Racing the clock for project completion

Today I made more progress on the ambulance to camper conversion. Removed all the pinstripping. Also discovered the “paint” on the passenger side door was not actually paint. It was red decal material, the stuff I’ve learned to hate. My patience was all used up on removing the first half of it. My lovely wife volunteered to remove the rest, saving what little was left of my sanity. With her long nails she was better at it that I was.

The lightbar will not come off in one piece. When the ambulance was built, they bolted in the lightbar before finishing the interior. Too much of the interior would have to be destroyed to get to the bolts. Instead, I’m disassembling it from the outside in and saving all the pieces for reassembly later.

Removing hardware and sanding is next. There may be a clear day or two coming up. If all goes well, I’ll get some paint on the beast before the snow flies. Once painted, it’s on to registration and inspection. The rest of the conversion will go better once it’s road legal.

My lovely wife stained lumber for another project I promised to work on. Once the wood is ready, the rest of the assembly can be done inside.

There are boat projects still in the works. My buddy is still putting coat after coat of marine varnish on my custom tiller. The new cabin hatch with solar electric panel mount is partially completed, but that project was pushed back when the ambulance arrived.

The UPS van showed up at my place today. My Florida and the Bahamas cruising guides came in. That’s what all the hustle is about. I want to sail on those warm waters so bad I can taste it. After a hard day working on projects, I often spend my evenings studying charts and planning trips.

There’s a lot of craziness going on in the world right now. Very little of it can be affected by my actions, but I do what I can. Once all my projects are completed, I’ll be more than ready to head south, out of the frost lands. The world’s problems can’t really be left behind, but some days we go sailing and forget about them for a while.

All I have to do is get these darn projects finished in time.

-Sixbears