Finally – finished hubcaps

The re-chroming of the hubcaps was enough to make us swoon, but I finally got up the nerve to paint in the Serro Scotty lettering this past weekend in preparation for camping season. Actually, I come from a family of model-builders and detailed craftsmen, plus I’ve had some art training, so it wasn’t that big of a worrisome task – though I was prepared with plenty of clean rags in case I clumsily smeared enamel paint all over. There are now decals for the letters, but I’m actually so much worse with stickers than paint that this was a safer option.

The inset letters really made painting pretty simple, and the hubcaps are now, officially, done!

Avert your eyes! These are so blindingly shiny they are hard to photograph!

They look so smooth and shiny with some adjustments to the flash.

Though we are really nervous about putting them on – if we lose one on the road, I think we’d cry. We’ve talked about leaving them off for travel – but since our philosophy is to use and enjoy the trailer, we may risk leaving them on. Who could resist showing off that chrome, anyways?

Winter camp-in 2011

Saturday was the annual winter camp-in for the NSSO. Last year at this time, our trailer was in pieces in the garage. So, it was our first winter camp-in.

The weather was decent – 20 degrees – and we found this awesome chili mix also called “Six Gun” – so we decided to participate in the camp-in by having dinner and a movie out there.

A perfect winter meal.

We zipped open the side of the trailer cover and fired up our new little heater, which got the temperature up to 50 degrees in under an hour.

The little heater worked well.

Then, dinner!

Dinner is served - Six Gun chili in the Six-Gun Scotty.

The trailer stayed nice and cozy the whole time, and it was great to spend time out there in the middle of winter.

Looking forward to camping season…

Gleaming hubcaps

We saved our pennies and sent out two (of the three) hubcaps to be repaired and re-chromed. We sent them to Courtesy Metal Polishing, on recommendation of other Scotty folks and after finding good reviews online.

Today I got home from a meeting to find a delivery notice taped to our door – so we scrambled around and got the package held at the carrier’s warehouse, then just braved a windy storm to go pick them up.

And wow – was it all worth it! They look like the messed up, old, dinged, painted things we sent in were secretly replaced with perfect brand new hubcaps. Seriously – an amazing transformation. The third one (on the right, in case it’s not obvious!) is too far gone for chroming this time around – and we’re out of cash – but perhaps someday we’ll get sophisticated enough to figure out what to do with it. I mean, does a spare tire really need a fabulous hubcap?

One of these things is not like the other...

Two shiny hubcaps. Hard to get a photo that does them justice.

Next up: we need to paint the Scotty lettering – time for more research.

Just so happened, we were packing up the hubcaps to send them in right after I had spent a serious amount of time trying to scrub the bejeesus out of the original sink strainer basket – we actually gave up on it, but after seeing how chintzy new replacements were, I just tossed it in with the hubcaps with a note. Could it be chromed too? And it came back all shiny and clean enough for the kitchen.

Sink strainer - also sparkly!

Which reminds me – we still have to hook up the sink. Once the snow melts…

The fuss about Airstreams

Airstreams are totally cool looking. But, what’s all the fuss? I mean, are they THAT great? We found out – we stayed at The Shady Dell, in Bisbee, AZ, while visiting family over the holidays. We stayed in the Airstream, and it truly was very cool. Not sure we could handle all the aluminum polishing, though, so we’ll stick with the Scotty.

First off, The Shady Dell was amazing – as was Bisbee. I can’t recommend it enough. Make tracks there as soon as you can – especially if you are interested at all in old trailers, old cars, and a cool old artsy historic town. We are definitely planning a return visit…we didn’t have enough time to explore.

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Hubcaps: gone; Book: here

OK, so we mailed off our hubcaps to be chromed (not powdercoated) yesterday. Fingers crossed (and more later).

In the meantime, we realized that it would be handy to have some photos about the Scotty at our fingertips for the holiday season – family and friends will want to see what we did (after hearing about it endlessly!) and going online to the blog doesn’t always work in a group. So we found this neat solution online: at Shutterfly (and probably other photo storage sites), you can make a custom photo book and have it printed and mailed to you. So we did – and it really came out great. We put the whole Scotty story into 28 pages, and had a hardcover made. They were having a sale, so we also snapped up a softcover – better for traveling.

