XenaCommanders Place

Too much travel for work recently has kept me from spending as much time as I want on the truck   Marty tells me he has finished the painting and it is ready to put back together.   He took this pic earlier on in the week and emailed it to me.

Looks great..  Marty has put black pin striping between the colours which makes it look more finished.  Very nice although it will take a while to get used to it not being orange...  

I got back from Sydney at 0230am Friday morning and woke after three and half hours to the alarm.   After a quick breakfast I was driving south.   I took the car as I needed to transport the perspex I want to use for the round window openings and they wouldn't fit on the bike..!!

I stopped in Turangi to pick up the perspex and the tools I need and headed for Levin where I arrived at 1500...  Had a chat to Marty and discussed a plan of action..   I wanted to get a couple of windows in before dark as the sikaflex needs time to cure with pressure on and I only had one suction clamp.    Marty rang his glass man at Autoglass Steiger and he bought around a couple more for me to use..   Excellent service.

I managed to get the bedroom windows in before dark and held in place with rachet straps to the clamps sucked onto the glass..

Left hand side bedroom glued in.  I am happy with the colour of the windows on the new colour scheme.  The round flashing is held in place for now..  I will glue them in tomorrow once the windows are in.   

I couldn't stay in the truck as it is a mess inside...  So I picked up some takeaway and checked in at a local motel.  I didn't take much rocking to get to sleep and even the trains roaring by didn't wake me up...    In the morning I picked up the essential coffee and breakfast and headed to the Panel shop.  Patrick was already at work so I didn't have to open up.

I removed the clamps to the bedroom windows and cleaned them up inside and out.

Looking good.   Remember this was the window I cut wrong... Looking good now it is in permanently. 
I carried on with the windows..   The time consuming part was getting the sikaflex off the inside of the windows... I had to scrape it off with a razor blade and scrapers..  Yuk job but had to be done before glueing the windows back in.

Next the kitchen window..  then the right hand lounge window..  Both glued in the above pic.. Cleaning off the excess sikaflex was a messy job but Marty gave me some stuff that made the job a bit easier.

Last window in...  Now to the round flashings..   I can't put the round windows in yet because they are fitted from the inside and I need to have done the internal linings before the windows so I need to somehow keep the weather out until I have done that.  So I decided to cut perspex infills for the flashings and silicon them in place.   So I used the flashings to cut the rounds before glueing them in.

I needed to use clamps to hold the flashings in which meant I couldn't glue the infills in until it dried..   Which means I have to stay in Levin another night and finish them in the morning before heading north again.   Oh well...

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End of Saturdays work..   The windows and flashing are in.   I will come in tomorrow and glue in the perspex inserts and maybe get up on the roof and fit the bathroom fan cover.

If the weather is fine I will drive the truck out and take a pic outside.

A good nights sleep I was up for an early start at dawn...  I got to the Panel shop and opened the big door and drove the truck outside..   I fit the perspex inserts into the flashings..   What a fiddly job that was...  The first one took ages and I was getting more and more frustrated with it..  But once I figured out what the problem was they started to go in ok..   Until the last one.. For the life of me I couldn't get it to fit...   So after I glued in the bottom half I changed jobs and put the fan housing in the bathroom roof opening..   At least that went in ok although Marty did paint the cover but the bolts that hold it on are still orange..  Oh well I will have to touch them up later.

Back to the final perspex insert I decided to remove it and grind some more of the edge to make it fit better.  That did the trick and was able to glue it in..   Not my best work but it is only temporary and I can clean it up when I put the windows in.

I took a pic of the truck before backing it back in.

Looking good on the left...

Right hand side...  I couldn't get a side on shot as there wasn't enough room in the yard.   Once back in the shed I packed up the tools into the car and drove north to Auckland.    A busy long weekend and mission accomplished.  I hope the next trip is to pick up the truck to return to Turangi.

Stay tuned for more.

XC