Bronze Whaler on Wheels: Repairs to the 5th Wheeler

Wednesday, 12 February 2020

Repairs to the 5th Wheeler

The repair for the 5^th wheeler has begun. It has taken a lot longer than we had hoped and is still not finished. Fingers crossed for this weekend. Even though we are desperate for rain, we are pleased it has been hot and dry, while we have no back wall, apart from a tarpaulin.

We started on 6^th February. It took us all day to get the wall off. The trickiest bit was getting the wiring out of the way. All our wiring comes in through the back wall (of course). In the end, Eddie cut it all, so the wall could be removed. Once it was down, it took him an hour or so to temporarily reconnect the 12 volt system, so we could ignite the gas for our shower and lighting.

Friday, Eddie's phone could no longer hold its charge, so it was off to Cambridge in the morning to get a new phone. Spark are no longer here in Matamata. Not at all convenient.

We cut out the windows for the interior wall in and cut out the framing. We were able to reuse most of the window framing, with just a little bit of rot to replace. They would have been tricky to do, so we were pleased about that.

We glued and screwed the frame to the interior wall. Two friends from Eddie's work came and helped lift it up into place on Sunday afternoon.

Most of Monday, Eddie spent soldering all the wiring back together. The only piece he was concerned about was the indicators, brake lights and park lights, as the wiring didn't seem to make a lot of sense. A friend, who is an auto electrician, came and put it together on Tuesday morning.

The fibreglass wall was covered in the remains of the mouldy plywood. I have scrapped off most of it, but it has to be right back to the fibreglass as there isn't a lot of room otherwise. Eddie has done about half with an electric sander. It is a very dusty and unpleasant job.