WILLY'S FACE LIFT - INSTALLMENT 5

One of Pamela's paint schemes

Today was a rather singular day --  Pamela spent the entire time working on removing silicone.  Unless you've done it or watch someone else do it for hours on end, you have no idea what it takes. She did take a little time to come up with some painting ideas for Willy.  I thought this idea was rather nice looking.

I spent my time putting the front right seam back together.  All the wood was cut except for one piece to go behind the curve. I went to Lowe's this morning and got a piece of 2x4 and cut the curved piece from it with a reciprocating saw and hand jig saw.

Curved piece & where it goes

I ended up using hand saws a lot.  I must admit I like them better even if they do take a little bit longer. There were a couple of cuts that there is no way you could have done them with a power saw except an expensive table jig or router.

Once the curved piece was finished I started screwing the skin onto the new wood.  I was really worried about the sharp curve which had had such a tremendous gap when we bought Willy.  At each cross seam and bend I had to be extremely careful to get things lined up correctly.  It really wasn't hard. It was nerve racking because I was constantly worried about the place that had been so bad when we started this project. My fear was that it still wouldn't come together.

It fits!!!

You can imagine my excitement when I got the seam to come together at the dreaded bend. Pamela came from the back of Willy, where she had been work, to she why I was yelling.  The front and right side skin of Willy probably haven't been this close together for years.  People had kept putting silicone in the gap, just making it

worse, instead of opening up the seam and putting in new wood. We're hoping this lasts another 30 years. I may not be the greatest of craftsmen, but at least we are doing our best to do it right!

I didn't get any of the hole patching done. That will have to wait for another day, but we are ahead of what we expected to have done at this time.  This was perhaps the worst seam, and it was the first time I had pulled back the skin, removed windows, etc.  Even with these factors the seam was done in 8 hours.  Hopefully I should be able to do the others in less.

These sides haven't been this close in years.

The dreaded bend.