Thursday, February 19, 2009

AC for First Time. First Window In.

It got so close and stuffy feeling last night, I had to turn the AC on. Yesterday, it had been hot working in the RVport with the front of the Mirage in the afternoon sun.

This morning Ray put on another coat of paint, then sanded and prepared some other little boo-boos that are on the Mirage.
Jay and I got our little pattern we had made to make sure holes were drilled all even and straight along the edge of the rounded Plexiglas.
The ruler had holes drilled in it at 1-3/4 inch intervals. After Jay drilled the first hole through the Plexiglas, a nail was dropped into that hole, and I pivoted the ruler so that the edge just lined up with the edge of the Plexiglas, then Jay would drill that one. We continued all the way around.
We put a ring of Butyl Putty Tape all around the Plexiglas, and then came the fun part.
Ray got up in the overhead bed, with the box of washers. Even though we had practiced on some old fiberglass and Plexiglas, riveting it together was not going to work. We could hear a slight crushing noise when the pressure was applied to the rivet gun. So we backed off, and went to plan B. I screwed the bolts through Bonded Neoprene Washers, which have a rubber backing, Jay put them in the holes, and held the Plexiglas tight against the fiberglass, so that Ray could get his washer and nut on the bolts, then they tightened it all down, one by one. The putty tape made a waterproof seal, and the excess that squished out will be trimmed off, and a nice neat bead of Dicor applied around the edge. The bolts will be covered later, and won't be seen. The inside nuts will be covered by the roof liner.

We had driven the Mirage out of the RVport back to the side of the workshop, to get it away from the sun, even though it wasn't so hot today.

I forgot to take a picture until we had it wrapped up in plastic for the day.

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