[RHClarke]

On Saturday morning, it was sunny and -13oC at 7AM, with a stiff breeze dropping the wind chill to about -22oC. After stoking Lucifer's fire, snow was removed from in front of the barn doors -we only got about 2mm of snow which was whipped up by some strong winds the night before. Both of my shelters had the modular tent sections/tarps blown halfway off. After knitting them back onto the shelter frames, it was time for some more chores.

Bob's trusty trailer got swept clean and its tarp laid out in the sunshine for cleaning. Some time was spent tarping up the newest HUP and removing the ice and snow that collected on the roofs of the trucks and beds of trailers in the wagon lines. The cold weather made working outside a little uncomfortable, so we retired to the barn - yes, we are getting a little "soft" as we approach our dotage.

With Grant taking the day off from the barn, Bob busied himself with two very interesting chores; the first, sorting nuts and bolts into bins, which took most of the day to do, and then cleaning out the cat house...more on that chore later.

My time was spent making metal flanges for the "opera" window on the HUP. The long rectangular window is held in place by two long "L" shaped strips on the top and bottom, and two similar but shorter strips on the sides. I misplaced the side strips a few years ago and made replacements out of 18 ga metal. Once bent, I drilled holes, sandblasted the strips, acid treated and then painted them. Hanging by Lucifer dried the Tremclad paint in short order. After lunch I put them on the truck.

Following that it was time for "lip" service. The replacement lips for the large hatch on the HUP lines the hatch hole with the lips providing part of the seal with the hatch cover. As previously mentioned, these strips were spot welded together, will be cut to fit and welded onto the roof hatch of both the 45 and Prototype HUPs. To prepare for the installation, each of the six strips were cleaned up. This involved using a grinder and flap wheel to clean up the ridges caused by the spot welder and to take the sharp edges off each strip - this will prevent the hatch lips from cutting into the foam that fills the hatch cover corresponding channels. Once that was done, the strips were cleaned, acid treated and given their first coat of paint to keep them from rusting further. Later the strips will be MIG welded to the hatch opening.

The next chore was to replace the oil pressure line that accidentally melted to the exhaust manifold during my last visit. The new nylon tube was encased in copper tubing to make sure that it stayed out of pinch points and did not rest anywhere near the manifold. The ends of the tubing were capped with a couple of inches of rubber tubing to keep the nylon tube from chaffing or rubbing agains the ends of the copper tube. The copper tubing was then bent accordingly and the new fittings put in place. Next week I will secure the tubing and take some photos.

At the end of the day Bob decided he had enough fun playing with his nuts and bolts and decided to take on a less tedious challenge...the photos tell the "tail":


Photos:
1. Hatch Lips - pre-cleaning
2. Bob sorting bits and pieces (excuse the camera...it didn't like the cold)
3. Bob, a HR advisor is used to dealing with sh*t, so this chore was no problem
4. Cathouse "leftovers" - yes, he has a few feline friends...