For lack of a butt splice

 I was hoping to post pics of the wheels installed, the wiring all done, and talk about getting the deck on.  And with a little luck I'll have at least one of the first two done this week.  

I forgot to include the special brackets needed to support the Timbren suspension in my first trip to the sandblaster/powder coater.  And of course they were on a reduced schedule the past couple of weeks, so they didn't get done.  Hopefully tomorrow.  And that's OK, I really wasn't planning to put them on until I got most things wired anyway.

And I was planning to get the all the wiring fished, and the chassis lights installed.  Well, I got partly done.  First, my 25 year old fish tape decided to break into 5 pieces.  Actually there's no telling when that really happened.  I only found it was broken when I tried to extend it and it was jammed.  Opening up 60 feet of tightly coiled spring steel is always entertaining, and usually something best done on a warehouse floor.  Released, it attempts to expand to its full relaxed shape - in one quick explosion.  In any case, I wrapped up the broken parts, saved the 12 foot tip, ordered a new tape, and got to fishing.

I have to admit this was more entertaining than I had hoped.  When I did all the holes for wiring and installation, I only had a 3/4¨ step drill (warning, don't buy the gold Harbor Fright bits.  They are doubtless fine on aluminum, but mild steel - nope).
That's a tight corner, and then there is a hole in the tube wall at the end of the cross tube that was un-fishable.  I stuffed a loop of paracord through and managed to catch it with the end of the fish tape.  Doing this all on a frame that still thinks it's outside in the cold... It took a while.

Eventually, they all got fished, and I realized that I failed to order a stock of butt splices.  Another quick add to my daily Amazon cart, and they will be here on Friday - which is just as well since the high temp here tomorrow is supposed to be -1F/-18C, which means my garage will be struggling to maintain 32/0C.  I'll fire up the torpedo on Friday, and over the weekend.  Hopefully by Monday we have a rollable trailer.