Harry’s Makeover

Last week we discussed Harry, the trusted moving truck from the company. We left our tale with the news that there was a change in ownership of the company we work for. And as expected, with the change in management came a change in rules. 

Management decided to change out the fleet of vehicles, and by default, Harry was on the list. Curious about what will become of Harry? Read on to find out!

An Old Dream Becoming a New Reality

I’ve always had a dream of owning a camper, and I never had the chance to realize it. I’d sometimes walk around Harry and wonder to myself, “What if?”

Now that Harry was on the scrap list, that “What if?” became a “Could I?” It was a question I had to ask myself, but most importantly, my wife. She knows me best!

I have to confess that I am always full of ideas; some are turned into a reality, some are not. So when I wanted to suggest this new idea, I had to come up with a great story. 

I decided to ask her if she would like to own a camper. It went something like this, “Honey, (It’s important to butter her up) How would you like to own a camper?

The answer was obviously yes. We were halfway there! She was excited at the prospect of owning a camper, so I said, “What about Harry?”

At this point, I thought to myself, “Why did I start this conversation?” But after a little while, we agreed to adopt our Harry and turn His Royalty into a camper. 

Start From the Bottom

To be honest, this wasn’t a small task. Where to even start?

I decided that the best thing was to start from the bottom and work my way up. I bought a grinder and a wire brush to get the job done.

One thing you have to know about living in Canada, we have harsh winters with lots of snow and ice. To battle the snow, we salt our roads so that we can get from A to B. As many of you may know, salt is not the greatest for our vehicles. When salt comes into contact with the metal, it becomes rust. 

My job was to remove all this rust to prevent any further corrosion down the road. I’ll tell you, I am in my 60’s and as I was hammering away the rust, I could hear my wife say with every bang, “Are you sure you want to do this?”

It took two weeks of hammering, grinding, and scrubbing, but I finally got it done. I sprayed it with a protective layer to prevent it from rusting again.

Working My Way Up

The next step was the beautiful paint job of our Harry. We, unfortunately, couldn’t keep him around. I bought the needed materials and tools to sand the outside paint of the truck. 

All this had to be done during the evenings, as we both still had our day jobs. Of course, customers would walk by and ask me about Harry. I would tell them that we are turning him into a camper. Some were excited, and some were skeptical. 

Of course, the skeptics were not very encouraging, but I kept going. After about two weeks, Harry was no more, and the Sentinel Moving Truck was a blank page. 

Overcoming a Painting Problem

At this point, we were four weeks in, and I could finally begin rebuilding the new camper. The first job was the exterior paint. 

This caused a bit of a problem. First off, I needed instructions; second, I needed a place to paint. 

The first problem was easily fixed. Youtube has many instructional videos on the how-tos of building a brand new camper. I bought an air compressor and a paint gun and was ready to get to work. 

Unfortunately, the second problem was a little harder to fix. A place to paint! As you may know, spray painting is a smelly business. 

We had a beautiful spot in the loading bay of the storage facility, but because our customers can access their units until 11 PM, we had to wait until the doors were locked. This meant that I could only paint at night. 

Thankfully, my wife stood by me. She knew that she was needed in order to keep me going. This project was far from over. So we spent two nights priming and resanding the truck to get a smooth base for the new paint job.

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