Gigi’s Log Book Chapter – 42

Now that I see the number plates every morning, I just can’t wait to get back out on the road.. This has made me work a bit faster than usual.. Also, the thought of having to work again in summer under the sun with no shade, is scaring the crap out of me.. I still got burn scars on my hands from picking up metal tools left under the sun.. So, thanks but no, thanks. I want everything ready before the temperature reach again the 45° mark..

Sit back and relax as this blog is a bit longer than usual

While in Brisbane with Baldrick to pickup the Sikaflex 295 for the skylight, that BTW looks a lot similar to the Sikaflex 252, and a new Primer 209D for the Polycarbonate sheet, I also managed to pickup a new Toilet brush. Why? Well the old one, while driving was moving around and also the shiny chrome was already gone.. I really don’t understand how this is happening, considering that I always buy quality products on eBay from China… 😂😂😂  So it was replaced with an Italian/English/US Oceanair marine brush. It is white, the head is replaceable and it seals on the cup so it doesn’t either move or smell.. At $50.00 it better be good!!! Not sure, who really makes it, but it is of good quality…

The next job I wanted to tackle was to put the push bike away in the designated bin and in a manner that while securing the bike, it also allowed me for a quick in-out of the bin.. After some 2 hours of searches I kept coming across those alloy bracket for $20-25 plus delivery.  While looking at this thing I kept repeating myself “it’s just a pipe attached to an L bracket, why is so expensive??? Anyway I got plenty of left over from building Gigi, so I went ahead and welded a piece of 15mm ID pipe to a piece of angle steel.

The result, you guess it, it is exactly the same as those $25 alloy bracket from eBay, but it only cost me zilch.. Primed then followed by a bit of blue spray paint, to keep the theme of the bike going, and there you have it. A perfect bike holder, mounted to the floor of the bin doing his job. It takes about 20 second to pull the bike out of the bin.. The front wheel got attached to the other side of the timber holding the hot water system and I managed to fit even the helmet and the air pump. So it is all in one handy location and cost me nothing…

Now was the time for the BBQ to find its new home. I have been using this BBQ (Q2000) donated by my beautiful daughter, on a daily basis and come to realise and appreciated how much quicker and easier is to keep a metal plate clean instead of having to cook inside with pots and pans.. Seriously, I got it down to 10 minutes flat to cook this breakfast (on the right) and closing the lid of the cleaned BBQ.

If I had to cook for 3 or 4 people it would make no difference while in the kitchen it would be a nightmare. Then all the cleaning after, loosing precious water and time..

A couple of years ago I did purchase some heavy duty drawer slides from Dunn & Watson that I originally intended to use for the washing machine. While the washing machine will be the next job, I decided to use those slides for the BBQ instead.. They are rated at 125kg (Hercules series) and while I also have a pair of 227kg (Titan series) I thought to keep those for the tool box as it is definitely going to be heavier than the BBQ..

After mounting them to the floor of the bin, the next test was to test the slides and get some ideas for the BBQ box.. I then made a bottom tray to use as mounting block for all the rest.. First thing was to decide how tall the BBQ plate would have to be.. The original Webber trolley had the plate sitting at around 90cm from the ground and that felt good, so I used the same height for my box..

The actual BBQ had to be severely modified to fit its new location. The handles were cut off and I also added a new thermometer to the hood as it didn’t have one. A thermocouple flame detection was also added to make it compliant with the new Australian rules. Finally, I replaced the grille with a nice big cast iron plate where I can cook anything I want. I kept the grille and that was the reason for building the large drawer under the BBQ itself.. The little drawer is for the cooking tools..

Before going this way, I had a look at what was available in the market for RV and it seems that the Camec Tabletop Gas BBQ was the only one I was able to find at a decent price, featuring the flame failure detection. Problem is that it is just a grille BBQ and I couldn’t find any accessories for it.. I did eventually find another BBQ that does have accessories, but I couldn’t justify the $700 cost!

With the Webber there are tons of accessories and it also does work with charcoal, and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, so it made sense to keep and modify this unit instead..

You can also see the 9kg gas bottle final location and while I’m not really settled on that (perhaps a 4.5kg will replace it, in the meantime I did installed a Gas detector just near the bottle.. (It helps me sleep, honestly)

The BBQ unit was then completed with a Yamaha Soundbar, LED lights for night cooking and another 500×300 extension tabletop to allow for more preparation surface.. And we are done!

While visiting my other beautiful daughter at work I was given a nice looking wall mount “Seiko” clock. I had tossed the idea of a digital clock inside Gigi (I had already two from the original conversion), simply because they use power 24/7 but more importantly they lit up the dining are at night making impossible for the guest to sleep there, (yes Baldrick, I remember the complaint about all the LED’s in the kitchen as well, and I fixed those as well).

So after careful examination of this nice gift, I got to work and combined the brass front of the clock with the varnish plywood eliminating all together the dark 70′ style frame. The electronic mechanism is still accessible from inside the pantry. Good news is that being a Japanese clock is quite silent and works extremely well. I like it and I also like the fact that I was able to utilise a full face clock instead of those little RV toys with a 10cm dial..

If you have being following the blog, you are aware that while in Toowoomba I had to purchase some baby safety locker to stop the kitchen and bathroom cabinets from opening while driving and making a mess.. But they did look extremely ugly and I didn’t think for a second that it was going to be the final solution.

Searching on the Internet, I managed to find some nice metal locker that don’t take too much space and do look nice.. I originally planned not to have any handle/locking mechanism on the cabinet, to keep them the same as the push to open drawers. What I didn’t really think through is that we don’t have really good roads and my magnetic catcher were just no match for the “roads”.

I mean, have you ever tried to change radio station while doing 100Kmh by using the button on the stereo, instead of the buttons on the steering wheel, on any of our secondary roads?? Is simply impossible.. Not that keeping the vehicle going at 100kmh is an easy task per se… I just wished our politicians did spend a bit more of those millions they are making while saving life with speed cameras, in actually road safety improvement, but I digress now..

So off away the plastic safety catcher went and hello new steel push button lockers.. I was actually so pleased with the result that I installed one even in the bathroom vanity basin.. You can see in the picture the difference between the white plastic and the “proper” steel button..

Next job in the pipeline is the toolbox and washing machine installation.. After that is the open road, at least I hope…