Woohoo - almost there!

Today started with tightening down the vent cover a little more and putting caulk over the screws. That should keep water out. If not then perhaps I shall replace the screws with rivets and see how that works. For this operation I'd use aluminium rivets rather than steel.

For good measure I also replaced all of the top front amber marker lights. Don't they look lovely? The one on the right I'll have to reconnect the wire because I dropped it inside the wire bay. This is, of course, why I put an access hatch in that very wire bay several years ago.

Having done the top 3 marker lights I thought I'd work on another marker light. This one was a fearsome problem. Neither of the screws would undo and the solution was to cut the heads off with an air saw. They wouldn't shift with pliers and I couldn't have got vice-grips into the space to remove the screws - not that I could find the vice-grips anyway.

Once the aluminium bracket was removed, pliers removed the first screw easily but the second was very challenging. I had to find those vice grips.

Some cursing and hunting then a flash of inspiration found the vice grips lurking in a tool box that I'm not really using. Clamping them on the screw actually shifted the screw just as I'd got to the point I was thinking of cutting it off and drilling two new screw holes.

Having removed the last screw it was time to sand and spray then drill out the screw holes to install 8-32 rivnuts. Since the existing lighting uses 8-32 machine screws I figured I might as well be consistent.

And lo, within a couple of hours the last amber light was in place, all correctly wired. I'll have to get to the access hatch for the front light at some point in the future. All that needs doing is for the wire to be plugged into the connector that fell inside.

I did want to redo the side roof level light but the tube of Dynotron caulk looked as though it was at its end. I'll have to buy another tube. I didn't want to start something I couldn't finish and what with today being the 4th of July and hence a US public holiday, I didn't think the car parts store would be open.

I have a nasty feeling the roof vent might have more of a leakage problem than my old vent. I will have to wait for a heavy rainshower to see if this is so. If it is then I'll have to add some kind of cowl to it. That need not be an engineering challenge. All it has to do is to block driving rain. A simple curved metal sheet with legs riveted into the sides and front of the vent would suffice. I'll cross that bridge when it arises.

So, my next thing will be the two red marker lights, redoing the one roof marker and plugging in the other marker. Once that is all done there are two roof seams that need attention and then it's brakelines, the battery and tyres. 

At some point I'll also put the window covers up, redo the right wiper mount plus the small electrical stuff inside. Then I'll have to try it on another camping expedition.