January 21 - 27, 2024 - Floor Lamp & Handles; The Seabird; Luncheon; Guests; New Flag; Beach; New Outlet; Fender Repair

Sunday:

Three walls of our living room are off white. The accent wall is now a medium green rather than the raspberry color it was when we moved in. The living room has white rattan furniture, white lamps, and a white flowered couch and love seat. Too much white for us. We decided to paint the white floor lamp and the TV cabinet handles the same color green as the accent wall. It helps break up the room. It may still need more color but we will live with this for a while so we don't over do it.

Notice "Ron", our seabird, pecking at Kelly's shoes. He is named after my good friend, Ron, who died ten years ago. When Ron died we bought the contents of his condo here in Florida and took it back to Missouri. The seabird we named, "Ron", was one of the items he had in the condo. After ten years in Missouri "Ron" he is finally back in Florida where he belongs.

It has been cold here in Florida, 39 degrees when I got up Sunday morning. The rest of the day was spent watching the NFL playoffs.

Monday:

We had a winter luncheon for the Illinois-Missouri RV Club members who winter here in Florida. It was at "The Dutchmen", an Amish restaurant in Sarasota. We all ate the buffet and left fully stuffed.

Upon returning home guests, Belinda and Jim Wolfe, arrived for a couple of days. They are folks we met at Roberts RV Resort several years back and we have stayed in touch with them. They now live full-time in their motorhome on a lot they purchased in a luxury RV resort in Port St. Lucie, which is on the other side of the state. They used to live in St. Pete and their doctors are still here. They had doctor appointments to make and stayed until Wednesday morning.

Wednesday:

After Jim and Belinda left we went to Autozone to get a fiberglass repair kit and Bondo. I need these items to start repairing the golf cart fender, which was damaged when I bought it. Luckily, the cart is older and the body is fiberglass. On newer carts the bodies are plastic, which is much harder to repair. From Autozone we went to Harbor Freight to get sandpaper, a rasp, and disposable gloves. Here are some pictures of the damaged area as I started prepping it for repair.

Thursday:

Once the headlight was taken out the whole front corner started falling off because the connecting piece was missing. Part of the fender over the wheel is missing as well. I had to place fiberglass mesh on the inside to the front and side to hold everything in place. Here are some pictures of the first layer of fiberglass mesh.

It might have been easier to make this repair by remove the front clip from the cart. However, removing the clip involves removing some very old, rusty screws. I thought that could end up being quite a project. Since the area of the fender that needed repair was accessible going through the headlight opening, that is what I am doing. The resin sets up rather quickly and is extremely sticky, making it fun to apply vertically through a hole.  

These are pictures after the second and third layers of resin and fiberglass. It is hard to deal with this stuff vertically. It sticks to everything, brushes, sticks, plastic gloves, etc. This made it hard to smooth out.

I knew from removing the headlights last year that the other fender needed attention as well. These headlights were add-ons for newer model Club Cars. The fiberglass fender was cut rather poorly to make them fit. On the passenger side the slim piece of fiberglass holding the fender together was broken off on one side and barely attached on the other. I added two layers of fiberglass mesh to make a fix.

The new headlights were ordered and to arrive on Saturday. I wanted them on hand before I started using the Bondo on the fender so the curves match.

Another project I finished up on Thursday was installing an additional outside outlet. When  the Michigan boys were here last year we installed an outside outlet back by the shed. It is convenient to leave the golf cart parked by the driveway. 

As a result I have had to use a twenty-five foot long extension cord to charge the cart. 

For the new outside outlet I tapped into an outlet in the middle of the Florida room. This entailed pulling off a piece of trim wood, drilling through the 2 x 4 window ledge, running the line, and drilling out through the aluminum framework to the outside. I had to buy a twelve inch bit to accomplish this last step. I have three long bits at home and now I have one here. LOL This outlet will work great, not only for charging the cart, but for any other electric needs on the carport such as vacuuming the truck, etc.

Our place came with an American Flag and a flag pole bracket attached to the front porch. The flag was pretty ragged so we didn't put it up. Since Kelly now has dual citizenship - Canadian and U.S - we decided to purchase an American-Canadian Friendship Flag. It arrived Thursday so I hung it up. Pretty cool.

 

It is bigger and looks much nicer than the old flag, which I ceremoniously burned.

Friday:

A day at the beach. We haven't been to the beach since arriving in November because it has been too cold. Friday the weather turned nice so we took advantage of it. Not many people on the beach at 10:30 a.m. when we arrived.

We had clouds off and on which made it pretty cool to sit there at times. Here are a couple of pictures of the clouds overhead.

Kelly wanted a picture to send to her sisters of her drinking one of the beers they left at our house last summer. Obviously, we are not big beer drinkers.

I got back to the house and, upon looking at the golf cart, was not happy with the wheel well fiberglass patch. It wasn't curing so I tore it out and redid it. Apparently I didn't add enough hardner earlier. 

Saturday:

Sunrise Palms, the park next door, had a large garage and yard sale. We went over as soon as it opened to scout it out. I purchased a couple of small tools and a couple of shirts because they were cheap. 

Kelly found a framed picture of birds embroidered on silk that she loved. We talked to the owner about this original artwork. He said he used to travel a lot and bought the embroidered silk from a lady embroidering on a street corner in Hong Kong. He brought it home and had it framed. I talked the guy into accepting half what he was asking and we brought it home. It is Kelly's Valentine Day present. Here is a picture where it is temporarily hanging in the living room.

After gluing a picture Celena bought for a buck at the garage sale, I once again checked out the fiberglass repair on the golf cart. I removed all the clamps and support materials on the driver side and was quite happy with the result. It is ready for Bondo. The passenger side, however, was a different story. The fiberglass mat bonded well on one side but not the other so I added more layers of fiberglass mat.  Good old "Duck Tape" to the rescue to hold the pieces in position until the resin dried. Hopefully by tomorrow it will be ready for Bondo as well.

I then removed what was left of the plastic hood ornament. I will fill the hole with Bondo. I am also going to take off the original black plastic "Club Car" name plate and the silver name plate riveted over it which says "Cart Haven". Here is a picture of the front with the ornament removed.

Finally, the new headlights arrived and fit quite well. The prior headlights were screwed down with drywall screws. I will purchase stainless steel screws for the new headlights so they don't rust.