Unspringing the Chevy Door

We made our stop in Wells Nevada on a very very windy day. When we pulled into a gas station we were unfortunately headed downwind and the wind grabbed the door out of my hand and whipped it open. Boom! a sprung hinge. I got it closed, but it wouldn’t open. So now what?

Wendy jumped online and quickly found a blog that described what someone did to fix the door of their Chevy Impala. It even had sketches and a few photos. I took the hint and went looking for something more specific to a Chevy Silverado. After consulting several more blog sites, I decided the first thing I would try is the old “jam the hinge and unjamb the door” trick. This is where you open the door (if you can), insert some sort of block into the hinge, and gently slam it a few times to bend back the stuff that got bent when it swung too far out. 

The symptom for my door was that it was popped out about 1/16” away from the centerline of the truck, that is the door got “wider”.

The door sprung out just a tiny bit, enough to jam

When I tried to open the door, the leading edge hung up on the trailing edge of the fender. I didn’t want to scratch or bend either of them, so I decided to try a little persuasion. I applied painters tape to both edges to act as both a protectant and a lubricant when I tried to get them to slide by each other. Painters tape has a waxy surface, so I thought it might help.  I used a screwdriver in the gap and gently pried and pushed until the door slid open. 

Painters tape applied so it wraps into the gap

 

Painters tape and a screwdriver let the door slide by the fender

Once the door was open I could examine the two hinges to see what bent. In this case it looked like both the hinges on the top and bottom pulled a little away from the jamb and door.

Upper hinge at jamb side before the fix

 

Door side Upper hinge before the fix

I needed something that was a little smaller than the open gap in the hinge. I tried a couple of sockets from my wrench kit, but they were either too short or too long. I settled for the head of my mini-crescent wrench. Perfect! I jammed it into the gap of both hinges, first at the top of the top hinge, then the bottom of the bottom hinge, then the bottom of the top, and finally the top of the bottom. A few gentle pulls toward me on each jam did the trick. Pull gently at first, then check the clearance of the door and fender, then pull some more if it needs it. You’ll get the feel of it pretty quickly.   

The head of the wrench goes into the hinge gap

 

Pull gently at first, then more firmly if needed

It went amazingly quick. Before I knew it there was a noticeable improvement in the hinges, mostly from bending back the sheet metal of the jambs. They fit much better. And the door opened and closed smoothly.

 

After the "Unsprong" jamming

This is such an easy fix it’s hard to believe that a body shop might get a few hundred bucks for it and keep your vehicle for a day or two. In fact, two of the online blogs described this procedure as a routine door adjustment on the Toyota assembly line at the NUMMI plant in Fremont California. If it’s good enough for Toyota, it’s good enough for me! The tools needed? Here’s more than what I needed! 

I really only needed the Mini Crescent Wrench

Tippy (remember he has NO opposable thumbs) still has a little to offer here. And don’t forget to scroll down below the “About W&W Mudd” and give us a “Like”! Our page rank has gotten the interest of Woodall’s, one of the best RV organizations around!

Posted in RV Repair | Leave a comment

Ah Memories! The Chilnualna Falls Hike

After spending a day last week hiking shoulder-to-shoulder with a swarm of tourists in Yosemite Valley we were hungry for a beautiful hike “far from the madding crowds”. 

The Yosemite Sardine Can

Of course, all of the falls were incredible as a result of huge snow fall in the area (see the Waterworks blog) but some solitude was what we were craving. 

Huge High Country Snowpack in Yosemite

Luckily, I remembered a hike I had done many times as a child and we wouldn’t have to drive the extra 30 miles to the Valley. Wawona is located just four miles from the South entrance on the way to Yosemite. This is where my family went every year for our 5 day vacation. It had to be in September because the only time dad could close the bakery was during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It meant taking a few days off of school but that wasn’t a problem back then. We stayed in a small two room cabin; all seven of us managed to share the one bathroom.

