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Here is what I ordered and installed this afternoon. Will need to do some accommodating as the holes in the hinge leaf on the door are too low. However the holes on the other leaf are perfect for the bottom of the ICC. dtb
NRC&XRC Marine Grade CAST Solid 316 Stainless Steel Mirror Polished Shortside Hinges Heavy Duty 1-1/2″ x 2-1/4″ Pair for Boat, RVs
We wanted a different color for the camper so stained it using the Behlen Solar Lux Dye stains. I have used these before for wood working. If you want a part of the camper stained it MUST be stained before you get epoxy anywhere near it. We did all of our staining at once and got 95% of everything looking good.
1. Get the color you want correct first. The intensity of the stain can be controlled by thinning with alcohol. Do a number of tests on the bottom of something, get the color you want then write down the dilution recipe that you used, 5 stain to 1 alcohol or whatever. We used two quarts of stain diluted with two quarts of alcohol to do the entire kit.
2.To get the stain even have person 1, using an old rag, flood the surface to be stained with alcohol, it should be wet almost to running off the surface. Then person 2 comes along with the stain and again uses a lot of stain, the surface may have some small puddles. Then have person 1 wipe down the surface with the rag used in step one. When they are done wiping the surface will look wet but have no standing puddles. Practice on the bottom side of the camper. This is a quick process, don’t let things dry without the final wiping.
3. Relax and breath deeply as the stain drys, it will look blotchy and faded and not what you were hoping for, the stain needs a bit of epoxy or finish to see the final color.
4. Once you are happy with the color do the entire camper. As you work, stain will go everywhere including thru all the wire holes from the outside to the inside. If you are lining the inside with the foam headliner this will be covered.
5. As you build the camper you will accidentally sand thru the stain layer, have a bit of stain on hand to fix those spots. We had problems with the edges on the hinges and on the shelf edge, we sanded thru the stain but the epoxy had penetrated deeper which meant that re-staining wouldn’t work.
Staining added a layer of complexity to the project. If you are building piece of furniture you may be frustrated, we are very happy with our camper.
3.
I followed the advice to add the door stiffeners before cutting the doors. It is a pain to get in there and line everything up and sand the angle and so forth but the doors now fit perfectly with no spring out.
