'69 Safari bath floor repair

[byamcaravanner]

Originally Posted by CJ of Okla

It is funny the tank is shipped in it bare nothings just a black tank with your name and address stuck to it. That is a pretty strong tank to make it through the US postage with no box.

LOL! That's how mine were shipped too. They even had to use that stretchy plastic pallet wrap to hold the stickers on since nothing seams to stick to that black plastic. I ordered my tanks from AmeriKart thru PPL RV... since the price was about half as much. I have a link on my blog

[Lothlorian]

CJ from Oklahoma

Thank you for the incaplastic link. I e-mailed them a picture of my tank with dimensions and they said they have it. My overlander airstream is a 1973. This is the comment he made to me. Does anybody have a suggestion on how I answer him. This has me a bit confused. I will post a picture of my tank so you all can see.

IF YOU STILL WANT TO ORDER IT, PLEASE INDICATE TYPE OF FITTING ( THREADED, SLIP,GROMMET OR SENSORS LOCATION) MAKE SURE YOU MEASURE I.D. NOT O.D.

SIU Bound

Brina

[InsideOut]

Originally Posted by SIU Bound

This is the comment he made to me. Does anybody have a suggestion on how I answer him. This has me a bit confused. I will post a picture of my tank so you all can see.

IF YOU STILL WANT TO ORDER IT, PLEASE INDICATE TYPE OF FITTING ( THREADED, SLIP,GROMMET OR SENSORS LOCATION) MAKE SURE YOU MEASURE I.D. NOT O.D.

SIU Bound

Brina

What I think he is asking clarification on is where and what size you want the fitting (holes) and what type/size. I may not have been clear on your dimensions you sent.

We just ordered tanks (but from someone else) without all the holes in them for our '56 Safari. We weren't sure exactly where we wanted the holes until we could see how the tanks would fit in the frame which was after we had the tanks in hand. Our Safari had no existing tanks to go-by, so our tanks were 100% custom shape/size - nothing to start with. Once we got them, we figured out where we wanted everything and last week I took them to a local tank builder (doesn't do custom builds though, only molded) and had them put in the spin fittings exactly where we needed them. It took about 15 minutes for both tanks and only cost $20.

Being you have the old tanks, you can either measure where the fittings go or order your tank without them and have someone local provide the fittings & spin set them to match your existing tank.

Hope this helps ~

Shari

[Lothlorian]

I am not up on the correct terminology on all the fittings. I know the toilet flange screws into a hole on the top of the tank. and the other fitting the gray water dumps into must be a slip. The sensors are on the right where the dump valve goes. I will have to research this more.

Brian

SIU Bound

[InsideOut]

Check out the different fittings on page 28 of this .pdf from the folks I had do my fittings - it may help you with the terminology ~

Shari

[fotochop]

Originally Posted by SIU Bound

IF YOU STILL WANT TO ORDER IT, PLEASE INDICATE TYPE OF FITTING ( THREADED, SLIP,GROMMET OR SENSORS LOCATION) MAKE SURE YOU MEASURE I.D. NOT O.D.

SIU Bound

Brina

My original '69 tank has a THREADED female 3" spun-in fitting that the toilet flange screws into. If your existing sub-floor is not being replaced like mine you'll want to make sure that the toilet fitting fits exactly under the hole in your sub-floor (since I'm putting a new floor in I had to locate that spot and cut the plywood directly above the toilet fitting). The fitting for the dump valve is simply a SLIP fitting (like a piece of pipe) as is the tank vent. You can see pix of these in Post #37 of this thread. I changed my Thetford dump valve to a Valterra and used a heat lamp to get the Valterra in. If you don't have a gray tank the graywater will empty just AFT of the dump valve in a sort of "tee" fitting. If yours is a Thetford tee the only guy I've seen who says he can repair them is Inland Andy (I don't think they're available new anymore), which is another reason I switched to Valterra as the parts are readily available.

[fotochop]

-clecos mean stuff is going back TOGETHER instead of being taken apart, so they make me very happy! here's some holding a reinforcing strip added to the one shaky spot on the blacktank, after hitting it with the POR. I shot wide-flange bellypan rivets in here to hold the strip:



-that tank flange did indeed have threads and I made an AIRSTREAM "black hole" wrench to back it out (thanks, Zep, for the tip):



-since my subfloor was mostly GONE, it was a bit tricky to determine exactly where the hole for the toilet flange should go. this is a critical measurement because the black tank doesn't have a whole lot of room to move around, especially laterally, which is as it should be. I drilled a pilot hole in the approximate spot then cut a pencil off about 2" long and squeeeeeeezed it inside the hole and traced the edge of the threaded (female) tank flange as I pushed the thin ply floor template against the tank underneath. which gave me this marking on the template:



which I cut out. voila. next up: cutting the actual 3/4 subfloor....not the 1/4" template (which I'm a bit sick of..honestly..)

[Lothlorian]

Thanks Foto Chop

I am going to order tomorrow. Your info really helped.

SIU Bound

Brian

[fotochop]

OK, why is there always a 'dangling photograph' in my posts...? paperclip sabotage... the dangler above is a birds eye view of the tubes that connect the heater duct and the blacktank pan (to keep the tank from freezing...before I learned this I thought "why would you want blackwater overflow going into the heater duct?"....DUH...) anyway these two have to line up when you're re-fitting your blacktank, that's my only point...and they're connected by a short lengtht of radiator hose, for those of you who haven't seen your trailer's bath guts yet...

