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Old 04-30-2015, 06:25 PM   #101
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Name: Tony
Trailer: Scamp - "The Haunted Mansion" (13') and TBD (16')
Colorado
Posts: 290
Registry
Now that the paint is going on, we’ve had people ask us what the inside is going to look like. Well, if we were completely true to the Haunted Mansion, we’d have wall to wall creeps and hot and cold running chills!

But seriously, with as spiffy of an outside as we’ll have, we’ll need to make sure the inside is just as cool. So with that in mind, here’s a general gist of what we intend to do:

First, the walls will be covered with Reflectix. That seems to be the prevailing hands-down choice for “insulation” (or as much as one can put in a fiberglass trailer!). Then, on top of that, we’ll place headliner fabric — we opted for this instead of the rat fur since we didn’t like it’s texture — too itchy/scratchy. The headliner material is much softer… The fabric is a desert tan as shown in the picture below.

Now we’re not going to get too crazy with the colors — too much black and purple on the inside and the trailer would have a very cramped feel to it. That’s why we’re opting to paint the cabinets an almond color (even over using with a natural wood) so that there would be some lightness to the interior. And that’s fine. It’s within the realm of possibility given the palette of the Mansion.

The floor will be an oak laminate — leftovers from our basement remodel — we’ve got plenty, so why not? It looks great, it’s easy to clean, and if we have to replace it, well, it didn’t cost us anything….

So, that all said, the interior is pretty plain. Very neutral. That opened up a lot of options for accessorizing!

The first “accessorizing” will be the cushions. As I think we’ve posted before, the cushions will be covered in this material – a nice black and purple color. Myka went for it like a bee to pollen when she saw it on the rack at the cloth store. There were no doubts in her mind when she pulled the bolt off the rack!

As for the curtains, we’re still not sure yet. We’ve talked about blinds and curtains – maybe a mix of both, but we haven’t come to any conclusions. We will have some sort of window covering, that’s for sure. We’ve kicked around the possibility of going with something that’s the green from the palette…but again, nothing has been decided.

Now, as to the rest….

Now every camper needs a few basic necessities, right? Like pillows and blankets? Well, why not get official Haunted Mansion ones? So we did. They boast the Haunted Mansion wallpaper print and remind us that when we are in the Mansion, we are to rest in peace.

We picked those up at a store called Memento Mori, a shop in Disney World’s Magic Kingdom dedicated to all things Haunted Mansion-esque. Of course, we couldn’t pass up going into THAT store, now could we?

Well, after a shopping spree, we came away with these wonderful accessories to help flesh out the Mansion’s interior (as well as a couple of t-shirts, a neck tie and other assorted non-trailer-related goodies!).

1. These are double-sided place mats. One side is the Haunted Mansion wallpaper, the other is of the Happy Haunts, including the Hitchhiking Ghosts.
2. An official deck of Haunted Mansion playing cards — for a rainy day when we’re forced to rest in peace!
3. A “Welcome Foolish Mortal” metal sign. We’re not sure what to do with this exactly (maybe as a welcome sign while we’re parked?)…but it was simply too good to pass up!
4. A set of four stoneware coasters, each bearing the verbiage from one of the silly tombstones outside the Haunted Mansion.
5. A Ghost Host apron designed in the same style and color as the Haunted Mansion cast member uniforms. Gotta be neat and tidy in the Mansion, right?
6. A set of Haunted Mansion dish towels – one of which is the wallpaper again, the other features the famed Madame Leota — the floating fortune teller.
7. A blank Haunted Mansion journal for us to document all of our travels and the wonderful people we’ll get to meet!

