I finished the winterizing on the Airstream yesterday and it was just in time considering that we woke up to temps in the 20's this morning. We had gotten some rain on Sunday night and I went in to check the Airstream on Monday morning to see how the paint and poly turned out after their second coats. I ended up picking out a satin finish so that it would not be all shiny, etc....after two coats everything is starting to look better:
On the downside, I noticed a couple of spots where the floor was wet from the prior evening's rains. Part of the reason we purchased this specific airstream was because there was NO water damage. The work that the boys did up at Mintage did something to create these new leaks. When I sent them an email asking them what they might have done to cause new leaks to appear, they of course said 'nothing' and tried to tell me that the leaks came from existing problems (despite have been in this airstream for a 3 day downpour last year while in Idaho and there were zero leaks). It bugs the snot out of me when you pay someone to do something and they not only screw it up, but they refuse to take responsibility for what they did. Our society seems to be on this path more and more where people fail to take responsibility for their actions or mistakes. This is especially bothersome when you pay someone a fair amount of money and they essentially end up creating a new set of problems.
me thinks me may have found the source of the leaks though (at least 1). When Mintange put in new vents for the fridge, they did not seal or caulk the vents:
I am hopeful that caulking both vents will sort out the source of one of the leaks. Unfortunately I will have to fix these leaks on my own time and dime considering they are 2 hours away and refuse to take responsibility. Ultimately I will have some feedback for them personally and hope that they take the high road and at some point admit that they either missed it because they were in a hurry, or made a mistake, etc. They also removed an existing vent cover on the top and put in a patch. It also appears as though they did not seal that patch either. That will be a little trickier though since that particular patch has been riveted on. I might try to see if I can somehow seal around it...It will be good to get the tin can back in the garage to start getting some of this done. Unfortunately it will halt all other work on the Globetrotter until these leaks are fixed...
Looking back on this whole episode with Mintage, I think I might do it differently the next time around...I certainly would not recommend them as they are sloppy...what first looked like good work turned out to be some cut corners...the airstream was full of saw dust (in piles in some places) when I picked it up, etc. Unfortunately it is an expensive lesson but sometimes that is the way things turn out.
The irony is that was just one of the frustrations of what appeared to be a ball buster of day on Monday. Suffice it to say that it was a true Monday in all senses of the word. Fortunately, today is Tuesday
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