It’s getting close to being weather tight! I got all the windows in the Tini-Home today. After yesterday’s tussel with the front window, today went much smoother. The left side and rear windows mount from the outside, while the right side window mounts like the front, with a trim ring inside that holds it in place. It went in MUCH smoother, and didn’t even smear adhesive all over the siding.
From there, I moved to the cargo doors. They were all white, and I initially thought I’d paint them silver to match the body, but I thought the chances of matching the Filon’s silver were slim. Plus, I have almost 40 feet of the stuff left, and figured I might as well use some of it up.
I took the cargo bay doors apart, and simply inserted a piece of the silver Filon, then re-assembled them. I’ll paint the frames black to match the windows. It’ll be easy to spray-bomb them, today the shop was too cold to paint, so I just put them together and mounted them in the trailer. Below are pictures of how I did them:
I also eliminated the clunky black plastic latches, which were missing the catches, and replaced them with a pair of keyed drawer locks. The looks is perfect, and they lock, so we’ll have some secure storage that’s accessible from outside. I like the way they look now, and they’ll look even better with the frames painted satin black.
After that, I decided to reskin the entry door, as it was skinned in aluminum like the old exterior. When I started pulling the twist nails that held the aluminum skin and trim pieces on, I discovered that there was NOTHING left of the 2×2 framing about a third of the way up from the bottom! The hinge side was the worst, it was missing 2 feet of the frame wood. So, that was a big project too. 
I did a sort of a “Dutchman” repair to the frames on the sides, screwed and glued with the Loctite adhesive. The bottom pieces was replaced too, it was completely rotted away. The material was the original 2×2 stiffening ribs from under the bed platform, so I recycled!
The skin I cut from the roll, it’s glued and stapled around the edges. While routing it to shape, the roller bearing came of the router bit (!), and before I realized it, it wandered off the frame and I hogged a big track into the skin. So, I lopped another 2 foot piece off the roll and started over. It turned out good the second time, and by Friday when I can work on it again, the adhesive will be dry and I can remove the sandbags, polish the edged trim, and hang the door.
I couldn’t help setting the beautiful Bargman latch into the door to see how it’d look! The window glass has been replaced with plexi which is cloudy, that’ll get replaced with glass, and I also insulated the door with the same 3/4″ pink foam board. Of course, it had the same silver paper “insulation” as the rest of the trailer originally had, and it did NOT smell good! Much better now.
Kim ordered the foam for the dinette cushions tonight, so we’re nearing the finish line. Stay tuned for varnish and finishing touches, as our Tini-Home nears completion!
Cool McCool's Garage 