Oh…there IS one more thing. When we recently visited Disney World, we took a tour of the Fort Wilderness Campground (which looks VERY nice by the way!), and we had a brief pitstop at one of their “outposts” (camp stores). While in there, Myka fell in love with this strand of lights…so when the opportunity comes for us to actually have an awning, we will be able to put up a string of lights that look like our little Mansion. Maybe when we head down there this summer?
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Old 04-30-2015, 11:11 PM   #102
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Name: Gardnpondr
Trailer: 1985 BigFoot G
Mississippi
Posts: 143
Really enjoying your pix and your work. Looking very good and can't wait to see more pix. I can only imagine the hard work you've put into it. We just started a few weeks back on ours and sometimes it hits the pit of my stomach when we find more that needs doing to it. I'm past ready to go camping in it. :-)
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Old 05-01-2015, 12:31 AM   #103
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Name: Tony
Trailer: Scamp - "The Haunted Mansion" (13') and TBD (16')
Colorado
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gardnpondr View Post
Really enjoying your pix and your work. Looking very good and can't wait to see more pix. I can only imagine the hard work you've put into it. We just started a few weeks back on ours and sometimes it hits the pit of my stomach when we find more that needs doing to it. I'm past ready to go camping in it. :-)
Oh I am there with you! The brief visit we made to Ft. Wilderness really gave us a bad case of camping fever!
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Old 05-16-2015, 08:05 PM   #104
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While we wait for the paint to be finished on the trailer, we have a few minor projects we can work on. The main one is the rock shield. The Mansion didn't come with one when we bought it, so we thought about ordering one or making one from scratch.

After kicking the idea back and forth and getting some input from the folks on the forum, we decided to bite the bullet and just order one directly from Scamp. We ordered ours without the official Scamp graphic, which took some off the price. We also didn't order the hardware -- we had already ordered that way back when we were thinking of making one from scratch, so that also saved some money.

We removed the edge trim around the shield so it could be painted the dark purple that we used on the bottom half of the trailer. That way it could contrast the gold color that would be on the top.

Since we are theming the trailer, we decided on an appropriate graphic to go on the newly-painted rock shield. The plan was to have the graphic cut from white vinyl. We developed the graphic on the computer then took it to the Technology Student Association chapter at Cherokee Trail High School -- they have a laser vinyl cutter that can do some AMAZING things! One of their advisors, Mr. Paul Clinton, worked a little magic and viola! Within a couple of days, we had a great graphic to apply to the shield.

Granted, in the first photo (taken from the end short end of the graphic) you really can't see the cuts made by the laser, but they are there! Overall, the rock shield is 20" x 44" and the graphic will fill a good chunk of it.

Since the graphic is fairly large, we had to cut it apart so we could more easily apply the various pieces.

Paul told us to remove the waste vinyl from the graphic first, to make it easier to apply. So we started by cutting the large pieces of the graphic apart and then trimmed close to each of the images. Now things are starting to look like something... To paraphrase the Ghost Host of the Haunted Mansion, "The happy haunts have received our sympathetic vibrations and are beginning to materialize...."

If you guessed that the graphic has something to do with the famous Hitchhiking Ghosts -- you're absolutely right! And that's where the title of this post comes from.

For those of you who don't know...the Hitchhiking Ghosts are the trio of ghosts located near the end of the Haunted Mansion ride where the ridecars (aka Doombuggies) pass by some special mirrors that reveal that riders have gained one of three additional passengers...

Well, we have a Doombuggy... (our Honda Pilot) and no one can visit the Mansion without being visited by the ghostly trio...so we couldn't pass up an opportunity to put them somewhere in our Mansion! And, as we discovered, they have names...the first one is Phineas, the Traveler. We started with him...

Working with the vinyl was tricky and kind of a pain. It stretches pretty easily and the adhesive will grab onto anything, including itself...but using an X-acto blade and a whole lot of patience, we finally got Phineas on the rock shield.

Next up was Ezra, the Skeleton. He was a little easier to apply since he didn't have as many small pieces as Phineas did.

And that took up the bulk of an evening. In the photos, you can see Myka checking out the work on the rock shield so far. Looks like she's pleased!

So Saturday rolled around and we decided to tackle the third ghost, Gus, the Prisoner. He looked like quite the challenge, but the hardest part was keeping the waste vinyl from sticking to Gus! All said, he went on fairly easily.

