Progress is being made; the Twinkie is inside the repair shop! Colin and crew are busy assessing the overall condition and making plans for what needs to happen next. We are excited!

Assessing the condition of the original floor. Not a pretty sight!

Pulling the body off the chassis

After spending the last 5 months in the parking lot, the Chrome Twinkie is finally inside of Colin Hyde’s shop and ready for the next phase of its restoration process.

The first steps will be removing the running lights, lower rub rails, old sky lights and remaining interior skin and insulation remnants.  Colin’s craftsmen will then drill out the rivets holding the body to the frame, insert an I-beam and carefully remove the body from the frame via an overhead gambrel that is inside of the shop.  Once the body is removed the frame will go onto his “rotisserie” to be flipped over, removal of the old axles, frame inspection and any re-welding needed, and installation of gray water tanks.

After doing extensive research, we’ve decided upon using the Natures Head composting toilet, thus eliminating the need for the “black water” tank and plumbing associated with black water.  We felt that a compositing toilet better suited our needs as we do plan on a certain amount of “boon docking” or off the grid camping.  We also did not want the hassle or mess of dealing with black water or wrestling the “stinky slinky” as Colin so lovingly refers to the black water drain line.

Colin and crew have been making better head-way on the the Chrome Twinkie than we have on our blog, so we will update again soon!