The work started slowly on Tuesday morning. I think they wanted full sun on the living room slide-out wall before they removed the clamps and added the last two panels.

One of the guys routered out the window openings for the living room window and the front half of the galley window. While they were working on this, another worker named Steve knocked on the door. Steve is the painter who will put the finish on the wall.

He found paint codes for the colors but didn’t have any information on the actual paint system used. He asked me if I knew what it was – he was looking for a brand name like Sikkens or Dupont.

I knew the original supplier was Industrial Finishes in Eugene, Oregon but I didn’t know for sure what they used. They were the supplier for Western RV and Monaco and maybe others as well. I called Industrial Finishes and they were very helpful. They told me the paint was custom-blended two-stage base coat/clear coat called Diamant from BASF. They also told me the old paint codes are useless – they’re obsolete and don’t reference to a formula. He said the painter should call them and they would provide the formulas needed. I relayed this information to Steve.

In the afternoon, they put the two rear panels in place. This was a repeat of the work performed the day before, but it went a little quicker because the panels were smaller and easier to handle.

Rear panels in place

Last night, I heard something crashing down to the ground. I took a flashlight and went out to investigate. The smaller upper board applying pressure against the panel had fallen down. I used a ladder and put it back in place. Sometime in the night it fell off again, but I think the adhesive was set up well enough by then.

They draped a padded blanket over the living room window to give us a little insulation overnight – there’s plastic sheeting on the inside. The outside temperature was 39 degrees when we got up this morning and it was 59 in the coach.

I fired up an electric heater in the living room and the heat pump in the bedroom. My front heat pump won’t run – I think I need to install a hard start capacitor, but I won’t get to that until we leave RV Renovators. I can’t work on my coach while we’re here due to their insurance regulations.

Oscillating electric heater

The temperature reached 75 degrees yesterday with calm winds. We expect more of the same today. Donna went down to the FedEx office to work at one of their work stations and escape the noise of the shop. She’s had 8 articles due over the past two weeks and finally got caught up on her work.

Living at the workshop hasn’t been the ideal set-up – but we’re adaptable. At least we have nice weather instead the cold, windy, rainy conditions we had the first week here. I mentioned in a previous post that Donna is ready to get away from it all and take a break from work.

She’s leaving for what she’s calling a personal health and wellness retreat early Friday morning and flying to a Puerto Rican island called Vieques (map). She traveled there about 20 years ago and wants to re-visit the quiet beaches. She’ll be gone for a week recharging her batteries.

Meanwhile, I’ll hang out here to ensure the work gets completed without any hitches. I’ve heard many a horror story of work coming to a standstill when the coach is left unoccupied. I can understand how it happens – I managed a car dealership service department many years ago. There’s always some kind of fire drill and workers can get pulled off a job if there’s something seemingly more urgent that needs to be done – I don’t want that to happen.

Today they’ll grind the seams and fill them, then lay up fiberglass over the seams. After this sets up, the next step will be to sand the seams flat. At that point, the wall will be one continuous fiberglass composite sheet and we’ll be ready for paint. The paint job will take a week – there are four colors involved and a lot of complex masking to get the pattern right.

If all goes as planned, we’ll be out of here at the end of next week when Donna returns from Vieques.