Oh, but we aren't done....
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Old 05-16-2015, 08:10 PM   #105
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The rock shield was really looking great, but that's not the entire graphic! There is still one more piece! A little "branding," as it were. We created a straight light across the top of the shield above the ghosts and then, slowly, one at a time....letters started to appear....

Once the graphic was done, we reinstalled the trim piece that came with the rock shield from Scamp.

All said, we are VERY happy with the new rock shield and welcome Phineas, Ezra and Gus to the Haunted Mansion. Rumor has it that the Mansion has 999 Happy Haunts, but there is room for a thousand....any volunteers?
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Old 05-16-2015, 10:34 PM   #106
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Name: Gardnpondr
Trailer: 1985 BigFoot G
Mississippi
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sohkraites View Post
Oh I am there with you! The brief visit we made to Ft. Wilderness really gave us a bad case of camping fever!


LOL I can't wait to take ours out. I just wish hubby would hurry up and start working on the hubs and getting the tires etc. so it can just roll! LOL sooooo much left to do and everything else taking our money at the moment.
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Old 05-23-2015, 08:24 AM   #107
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Name: Tony
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Yesterday, I got to spend the day with the guys from Pickens Technical College painting the top half of the Mansion....now that school is over for the the year, the instructors, Anthony Larson and Chris Underwood took over and painted the top half. The cool part about it was they invited me to come be part of the experience!

When last we left, a student had painted a sealer on the top half of the trailer – but he was a little heavy handed with the spray gun and ended up having several runs. Ooops. Well, that’s to be expected; after all, he’s still learning. So before the end of the semester, Anthony had the students sand down the top half again to get rid of the runs and prep the top for another coat of sealer.

When I arrived, the guys had moved the trailer into a smaller paint booth – and had given the trailer a final initial sanding, wiped it down with a tack cloth, and were remasking it.

I asked if there was anything I could do…and evidently that was the magic phrase because the next thing I knew I was helping to mask the windows! Before we got the last window (the forward one on the driver’s side) I snapped a couple of pics on the inside to show the masking and how it’s applied. They covered every hole in the trailer — even the holes for the drip guard and the hinges. Apparently, in the painting process, the dust inside the trailer could be sucked out through them and end up in the paint. We wouldn’t want that now, would we?

Once the trailer was masked, Chris went over the surface ever-so-lightly with a tack cloth to remove any dust that remained.

Meanwhile, Anthony was in the prep room getting the first of the three spray guns ready. I learned that they use three different guns because each has different characteristics — some are better for applying sealer, some are better for paint, and some are better for clear coating.

Once the gun was ready, it was time to prepare the sealer. It was truly a lesson in chemistry. The paint is a complex mixture. In the photos below, you can see Anthony adding the various components to the mixing bucket which is sitting on a scale connected to a computer. The computer monitors the amount of component added to the mixture and let’s you know when you have just the right amount.

I learned that the sealer that was applied to the bottom was not called a “marking” coat, but a “guide coat” – a paint of a contrasting color to the primer that makes it easier to see where the paint has been applied. The guys explained that under a dark color, such as the aubergine, you want a dark color under the paint; for lighter colors, you’d want a ligher color. Since the top half of the trailer is gold, they used gray.

Anthony explained that the primer coat actually acts as a filler — filling in the small scratches left behind by the fine grit sandpaper used in the final sanding of the surface. The sealer then makes a uniform surface upon which to apply paint.
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Old 05-23-2015, 08:28 AM   #108
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Once the sealer was mixed, we took it into the paint booth for application. Due to the Mansion’s size, Chris was the only one tall enough with enough arm length to reach the center of the top of the trailer. So the deal was that Chris would do the top and Anthony would do the rest. In the photos below, you can see how even Chris had to stretch to reach the middle of the roof.

If you look really closely at the picture of the roof, you can barely see the patch the previous owners put in at the very left side of the pic. I think we did a really good job cleaning it up and sanding it smooth…very pleased with the way this turned out.
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Old 05-23-2015, 08:35 AM   #109
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Now while the sealer dried, the basecoat color was prepped. In the photos below, you can see the gold that Chris had already prepared. In the mixing bucket it doesn’t look like the nice pretty gold Myka picked out — it’s all muddy and doesn’t look like it’s mixed well, but the guys assured me that’s the way it’s supposed to look. They explained that this paint is waterborne which is a much more environmentally friendly product than the old solvent-based paints and sealers, and, as I soon found out, has a unique drying method!