 
The 5 Day Vacation Cabin at Wawona

Elaine, Robert, Julie and I could go off and explore without a worry. There were swings, the river, lots of pine cones and it was always a thrill to see the first deer show up at our door…usually as dad was tending the barbeque. Before shuttles came to be, we actually drove to Yosemite and all around the valley making many stops to see the waterfalls and check out the water levels. In September the water levels were so low we could wade in the river.  Oops, I seem to have gotten myself back to another time – where was I going with this?  Oh yeah, the hike. I don’t know how he did it but dad managed to talk all of us into going on this very long hike to see a waterfall. Fifty some years ago I just remember being hot, tired and going back and forth on this very steep trail to get to some small pools of water at the very top. When I mentioned the hike to Warren, my thought was that I wanted to see if the hike was every bit as difficult as I remembered. Our spirit was good as we started the steep assent on this beautiful spring day but the ol’ bods took a mighty beating from this very strenuous trail. I didn’t remember the hike as it was but that’s because the beginning was very different with the amount of water we heard, saw and felt as cooling mist… and the granite staircases – so many steps! My sister, Elaine, confirmed that there were no granite stairs when we hiked years ago. We started the 8.2 mile hike at 11:15. 

The start of the Chilnualna Falls Trail
  
The lowest cascade at the trail start

The hike was labeled as strenuous and steep and lived up to all of that. We took our time, catching our breath while taking many photos of numerous falls along the trail. We had to cross over water about 5 or 6 times where side falls were flowing, but it was manageable. 

One of many small and seasonal side waterfalls

There was a lot of evidence of some of the big winter storms. Wendy stands in the gap cut through a big redwood that fell over the trail. The fresh cut redwood smelled great! 

A freshly fallen redwood

She also found a miniature cedar forest growing inside the hollowed out trunk of a much larger cedar felled many years ago.  

A Cedar Forest Diorama

And here’s one of a gnarly old oak that will someday get a gap cut into it after it falls over the trail. 

A very old and gnarly Oak

And a massive Sugar Pine that will probably stand for a few more  hundred years. 

Massive (but not old yet!) Sugar Pine

After a long 2 ½ hours we reached the staircase that leads to the top of the falls, and the climb proved worth it. 

The climb to the top of the falls

Chilnualna Falls

I think the photos say it all! We returned to the truck at 3:20 and almost forgot how much our knees and feet hurt as we ate our lunch reclining on the white Adirondack chairs outside of the historic Wawona Hotel. A perfect ending to our beautiful day. You can see a video highlight reel on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyBMXOgBOkI. And don’t forget to scroll down a little more for Tippy, and then below the “About the Authors” to “Like” our blog!

Wawona Adirondacks

And, of course, even though he doesn’t do TOO much hiking, Tippy has some hiking tips!
 
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

The Ultimate Mother’s Day Treat

I had a real tough time coming up with a clever gift for Wendy on Mother’s Day until I had a real epiphany. What mother wouldn’t just JUMP at the opportunity to recoat the roof of an RV with EPDM liquid rubber! This could explain why Wendy is my third wife, but I still think this is really “the gift that keeps on giving”.

This is really a technical blog, full of tips on roof maintenance for other RVers, so we will understand if you click away now and wait for our next installment. But, you never know if there might be a little gem buried in among the maintenance lessons, do you? And don’t forget to check out Tippy. And if you REALLY like us, skip to the bottom and click the “Like” button. We’re still trying to climb the ladder to the top of the Google search page…

Our roof was in dire shape. The previous owner had coated over it with a cheap paint, and last winter had really torn it up. It was blistered and peeling off in giant sheets. So we bit the bullet and decided it needed to be redone before it started leaking. 

BEFORE: Winter had really taken its toll

The estimate to have it done by someone else was about $3700, so we researched doing it ourselves and found it to be much more affordable. Because it was so much cheaper we decided to use the best stuff we could get, and EPDM Liquid Rubber from Pro Guard Coatings was the same material as our factory rubber roof. Tip: research all of the companies selling this product, we bought from one offering free shipping and saved a bunch of dough. 

