The Expensive Adventure of Chico Dakota.
by Hopalong Blue Bird
His paycheck hit the bank with a cheerful “ding!”, and Chico fired up ye olde
Dodge and headed for the Dakotas. No, no. No good.
Try again: Chico picked up his hard-earned paycheck and got outt’a Dodge
in his trusty Dakota. Still not right.
Here: With the paycheck in the glove box, I headed for Chico in my Dodge
Dakota. Ah, that’s more like it. Gotts’ta get ME in there! And Chico is a
nearby town. And a Dodge Dakota is a little pickumuptruck.
Monday morning. Just trying to wake up. Big bandaid on my typing finger. (grunt.
belch. scratch. it gets worse, but this is a nice web site.) Yiiikes! Yogurt in the
tooth paste tube!? Oh, yeah -- yesterday was April Fools Day.
Ah! The snap shots. Maybe that will help.
Oooo... much better. We do windows! And I made sure that Peter used his polite
finger for pointing this time.
To sort it all out... I spent a paycheck in Chico the other day. Chico is home to
Affordable RV Surplus -- a cozy little back street business that sells junk RV
parts. Salvage. Used. Rejects. Take-outs. Warranty returns. Overstock.
Whatnot. Lots of whatnots. And windows.
Reportedly, these big tinted dual pane windows that slide open and have bug
screens cost something like $650,- each, full list price. The Dodge carried three
of those home, plus two smaller ones reported at $450,- a piece, for A Grand.
Sure, those “cool” modern black frames are scratched and dirty, but so is the rest
of Millicent. And her owner, for that matter. All the functional elements seem to
be there -- on both of us. The window screens aren’t even torn, but I cannot say
that about my socks.
(Most of Affordable’s window inventory are single pane. And many are missing
the screen or inside trim. I cherry picked!)
Now. I’ve come up with two methods for installing windows, and I’m using both.
I’m just like that -- versatile.
The right side of Millicent already had the skins in place, and no provisions for
windows yet, so there I’m “retrofitting” the windows into one large skin panel.
This is called “failure to plan ahead”.
The left side wasn’t skinned yet, so there I’m fitting the window first, and then
adding the skin in three smaller sections. This is certainly the better/easier way
to do it.
There will be two big windows on the right, and one on the left. Each requires
removal of one window pillar. Here goes the first:
Then we weld in the horizontal above the window: (This picture was taken after
the opening was cut out.)
The skin was riveted to the new horizontal with small rivets that will be hidden
under the window frame, and the opening cut out:
Over on the left, it was MUCH easier to work without the skin in the way. Here
we are trial fitting before welding in the new horizontal:
Why did Chico Dakota change horses in mid stream and suddenly go looking for
windows in the middle of the skinning work? Pure fluke. That Gillig I was babbling
about somewhere around here was located just ten miles from Chico, so I figured
it was time to throw two rocks with.... Oh... Monday!
The third opening is still to be done. Fastening the windows will be next.
Or some time.