Friday we didn't have much energy since I returned from a three day trip and Dan had a long week. The aluminum was delivered Friday morning at so that is finally done with. It's taken forever to try to source the right aluminum for this project. We are going to try to work with two 4'x8' sheets, one for the top and the second for the hatch with diamond plate as a rock guard for the front behind the tongue box.
We managed to get the Luan on the top of the hatch. We also managed to cut the rachet strap with the jigsaw. (Don't ask.)
That's basically all we did. Big plans for Saturday.
Total time spent Day 27: 2.5 hours
Total project hours: 104.5 hours
Saturday was productive and frustrating. We had a piece of 2'x4' diamond plate that needed to be cut down to 17" and it's a .063 thick plate.
We were recommended the rotozip drywall bit with guide to cut our aluminum so we thought to use it on the diamond plate. We coated the bit with silicone WD40 and suited up.
We got the hole for the wiring to get to the tongue box and then tackled the long cut...and snapped the bit... Twice.
Took some time to switch gears to get rid of the frustration and installed the front panel.
We had to build little blocks and glue them in (no photos) and use the Brad nailer to install along the front of the trailer.
Hot days cause for cold beverages. Wood and aluminum shavings flying everywhere also makes for not tasty beverages.
We ended up going back to Lowes and getting metal jigsaw blades and made the most embarrassingly sad looking cut for the diamond plate. Oh well, it's done.
Once it was done we prepped the roof by adding some sealant and covering the nails that could potentially be through wires.
Next, we applied the contact cement to the front panel first and pressed on the diamond plate and fitted the moulding and realized we weren't going to be able to pre-drill through the holes since the plate was only covering half the holes. Bad news was the plate was currently contact cemented to the front so we ripped it off before it set and decided to take the jigsaw and make a vertical cut. Of course, I cut off too much. So now we're going to have to figure out how to fill a tiny gap later. This is where I realized why people do their roofing where they need to trim it flush because it doesn't leave the quarter inch gaps. Granted, it will be covered by the moulding but it's honestly a huge pain dealing with corners that don't meet in a point.
Contact cement is like runner cement on drugs. We have a box fan blowing out and both had full respirators. This part would have not been possible without them.
After the rubber cement was liberally applied, we got our trusty sawed-strap and a bunch spars and clamped the crap out of it.
Fingers crossed it holds. Tomorrow we should get most of the exterior done!!
Total time spent Day 28: 6.5 hours (with 2 Lowes trips)
Total project hours: 111 hours
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