You will need this stuff as well as the EPDM material

We gave it a little forethought and made a list of the tools and things we would need to get the job done. And we decided in advance that it was all going to be disposable since the cleanup promised to be a real bear. Two buckets, one with a pour spout, 2 squeegees (12″ and 16″), a pole for the larger squeegee, some painters tape, a paint mixing wand, a couple of 2″ brushes, a 5 pack of disposable gardening gloves (the type with rubber palms, ours cost $5 for 5 pairs), a big box of cloth/paper rags (at Lowe’s, $10 for a box of 200), and DON’T FORGET THE MINERAL SPIRITS. The only stuff that will really get the goo off of you.

Doing the roof is a 3 step process. First we had to strip off the old coating. Luckily it peeled off in big chunks so this whole part only took 2 hours. Next, we had to scrub the roof with a light soapy water solution, and this had to be done the night before. That only took us an hour. And then, because the weather was forecast to be a little cooler, we jumped out of bed on Mother’s Day and got right to it. A final sweep to clear off a few leaves, masking tape on the rain gutters to keep them from getting clogged up, and we then pre-mixed the EPDM with the catalyst. Because it was only about 60 degrees outside, we mixed in the catalyst and let it all sit for about 2 hours before applying. On a day warmer than 70 degrees, one hour of sitting after mixing is sufficient, but make it at least 1 hour.

 The material has a very long working time at 65-75 degrees. We mixed at about 8:30AM and finished about 12:30PM, and the remaining goo still had plenty of work time left in it. The liquid stops setting up below 50 degrees, so if you need to you can immerse cans or buckets of mixed material in an ice bath or your refrigerator to keep it workable for hours, days, even weeks.

We also remembered the rule about not painting yourself into a corner. Start at the front and work back toward the ladder! Wendy used a brush to cut in all of the vents and stuff on the roof, and also to edge the perimeter. I poured the material onto the roof in puddles and used a 16” squeegee attached to a 5’ pole to spread it. The instructions indicate that you can also use a roller, but I found the squeegee to be great at flowing the material onto the flat surfaces. You can push the puddle of goo away from you, and pull it toward you. Slow even strokes with some down pressure keeps the materrial flowing, and it just coveres the bare surface great! Our rig is 36’ long, and has 4 slides that also needed their roofs coated. 2 of the slides are 72” wide and 40” deep, and the other 2 are 72” X 20” deep. We purchased 6 gallons of Liquid Rubber and had well over ½ gallon left when we were done.  By the way, we bought the Liquid Rubber instead of the Liquid Roof. Liquid Roof is advertised specifically for RV roof coating, but the Liquid Rubber is exactly the same material, and without the RV name on the label it’s about $100 cheaper.

Cuttting in the front edge with a brush

Cut in anything going through the roof

Cut in the edges

At last, the finished product

Clean up was pretty easy. All of the stuff we bought for the application got thrown away after the material hardened. Using the disposable gloves kept a lot off of us, and mineral spirits worked like a charm on us and the roof ladder. 

The ladder, of course, bore the brunt of the mess

It took the 2 of us about 3 hours total (not counting the time the mixed material sat) to finish the coating part of the job. The peeling of the old coat was about 2 hours, and the scrub job was 1 hour. So we invested about $450 in materials ($350 for the Liquid Rubber, $100 for squeegees, paint brushes, buckets, painters tape, mineral spirits, disposable gardening gloves, disposable rags, and a mixing wand) and 6 hours of our time, including clean up, to save about $3200.

 There are lots of videos on applying Liquid Rubber on YouTube. And we put up some more of this job at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKNgsZ4LHyM.

Tippy doesn’t have opposable thumbs, so he couldn’t help us with this job. But he sure knows where to get the information to get it done!

Posted in RV Repair | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

For all the Moms on Mothers Day

First and foremost, Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms of the world! We all know who’s in charge, don’t we? To honor OUR moms we’ve posted up a couple of classic photos of Lil and Jane.

This one’s of Lil as a very young child. Quite the charmer!
 
 
 
 And here’s Jane as a young mom.
 

It doesn’t really matter how young or old our moms look in a photo, they never change in our hearts. They are made a mom in an instant, and they remain that way forever. And forever is a long, long time.

