In the Mean Time...

    In my last post, I explained how I built the trims that will frame the camper sides, so now the big time-consuming task is to get them stained and polyurethaned.  When the big curved trims are laid out in the shop for finishing, it really limits what I can do in there, but there are a couple of details that I can go ahead and get squared away.  One is installing the exterior "porch" lights on the sides of the camper, and the other is to make a cover for the electrical junction box in the cabin.  Both are sort of fussy little projects that require minimal space and dust to complete.
    I bought the porch lights a long time ago when I was first trying to figure out how exactly the electrical system would work.  By the time I finally got around to preparing to install them, I realized that there were two problems with them; they are white (I have decided that everything on the exterior of the camper is to be wood  or black or silver, no white) and they have incandescent bulbs (all my other lights have more efficient LEDs).  So begins the saga of trying to rectify these two unacceptable attributes.  First, I searched for an LED version of the lights or something similar, in black, but could not find one that had the switch on it.  After deciding that what I was looking for did not exist, I opted to paint the cases and order LED cluster bulbs to replace the incandescent ones.  I received the LED bulbs, rigged up the lights to test them,.... they no work.  Luckily, Amazon is good about returning stuff, and after getting another set of LED cluster bulbs (exactly the same thing, different manufacturer) and testing them, they work fine.  I'm not sure they don't work a bit too well; I'll be the guy in the next campsite with the ridiculously bright light shining through the side of your tent.  At least I won't be the guy with the generator and television glow or the guy blaring "Credence Clearwater Revival's Greatest Hits" on repeat all night (Laura, you know what I'm talking about).  Too bright or not, incandescent bulb problem solved.  Now to make them black.  This too, turned out to be more difficult than it should have been.  I masked off the inside of the light, taped the switch and sprayed them with Krylon Fusion paint, specially formulated to bond to plastic.  Sounds great, right?  Well, in the process of installing and testing the lights, I found that the paint was really easy to scratch off.  This irritating discovery sent me back to the computer looking for an alternative again.  Literally one of the first things that came up on Amazon was a very similar looking, black, LED, light, with the switch on it; Where was this thing hiding the first time I looked for it !?!  The problem now, is that I have already drilled holes in my camper for the screws and the wires for the lights that I have.  Thoroughly annoyed, I decided to take the lights off, touch up the black, and spray them with a clear coat, as was suggested by a friend.  Hopefully the clear coat will be a tougher surface and lock the black down a little better.  If not, I may be revisiting this puzzle in the future.  For now, it will have to do.  I am done messing around with it.

The light masked off and ready to be painted (the first time)

Painted Black

The light installed, with LED bulb, and a shiny topcoat

The blue box is located just above the interior dome light.  Because of the low draw from the LEDs I was able to branch the exterior lights off of the dome light circuit.

     The task of covering the electrics in the forward bulkhead would be prove to give me far less trouble than the lights did.  I used a piece of 1/8" maple left over from the ceiling stock as the face of the cover.  After mitering a frame around the back of it I drilled holes through it, into the bulkhead.  Next, I installed posts in the bulkhead that would allow me to attach and detach the cover using cap screws.  Finally, I ran  a molding around the under side of the forward cabinet to give the whole assembly a finished look.

Here you can see the attachment posts and the mitered ends of the molding that will receive the cover panel.

The cover installed

Ta da! wiring, officially hidden.

     I know this episode of the "The Little Trailer Project" wasn't earth shattering excitement, but as the title of Primus's greatest hits album proclaims, "They can't all be zingers".  This is the reality of building anything.  There are some big steps that have a sort of instant gratification aspect to them, but mostly the end product is the accumulation  of lots of little chores, all of which require time and none of which is particularly noteworthy.  In fact, those "instant gratification" moments have many hours of not particularly noteworthy work behind them.  Those trims that I hope to get onto the camper as soon as possible, for example, will make a striking visual difference all at once on the day of installation.   That said, there will be countless hours of very boring and tedious sanding, staining, finishing and waiting, finishing and waiting, finishing and waiting, you get the picture, that will be undocumented and with any luck quickly forgotten by me.  This is all really just to say that, if you are thinking that this episode was lacking in "bippity, boppity, boo", I can assure you, it's far more interesting than "finishing and waiting".  Maybe my fairy godmother will visit me before my next post.