becomes true- you just have to be willing to make it happen! 💖
But I digress… Ahem! So we began the month with trimming out the metal ceiling.
I also finished trimming out the refrigerator vent box. To fully trim it out I opened up the vent cover from the outside, as well as leave us access to fix the electrical problem. (Still Going!) We insulated the inside of the box with reflectix insulation. I had finally lined up testing the electrical problem with my neighborhood friendly Redline ninja, so I had determined it was okay to drive The Ohana with those wires capped for the next few days.
I also cut and added some aluminum stair nose to the entry step.
At this point, Laura and I couldn’t help it. The Ohana had been parked a long time, minus it’s trip to get the shocks replaced. We wanted to take her for a little spin, so we decided to do something we normally don’t do often- go eat out. Our friends (Remember Dave and Lyla Nelson, who bought the Wanderlust?) had started a food bus out on The Spit. Their business is named A Bus Named Sue!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Food-Truck/A-Bus-named-Sue-101711288101856/
Well, we had wanted to purchase a meal from them to show our support- so we went to finally do so. 😋
After some awesome (and Seagan) grub we climbed up to our skybench to stare out at the sea and enjoy the ocean breeze. 😁
And with that, it reminded us we needed to install the new roof support below the bench. With the uneven surface of the ceiling in that spot, we had decided to suck the new board down into place. We had Gaco treated the new board many times, and we painted a layer of Gaco in between the roof and the new board. When we laid them together we coated each screw in Gaco before we sank them in.
Next we were out to do more touch up / clean up. I was busy with the wire brush cleaning up the cab over supports.
Remember those LED tailights I put in this winter that I wasn’t sure about? Well, all of the hardware had already began corroding, including the metal bumper grill around them. I took the wire wheel to them as well. We installed stainless hardware instead and painted it all in bed liner to preserve it. We noticed that the kevlar chunks in the Dupont Dupli-color Bedliner have to be continuously mixed, and even when you do you end up with a thick paste of them when you get to the bottom of the gallon. We decided to boost the next gallon and apply the kevlar into the overall mix of the new one.
And of course a little rear bumper touch up was due as well…
Since we were painting on bed liner, Laura and I had a new goal. I got out my drill and grinder and got to cleaning up the rims.
After the rims were cleaned up I was headed inside to prep the shower base to also recieve the kevlar treatment.
Laura was continuing her quest on cleaning out, or “trimming” out the window edges and slinging bed liner.
During this time, Laura snapped these photos to show how the closet was not going to remain…
And I finally got to meet up with that Redline Ninja- and we tracked the electrical issue. It was my bad, I had missed a place to check fuses; inside the breaker box. I had debated on opening that up previously too- thinking I found all of the fuse locations. So shortly thereafter I had power to my dead area above the kitchen! As well as a small chore list to seal back up the refrigerator panel, replace some fuses, and…
…clean up this mess!
So I left leaving Many Thanks and a vow to go to O’Reilly’s in the next few days and tackle the chore list.
And with that, the Ohana returned home for now. That next morning we were greeted by another beautiful day, and this pleasant surprise!
On a side note, I have a little side hobby, I make “solar staffs”. They are copper and glass pieces, each one different, that you can stand up in your yard and they charge on solar. At night they light up and dance in different light patterns. Laura and I played around with giving the base of this piece, which I named “Drops Of Jupiter” and green patina on the base. We decided to give it to our Redline Ninja as a way of saying thank you for all of the kind help with our project.
But once I again I digress, back to Toyhome work! Laura’s rim painting job was turning out super sweet,
and after some tire cleaner was looking too cool!
I began planning on how to clean up the range hood and the stove/oven.
We headed to the auto parts store and cleaned up this mess.
We clipped the terminal connections and replaced them, and ensured all the wires were cleaned up and making good connections.
Next we removed a section of stove pipe to try and reduce our clearance. Once the chimney was dropped we ran a fire to test how it effected the draw.
We had dropped it too much, so I was going to have to cut the removed piece down and see if I could get enough draw at of the shortened piece. 🤞
We determined if we cut it right in half, the chimney would line up perfectly with the tallest pod height.
So after some sawing I put the new half-length in the middle of the chimney- and she ended up drawing perfectly! 👌😁
That weekend, up at the landfill, we found a perfect piece to a dream project we had been formulating.
My dream was to get rid of old rusty step breaker that we were using to get up into the camper. The dream was to create a fold down step that would put pressure higher up on the step and down into the ground where support was more substantial. So with this, we had our first part towards that dream, and our wheels began turning!
Also, something else came in that was awesome; our Dometic toilet! Yep, the one we had always wanted. A full height toilet, porcelain bowl, and jet flush!
Next, I had painted and touched up the original emblems that had been on the vehicle, (As well as added one) so we chose the placement we wanted and re-installed them.
And last but not least for progress updates for this post, we designed and installed the new box seat cushions!
With Josie’s help, of course! 😆
With that we are half way through June! Why so much, you might ask? Well, two reasons:
- We just can’t help it.
- We were getting ready for a pretty big “shakedown”.
A shakedown? Yep, you heard that right! About a week and a half before, Laura randomly said to me, “I’ve never been to Valdez!” That’s when I realized neither had I. In fact, I had lived in Alaska my whole life and practically had never been to most of it. That’s when we planned our trip! Here was our tentative plan:
Night 1: Seward.
Night 2: Anchorage
Night 3: Glenallen
Night 4: Valdez
Night 5: Tok
Night 6 & 7: Fairbanks
Night 8: Anchorage
Night 9: Home (Homer)
We were pretty excited, and raring to go. But that boys and girls, is a story for another time! 😜
Geoff Murphy 7/28/2020
Awesome!!