Our Touring Past

Looking pretty spiffy Reddo. gordo

Bit of a late start today

6 degrees at 6.00am .. so stayed inside until around 7.00am

I cut a Strip of 3 ply and wrapped it around the "S" bend in the shelf near the entry door...
It went around without too much coaxing .. so gave the edge a bead of liquid nails and pre nailed the lower edge with pin nails to save me fumbling while trying to hold the ply in place and start a nail with the hammer at the same time...

End result...


all good


So .. feeling as though the day had started out well i batted on ..
Finished off across the front and headed down towards the back above the sink etc..

Had to reduce the ledge from 170 high across the front and rear .. down to 70 mm as it went along under the top cupboards





Just gotta tidy up the joins a bit then decide on weather to
A:....paint it all the same colour as the walls
B: Clear lacquer / stain it??... but maybe end up with too many colours happening inside the van.???
C: Paint it blue like the cupboard doors and ends of the van??

I am leaning towards Ä"at the moment

Reddo

A please and cupboard doors stain like factory.

Hi SB

Yep.. " A " it will be...
However... all doors including wardrobe door etc on this van appear to have been painted skyblue ex factory.
But... That doesnt mean they cant be stripped back to raw timber ( groan more long hours of sanding/stripping ) and stained to give an " ölder than it actually is" look
Unlike the 1956 Cadet ...I feel by the swinging fab 60s these old woodies where starting to get pastill colours on doors etc...
( just an excuse not to sand and strip and avoid the hard yards )

No matter what.. i have a full day ahead sanding and undercoating the shelving.

Reddo

Looking good Reddo. Can see all your tinnies lined up like pretty maids in a row along the new shelving.Gonna have fun stretching your arm through the porthole painting the inside of it. gordo

Dear Mr Reddo, Me thinks would be too much blue, stain makes look more classy.
In Cadet white ceiling and the two contrasting colors with the stained doors as you know looks the goods.

SB.

Hi Gordo and SB

Yup.. what a shitfight... i should have undercoated and finish coated the shelf before i fitted the edging.
Non the less i soldiered on and got it all tidied up today.
Got thinking about the varnished doors as suggested.
Went to the big green barn and bought a tin of paint stripper and 500ml tin of high gloss clear varnish.
Stripped the knife and fork draw face and then sanded with 120 then 240 sandpaper....
The face came up ok , although its a lighter grain than the shelving.
Will have to reveal what the face of the other doors etc look like ... then maybe chase up a stain to match the shelf colour... Cedar, Jarrah, Rosewood or something in a redish brown tone ,,, just hope that all the others doors are the same tone as the knife and fork draw face ???

Tomorrows project will be stripping and sanding the rest of the doors . I can give the shelf edging a coat of clear in between stripping each door .
Got my broken window back from Koala Glass today. $56 for a new glass cut and fitted.
Have noticed the rubber seal that slides in around the outer edge of the window frame to form the external seal has shrunk about 1" leaving a 1/2" gap at the top on the leading edge and rear end of the window ,,, i can see a trip to clarke rubber coming up... and.. i can feel a burning hole in the wallet as well...

I might cheat and cut a couple of pieces of sponge weather strip and glue em in the top corners to fill the gaps when the window closes. Its gunna need fixing otherwise i am gunna have to fit bilge pumps when towing in the rain...

More later
Its all fun
Reddo

Looks good Reddo
I would have the join of the rubber at the bottom and fill the gap with black sikaflex/silastic. Should save installing a bilge pump.
The stain/varnish cupboard doors will look classy but we found in the Rowvan that it also makes it dark inside. Our cupboard doors are walnut veneer which looks good but is dark.
Have fun, nac

Hiya Neil

Fortunately the blue came off to reveal a "blonde" virtually no grain .. boring ... ply.
I was happy to try and spice it up with a couple of coats of clear oil based gloss varnish.
First coat applied with a brush. Dried and look crap.. so light sand to get rid of the brush strokes and second coat appied with a 100mm sponge roller and left in front of a fan heater to accelarate the drying process..
Happy with the end result..

Gave em about 4 hours to harden .
While that was happening i cleaned all the hinges and push button mechs as well as giving the black knobby thingys a clean with a green scour pad...


I know i should leave all the doors off everything until i am finished i there ... but just had to assemble the 3 top cupboard doors and fit em..

As well as the wardrobe door...
.
Notice the foggy look on the bottom half of the wardrobe door?
I was concerned about going too heavy with 80 grit paper on the door after stripping the blue off it.. didnt want to dig through the outer layer of ply.. end result.. the varnish has pulled the blue up in the grain giving it a cloudy look.
This door hasnt got the glossy shine that all the other doors has.. reason.. i used water based clear on it.. I had run out of the good oily stuff by the time i reached the wardrobe door...
So i took a shortcut and used the water based stuff i had been given

I dont think the colour on the doors will darken the inside of the van... it has 10 windows and a massive roof hatch to let in the light

Regards
Reddonestainin'

Gday Reddo. Certainly painted cupboards have a place in any decor but i love the look of raw timber be it gloss or low sheen.Yours really stand out nicely.