Day 3 & 4

This weekend was EXHAUSTING! I spent the better part of Saturday and Monday (my day off) working on the front elevation of the Airstream. Running the orbital polisher isn't so bad, but working each 24"x24" section with at least 6 passes...it gets quite tiring. Especially the higher ones, where my arms are over my head. One 24"x24" section takes about an hour to complete. But it'll all be worth it in the end!

I had to get into some tighter, higher spaces this time. So I set up a makeshift scaffolding, which worked pretty well. The canopy was in my way for a bit, but we worked around it.


My mother-in-law was a trooper this weekend! She was a great help, but worked sooooo hard that she injured her shoulder (it's tough work, trust me!) She came over on Saturday and put in a good 2-hrs of work, and then Kathy took over for another 2 hours. Basically, while I'm running the polisher on one area, they are wiping off the residue in a worked area with a soft cloth and mineral spirits. After about 4 passes on one of the areas, my reflection starts to show. After the next pass, the image is bright, almost mirror like. Then I give it one more pass to make it 'shine'! I keep telling myself that next spring will be great. One or two passes at the most! But this year...well, I'm getting rid of over 40 years of oxidation.
















It's always fun to watch my image slowly appear on the 2nd or 3rd pass. That's when I know my hard work is paying off! In this image, my reflection is still a bit hazy. I have 2 0r 3 more passes left to polish until I get that nice, mirror-like shine.
















These are the cotton pads that I use on the buffer. The pad on the right is a new, unused pad. The one in the middle has been used and washed (once). The pad on the right has been used and washed twice, turned in-side-out, and has reached the end of it's usefulness. It will be thrown away now.
















This weekend we nearly wrapped up the front side. As you can see, I'm turning the corner. Yeah! This side is definitely the toughest, as it has all the tight areas to work around. The other 3 sides should be relatively easy going from here. I'm not sure how far up I'll take it. I'd love to do the roof, if nothing more than a few passes. But I may run out of time b/4 our trip. We'll see ;-) So far I have 24 hours into it.
















Gwen enjoyed watching me work from the comfort of the shade tree. Ah, to be a dog!

I would have finished the door Monday evening, but the rain started to come, and I had to get Jade shuttled off to soccer practice and feed the other two kiddos. Oh well. It's almost there!































I took a break on Monday to take my mother-in-law to pick up her new car. This is only her FOURTH car ever. A nice and sporty "fun" car for her to drive in her retirement. She had her old car, a 1995 Neon for 16 years. Hopefully this one will last her as long....Good for her!
















I took this image this morning (it was overcast, bad light). You can see that I've got almost everything on this side done except for the main door. I worked to get the smaller, inner door done, but then the rain hit. There was a lot of hand-polishing done around the door and in-between the little nooks and crannies. Attention to detail!

Here is our mapped vacation route (Jun 18th-26th).
















Day 1 - Denver to Sand Dunes Nat'l. Park (Hooper Hot Springs)
Day 2 - to Mesa Verde N.P. (CO)
Day 3 - to Grand Canyon N.P. (AZ)
Day 4 - to Mesa, AZ. (Stay with Mom and Dad!)
Day 5 - to Joshua Tree N.P. (CA)
Day 6 - to Anaheim, CA.
Day 7 - to DISNEYLAND!!
Day 8 - to Zion N.P. (UT)
Day 9 - to Moab, (UT).
Day 10 - home. Phew. 2,500 miles.