We have AXLE-ent news!

February has practically come to a close and we were as busy as ever! This recap is going to be jam-packed! I didn’t even realize we had come so far until I started finding pictures to post. So exciting! Let’s recap our month!

This month we:

— prepped the bumper to be re-attached, welded the step outriggers on, and welded angle iron between the outriggers for additional places to bolt our c-channel to.

— purchased plywood for our subfloor, discovered we must be doing something right because our curved c-channels fit the new frame perrrrrfectly, and we ‘banged’ out the dents in our banana wraps from our old belly pan (the only part we are reusing).

— celebrated because OUR AXLES ARRIVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which means we were finally able to weld the axle plate to our frame, which in turn means we were able to attach the last of our outriggers as well! Thanks Colin Hyde!

— we cleaned up the bumper and cut up our old frame because we are officially DONE with it! Yay! It was bittersweet chopping it into bits, but we are excited for what peace of mind our new frame is going to give us.

— we dry fit the axles into the newly attached plate on our frame, attached the bumper, finished up some welds on the underneath of the frame, and drilled the holes for eventually bolting the axles to the axle plate.

— we drilled the holes in the axle plate for the shocks, cut and attached angle iron that will give us extra places to bolt our subfloor to the frame, drilled holes in the cross members for the plumbing, welded 3 inch pipe into the holes we cut, closed up the ends of the main frame rails so no moisture could ever end up inside, and lifted the frame up a couple feet so that painting would be easier.

— we attached the sashing that will eventually be the ‘meeting point’ between the belly pan and the body, welded on the plate for the steps, drilled holes for the tow chains, we degreased our frame, used metal prep to prepare our frame for POR-15, used salamander heaters to warm our frame up (and wondered why we hadn’t been using them to heat our workspace up until this point?!) and we turned our frame into a black (& silver) beauty!

And that’s where we are at! I haven’t taken a full picture of our frame with all the silver we painted on yet.. but we painted the tongue, the bumper and rear area, the axle plates on each side, and between the two step outriggers. Any places that won’t be covered by the body got the silver treatment. Now she looks like she just rolled off a factory floor and we can’t believe that 2 months ago she was a dream & a pile of steel. We also can’t believe how neat this time-lapse video we made with our gopro of us painting came out ;) I literally cannot stop watching it!

We didn’t get as far as we had hoped this month; we didn’t get the c-channels or plywood down. But the epoxy for the plywood comes Monday so hopefully we will get to that step sooner than later. We’ve got tires purchased, gray tanks ordered, plywood ready to rock & roll once it’s received the royal treatment, and a team of strong men ready to flip the frame. March should be an exciting month! 157 days until our maiden voyage! #nopressurehoney