The Kindness of Strangers

Nothing of any note has been accomplished on Molly in the last three weeks. It's not easy to want to work in her when the temps are in the twenties. Nicer by the fire. But idle hands and all that, so last weekend I saddled up and rode off to where I first laid eyes on Molly.

Ken, the gent who promoted her to us, has kindly offered me scavenger rights to an 80s RV on his property. He has no use for it, plans to cut it up after he sells the motor and running gear. He certainly has no need of the interior details--the very things I desperately desire. With this in mind, last Saturday around noon I loaded up some tools, packed a lunch, grabbed my smelly dog, and roared off in my trusty 1976 (same year as Molly) F-100, racing along twisty backroads at a wholloping forty-five miles an hour. As usual, I was mesmerized by the beauty of the landscape, and enjoyed the hour it took us--me and my smelly dog--to get there.

This is the rig Ken set me loose on:



As you can see, not in the best of shape. After a long inspection, I started with the seats. The original layout of Molly did not include a passenger seat. That's something I intend to change:


In the above picture, I've already loosened the 4 bolts holding the driver's seat. I took the passenger's seat as well. There were also all sorts of small-ish things I took: visor shades, reading lamps, curtain track and miscellaneous hardware. But it was the big ticket items that really excited me. Such as...

...a refrigerator!

...a hot water heater!


...an air conditioner/heater! (In fact, there are two of them.)

Do they work? That remains to be seen. I want them to work, of course. But if they don't...there's always Plan B.

Whatever that is.

At any rate, it got me out of the house, I had an opportunity to see Ken and his wife, take in the air, enjoy the solitude, and snatch me some bling.

Idle hands, and all that.

signed, Dudley Who-Needs-A-Hammer-I've-Got-A-Sawzall Clark.

What God Hath Rot...let no man put asander

First job of the new year: clean out the stern section I so preposterously refer to as the "master stateroom." On a whim, I pulled up some loose appearing lino, only to find....


MORE ROT!


It's not too deep, but then neither am I, so there must be a cure. I shall allow it to dry out, then paint it with Kilz.

After that (actually, now that I think about it, before that), I removed the inverter (it was attached to the last remaining piece of the former lower bunks). This I will have to reposition after the bed frame is installed.

You can see some of the orbital sander patterns on the walls. I ran out of sandpaper, then my Bosch sander stopped. It simply stopped. I have no sander. It makes no sense to clean the coach before sanding, so for the time being I'm dead in the water.

Sigh.


Nevertheless, I did manage, whilst I had both sander and sandpaper, to do this (pardon the dust spots):


And this:



Looks good, eh?

As to the galley...it was only a matter of time before I removed the base cabinets. I did this in order to facilitate installing new paneling (yeah, right), as well as to clean out 30+ years of grime.



And that's it here at pun central, this second or third (I'm already lost, Lord help me) day of the year 2009. Thanks to all of you who have restrained your derision and even at times shown support for this insane Werner Herzog-like project. The odds may be impossible, but sometimes there's a man... But that's another movie.