Lil has been gone for nearly 8 years now, but we still tell stories about how kind she could be to anyone who walked in the house, and how wickedly crafty she could be if you were sitting across the card table from her. Her kitchen was always open, and even if every scallop she ever cooked came out like a hockey puck, she never failed to put something good and yummy on the table. Her memorial was a thing to remember (such a crowded house that day!), and we all swear we can hear her pounding out the news on the family drum line like she so frequently did. 

Lil, Marion, Ruth, Dora, & Jeanette

 Jane still rules the roost in Escondido. My mom is the only person I know who has had more addresses than me. She ran our family a bit like a drill instructor mostly because she had to. She had enough boys to fill out a basketball team, and my only sister became the default cheerleader. I can’t imagine raising that many kids and keeping my sanity. 

Morgan, Mary, Emma & Jane

 Happy Mother’s Day. We love you.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Yosemite Waterworks Cinco de Mayo ’11

Our little trek to Yosemite yesterday was pretty darn spectacular. Of course, when spring is in the air, then everything is under repair, there. We’re used to seeing lots of road repair and tree removal, especially after the major winter the area had. But it’s still just as beautiful as ever! (except for the old guy standing in front of our camera).

I can never resist stopping for The Tunnel View

Don’t miss the link to our video farther down!

Our goals were two-fold: get a little exercise and fresh air, and check out how much water was pouring down from the snow pack. But, as it always is with our National Parks, we got so much more. We got stopped 3 times on the drive in for road repair crews, and this cut into the hiking time so we decided to concentrate our energies on just 2 treks. The first was a short but steep walk up to Vernal Falls. We weren’t thinking too much about the fact that we had gained a bit of altitude just being in Yosemite until we got about half way up the 1000 foot rise. Wow, what a climb! Luckily it’s a wide, paved trail with easy access, and you get some excellent natural air conditioning when you hit the bridge/view area.

That stream behind Wendy is usually a quiet little creek

 We also spotted Illilouette Fall from the Vernal Falls Trail. It’s usually hidden with a small flow, but it peaks in May, especially with the winter snow pack, and was running like a water cannon!

  

Illilouette Falls coming out of her shell for the spring

 Although we saw a ton of road repair, and it seemed like there were trees cut down virtually everywhere, for the first time ever we saw some trail repair going on. With all of the heavy run off, there was lots of trail erosion, so crews of forest service folks were busy cracking granite into chunks and hammering them into place.

These guys break rocks with their bare hands (sort of!)

And what trip to Yosemite would be complete without a beautiful panoramic photo of YosemiteFalls?

Yosemite Falls looks really dramatic in the spring

Check out the 2 minute highlight reel on YouTube (sound effects say it all!), (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8fHyqRIRXE). Don’t forget to scroll down and “Like” our post, and of course Tippy has to put his $.02 in!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Spring is in the Air

Aah, the smells and sounds of spring are in the air here in the Sierra foothills. We’re camped at one of our all-time favorite parks, Park Sierra SKP in Coarsegold CA. And at this time of year, the smells here are a luscious blend of flora and fresh air. And the sounds are all those you would want of a spring in the foothills: the chirp of the birds, the hammering of the woodpeckers, the buzz of the bees, the whirr of the swarm of golf carts going here-and-there, and an occasional hoot or howl from some form of wildlife. And then there are the weed whackers.

We arrived last Sunday and requested our favorite spot (#436 for those of you who might come to visit). It was available OK, but alas was scheduled for weed removal that was not yet complete. But wait! We can do that! What fun to have some real farming to do! So we happily accepted the overgrown site because it’s one of our very favorites, and promised like Boy Scouts to make our way to the utility shed to check out a couple of Stihl FSE 60’s, the tool of choice for the “occasional” weed trimmer.

The job was just a WEE bit larger than we imagined, but we rolled up our sleeves, stretched out the extension cords, and attacked. This particular site is about 100′ wide and about 90′ deep, with slopes on two sides that lead to the wonderful gully that anchors our privacy here. The weeds went from 24″ high to 3″ high in about 2 hours.