Back in the booth, the tack cloths were out again for another wipedown to remove any overspray dust. Chris explained that the right way to use the tack cloth was not by just taking and wiping it flat against the surface, like a paper towel on a kitchen counter, but rather by bunching it up. He explained that what that does is provide more surface area to pick up the dust. Good to know! He also said that you put very little pressure on the cloth – the tack cloth has a wax base and if they pushed too hard, they’d leave a wax residue behind which would prevent the paint from properly adhering to the trailer.

Now came the big moment — the application of the color. Once in the booth, Anthony prepped the second paint gun – which is a pretty amazing tool. They even let me hold it for a pic!
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Old 05-23-2015, 09:18 AM   #110
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Awesomeness!
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Old 05-23-2015, 09:19 AM   #111
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I will post more pics later on. Off to Comic Con today!
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Old 05-23-2015, 09:21 PM   #112
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That is going to be so nice! Looking good already!
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Old 05-24-2015, 01:38 PM   #113
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Love this project. You are doing a fantastic job.
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Old 05-24-2015, 08:16 PM   #114
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First, let me apologize for the rotated photos in my last post. I was trying to upload from my phone...and that obviously didn't work... If you'd like me to reupload those, please let me know and I'll be happy to do it.

So when last we left, the trailer was getting it's first coat of gold paint. After the first go-round of the gold, the trailer looked pretty spiffy, but it was far from finished. This is where I learned about the waterborne paint's unique drying method. The guys handed me a strange looking tool connected to the air hose. It looked like the one shown below (the one that looks like a short-nosed hair dryer). It's called a diffuser. The air hose connects at the bottom and forces air up into the chamber at the top which is nothing more than a somewhat conical shaped tube. The air blows out the narrow end giving it the feel of a "blow dryer."

My job as the apprentice was to use the diffuser and "blow dry" the paint, removing all the water from the waterborne paint - that's how it dries -- it's not a chemical reaction that depends on heat to dry (like rattle can paint), but rather the removal of the moisture in the paint itself. So, following the directions the guys gave me, I went back and forth over the gold paint with the diffuser. As the paint dried, it lost it's shine and took on a fairly nice looking yet dull luster. In one of the photos below, you can see me using the diffuser. The photo of the trailer shows how the paint looked once it was dry.

Again, it was my turn to take the diffuser and go over the trailer. This time it was much harder to determine what was dry and what wasn't. Chris warned me that the third coat of gold would be much harder still, but he said that in the end it would all be worth it! He explained that the final coat would consist of a lighter "fluff" coating of material that would make the metal flake in the paint just "pop" once the clear coat was applied.

I didn't get much by way of pics for the final fluff coat as there was overspray everywhere - which is what was supposed to happen - and I didn't want to risk getting much on my camera.

Once the third layer was applied, I had to use the diffuser one more time. Just like Chris said, it was almost impossible to tell the difference between what was dry and what wasn't. As I dried the paint, I noticed that it almost took on a platinum color.

It looked pretty sweet! The last pic below of the trailer is a little out of order, but it shows what the finish looked like just before Anthony began spraying the clear coat.
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Old 05-24-2015, 08:23 PM   #115
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Trailer: Scamp - "The Haunted Mansion" (13') and TBD (16')
Colorado
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While I was using the diffuser to dry the last coat of the color, Anthony and Chris prepped the clear coat - almost a full gallon's worth! That's only half the batch in that mixing bucket.

Once the last gold layer was completely dry, Chris got up on the ladder and laid down a heavy coat of clear on the roof using the third paint gun. Anthony then put down a medium coat on the sides. He said that putting a heavy coat on the top was OK since it was a flat surface and it wouldn't run, but the sides were a different matter. If you put a heavy coat on the sides, the finish would slump and drag the pretty metallic color with it. A medium coat, though, would hold the paint in place and once it was tacky, he'd come back around with a heavier coat and finish it up.

