Last summer I had our gaucho cushion redone by a professional. New foam and new fabric.
This year I decided to tackle the rest of the gaucho myself (we had minimal time last year to finish, and to be honest the arm rests intimidated me a little) I took the pieces apart and we have some water damage to them so we remade those.
After making new bases for the arm rests on each side of the gaucho out of plywood fronts and luan (sp?) sides and getting them nicely covered in new fabric, I was ready to install them.
We didn't replace carpet under it when we got new as it was just a few days old, and we had to get it done asap, we had plans for our new fun toy, and no idea how to remove the gaucho. I needed to pull out the old carpet and put some new in underneath, so I started cutting along the side of the gaucho to get the corners up ( I figured just doing the corners would be ok, no one will see UNDER the gaucho anyway, right???
uh-oh....
We knew we have had a leak we can't pinpoint, but we didn't know how long it has been there or how bad it was. Our best guess it is a long time (we have had it 2 years now) and runs under the skin and onto the floor in the door side front corner, right under the window.
So after pulling up the carpet, BLACK MOLD.....AAAGGGHHHHH!!!! Not a happy camper here, and I barely pushed on the plywood floor with the closed razor blade and not only did it puddle, but the second time I did it, it poked a hole in the floor!!!!
So, unexpectedly, out came the caugho, and the bad parts of the floor and insulation. Thankfully the battery boxes didn't have to come out, it is solid around and under those.
We chipped away all the loose rust from the frame (that is another project for a few years from now, but not to be put off too long. Maybe when my now toddlers are in school and I have free time, HA) and painted the frame with black rustoleum, to try to help prevent more rust.
Currently, we are waiting on paint to dry, and hopefully soon we can reinsulate, set the new floor, carpet, and gaucho, them maybe pick up where I started at reinstalling the bases for the arm rests.
Moral of the story: lesson learned, never expect an easy fix, and just because you hope you won't have the same problems others have,doesn't mean you won't. Things take ten times longer than you expect, and cost three times as much.