Hardcover photo book

I have to say, the quality of these books is great. They’ve come a long, long way with on-demand publishing. There’s literally no difference between this and a glossy book you’d buy in a bookstore. In fact, in some ways it’s nicer quality. And the photos really come out great.

I also should mention that I found their interface extremely easy to use – I do a lot of layout/design at work and so there were a few features I might have wished I had more customizable options for, but the ease of doing it was incredible – literally anyone who can upload photos can do this. Their standard set of layouts is flexible enough to create a nice product. Two thumbs up for the Shutterfly photobook!

Example layout

Hubcaps: before

We have three original hubcaps that came with the Scotty. Here’s what they look like now – in as-found condition. Our task for this winter is to figure out how to get them refinished.

Cap 1 - Outside

Cap 1 - inside

Cap 2 - Outside

Cap 2 - Inside

Cap 3 - Outside

Cap 3 - inside

Cap 3 - one bad edge

Cap 3 - another bad edge

Disco Scotty

I was just playing with some old photos in Photoshop, and came up with this interesting version of the Scotty, which I’m callig Disco Scotty. Perhaps a theme for our next trailer?

Very futurist. "Glowing Edges" filter.

Nah…

 

 

Good night!

Time to put the Scotty away for winter. The weather didn’t cooperate well for a final quick camping trip, so we put his cover on and jacked him up for winter. He looks much better protected than the 20 years he spent in the woods – hopefully he’ll fare better. Looking forward to camping next spring…

Covered up for winter.

Blinding finish

We’re pretty much done with the trailer. Well, we still have to plumb the sink…and do a few other things. But today, it looks much more finished. Over the past several days I’ve been sneaking out after work, usually in the dark, to add the last few pieces of aluminum trim. I happened upon a stash of L-shaped aluminum trim – with pre-drilled holes in one leg of the L – at our local discount/overstock store. They had 6′ pieces for only $1.99, and it was the right dimension. So I snapped it up and have been bending, trimming, and installing.

First, the backsplash. We made the backsplash – twice, because once I put a nail from the nailgun right in the middle as I was finishing up – from just a piece of aluminum flashing about 12″ wide off a roll we’ve had kicking around the garage for a while. First, I built up behind the backsplash area using scrap luan – ending up with about 1/2″ standoff. The standoff had channels let in for the electrical wires and the gas line. Then I skimmed over the top with the aluminum flashing, and finally, this weekend, added a bent piece of the L-stock as a ‘frame’ around the edge. It looks a lot like the edge trim around the fiberglass sink, which it was modeled after.

Oh, and because there’s a standoff now, we had to put a little steel spacer behind the edge of the old blue fiberglass part to conceal screw threads. You can just see it at the left edge of the old backsplash in the photo. It was $1.10 at the hardware store for a 3/8 diam. 1/2″ length steel spacer, which worked perfectly and looks good.

Sink backsplash - the new aluminum addition mirrors (pun not intended) the shape and style of the trim around the old blue fiberglass portion.

Last night and this evening, I finished using pieces of the same L-stock with foam weatherstripping mounted behind it to seal and edge around the interior of the door frame. It covers all the little gaps and imperfections (phew!) and looks really sharp. Not to mention super-bright with a camera flash at night!

Bright camera flash! There's new trim just around the edge of the door frame. Much better than our somewhat imperfect cut-out in the plywood siding.

Diversified lighting

We went camping again this weekend. It was fantastic! And, since we’ve been so short on time to work on the trailer lately, we brought a few tools and projects with us. One was the Humphrey gaslight. I picked it up, barely used, at a local shop and we ordered a new nose, gasket, and mantles from a Humprey dealer. So, we assembled it on the trip. It worked great (tinfoil on top was to be sure the ceiling wouldn’t get too hot – it didn’t).

Humphrey light burning

Only problem – by the time we got home, the mantle had fallen off! It really was a bugger to tie on, and I might not have gotten it tight enough. Ah well, that’s why we ordered several. But – it’s a really nice extra light source in case we ever run out of battery while boondocking. And it just looks so damn cool.

Autumn in Maine - you can't beat it.