so, i feel like i need to expound on a couple of snags we've run into recently and solutions that we've come across.
problem 1: sticky walls
solution 1: the vinyl coated sheet metal walls that are in older airstreams feel strangely sticky to the touch and paint doesn't stick very well when applied on this dysfunctional material.
i found a site online (and added a link to the right, 'mr. know-it-all') that had a phenomenal fix for this annoying problem. at 'ace hardware' and online, there is a product called 'future floor wax', that (magically and inexplicably) reduces the sticky feel of the walls. it creates some sort of invisible coating.
annnnnyhow...the best part of the whole scheme is that a large bottle of wax costs less than $10.
problem 2: mold, mildew, stink
solution 2: a pretty straight forward problem, but when it's all over everything it's absolutely terrifying. we used two products ('simple green' and 'grease lightning'), water, scouring pads and a towel. the biggest dilemma is getting to all of it. we made sure to scrub off all that we could get to and primed over everything afterward. that stagnant smell wasn't as much of a problem as we'd expected once everything had been painted, aired out and after we burned a few sticks of nag champa (incense), the smell is gone.
problem 3: discolored plastic trim (around vista windows, shower, etc)
solution 3: it was hard to tell what would come clean and what wouldn't. sometimes soap and water worked, but usually special plastic spray paint did the trick. for the shower, and the fiberglass stall, we had to use a gel coat paint spray it on. you have to buy the gel coat paint at a boating or specialty paint store.
problem 4: weird pipes
solution 4: some of the plumbing pipes were crazy sizes. to quote our local 'home depot' expert (insert southern drawl here), "in twenty years of workin' here, i've never seen pipe that size".claaaasic! not what you want to hear about the metal piping running all underneath your floor.
thanks goodness my dad is super-handyman; he welds, and (after hours of work) was able to connect the replacement pipes to the originals.
if not for him, i don't know how we would have been able to fix this problem. i'm sure we would have had to hire someone to handle it, since nowhere we went had the right size piping.
that's really all i can think of at the moment, but i know we'll be running into more problems before we're finished.
i'll update this specific post as things come up.
