The Great Screw Hunt

The past couple days have been dry and warm enough that I've been working outside on the restoration of my Airstream trailer, while weather permits. After two calendar weeks worth of careful minor adjustments, clearing away of old hardware, cleaning, fitting of insulation to the plywood floor, and dry fitting it in place umpteen zillion times, the next section of floor was finally ready to be installed late this morning. I just needed a dozen round head #8 1/2" wood screws, which I seemed to recall were in the basement.

I searched the basement. Fifteen minutes later I was convinced they weren't in the basement. I searched the shed. No luck there, but I did find the flat head #10 1" wood screws I was also going to need later to join the two pieces of floor plywood together. Next I checked the trailer itself. No luck there, either, though I did find an empty bag of #8-32 1-1/2" machine screws - perhaps that's why I thought I already had the screws?

I drove to the nearest location of the infamous orange big box home improvement store. They sold what I was looking for, sure enough, but they were out of stock. Next came a stop a big box store with a hardware department. Not stocked. The blue big box home improvement store: not stocked. Another big box store's hardware department: not stocked. A ten minute drive took me to the next-nearest location of the infamous store. Success at last!

They were cheap, too. I probably spent more money on the gas involved. If I was being paid minimum wage for hunting them up, it would have been more wages than the darn screws cost. But it was worth it. 40% of the new plywood floor is now in place!

Early evening photo of floor after it has been screwed into place at left.

Next up is fixing the gaping holes toward the right, and replacing the plywood floor for the the middle 20% of the trailer. Alas, this is complicated by the fact that the wheel wells and entry step are also located in this section, and the aluminum belly skin beneath also needs work. Probably three to six more weeks work to accomplish all that, given weather and the need to work for a living. After that, the front 40% of the floor should be a much easier case. I hope to finish the floor replacement by early May.