Paint & Considerations
Phew, what a day! We were both up bright and earlier and got out to the van to clean the walls on the inside as it had got a bit dusty from rust removal. This was a three stage process, as we also needed to paint over some rusting scratches on the walls. I am rather weary and worn out from today as I had been busy overnight thinking about van and business stuff.
Rust Treatment
Step 1:
The first step of the day was to apply a coat of industrial steel cleaner to the walls and ceiling of the van. This was a bit of a pain as you had to keep it wet for 10 minutes! This meant constantly going back and forth as you tried to coat each panel of the van and keep the already coated ones wet! Poor Ben had to face most of the ceiling alone as my shoulder is uncooperative and rather painful when stretching upwards. Despite this we made an excellent team and kept the whole thing going, stopping for lunch, which was enjoyed whilst sitting outside on the wall 🙂
Step 2:
Post lunch began with another scrambling activity; the commencement of the priming for the parts that needed to be painted. It was mostly a lot of scratches and scrapes and old screw holes. The primer had to stay on for 30 minutes and again be kept wet, whilst also remembering where all the patches were.
Step 3:
Next up was the painting, which as you can imagine I enjoyed. Ben was tasked to paint the bits on the doors that were higher up as I had trouble reaching them, but we managed to get everything done in record time. We even found ourselves with some spare time and decided to tape out the windows to get a better idea of size and placement. As mentioned previously we’ve agonized over the windows for some time, and although it seems like a silly thing to get so caught up on, we think it’s going to be important later when sat in the van looking for inspiration from our surroundings.
Finished!
We also had time to tape out a rough layout of the furniture, which really helped us to see a few potential problems with our plans. It highlighted a problem with the seating and table placement which will affect the enjoyment of those pesky windows! I am going to go back to the drawing board with Sketchup to see what else I can come up with. Wish me luck!