Shipwright’s Disease (Post #598) 8/23/2022

I need to add a “Mad Max Edition” badge.
Take a moment to consider the tragic condition known as Shipwrights Disease:

Sailor owns boat.

Boat has burned out light in galley.

Sailor decides to replace bulb.

Sailor notices socket is corroded, decides to change socket.

While changing the socket, sailor notices wiring is frayed.

Sailor decides to change wiring.

While replacing the wiring, sailor finds galley ceiling slats are rotted.

While replacing the galley ceiling slats, sailor notices …

… And so on, and pretty soon, the boat is in dry dock undergoing a major restoration because of a burned out light bulb.

Source: Robert Couse-Baker, flickr.

I‘m OFFENDED!

Wait, no I’m not, maybe I’m guilty. My best friend JagGuy diagnosed me. He’s probably right.

So let me defend myself. Why did I pull the Range Rover into my shoppe and park it four years ago? I had two major problems when she was parked:

  • Ignition system became entirely unreliable
  • The heater blower motor let some of the magic smoke out of its wires

Were there other things that needed some attention when I parked her. Yes, yes there were. I’ve listed them in another post. We can add rusted panels to that list.

In my defense, I believe it was time for the Big White Bus to get another restoration. She has 280,000 miles on her clock.

Do I want her to be a show queen? Not by a long shot. I’ve never owned a car I was afraid to drive through a barbed wire fence. But the interior is looking pretty rough. The condition of the interior and exterior directly affected the insurance pay out I received when that idiot was reaching for the jar of spasgetti (that’s how my grand kids say it) and slammed into the left rear. If you missed that post from 2016, you can read about that here [Okierover.com].

So I’d like to fix some things on the dash that failed after 30 years (she shipped out of Solihull in October of 1992) of sun and cold and sun and poor application of paint at the factory and the sun. You know what I’m talking about. Plastic will eventually break down if exposed to the unforgiving southern plains sun.

Air conditioning…does it make sense to fix the AC? Well hell’s bells I have the bloody dash off why not?!? Have you ever sat in bumper to bumper traffic on I-35 with 110F August heat? I can tell you it will make a man of you, well what’s left of you when you get home anyway.

Rust, I took a welding class just so I could fix the panels…

The paint on the outside is losing it’s clear coat and is badly oxidized….

Seat covers…definitely should be replaced…

Those D pillar vents are looking pretty bad…

Okay. I admit it, it is likely Shipwright’s Disease.

In all honesty, I don’t have the money lined up right now to fix everything and make the Big White Bus my daily driver again. Makin he my daily again makes moderately economical sense because I could drop the 2014 F-150 off my insurance, sell it for what I’m being told is north of 20,000(US)$. (The used auto market at the time of this post is incomprehensibly over blown.) That’s more than half what I paid for her 5 years ago. She’s been a good truck. The reason for her was to pull a camper we bought that my wife later decided was not going to be in our future plans for weekends. Cash out, spend some of that on the BWB, am I right?

Probably won’t happen. More likely the BWB will be my weekend overlanding vehicle. That works too. I miss driving her. I digress.

I’ve said this many times. Every job on the Range Rover becomes three projects. Every bolt you touch either needs to be replaced with stainless, or de-rusted, painted, and the panel you pulled it from rust abated.

Is this Shipwright’s Disease, probably. Am I going to change anything to cure myself? Nope.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

One Reply to “Shipwright’s Disease (Post #598) 8/23/2022”

  1. Never feel guilty for slow progress. It’s a Range Rover , it’s not supposed to run all the time …LOL

    Exterior is the least of the issues – call it Patina and move on.

    I’ll still navigate for ya , OK maybe by leading while I’m driving my truck.

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