VAL Digest V1 #361

VAL Digest          Sunday, September 5 2004          Volume 01 : Number 361




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Topics in Today's Digest:

[VAL] toddies
[VAL] Hear we go again
[VAL] NovaKool question (was 12v refridg)
Re: [VAL] Hear we go again
[VAL] Jack Story
Re: [VAL] Jack Story
Re: [VAL] Hear we go again
[VAL] Stripper for aluminum paint? - progress report

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Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2004 10:19:47 -0500
From: "Dr. Gerald Johnson" <geraldj@xxxxxxxxxx.com>
Subject: [VAL] toddies

Not being a proponent of ethanol enhanced beverages, I'm not missing 
toddies. I do recall that saki is often served warm or warmed. The last warm 
(room temperature) saki I had would have melted ice in a flash the way it 
warmed on the way down...

Gerald J.

- -- 
Entire content copyright Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer.
Reproduction by permission only.

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Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2004 13:55:03 EDT
From: JSmith1805@xxxxxxxxxx.com
Subject: [VAL] Hear we go again

Setting here in northTampa watching what is taking on the east coast and 
wondering if we will dodge the bullet again.worried about the trees around here 
that might deside my tradewind would be a good target. It is insured but no 
amount of insurance could possably repay me for the blood sweat and profanity I 
have put into it.
Just wish us luck.
Jim Smith
1965 Tradewind(The Silver Abaltross)
1992 Dodge Cummins Diesel

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Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2004 11:08:28 -0700
From: <trailergirl@xxxxxxxxxx.com>
Subject: [VAL] NovaKool question (was 12v refridg)

Just a note for those of you wanting to keep the original refrigerator
"look".
NovaKool http://www.novakool.com also sells just the compressor and cooling
plates.
The compressor can be, I believe, up to 12' ft. or so from the cooling
plates.
With these you could make just about any insulated space a refrigerator.
With some retrofitting you could conceivably fit the cooling plates into
your
existing original refrig and turn it into a 12volt compressor driven, solar
friendly refrig.
This information was provided to me by our local NovaKool dealer in Long
Beach, CA.
If you look on the NovaKool website you can find information about it.

Sue Murphy
Iowa Boys
North Hollywood, CA

>Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 15:59:56 -0700
>From: Joann Wheatley <jwheatle@xxxxxxxxxx.edu>
>Subject: Re: [VAL] NovaCool question (was 12v refridg)
>
>Hi David:
 >    Well with the insulation in, the noise is hardly noticable. And
>yes, the freezer is small for sure. A couple of trays of ice is about
>it and for a Scotch Rocks person, that's the critical part! So far, I

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Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2004 14:12:27 -0400
From: "Tom" <thomm@xxxxxxxxxx.rr.com>
Subject: Re: [VAL] Hear we go again

Jim,

I hope you and your family come through okay which it looks like you will as 
I watch the weather channel from NC.  You will have lots and lots of rain it 
appears, but the winds will subside a bit as the storm moves westerly over 
land.  They are saying that the greatest threat is the amount of rain, they 
are calling for as much as 20 inches in places and have opened up canals to 
let it back out.

Stay safe, and keep reporting to us.

Tom

- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: <JSmith1805@xxxxxxxxxx.com>
To: <valist@xxxxxxxxxx.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 04, 2004 1:55 PM
Subject: [VAL] Hear we go again


> Setting here in northTampa watching what is taking on the east coast and
> wondering if we will dodge the bullet again.worried about the trees around 
> here
> that might deside my tradewind would be a good target. It is insured but 
> no
> amount of insurance could possably repay me for the blood sweat and 
> profanity I
> have put into it.
> Just wish us luck.
> Jim Smith
> 1965 Tradewind(The Silver Abaltross)
> 1992 Dodge Cummins Diesel
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> When replying to a message. please delete all unnecessary original text
>
> To unsubscribe or change to a digest format, please go to
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Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2004 16:43:20 -0700
From: "Gary Quamen" <g_quamen@xxxxxxxxxx.net>
Subject: [VAL] Jack Story

Howdy folks:

I finally installed my electric jack yesterday.  As is usually the case, it
didn't go exactly as I planned.

I knew that I had to buy a jack with maximum 2" diameter shaft or it would
require grinding out the mounting holes on the trailer tongue.  I didn't
expect to encounter this:

Apparently, the original manual jack, although it too was 2" had little or
no paint on it when it was installed.  There are two holes in the web of the
A-frame, the top one being slightly bigger than the bottom one (although I
can't imagine why).  The new jack has a beautiful thick coat of black enamel
on it.  It wouldn't fit through the bottom hole.  Was close, but no go.  Not
only that, it appeared that the factory installed the safety chain (s) by
wrapping it around the original jack post from the back, and welding 3 of
the links to the underside of the web adjacent to the hole that was too
small.  Now this SHOULD have been a really small job:  3 bolts and tap into
the wire at the breakaway switch (yeah, I changed my mind).

So it was either remove the paint from the jack or make the hole (and
adjacent chain links) a silly-millimeter bigger.  I chose the latter.  I ran
my rechargeable Dremel tool til it ran out of juice.  I had my generator in
the back of the truck and the CASE for the 120V Dremel, but no tool.  Game
over.

The next day I went back and took my freshly recharged Dremel and went to
it.  This time I had the other Dremel with me and I was ready for as long as
it took to grind out that bugger.  But before the first Dremel pooped out I
managed to get the hole widened out enough for the jack to drop in.  But not
without having to twist it a little.  I can't wait to try to get it out
someday.  Oh well...it's never easy.  Works great.  Wiring it up was a snap.

