Author Archives: Tim

The little things

I decided to polish the propane tanks. I just gave them a quick compounding with Nuvite C. After that I painted some of the rusty spots on my spare tire mount, antenna, and TV rotor box.

I mounted the spare tire. Basically I was stalling because my new ladder was “out for delivery”.

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I stalled as long as I could. My ladder showed up 30 minutes after I was done. Oh well, I’ll use it in five years!

I used a 12′ A-frame ladder and used a microfiber towel to hand buff and apply NuFinish polish over the whole trailer. That was a work out.

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Here is a garbage bag of all the polished soaked pads, cyclowraps, microfiber towels, etc. I was thinking of trying to wash and reuse, but decided to toss it. Just too much to mess with. New towels and wraps are just part of the price to me.

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Here’s a final overview shot. Glad to be done!

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Basically finished

I was able to spend six more hours today polishing the trailer. Too bad my new ladder didn’t show up on time. I compounded the street side above the window line all the way up to the center roof panel. I used a 12′ A-frame ladder to get better access to the top of the front and rear domes.

Even with the 12′ ladder, I could not get the access I would like to get the top center of the domes. I got enough to be happy. I compounded most areas with Nuvite F and on the lower panels I followed with Nuvite C. After that it was one pass with cyclo F, then S again only on the lower panels.

I used to try and get two areas off of one cyclo wrap position. I thought it would save me time and money because they are expensive, but also it takes some time to shift positions. However, what I found is that reusing a position took more time because it took a lot longer to cleanup all of the polish from the skin. So, one area per cyclo wrap position worked the best.

I do need to hit the aluminum propane tanks with the compounder tomorrow. I also need to take a microfiber to the street side top and rear dome, the follow up with the NuFinish.

Feels good to be this close. Refresh 39 hours. 129 hours total from the first time I cracked a jar of Nuvite.

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Lighting update

Checked the rear parking lights tonight and they started working. I decided to remove the street side tail lamp to get access to the wiring. It all appears to run through here. I removed the tape from the factory splice. Some of the wires were a little tarnished with black oxidation. I’m guessing just my moving them around hit a bad spot. I stripped it back to a clean spot, soldered and re-taped.

Lesson: Clean up the factory splices while you’re in there the first time.

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The stickers are here!

The DMV registration showed up already. I thought this would take six to eight weeks!

I couldn’t wait to install my 1960 plate. The DMV sent two aluminum tabs for the stickers. Very nice. Since this plate was so hard to come by and expensive, I decided to install it with security screws. Just to make it a little harder for the bad guys.

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I decided to turn on the headlights to get a photo of the plate all lit up. I turned them on and only the two front amber lights came on. Nothing on the rear. The brake/blinker lights work, but not the parking lights. What is odd is the front ambers work. So must not be a fuse.

I checked all of this after I moved the license plate light and it was ok….. Uggg…

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And then it was 33

Not much to add. Had some unusually cool weather and three hours to kill.

I was able to get the front compounded with F7 then C. Hope my new platform ladder will arrive this week to finish the top. Then cyclo.

Total refresh polish time 33.

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Street side done. Mostly.

Finished the cyclo passes on the street side today at least from the tops of the windows down. I’m waiting for my new ladder to go any higher.

I opted to do one more quick compounding using C at the “eye level” locations to try and get the deep cuts out left by the F7. Worked pretty well for the most part. It could be that I need multiple cyclo passes of F7 to really knock them down. As it stands I hit everything once with the cyclo F7 followed by S.

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I quickly followed that up with my wax of choice NuFinish. It’s easy to apply. Says once a year polish on it, but you have to reapply in 30 days. Go figure.

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It was 4 more hours of polishing bringing me to 30 on the refresh. 120 overall. It started getting too hot to polish so I decided to install my Wally Byam Caravan sign I purchased to hide the hole left by my original license plate light location. I also installed a new license plate bracket. Still waiting for the state to allow my use of my 1960 YOM plate.

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Hope to finish next weekend. It’s going to be tough with these high temps!

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Getting too hot to polish

Got four more hours in today. Brings this refresh to 26. The heat got to 81 before I had to stop. The polish just starts turning into powder.

I was able to get the street side compounded. Mostly with F7. I may go over some areas again with C. The water spots are just terrible.

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I’ll be back at it I’m the morning. I’ll only be able to do about four hours again as the temps will hit the 90’s.

I’ve decided to order a step ladder to get me up higher. I found this 6 foot Little Giant Flip-N-Lite. I had to order one. Could have used it for tomorrow, but I hope to at least have it for next week.

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License Light

I purchased a YOM, Year Of Manufacture license plate for my Ambassador. I’m still waiting for the registration to come through before I can mount it.

A past owner moved the license plate mount from the center to the street tail light, but they didn’t move the light. They moved it because of the spare tire mount. The mount is pretty much rusted to the rear bummer, so it’s not going anywhere.

I decided to move the light today so my new plate will have a better home.

I removed the tail light to see how far down I could feed a wire. It wasn’t to far since there is a cross beam. It was just far enough. Of course I had to polish it a little.

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I drilled a small hole and fed the wire up to the tail lamp above. I soldered my connections.

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Last step was to drill and mount the light. I used butyl tape behind it. The original license plate mount was modified and rusty. VTS sells them new. I have one on the way.

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I also ordered a Wally Byam Caravan reproduction sign to cover the old mount location. I could have just cut a piece of alclad, but wanted a little more style. Being an actual pre-62 Byam trailer, it’s possible and appropriate. 😉 But not likely….

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22 and half way

Today was all about the back the of the trailer. In 6 hours I was able to do all three passes. Total 22. I figure I’m just over half way done.

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This photo shows the street side, which is not finished, to give you an idea of the change.

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