The Easy Part – Patio Edging
Watch it – She’s got a Weed Whacker!
The Reward – A beautiful Camp Site

Buzz buzz, whir whir, whack whack. And then, silence. The photos show us in action, and our reward, the beautifully landscaped site we will call home until May 14. So now we can kick back in silent splendor, well except for the OTHER weed whackers that buzz around for about 5 hours a day, and enjoy some beautiful late spring weather while we plan our travels to Glacier National Park.

 
Of course, Tippy always has SOMETHING to add, and don’t forget to scroll down and “Like” this page. We’re still climbing our way to the top of the Google search listings. And do us ONE MORE special favor. If you belong to Facebook (and you can always join just for this) navigate your way to http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Vintage-Fashion-Tips/199767710047295 and click the “LIKE” button. This way my Mom can get her cool URL for the fan page that will help us to sell her vintage sewing pattern collection so she can feed her cats.
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Gastropalooza II was a HUGE sucess!

 

We traveled to San Diego yesterday for Gastropalooza II, a day devoted to fine dining and friendship. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive each way, but well worth it! This is the second time that the Hartwell’s home has been the “G” spot (so to speak), and the garden was in full bloom for our feast. Fresh sweet peas and green beans, tender young green onions, a huge variety of salad greens, beets (with greens), and even a couple of artichokes donated from our niece Morgan’s garden all complimented the super sauted scallop salad that Frankie and Wally found on one of their favorite food shows, “Mexican Made Easy”. Add in grilled tiger shrimps and take us to heaven! But none of this got properly started until Wally rendered a round of Hartwell Pure Citrus Margaritas. Well, to be honest, he insured his success by starting everyone with shots of Milagro tequila. Which were downed while everyone drooled over his platter of fixin’s.

Wally’s Fruitopalooza Pure Citrus Margarita Fixins

 Take all of this stuff and add in Cabo Wabo, Cointreau, Grand Marnier and fresh squeezed lime juice and KABOOM!, it magically transforms into the Hartwell Pure Citrus Margarita!

The Hartwel Pure Citrus Margarita

 Frankie’s Kitchen is a true delight. It just LOOKS like good stuff to eat long before there has been any cooking done. Everyone is invited to jump into the preparation, and when just the right amount of Milagro’s and Hartwell Pure Citrus is poured into the crew a Gastropalooza jumps out of the pans and onto the plates! It’s a magical thing to see.

Frankie’s Kitchen – Gastropalooza II Central

 This happy group is about to chow down on the perfect early dinner for a very warm San Diego day. The salad contained fresh cut greens (don’t ask how many different kinds), scallops sauteed in a citrus anato marinade (which was also used to dress the salad), sugar sprinkled avocados grilled until carmelized, and grapefruit wedges. The tiger shrimp were also marinated in the anato sauce and grilled hot and fast. We warmed up our taste buds on grilled baby green onions and green beans, which were perfect just drizzled with olive oil and sea salt, and fresh garden peas and roasted artichokes with a small ranch dressing to dip.

The Dining was definitely Fine

 Of course, there is ALWAYS dessert. We somehow missed taking pictures of these, and I attribute that to the Hartwell Pure Citrus hand grenades. There was a “really homely but totally delicious” layer cake from Barbara, and Piggy Cake Pops from Wendy. If you are interested in cake pops, visit Morgan and her tutorial at The Little Hen House.

The Gastropaloozites

 A GREAT time was had by all, our thanks to Frankie and Wally, Barbara and Joe, and Mary and Jeff. We thought of each of you, and how nice it must have been to put your head on your pillow, as we make the long trek back to the rig in LA.

And now, don’t forget to “Like” this post so Hartwell gets his props. Oh yeah, and Tippy has a thing or two to say about things!

Posted in Gastropalooza | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

The Road Ahead – Spring 2011

We’ve been camped here in Northridge for over 3 weeks, and it’s getting close to time to move on. We tried to negotiate one more day (Sunday May 1) onto our stay but the park here can’t accomodate us. After all, it’s the start of the rv travel season, and folks are on the move!

Speaking of on the move, I have just finished getting our route planned that will take us to Depoe Bay for Rachel and Greg’s wedding at the end of July. Some juggling was done to our original plan to visit the Tetons during this time when we were informed that nothing really opens in the Tetons until early June when they can plow the area out and open the campgrounds. So we put a detour into the plan and are headed instead to Glacier National Park. I think we’ll be happy we did, the pictures we have seen from the internet are fabulous. We will be sure to post a bunch while were up there.

