Tuesday, April 22, 2014

A Time to Vent and a Time to Patch

Time for the next update in the Airstream saga! It was a very dry winter, until it wasn't. It's great because the rain is much needed here. The sound of it coming down on the trailer is great at night when my faithful heater is keeping the trailer toasty warm. Rain, however, isn't always a trailer's best friend.

I was walking through my kitchen area and I heard a distinct "bloop." I paused for a minute and heard another "bloop!" That's never a good sound to hear when you're inside. Turns out the big soup cups I had stored on top of my fridge were filled to the brim with water. There was a large puddle behind the fridge as well and a small waterfall coming from the ceiling. The original propane fridge needed to be vented to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning, so there was a vent on the bottom and one on the roof.

Fridge vent in the middle of the roof on the street side.
This vent had been tinkered with and had turned into a summer home for bees. In the winter, it converted into a funnel for all of the water on the roof to come straight into my kitchen. When I realized what was happening I called the expert (my dad) and as I was feeling at the end of my rope and just so frustrated he laughed and said "don't worry, we'll fix it." And fix it we did!

The expert at work.
Getting cleaned up and ready for sealant.
Aluminum panel partially Cleco'ed in place.
Do you like our scaffolding/work bench/recycled door? It's pretty great. Did it work? For sure! Did we fall off? Like a ton of bricks! No ER worthy injuries to report, however. For a simple patch like this one, the process includes cleaning off the surface, cutting an aluminum piece to fit, measuring the hole placement, drilling, deburring, drilling, Cleco'ing, removing the Clecos, applying sealant, Cleco'ing, and drilling while removing Clecos. A long process, but look at the end result!

A thing of beauty!


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