Watching any professional do what they are good at is enjoyable - they truly make their trade/craft into an art - they make it look simple and graceful. Watching Anthony move around the trailer while applying the finish coat was like watching a professional dancer move and sway in time with music, or better still, a skilled martial artist move with a smooth practiced rhythm. Chris and I both mentioned that and at first, Anthony thought we were making fun of him, but it truly was a thing of beauty. He explained that he really never thought about it...he was just moving in such a way to make sure the finish was applied evenly and was following the reflection of the light in the finish.

I had been going crazy taking pics with my phone all day long...and the last two photos below are the last ones I got before my phone battery got too low to take any more. You can see the beautiful gold finish of the trailer under the final coat of clear. Chris was right -- the metallic flake in the gold paint does indeed "pop" -- it's going to look stunning over the top of that dark purple! I can't wait to see it unmasked, but for now, we need to let it sit and cure, so we'll give it the whole weekend (it is Memorial Day weekend) and we'll pick it up on Tuesday to bring it home to continue our work on the inside.

It truly was a pleasure spending the day with two pros like Anthony and Chris. They are great teachers and I learned a lot about paint, painting tools and materials and the incredibly complex process of painting (it's way more involved than shaking a can for 60 seconds and spraying paint!). It definitely gives you a better appreciation for the talent these guys have when you can participate in the process like I did today. When I finally looked at the clock on my phone, I realized we had spent about six hours total in the booth...but it all flew by in a heartbeat!
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Old 05-25-2015, 04:43 AM   #116
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Looks awesome. I like it.


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Old 05-26-2015, 11:11 PM   #117
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Well, it's finally time for the Mansion to come home! The paint is all finished! And we couldn't be any more pleased with the results!
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Old 05-27-2015, 05:15 AM   #118
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That's fantastic looking!
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Old 05-27-2015, 06:44 PM   #119
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Thanks Joe!
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Old 05-29-2015, 10:03 AM   #120
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Now that the Mansion is back home, it’s time to get moving on the interior. First up, the cabinets for the kitchen. So we got out the table saw, the pocket screw jig, some clamps a bit of glue and the evening’s project was on!

In the photos below, you can see the face frame of the kitchen cabinet. The big opening on the top left of the frame is for the microwave (gotta have that microwave popcorn when camping, right?). The hole on the bottom left of the frame is for the PD4045 power center, and the one to the right of that (the smaller, squarish one) is where I plan to install two bus bars (one for positive and one for negative) for the power. In other people’s trailers, the bus bars are usually tucked in the back of the cupboard or underneath one of the bench seats. Rather than putting it somewhere where it was hard to get to or where it took up storage space, I put it someplace where the space was for the most part unusable as storage, and, more importantly, someplace I could see and reach! The vertical opening to the right of that is the actual undercounter cabinet. The big square to the far right end of the frame is just for framing purposes (to be able to attach it to the wall of the trailer and to give us something to attach the sliding baskets to!).

Next up, the cushions. Now I know that seems a bit premature, but this is Myka’s project (for the most part), and she’s lassoed her best friend, Liane, to help her create the cushion covers…and this weekend is the only time the two of them can get together for an extended period of time to get them done. So cushions it is.

The first thing was to get the foam. We initially tried to get it through Amazon, but the vendor we went through never shipped the product (but they gladly refunded the money!), so we found a local shop here in town – Western Upholstery Supply – that had EVERYTHING we needed. When we got there, we told the guy what we were doing and he took us back into the warehouse and pulled out a couple of pieces of foam for us to try out. We opted to go with the 4″ foam for the cushions. But instead of getting smaller 2′ x 8′ pieces, we opted to get one HUGE queen-size piece of foam and cut our cushions from that (besides, it was a bit cheaper!). We also asked him about wrapping the foam with batting materials as we have seen others do. He said that’s what professional upholsterers do and would result in a softer product. So we got some batting material. He explained that the batting is glued onto the foam to keep it from shifting in the cushion cover. I gotta give the guy props on his estimating skills — he nailed how much batting and spray glue we’d need — we had enough to do the job right and very little was left over!

