Never say Never

Music plays a huge role in my life. I have the Ipod going all day long while I work. It is always on shuffle so with 80 gigs of music, you just never know what will pop up. On Monday the first song of the day was this Moody Blues song. For some reason, it set the tone for the entire week...

A lot happened to Rosie this week. Here is a little low down for all those interested.

Panel replacement has continued. Two of them here on the street side front. This area was hit once upon a time and new segments were installed using Olympic type rivets. The rib has a serious twist to it and I just do not like the way it sets the curve of the side. Now a new one is going to be fitted in and bucked properly.

She has gotten real bare bones up front. All that Vulkem put in recently by Rosie's stewart to stop the copious amounts of leaks must be dug out to shoot rivets back in. Rosie leaks very badly in a number of areas. I hung out in her during a major rain storm and watched both tail lights cascading water in. I also watched ten Olympic rivets all leak in a row. Most of the window seals are shot also, so a good amount water comes in there. I wrote "LEAK" in Sharpie with arrows all over the place. Some of these I will correct and some will be done by her owner as the next step. I digress, we were looking at panel replacements...

Upper panel in place. Every hole was drilled and Clecoed, I am just running out and needed to steal them to do other areas.

Lower panel dry fitted into place...

Lots and lots of clecos in place. I used all 300 I currently own and 500 more are on the way...

The new rib will fix that dimple in the side...

This is an area that always makes me curious as to the recommended installation. Just cut a hole and screw through the side. Yeah right...maybe that works for the engineers, but not for me. I take things to ELEVEN MAN! These skins have a great amount of flex to them and a water heater is not all that light.

I first cleaned all the putty, Vulkem, Parbond, and even some silicon off the old opening. I then wanted this to be beefed up so when the water heater hangs there, the opening is actually rigid. Mini ribs seemed to be the solution. I just bent some .040 that has been collecting dust in a corner waiting to find a use.

This should work very well to make a nice firm side and transfer most of the weight down to the floor.

More to come in my next post. We are actually getting real close now.