Gaucho Complete!!

Super excited about how well my gaucho turned out! I had been thinking a lot about how I would create the front lip so that it would have a finished look rather than just using a plain 1x2 or 1x4. I was laying in bed a few nights ago and had an epiphany. I had kept the original pieces for reference so why not use the original front lip? If I could pull it off the original sliding piece without destroying it I could save wood, time and money and have a nice finished look.

Sunday I started by trimming down the cross pieces that I had cut 1/8" too long the prior weekend then attached them to the back of the sliding plywood. Next I pulled apart the original sliding piece to see if I would be able to salvage that front lip. Since a PO had attempted to strengthen the supports with several nails it took a little longer but I was able to get it taken apart. I sanded off the old glue and smoothed out some nicks and scratches then attached it to the ply using a few "L" brackets for added strength and support. I sanded the rough spots of the ply and set it in place. I also cut and sanded the piece that drops in behind when the sliding piece is pulled forward. I drilled 2 holes and inserted a strip of mule tape to use as a handle to lift it when pushing the sliding piece back. The gaucho is now complete and looks great!!



Building sliding piece

Gaucho finished

We have a place to sleep !

Fit test!!

Furnace Cover

I totally should have taken a during process photo of this but at least I got the before and after!! This has been one of those tasks that, though small, was a big deal to me. My furnace cover was gross. The paint was ugly and there were spots of nasty rust that seemed really deep. I sat down with my cover and a wire brush on my cordless drill and got to work. Unfortunately the wire brush wasn't working as well as I'd hope so hubby suggested I use the angle grinder. That worked awesome and in no time I had stripped it to the bare metal and stripped down through the rust. I wiped it down with a rag, blew it off with the air hose, sprayed it down with brake cleaner and let it dry in the sun. Then I applied 2 coats of flame resistant aluminum color paint and let it "bake" in the sun for several days where the day time temps reached the 90s. The entire process took almost 2 weeks but the results are awesome!
                                  BEFORE                                       AFTER

Gaucho!

After weeks and months of procrastinating the gaucho rebuild, I'm finally working on it. Sunday morning, armed with my cut list, I started the work. I got all of my support pieces cut and the base framework together then hubby and I headed to town for supplies and the plywood. When we got back I got the sliding plywood cut and was getting ready to attach the supports to it when I realized all of my staples are either too long or too short. Back to Harbor Freight I go... I got crazy excited when I placed the plywood on the frame to check for fit and actually got to lay down in Ziggy!!!