Howdy! This Saturday was a bit exciting! We were woken up by this! A work van had tried to park in front of my car, and took the corner too tightly, scraping off my bumper. Obviously, we were all still asleep, so no one was injured, and since we're still under Pandemic Shutdowns, we're not really going anywhere, it's a huge bummer, but not a big deal ;) Insurance is already getting everything all taken care of :)
Anyways, after some of the excitement died down, we decided to pick low-hanging fruit from Maude - we finished up with the rivets attaching Maude's shell to her frame. I didn't remember to take any pictures, but you've seen us do riveting and rivet shaving before ;) Just know that it's done and she looks gorgeous! ;)
On Sunday, however, we decided to tackle a bigger project - removing and resealing the window frames!
On Sunday, however, we decided to tackle a bigger project - removing and resealing the window frames!
We started by removing the rain gutter from the window. We punched each rivet, then drilled them all out.
This is the sealant that we're going to be replacing. Still sticky, but REALLY dirty and, because of the leaking we're still getting, not exactly functioning ;)
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Removed the window! And even more nasty sealant! We're pretty sure this is where the bulk of our leaking was coming from :)
Here, Mike was reshaping the rain gutter. He's taken some blacksmithing classes, and while this aluminum was reshaped while cold, a lot of the same metal-movement properties still apply! He did an awesome job, and you'll get to see it back in place in a bit!
While Mike was reshaping the rain gutter and cleaning up Maude's shell where the window attaches, I was cleaning the window frame! I used acetone to get off all of the old sealant and to clean it up as best I could. Unfortunately, there's a bit of oxidation of the aluminum from all of the years of getting peed on by mice (blech!). The frame isn't looking as new as I had hoped. We'll make some decisions later about the best way to make them look clean. (Maybe sand them? Maybe sand and paint? We'll do more research and see what sounds like the best course of action :) )
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Once we got everything all cleaned up, we applied new sealant stripping to the frame and replaced the window!
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Riveting the frame back into place!
Prior to replacing the rain gutter, Mike polished around it so that polishing would be easier later. The polisher tends to grab onto corners and rip them loose ;)
This one window took us 4 hours and looks almost exactly like when we started! LOL! But at least we know that the seals are all new and working well :) We still need to remove and replace the panes of glass before the entire window will be completely waterproof, but we're almost there!
Only 6 more windows to go! LOL!
Until next time! Keep on staying healthy :) <3 Becca
This one window took us 4 hours and looks almost exactly like when we started! LOL! But at least we know that the seals are all new and working well :) We still need to remove and replace the panes of glass before the entire window will be completely waterproof, but we're almost there!
Only 6 more windows to go! LOL!
Until next time! Keep on staying healthy :) <3 Becca
