Electrical Adventures and Shiny Stuff

AFTER-Shininess!

Today's rebuild adventures are two-fold: the Hubs made great strides updating Sweet Melissa's electrical system and I made shininess appear on her outer skin.

BEFORE-Oxidized Aluminum

You'll remember we managed earlier to remove the 54-year-old paint and expose the aluminum skin. Today's task was to remove the dark patches of oxidation, in preparation for polishing part of the aluminum and priming the rest.

In manual labor terms, that equates to hours (and hours) of polishing the skin with steel wool and denatured alcohol. Although mighty labor intensive, this turned out to be an effective strategy!

While I was scrubbing away with steel wool, the Hubs was inside our '61 Mobile Scout, testing the existing wiring. Good news! The wiring to both the 12-volt lights and the 110-volt outlets is in good shape, BUT there is the small problem of no breaker box, fuse box or outside connection for a shore line.

Not to worry--the Hubs has it under control. He's already managed to install the breaker box, decide where to locate the 12-volt deep cycle battery and basically figured out what Sweet Melissa needs to have a complete electrical system. Yay!

One more piece of awesomeness--we've started installing insulation in preparation for putting back the birch ceilings and walls. And you know what happens after that--amber shellac mania! Stay tuned.