When we got the foam home, we were going to cut it outside on our deck, but the weather wasn’t cooperating — rain showers were rolling in. So, we cleared the dining room table and went to work!

In the pics below, you can see how we laid out the templates we’d made earlier. We only made one template for the backs of the seats since they were the same (but the bottoms were ever-so-slightly different….go figure). Once we got the layout right, we used our trusted Sharpie and traced out the bottom of the back bench seat.

Myka then got out the power tools! Yup. That’s a standard everyday electric carving knife! And it went through that 4″ foam like it was hot butter. One of the pics shows Myka test fitting the cushion in the Mansion! It fits! YEA!!!!

Next up was the bottom on the passenger side. We traced the template and then cut it out. We repeated the procedure for the other bottom cushion and the two backs.

Once all the pieces were cut, we took them all out and did a rough test fit in the trailer. The cushions are a bit big, but we’d rather have a tight fit rather than loose and sloppy cushions that slide around.

Now I must admit — while things look like they are going smoothly, there have been a couple of bumps in the road…a split board here, a bent this or that there… But it all works out in the end. Such was the case with the cushions. One of the things that we didn’t consider was the height of the cushions with relation to the window. Now keep in mind that the benches are a bit taller than the original fiberglass ones — about the width of a 2×2 (the framing of the bench seats, which is made from 2×2’s sits on top of the tab that Scamp used to hold the back of the fiberglass seats (which were only 1/8″ thick). Add to that the 4″ foam vs 3″ foam (which we are guessing would have been “standard” and you end up with back cushions that stand up into the window by about 3″. And we can’t cut them down…then the cushions wouldn’t fit right when made into the bed configuration.

Ooops. Hmm.

Myka suggested slipping the back cushion down behind the bottom instead of on top of it, but then the bottom cushion hangs out over the edge of the bench. Don’t know if we like that option either. But either way, I think we’re just gonna gonna just let that one slide and go with it for now until we can come up with a better solution.

If that’s the only mistake we make in this project, we’ll consider ourselves lucky and by a lottery ticket.

Now you’re probably asking, “What about along the back of the trailer – under the window?” Well, THAT we do have a solution for – one that doesn’t go into the window space! Since the bed doesn’t require that cushion to make the actual bed, we thought we’d use a thinner piece of foam (not many people will be sitting back there that often) and have it velcro to the wall as a “semi-quasi-permanent” cushion. After all, the bench cushion in the back won’t need to be moved to make the bed (only the backs of the seats will move — from the back to the center between the benches over the top of the table), so a “semi-quasi-permanent solution seemed to be the best. Myka found this 1″ foam sheet 72″ long. We cut it in half lengthwise (as shown in the photos below) to get the height we needed to fit UNDER the window this time! Since 72″ wasn’t quite enough to go all the way across the trailer, we cut the foam into two even pieces and we will make two cushions across the back. Now there will be a slight difference between the 4″ back cushions and the 1″ back cushion that goes around the back of the trailer, but that’s where the cool Haunted Mansion “Rest in Peace” pillows come in! They’ll nestle in just fine right there!

Once the foam was cut, we cut the 1″ batting to wrap over the top, around the front and under the bottom (as per the upholster’s suggestion). He told us that the batting doesn’t need to be on the ends or along the back…it would be wasted material and in the case of the back, would get in the way of the zipper on the cover. (BTW…did I mention how good this guy was at estimating how much material and adhesive we’d need?)

Anyway, in the photos below, we sprayed on the adhesive to the batting and the cushion. And once the two made contact with each other they weren’t coming apart! In the background, you can see the Mansion waiting for it’s new cushions!

Once the cushions were glued, we set them inside the Mansion to dry. Myka will then take them tomorrow where she and Liane have a whole day planned for sewing! Meanwhile, I’ll be working on the rest of the cabinets and plugging the holes (vents, lights, outlets, etc.) on the Mansion.
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