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Part 12: The Furnace, or why my projects take forever

On to the tall cabinet, and here's the part all of my projects seem to hit. It took me ten years to restore my Mustang because, among other similar bits of wackiness, I devoted six months to building just the right radio. In this instance, the previous owner had removed the original icebox and enlarged the opening to accommodate a refrigerator. A perfectly serviceable refrigerator, fine shape, but definitely not the right look. I hunted without much luck for a decent original icebox, thinking I'd install one of the Dometic remote compressor refrigeration systems, before I found a small refrigerator with appropriate aesthetics for less money than most of the ratty iceboxes I found were going for. It's about four inches shorter than the refrigerator that's already in there, which, subtracting a half inch for the thickness of a supporting shelf, gave me 3 1/2" of space for something useful. PO's refrigerator. Nifty new refrigerator in front o
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Part 11: Tow vehicle and beginning interior cabinets

I realized as I put this post together that it covers almost exactly a year's worth of work. My schedule this summer has been much tighter than last, so I haven't had nearly as much time to work on the Cardinal. As if I didn't have enough distractions, I stumbled on a tow vehicle I couldn't pass up- not quite what I was looking for, but it's been entirely too much fun in the five months we've had it. I've  been driving it to work every day to get the bugs worked out after sitting for the last 30 years or so. Not for the introverted. 1955 Ford Courier sedan delivery with a National ambulance conversion, a bit over 50k miles, has a spiffy rear folding jump seat and a passenger's bucket that swivels to face it. Last fall I'd discovered why the laminate on the table and countertop were so badly degraded- they weren't laminate at all, but prefinished 1/4" Masonite. The kitchen countertop was backed up by plywood only around the sink,

Part 10: New floor and floorcovering

New joists installed and new biscuit-joined floor cut from the template I'd made earlier.   I was pleasantly surprised that the new floor was as stiff as it was with nothing but butt-joint biscuits holding it together- the temporary braces I'd planned on installing turned out to be completely unnecessary. I'd originally planned on installing the floor as one big biscuited piece, but out of concern for the muscleworthiness of my help I decided to join the last 24" piece in place on the trailer frame, since it can slide straight in from the back. Test fit for new floor. I assumed I'd have some trimming to do, but it fit perfectly the first time. New floor back out and on the work platform, Marmoleum relaxing overnight prior to trimming. Cutting this with shears outside the trailer is a breeze compared to trying to trim it in place. Pattern is #3423 Painter's Palette, pretty wild period pattern which should be a champ for hiding camp d

Part 9: Running out of things to disassemble

It's been a busy six months since the last post, and much has happened. I replaced all of the skirts and sills and reframed a goodly portion of the curb side. I ditched the generic whitewood I'd ripped for this previously (most of which I ended up recycling as bracing), and bought a load of poplar instead. Much, much stiffer, nice stuff. In the name of overkill I even cut the wheel openings from solid slabs of 8/4 poplar, rather than the random nailed-together chunks of 3/4" fir the factory used. Kreg screwed together, it adds a huge amount of rigidity to the whole wall.   There was some sidewall damage from a stress crack in the skin near the door- that's a false back in the tall cabinet that a PO put in to conceal the damage, yuck. You can see where I've cut back the floor to give access to replace the rotten sills (all of them). I left the cabinets in as along as possible in order to provide support to the walls while cutting out the rot.