CitaPita...Carmen 59 Posted September 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 It was chilly today, in the 50's which was a complete wake up call. We're inching closer and closer to time for our trip. My ticker is scaring me. Can we possibly finish Polly Luna in time for our trip? DH and I have even been talking about the dreaded contingency plan if we don't get Polly ready in time. I have to remind myself that the important part is the trip itself and not how we get there. Supposedly. So last I left off we were doing some totally professional body work patching holes and injecting Bondo botox into the stretch marks in the fiberglass gel coat. Pretty much every hour of the last several weekends has been devoted to these efforts and I'm glad to say that we're finally seeing the faintest hint of the light at the end of the tunnel. But before I get to that, here are a few highlights. At some point before she came to live with us, Polly Luna's original door handle busted. Instead of purchasing a direct replacement, a previous owner just cut a giant hole in the side of the door and installed a generic RV door handle. Why?! After a light amount of internet sleuthing we were able to find a direct replacement for the original door handle. It wasn't the cheapest, but totally worth it considering the "new" door handle wasn't even working anymore. Unfortunately, the hole in the door was far too large for filler. DH decided the best thing to do would be to fill the void with a piece of aluminum first, then use our friend Bondo to smooth it out. After the Bondo and **spoiler alert** filling primer, this is what the door looks like. After tackling the patching of major body boo-boos we decided to ignore the little blemishes we didn't have time to fix (after all, Polly earned those battle scars) and start seriously prepping the body for paint. My favorite part of this process was running the sand-blaster on the aluminum body panels. It's time consuming but really satisfying. A before shot: During: And some photographic proof that I'm thinking of you guys even when I'm not posting: After we finished the final sanding and sand blasting we made the big move from my in-laws driveway to the back yard. It's the first time we've moved Polly more than a few feet since we made that field trip to the hardware store a few months ago. She did beautifully. BradyBzLyn...Mo 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DaveInTN 3,247 Posted September 12, 2014 Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 I'm so happy to see an update to this story. Poly is looking great these days! Looking forward to seeing how the paint goes on.....and how the inside is coming along. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DramaMama .......... Janet 75 Posted September 12, 2014 Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 Yahoo! An update! Looking good. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799 Posted September 12, 2014 Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 Looking good! Love the ff.net shout out!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CitaPita...Carmen 59 Posted September 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 Looking good! Love the ff.net shout out!!! Thanks! I would have drawn Snarky, but my skills with the sand-blaster aren't quite that advanced. :) BradyBzLyn...Mo 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted September 12, 2014 Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 You're moving right along! Can't wait to see it all finished. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tri-Circle-D 2,059 Posted September 12, 2014 Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 What a great update! This project sure has been a lot of work for you. I can't wait to see the end result. TCD Quote Link to post Share on other sites
twiceblessed....nacole 433 Posted September 12, 2014 Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 Excited to see the update! You guys are doing a GREAT job! Keep at it :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fladogfan aka Gretchen 259 Posted September 12, 2014 Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 I've been thinking about Poly the last few days and wondering how you were doing. Thanks for the good news about her. Your sand blasted Mickey head looks pretty good to me. I say, try a Snarky next time. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AC in A2......Aaron 693 Posted September 12, 2014 Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 Looking good! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Katman1356...Jason 1,140 Posted September 20, 2014 Report Share Posted September 20, 2014 So recently I was driving around CT for work and came across something I had not seen in person before. But I immediately recognized what it was due to this thread. Sorry no pics from the front. I didnt want to freak the owners out. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023 Posted September 20, 2014 Report Share Posted September 20, 2014 Ooh, I missed this update last week! Love the sand blasting shout out. :) I'm betting on y'all to get Polly to the Fort in November, even if she's not "perfect" yet. And I am still in awe of your patience and persistence. Rock on! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CitaPita...Carmen 59 Posted September 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 20, 2014 Jason that is AWESOME! :jumpforjoy :jumpforjoy :jumpforjoy That Travco is in much better shape than Polly at the moment, but we'll get there. Thanks for the pics and the inspiration! We're headed over to do the final sanding today. Bought our paint yesterday...the color turned out a bit different than we anticipated but we're locked into it now. No going back! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Katman1356...Jason 1,140 Posted September 20, 2014 Report Share Posted September 20, 2014 Jason that is AWESOME! :jumpforjoy :jumpforjoy :jumpforjoy That Travco is in much better shape than Polly at the moment, but we'll get there. Thanks for the pics and the inspiration! We're headed over to do the final sanding today. Bought our paint yesterday...the color turned out a bit different than we anticipated but we're locked into it now. No going back! Polly will get there. You guys have been doing a great job. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CitaPita...Carmen 59 Posted September 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 Stay close to your computers tonight, Polly Luna fans. Major update tonight! We had a very good day. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CitaPita...Carmen 59 Posted September 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 Before I dive into this one, I just have to warn you that I might turn up the cheese a bit in the next two updates. A bit more than usual, that is. We've been working so hard on Polly Luna. Practically every minute of every weekend for the entire summer has been spent with either a power tool or a piece of sandpaper in hand. I've flat out forgotten what it's like to have free time. My kids, too, have probably forgotten what it's like to just stay home on the weekends and not jet off to Grandma's to work on Polly as soon as our eyelids have opened. I guess what I'm saying is that we've worked so hard, and this weekend is the first time I've really felt rewarded for what we've put into the old girl. So, let's begin where we left off. We pulled Polly into my in-laws back yard. The neighbors were probably over the moon. The eyesore was finally hidden from view! Josh took one last fancy panorama picture before the transformation started. *note the version of E in the middle with three arms * First order of business was tape (we had started this in the picture above). Everything we didn't want to paint was covered with either tape or plastic. This was a much more frustrating process than we thought it would be since we very quickly discovered that painters tape doesn't like to stick to itself. The final recipe we used was painters top on the bottom, plastic sheeting in the middle and Gorilla tape to stick the sheeting to the painters tape. Yes, Gorilla tape. After our first efforts at adding the sheeting blew away in the wind, we stopped messing around and went right to the good stuff. Once her windows and other bits were properly protected, we got started on the part we'd be waiting on. Polly Luna was finally going to be a solid color again. Albeit, that color was gray. The "paint" Josh is laying on here is actually a high-build surfacer known as Slick Sand. The idea is that if you have a few blemishes on the body you put this stuff on, then sand it smooth. Since we had more than just a few blemishes, we thought this would be a great idea. But note the part I just said about how after you spray this on you have to sand it down? Fun times, especially since this time we used fancy automotive sanding blocks and hand sanded instead of using our now tired and kind-of broken orbital sanders. And as if the fact that hand sanding hadn't upped the difficulty level enough, my back chose this time to majorly go out. Josh was alone for the sanding. He managed to finish sanding all 27' x 2 in one weekend. I should ask him where he keeps that magic wand... Once the Slick Sand was appropriately slick, it was time for yet another coat of gray. This time, 2k primer, which is a build-able primer that helps fill small blemishes. You can see that after working so hard to sand Polly, we were getting a bit paranoid about those stretch marks making an appearance in the final product. So, anyone want to guess what happened after the two coats of primer were covering Polly? If you guessed that we spent another few days with sandpaper in our hands then you win one of FF's newly minted gold stars. We hand-sanded the entire body down to 400 grit, then cleaned the dust away with a gentle pressure wash. When the primer was wet you could see colors in the reflection. That's a positive sign. Next update (in just a few minutes): Polly puts her clothes back on. BradyBzLyn...Mo 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CitaPita...Carmen 59 Posted September 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 I'd like to stop a moment to express how amazing it felt to finally be ready for paint. The feeling was a mix of relief, trepidation, worry that we had missed something, but most of all, hopeful. Josh and I took a day off work to drive to the nearest shop where we could have our paint mixed for us. It was a great day, a little shopping, lunch at one of our favorite places and some final sanding on Polly. Yes, this is what a date looks like for us. We chose our paint color a few months ago. Our first thought was to keep Polly Luna in a stock Travco color, but none of them really appealed to us. We settled on keeping the traditional look of the vehicle (white mid-body stripe and roof), but decided to do an untraditional color for the main body areas. After looking through years of old Dodge vehicles, we found it. It's a color that originated on Dodge trucks in 1954 and just happened to fit nicely with our beach wagon theme. The color we chose was Banner Green. First order of business was laying on the white stripe and roof. For this we picked a creamy white that reminds me of melted vanilla ice cream. After it dried (supposedly), we taped off the areas we wanted to keep white. More plastic sheeting and the useful Gorilla tape made a second appearance. Time to bring on the green. Cover your eyes, folks, because the next picture is a little scary. Don't worry, I was scared, too. This was the first coat and I think it looks a little like a radioactive pickle. Also, you may have noticed that we painted our tires. That was our way of saving money on whitewalls. Great idea, right?! . . . Just kidding, we're getting new tires next week so we didn't care if they got a little messy. :) Finally, three coats of Banner Green coated the rig and it was time to remove the tape to see what we had done. Here is Polly Luna's new dress. I hope you like her! I think she's beautiful. But then I always did, even before we woke her up a bit. BradyBzLyn...Mo 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799 Posted September 28, 2014 Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 Wow !!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fladogfan aka Gretchen 259 Posted September 28, 2014 Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 I love Poly's color!!! That looks very professional. All your hard work is paying off. So pleased for you. And your girls are so cute. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Lou... 3,118 Posted September 28, 2014 Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 I think Polly Luna has always had nice lines and now they're even nicer. The color combination is one of my favorites. Here's one of my creations, notice anything. BradyBzLyn...Mo, fladogfan aka Gretchen and CitaPita...Carmen 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DramaMama .......... Janet 75 Posted September 28, 2014 Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 She is just gorgeous! Your hard work is really paying off. May she have many, many more years of adventures in her! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CitaPita...Carmen 59 Posted September 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 I think Polly Luna has always had nice lines and now they're even nicer. The color combination is one of my favorites. Here's one of my creations, notice anything. Lou, that is fantastic! I have a thing for old gas stations, too. You have really good taste. :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CitaPita...Carmen 59 Posted September 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 Wow !!! I love Poly's color!!! That looks very professional. All your hard work is paying off. So pleased for you. And your girls are so cute. She is just gorgeous! Your hard work is really paying off. May she have many, many more years of adventures in her! Thank you for the support you guys! It really does help motivate us. More work happening today. We're going to be putting the trim back on and we're finally installing the new door handle permanently. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023 Posted September 28, 2014 Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 OMG AMAZING!! Love this update. The transformation even just to this point is just incredible. I'm excited that I get to see the "new and improved" Polly in person in November. And meet y'all of course! :) CitaPita...Carmen 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
alexwyattmommy 181 Posted September 28, 2014 Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 I love that color. I think she looks great. Kudos to you and your family for getting it done. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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