October 17 - 23, 2023 - Homer Repairs and One Improvement

Now that Homer is at the house, I can make a few repairs before he goes into storage for the winter. The first repair was the venetian blind over the table.

The Venetian Blind:

This blind fell down while we were driving on the road back from the Natchez Trace trying desperately to make it back to the transmission shop. Upon investigating why this happened I found that the plastic peg that fits into the metal bracket, which holds the blind on the wall, had broken off. Here is a picture of the black plastic cap. You can see that the plastic peg in the middle broke off leaving a hole. I looked all over but could not find that piece in order to attempt to glue it back on. I would have to make a new piece. 

It would have been optimal to have been able to take the black plastic cap completely off to make this repair but, as you can see in the next picture, the string which pulls the blind up and down, runs through the black plastic cap and on across the top of the blind and down the other side. The repair would have to be made with the black cap in place. Fortunately, I was able to pull the cap out of the rail to make the repair.  Here is a picture of the string running through the plastic cap.

I made the repair by drilling the hole out and gluing a dowel half in and half out of the hole. One end of the dowel protrudes out the plastic cap to fit into the metal bracket on the wall. The other end was inside the rail for a lot of glue holding surface. For this to work all of the glue would have to be on the inside of the cap. I had to be careful not to get any glue on the string because it must be able to move freely for the blind to work up and down. I placed masking tape around the inside of the cap to keep glue away from the string. I then used J B Weld to attach the dowel to the black plastic cap. Here is a picture of what the glued dowel looks like from the inside. It was hard to be neat with the glue in such a confined space.

The next picture shows the wooden dowel sticking out on the outside of the black plastic cap. The unglued portion of the dowel is inserted into the metal bracket on the wall to hold the blind in place.

Upon taking the masking tape off I found that no glue had accumulated around the string. Good news. I inserted the black plastic cap back into the top rail of the blind for installation on the wall. Here is a picture.

I reinstalled the blind by inserting the peg on each end of the rail into each metal bracket on the wall. There is a lot of pressure on these pegs to keep the blind down and tight against the wall. It worked. Here is a picture of the final result. I hope the repaired peg lasts 30 years as the original peg did. LOL

Passenger Door Armrest/Handle:

The next repair was the passenger armrest/handle, hereinafter referred to as the handle. The handle is made out of plastic and foam rubber covered with vinyl. The plastic and foam rubber have deteriorated over the years allowing the screw, which attaches the handle to the door, to pull through. Here is a picture. You can see the white screw from a repair by the previous owner. You can see the mounting screw and washer I used for my previous repair, both are still attached to the door bracket.

This handle had been repaired by the prior owner at least once and by me once. Each repair lasted for a few years. The washer was part of my last repair. It was a necessary addition because the plastic under the mounting screw had deteriorated and broken away. 

This time my first attempt was to repair it with E6000 adhesive, which is awesome stuff. I did this and it looked like this. I was happy.

However, when I went to reinstall the handle, I immediately realized that I had screwed up. I forgot that the washer must be mounted on an angle for the handle to tighten against the door mounting bracket, which protrudes about a half inch on an angle. I cut out this repair and, with my Dremel tool, cut a groove in the handle on an angle to accommodate the washer. The mounting screw goes through the washer, which is glued to the handle. Here is a picture of the groove cut into the foam and plastic.

I then used J B Weld to hold the washer in place and to fill in the cavity on the inside. After more thought I was afraid the E6000 wouldn't be stiff enough for this project. Here are a couple of pictures as the J B Weld is drying.

I reinstalled the handle and it appears to be holding well. Time will tell. It is interesting that this handle keeps failing when the driver side door is open and closed much more often and it has not failed.

The Backup Monitor and Camera:

The next project was the backup camera. It worked fine on the way home from the transmission shop.  After getting Homer home I decided to eliminate the CB radio mounted to the doghouse. We never use it and it is in the way. I unbolted it and cut the wires. I then stuffed the wires up under the dash. After I did that the backup monitor was dead when I tried it. I assumed that by shoving the wires up under the dash that I had broken a wire connection to the backup monitor. I took the access panel on the top of the dash off, as well as the doghouse, to access all wires. With John's help Friday we traced all the wires. We found a bad ground wire connection. Yippee!  We found the problem! We fixed the wire but still the monitor did not work. We had 12-volt power in the connector that plugs into the back of the monitor but nothing came on when the power button was pushed. I called the company I bought the monitor from a number of years ago and was told that it could be the monitor or the camera. If I would send both the monitor and the camera to them, they would test both to see which was the problem. Of course, the monitor model I have is no longer being made so if it is bad, I will have to buy something else. I sent both items off on Friday for testing. I await their feedback. Here is a picture of the open access panel on the top of the dash awaiting a monitor reinstall.  You can also see bobblehead "Homer", who has been mounted there for almost ten years, as well as the 12-volt power outlet, which had been mounted to the dashboard where indicated by the yellow arrow.

In getting the doghouse out to check for bad wire connections I had to remove the 12-volt power outlet 3M taped to the dash. I had tried Velcro for this mount but with pulling plugs in and out, it wouldn't hold. I will have to buy some new 3M material to reinstall it. This power outlet is quite handy in that the Garmin plugs into it, our phones plug into it, and our Bose speaker plugs into it. We listen to audiobooks downloaded on our phones while traveling. We listen to them via Bluetooth to a Bose speaker which sits on the top of the doghouse. New technology adapted to an old rig. 

Winterizing:

We will not have time for an RV trip before we leave for Florida. While waiting for a resolution of the backup camera issue, I winterized the plumbing in Homer and emptied all items which could freeze during the winter. I still need to remove the house and chassis batteries but I will wait to do that until just before he goes into storage. I always put the batteries on smart chargers in the garage for the winter.

New armrest/end table project:

During the last trip we came up with the idea of making an armrest end table for the couch. Whenever I sit on the couch there is nowhere to set a cup of coffee or another beverage. I decided to make a simple end table that slips over the couch end cap. Why did it take almost ten years to come up with this great idea? Here is a picture of the couch end cap, which is below the cushion. It is not meant to be an armrest. The mechanism that operates the jackknife sofa is attached to it and the end cap is bolted to the floor.

In this next picture you can see how the end cap, which is only 2.25 inches wide, is well below the seat cushion. 

Here are pictures of the armrest I made. It rests on the end cap and the sides slip down about eight inches so that it does not "wobble". It will work great. It will have to be removed before pulling up the jackknife couch for any reason. This is not a big deal because we rarely raise the jackknife sofa for any reason. I'm looking forward to using it to enjoy my morning coffee come spring.

Homer repairs blog to be continued when there is news about the backup camera . . . . . . . . . .