One other thing: I made a nifty cover out of a leftover hunk of Sunbrella
Silver.  Pulls over the jack head and has a nylon strap and buckle to secure
it around the jack shaft.  Looks really nice I think.  Would be delighted to
send anyone a picture that wants to see what it looks like offline.

Later,

GQ '67 Safari
4082 in CA

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Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2004 17:01:18 -0700
From: "Mark" <mark@xxxxxxxxxx.net>
Subject: Re: [VAL] Jack Story

Hey Gary,

Sounds like you got through it just fine.  I'd like to see your 'jack cozy'.
Sunbrella was a good choice, too...it will let the thing breathe, rather than
trap moisture like plastic or vinyl would.

My address is mark@xxxxxxxxxx.net.  That, and a few other pictures of your rig
would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mark in Modesto
1962 'gilded' Tradewind

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Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2004 19:02:20 -0600
From: Royce <rkkessler@xxxxxxxxxx.net>
Subject: Re: [VAL] Hear we go again

On Saturday 04 September 2004 11:55 am, JSmith1805@xxxxxxxxxx.com wrote:
> Setting here in northTampa watching what is taking on the east coast and
> wondering if we will dodge the bullet again.worried about the trees around
> here that might deside my tradewind would be a good target. It is insured
> but no amount of insurance could possably repay me for the blood sweat and
> profanity I have put into it.
> Just wish us luck.
> Jim Smith
Jim,

We will pray for you and hope you come through safe and sound.

Atb,
Royce

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Date: Sat, 04 Sep 2004 23:11:33 -0400
From: John Sellers <sellersj@xxxxxxxxxx.com>
Subject: [VAL] Stripper for aluminum paint? - progress report

Gang,

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions.  Unfortunately, right now we are
going through a spell of phone line problems so my internet access is
very chancy.

I will try to get some RemovAll stripper and see if that will do it.  I
haven't found a source yet on account of my internet connection not
being good enough for web browsing--I'm doing good to send and receive
email. I will also try Jasco paint stripper and Klean Strip Aircraft
Stripper if I can find them--so far I have seen Jasco tile adhesive
stripper in the stores, but not paint stripper.

I also tried 3M Safe Stripper--a non-methyl-chloride formula--but it
didn't work well enough to repeat.  After a 3 hour soak the paint was
soft enough to scour off with steel wool, but not as soft as after 30
minutes with one of the methylene chloride strippers. (3M recommends
their own paint remover pad made of coarse Scotchbrite coated with some
kind of abrasive, but I shudder to think the scratches it would put in
the aluminum.)  

In the mean time, I had planned to get the trailer done during
September, and I'm going to get as far as I can.  After trying four
different brands of stripper with roughly equivalent results I decided
that the only sure course of action was to fall back on Grim
Determination, which, experience has shown, succeeds when all else
fails.

I have evolved a fairly effective technique with methylene chloride
paint stripper (Bix, Martin Senour 6802, Parks Pro-Strip, etc.) and
steel wool.

I am keenly aware of the objection to steel wool that it can leave
particles of steel wool in the finish which will eventually rust.  But
ya gotta realize that I'm between a rock and a hard place here--steel
wool is the only thing I have found that will cut the paint.  (And
Nuvite F7 will polish out the scratches from the fine (000) steel wool
I'm using.)  I'm hoping that using the steel wool wet with paint
stripper and lacquer thinner, and washing off the debris, will get rid
of most of the steel wool particles.  Also that compounding with Nuvite
F7 will polish out any microscopic fragments embedded in the aluminum. 
Only time will tell. 

What I do is cover about a 4 or 5 square foot area with stripper and let
it soak for a half an hour or so.  (This seems to be about
optimum--longer soaking and multiple applications of stripper haven't
seemed to make much difference.)

Then I have at it with steel wool dampened with lacquer thinner.  The
lacquer thinner seems to help.  I use the term "dampened" advisedly. 
Too much lacquer thinner seems to act as a lubricant and makes a lot of
fumes. Just a little is the ticket.

I started out with a circular scrubbing motion but quickly learned that
up-and-down and side-to-side work better.  Two factors are the direction
of the brush strokes (the paint was brushed on) and the direction of the
mill finish of the aluminum.  (The aluminum seems to have a little bit
of a "grain" to it, horizontal on most panels but vertical on the door.)
The keys to effectiveness are lots of pressure on the steel wool, and
frequent turning and shredding the steel wool pad to continually expose
fresh fibers.

Every square foot or so I stop and wipe off the accumulated sculch with
a paper towel dampened (same caution as above) with lacquer thinner.

After getting down the learning curve a bit I have found that I can
strip about 5 square feet in an hour.

Like Uwe said (aside from Oy Vey!, with which I wholeheartedly concur!),
it's a good thing we have a small trailer.  I roughly calculated the
surface area to be about 330 square feet.  At 5 square feet per hour it
will take 66 hours of stripping.

A lot of work, but possible with Grim Determination.  So far we have
stripped about 60 square feet. I won't get the trailer polished in
September, but if I hit it a good lick every day that weather permits I
will have it stripped, and maybe one pass over the whole trailer with F7
to make it look "sorta" polished.  Heck, we have already had
passers-by comment on how nice the *stripped* panels looked!

Crazy?  Of course.  You don't have to be crazy to own a vintage
Airstream, but it helps.  I still remember a comment by a non-vintage
WBCCI member at last year's Region 7 rally in Bemidji.  I remarked that
we were probably crazy to take Little Bubble on the road with none of
the plumbing working.  She smiled and said, "Not crazy--just a Vintage
Airstreamer."

Quite so.

Best,
John & Barb Sellers
WBCCI/VAC #1587
1960 Pacer (currently with two-tone finish)
Dayton, Ohio

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End of VAL Digest V1 #361
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