There is something inherently Zen about anything in quantity “one thousand”.  These are “6-6 Closed End” rivets direct from jersey that should be a watertight seal when done.  i sure f’n hope so, i’ve burned throu a couple hundred now.

a Faraday cage is only as good as the smallest hole.  same thing for rodent proofing.  started with the biggest holes and working down to the smallest.

most of these where hatches for the appliances which are all gone now of course.

both sides of the door frame required complete rebuild of the footer and frame as someone apparently pried open the extra added locks.  i’ve got the original door handle working again and that’s all i’ll likely do, locks are really only for honest people.

and this was hiding under some aluminum foil.

easier to replace the footer than to try and align all those rivet holes.

so excited about things coming together i even moved my bench in !!

and now that all the walls are secured again, time to deal with all the roof issues.

removed all the trims, borrowed a good friend’s pressure washer, down to the bare metal is as far as it goes.  can see clearly now how previous owner took off too much of the AlClad pure Al layer with something rotary (sander?).  bozo flat headed all the backed rivets and shook half of them loose too.

the steel lights did the worst damage to the aluminum.  only way to find out if it there is enough aluminum left underneath is to remove all the oxide layers.  i’m kinda fascinated how the Fe (iron) migrated onto the aluminum, the lights might have been plated (Cr) or dipped (Zn)….

above before and below after quick hit with medium wire brush wheel.

no, actually the worst damage was the tweakers.  my lock will be easier to open than that one was…..

finally back to work on Two.  the wet winter and missing roof vent covers means the remaining floor is coming out fairly easily.  the original plywood is in amazing strong shape where the over cover chipboard didn’t rot it away.   since i’m not taking the shell all the way off, this is as far as i can do at once, three sheets of new plywood, then do the other half once the front shell is re-attached.  THIS is my summer art project !!!

frame is in good shape.  time spent now on the frame before laying the new ply will be time well invested. some cleaning, wire brushing, sulfuric acid, primer, seal coat, yeah.  whole lot of littles ahead !!!!

and then all again on the back half…