This is IT, yes I’m sure this is IT.
Feel free to send me your positive thought, good vibes, prayers etc - I think (note the word think) I’ve finally found the cause of the problem & I’m going in.
This problem has been driving me to distraction for many months, in fact it’s fair to say the result of the problem has been a general unwillingness to drive, especially in inclement weather, something that always seems to occur when I need to drive of late.
The problem first became noticeable back in December when a select few from this honourable place gathered on the banks of the Murray up (or down depending on where you hail from) at Bearii.
Those of you with a few memory cells still intact will recall that our rather pleasant sojourn was suddenly & violently interrupted by near cyclonic & monsoonal conditions. Most will recall that these conditions conspired to injure our forum mate & elder, Bob, but what you won’t have known is that it was also the first time that the interior of the my pod developed a resemblance to a swimming pool.
Since then, in anything greater than ‘light drizzle’ the pod has filled & trying to fix & prevent the leak has been an ongoing roller coaster of hope & despair. (Well a tad frustrating anyway but a bloke’s gotta have a bit of poetic licence eh?).
Not to be outdone by governments who have declared war on everything from drugs to the people they are supposed to serve (yeah I know - politics - but hey someone has to say something about Tony) ...... I declared war on the leak.
I approached it with optimsm............... every time I thought of a new possibility, only to have my hopes dashed. The hose on the roof became the necessary evil I wanted to avoid.
Sometimes the leak was a bit improved, sometimes it was worse, but the end result was always only the difference between the rate at which the pod filled .............. & it always filled.
Driving around with a supply of dry towels to soak it up was becoming a permanent solution & I knew I had to not let the problem beat me.
Today I ate some courage flavoured sausages for brekkie & had my coffee laced with bravado. Today was the day to remove the entire pod door....... you may laugh but that’s harder than it sounds, it’s the bifold door , is cumbersome, has a bit of weight & bulk, & was waiting bite my fingers. MrsTea helped, but she wore gloves.
Well the door is off, I’ve cut & fitted the replacement reinforced vinyl protector strip along the top of the door, the one intended to prevent water dripping down inside when the door is opened. It was so much easier to fit this time with the door off, mainly because of the absence of the you beaut gutter I fitted just above the door in a failed attempt to direct water elsewhere.
Whilst sanding off some of the Sikaflex I had applied in yet another moment of optimism I sanded through some paint at the corner of the door opening, back to the metal. It was at that moment that THE REALISATION hit me. Yep I’ve had plenty of such moments of optimism, but this time I reckon I’ve found the true cause of the leak!
Hoorah I hear you cry, bloody Cuppa must be near the end of his forum essay! You may be right, but if you’ve read this far you might be beyond caring!
There, surrounded by shiny sanded aluminium was a blob of sanded pink filler. It was at that moment it dawned on me why the pod has not always leaked, & why since that fateful day on the banks of the Murray it has. When the pod was built, the area of construction in question has a sheet of aluminium overlapping another, creating a small vertical step. This had then been filled to create a smooth stepless surface for the ‘cushion’ of door seal to seal against......... & the filler had fallen out. Checking the other top corners of the pod revealed they too are all filled.
Tomorrow, when daylight returns I’ll be trying to reproduce what the pod manufacturer did using ‘Quikmetal’ (as it’s what I’ve got), prior to replacing the door.
Wish me luck!