For those of you who are interested in seeing where we will be blogging from over the next 3 months, here’s a graphic of our plan.

So, we’re all welded back together. We’ve gotten the family visit tank refilled. We’ve eaten more than about a million calories of holiday and birthday food. Our tans have started to recover after our winter up north. And the temperature has stayed above 40 for almost a full month! We have a few more events to attend to (Gastropalooza II in San Diego, Dana’s Birthday dinner in Valley Village, The Cake Pop Class, and a final clean up and rig prep, this time with a full check of the undercarraige added to the pilot’s stroll around the beast) and then we’re on the road again.

Don’t forget to register for email updates, and look below the authors box to “Like” this page. I Googled “mudd rv” this morning, and we got 2 of the top 10 listings out of 1,260,000 found, that’s “Above the Fold on Page 1” in search parlance! With your help by clicking that little “Like” box, we could be top dogs! I don’t think it pays much, but it sure would be fun hitting the top of page 1 just once!

And, of course, here’s Tippy!

                                                   

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Wertle Gets Welded

Not to compete with well-known movie titles (did ANYONE get this gag? Let us know!), this post is about the healing of our rig after the traumatic trip up Interstate 5 through LA. From a previous post, we chronicled the massive abuse that the hyper-bad roads of California have inflicted on the undercarriage of our home. And what we did to arrange a repair when that abuse turned to a potentially fatal break.

One of three broken cross members, two were gone!

 We are happy to report the repair is complete! And also happy to give a big plug to the two businesses that made it happen. Our first call for help went out to Coast RV of Agoura Hills (www.coastrvcenter.com) who recommended Brent Eckhart Mobile Welding (www.brentsmobilewelding.com/) as a solution. 

Brent Eckhart Mobile Welding to the rescue

 Brent took his time to understand the problem, and the outcome was very impressive. After an initial inspection Brent suggested a repair that seemed very logical. Straighten out the frame that had become badly tweaked, construct a VERY strong truss that would prevent the tweak in the future, fix a few other things he had seen in his inspection, and DONE! It all sound so simple until you see him at work. His original estimate was about $1,600. He came in “under the wire” at $1,100, and the work looked first rate. He arrived on time (7:30AM on the DOT!) and got the job done within his estimated time. We couldn’t be happier.

You don’t need to ask Brent “Where’s the beef?”
The Brooklyn Bridge is probably jealous of this truss work

Not only did he fix the obvious problem, he suggested an addition that fixed another problem we weren’t entirely aware of. Our bedroom is in the back of the rig, and the queen-size bed slides out about 40” to give us room to move around. The slide-out was always “sticky”, frequently requiring one of us to push on the outside to get it to close properly. This was because the rear frame, which sticks out behind the main axles about 12 feet, was a little twisted. Brent suggested welding in two massive 3” box tubes to straighten the rear end of our chassis, and this has cured our slide-out stickiness. It slides like melted butter now.  

Wertle won’t be shaking any tailfeathers anymore

 To say the least, we are extremely relieved. Thanks much to Coast RV of Agoura Hills CA, and to Brent Eckhart Mobile Welding of Simi Valley CA for their support. We will now depart Walnut RV in Northridge CA with the goal of a week of relaxation in Glacier National Park with the total confidence of a trailer that will stay behind us the way it was intended!

 And, as reminded by our friend (and blog visitor) Dan Stordahl, here’s Tippy!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Poor Forgotten Tippy!

I was reminded by our good friend (and blog follower) Dan Stordahl, that Tippy was conspicuoulsy missing from our post on the undercarraige troubles with the rig. Great catch, Dan! This is a very important thing to remind ALL RV owners of, the importance of paying attention to every side of your rig, the shiny ones AND the greasy ones, before you hit the road. A good walk around should look like the one your pilot makes before that Southwest flight takes you to the destination of your dreams. Well, maybe even better! Better late than never, here’s Tippy!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment