After letting the concrete slab cure for another day I felt confident enough to move the generator onto the platform to conclude that small part of the project. Of course this thing is heavy as hell so it took the both of us and the removing of a couple of panels to allow us to get a better grip on the body of the unit so we can slowly move the thing up onto the slab. We reoriented the genny to where the access panel is facing away from the house, which also oriented the conduit ports in the direction of the power pole. After looking at the transfer switch that came with the genny, I did find out that the unit has to be mounted in the house next to the breaker panel. All of the circuit breakers on the old panel will have to have their lines transferred over to the transfer switch, more or less making the transfer switch be the new house breaker panel. Because the trailer house doesn't have a lot of breakers, it would damn near render the old breaker box useless since the transfer switch has pretty much the same number of breakers as what is used in the old box. Because of this, I have to look around and see if there's a transfer switch that is intended to be used at the meter outside where the main breaker is located. This would make things a lot easier as far as hooking things up, since I would be working the same number of breakers this way as I would with the original eight breaker transfer switch. Another thing I decided to start on was making a couple of door panels for the Dodge. Even though we did get the engine in the car and do a quick start up, we did find that the intake gaskets were leaking at the water jacket and pissing water into the intake valley, putting water into the crankcase and ruining the oil. We had to remove everything from the top and clean it all up so we can install new gaskets and make doubly sure that the intake was torqued down on all bolts all around, almost using the same torque technique for cylinder heads, which is alternating around the multiple bolts until they were all confirmed secured. When we tightened one bolt on one end it would cause the intake to move and twist enough to loosen up one of the other bolts on the opposite end of the intake. This is apparently what happened the first time and it caused the gaskets to not sit properly, causing the leak. Anyway, back to the door panels. Why make panels? Because replacement units for this car are around $400. This is not to say I won't get a set of the stock panels as I want to restore the car to a stock appearance, but for the time being to help put the car on the road in a more comfortable manner, I'll make a couple of door panels to cover the doors and allow me to put the armrests and everything back on. To do this I had to start off with making a template out of cardboard, with which I'll use to trace out the final panel on some lauan plywood panel and a piece of old house paneling. I took the cardboard template and traced the outline for the two door panels on the two boards previously mentioned. From there I took these outside and cut the base panels out then drilled and cut out the holes as marked. Later I'll test fit these panels to trim them as needed prior to the final stage of the project, which is the skin. My plan here with these panels is to find some type of material like a vinyl or something that is similar in thickness and toughness to the vinyl used in the car's original door panel. I can glue the bulk sheet of material to the door panel then cut out the holes from the skin. From there I will find some decorative washers that I can then use to hold screws that would be used to secure the panels to the doors. The screws would be mounted at the corners of the panel and in the middle to have some symmetry and look somewhat factory. Once I put the armrest molding and other hardware back on the door, it will hopefully look pretty normal, all things considered. I don't have the luxury to add any kind of chrome accents like on the original panels but for now this will tide me over until I can free up the money to get the original panels.
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