Top This!

Friday brought a trip to town. The airlines "misplaced" the package of screening that Grandpa brought with him. Friday they headed to town to pick that up at the airport and a trip to the hardware store for nails, wire wrap and other items.
Thursday night they had run the electical wiring. They debated how best to hide that in the ceiling of the car. Friday they decided they would use a spiral wire wrap. It does look nice and is nearly invisible, as evident in this photo.

It will have a light in the back of the camper area.
Grandpa has been working on the electrical, while Gary has been making trim pieces for the windows.

There is glass in several spots, in the front doors, the long openings along the side will have the screening and glass and the back doors will have glass. (I think that is part of Saturday's project schedule). They determined that they wanted trim around all of these windows. Here are pieces that have been cut and routered for the trim.

And the big project for today was the vinyl top! These pictures DO NOT do this top justice. Because it is black, it is not photographing well. It is beautiful. First they laid a cotton fabric (felt almost like a poplin) on the top, then a thin foam and then the vinyl. They pulled it tight and nailed it on. They trimmed it up evenly (very scientifically I might add!). Then a trim piece called "hide-em" was added. It has two ridges that come together in the middle that are pulled apart to put the nail in and then they come back together to hide the nail. This was a long process. Everything is done holding your arms up over your head. Chad came and helped, he said it was hard to get the hide-em opened up to allow for the nail. Here are some pictures of the top.




Notice the front section is not complete. They are working today on the canopy for over the front window....maybe visor is a better description of that piece.

We're so glad when Grandpa comes!

Grandpa is back for a long weekend of work on the woodie. Here is what he found when he arrived this afternoon.

She has slowly been put back together. First the left side,

then the right side,

In the above photo you can see the white protective paper has been removed from the fender. There is a vinyl beading that was stapled to the wood, it finishes the edge off.
Then the top,

so it isn't on in this picture, but it was by the time Grandpa arrived. The top is very heavy it takes two of them to hoist it up.
Here is what she looked like from the back when Grandpa arrived. It didn't take him long to get started working on her.

The side front doors need some work still.

Stay tuned, I'll be posting some more progress later tonight!

Got Parts?

So I am a slacker... Well I didn't mean to be one, I got sick, really sick. It has taken over two weeks to feel somewhat normal again. And I am on spring break, nearing the end, but I have taken advantage of my time off. Although alot has happened out in the garage, and busyness aboundeth, it is hard to show that kind of progress sometimes.

Lots of sanding has been done and the car has been dismantled of it's wood pieces. First the back doors came off (I didn't get a picture of that step). Then the top and the sides. Here is what she looks like today.

All the wood had to be finished, a coat of polyurethane on it, well several coats actually. Here is the top laid on its top.
A close up of the top and the slat work that was done.

Isn't this the prettiest wood! The finish is bring out the grain very nicely I think...this is the top also.
Here is a close up of the top of the top. Each of those slats was screwed in along several places.
The sides scattered to any flat place left in the garage. I think we needed a 4 car garage for this project...