Ladder’s Done, Time to Paint

March 11 2009 by Darrin.

The folding ladder is now complete and disassembled.  In a couple weeks, it’s going for a ride to North American Galvanizing in Denver, where it gets cleaned and hot-galvanized.  The only thing left to do is wrap all the exposed bolt threads with a special high-temperature sacrificial tape from Argon.   That tape protects the threads when the ladder parts are pickled in acid, fluxed, and then dipped in a bath of 835ºF molten zinc.  Here’s the assembly before I took it apart…

 With the ladder done, the next step is to get a topcoat of paint on the inside of the box to prepare it for the interior construction.  The empty box awaits the Sherwin Williams Duration exterior latex paint.  Duration is one of the best exterior paints I have found, and due to the temperature extremes of an RV in use and in storage, exterior grade paint is the only way to go.  The Duration adheres to the fiberglass superbly after priming the glass with XIM 400 Bonder.  Without the bonder, the paint would peel right off. This is where we stand right now…

 When the paint is dry, the German Seitz windows will go into the rough openings in the camper’s walls…

 The first load of cabinets arrived last week too.  There’s a bit of work to do before I can start on these, which will commence with the construction of the multi-use shower/toilet module. These are the galley base cabinets, awaiting installation…

Posted in AATREC Construction | No Comments »