[Zeppelinium]

Originally Posted by InsideOut

Check out the different fittings on page 28 of this .pdf from the folks I had do my fittings - it may help you with the terminology ~

Shari

Hey, Lady, thanks for sharing The Metal Company catalog! I saw part of it when I stopped by Timeless Trailers and I needed a copy so I could study it!

Zep

[goransons]

Was your lead time on the tank order pretty fast? I think it is going to be a season two project, new pan, tank, etc. Thanks Frank for the great detail. Am I correct in the notion you installed the tank and pan from below? Its looking good! And we're learning a lot watching.

[CJ of Okla]

Sorry I didn't get back sooner, I lost the thread. We talked to Al and it was much easier to talk to him on the phone. I know he will want you to measure the hole from the inside. Very inportant you get the inside and outside of the holes measured correctly. Our sensor looks like it is in the same place as yours. As we never had used the toilet not sure if our black tank sensor worked or not. I guess we will find out when we get it back to gether.

Originally Posted by SIU Bound

CJ from Oklahoma

Thank you for the incaplastic link. I e-mailed them a picture of my tank with dimensions and they said they have it. My overlander airstream is a 1973. This is the comment he made to me. Does anybody have a suggestion on how I answer him. This has me a bit confused. I will post a picture of my tank so you all can see.

IF YOU STILL WANT TO ORDER IT, PLEASE INDICATE TYPE OF FITTING ( THREADED, SLIP,GROMMET OR SENSORS LOCATION) MAKE SURE YOU MEASURE I.D. NOT O.D.

SIU Bound

Brina

[fotochop]

-made some progress, got the plastic bath parts (except the ceiling, which will be done in place) patched and painted...for the patching I used this new product from West Marine called G/Flex, which comes in a 20-buck kit:



and bought a couple extra feet of 4" fiberglas fabric. mix 1 to 1 and glop it on. the great thing about this stuff is it really is more flexible than regular epox/fiberglas and that can only help in a twisting/turning airstream... here you can see what a patch looks like on the backside. this was one of the nastier cracks which you can see earlier in this thread..



here's how it looks in front..not perfect by any means but way good enough for my needs and super strong...I filled in the front-side irregularities with Interlux Watertite Epoxy Filler, which is just truly amazing stuff. it is so strong and tough. I fixed the front door of my house with it (cracks that never seem to stay patched) and it's the first thing that has actually worked on this door, so I feel ok about using it here. I'm going to also use it to patch/level the seam in my now-split sub floor (which i had to do to get it put in) ..this is that part just aft of the toilet:



I used two brushed-on coats of Interlux Brightside Polyurethane and it looks really nice and should be incredibly durable. I sanded the parts with 220 paper and cleaned with acetone. (the trick with brushing, if you don't already know this, is to always BRUSH BACK into what you just painted and raise the brush lightly to feather any strokes out... the only imperfection is from tiny micro dots of dust and/or bubbles and if anyone can recommend the best way to polish these out (Nuvite?) I might give it a shot, but they look nice as is...so I might not ;-)

here's the lav:



as you'll notice some of the parts are super smooth and others, like the bathroom above-tub cabinet have more a pebbly surface which you can see above the tub:



got the sub floor all cut out and put three coats of Aerowood-style "hybrid" poly on it (where you mix together all the random half-full cans of poly you have laying around...it works great!) and will post another update as soon as I have those puppies bolted in....

[goransons]

looks good! Can't wait to see it back together.

[CJ of Okla]

Your doing a great job. Hope my 1969 31' looks that good when we get done. Hubby has backed the AS onto the driveway, he has to grind off the support brackets that hold the belly pan for the black tank. He wants to put better supports as these look like nothing but rust and they sag. Hubby is talking about going from beam to beam instead of the way AS installed. Anyone have any inputs on redesigining the black tank support braces?

I have some repairs to do to my tub cornor and the surround behind the toilet. You have gave me some great ideas. Thanks fotoshop

[fotochop]

"Anyone have any inputs on redesigining the black tank support braces?"

well, if you can be sure that you will NEVER have to remove the blacktank I guess that might work OK. I just assume that everything will one day need maintenance/repair and try to prepare for it if possible. That's why the tank supports bolt in, for possible removal. I'm also replacing my bolts with stainless ones, which may have a bit more rust-free shelf life..

[CJ of Okla]

Hubby is going to make the new braces removable, he thinks changing the directions of the brackets will give better support???????????? Oh yes I am sure somewhere down the line we may have to drop the black tank for some type of repair. BUT if it last another 39 years I will be long gone, it will be someone else problem.

[fotochop]

nice weather down here means more progress on this monster...I mean SWEETHEART... got the subfloor bolted in and braced under the seams:



in the shot above you'll notice I used a regular 3/4 ply brace under the fore portion but a slimmed-down 1/4 ply (left) under where the blacktank will ride. I noticed the tank is really close to the subfloor and I'm trying to get everything snug without ANYTHING putting pressure on the tank from above. I have determined this is a no-no and may have led to the tank cracking..

since my aft-support iron was in pretty decent shape I didn't bother adding the two "Pizzachop Wings" on the outer frame, although I'd think if your trailer doesn't have a viable aft angle like you can see in this photo you should add them for support. My angle had double holes near the frame so I used two bolts there...can't hurt. Then bent them as per original:



in this next shot you can see the pre-poly'ed subfloor was split down the middle to install and then joined & leveled with Interlux marine epoxy and then Bondo:



while I was back there it woulda been stupid not to brace the back ribs to the U-channel and tighten everything up. I bought a 3 dollar aluminum yard stick from Home Despot and cut off two six inch pieces since I've never seen a two foot ruler before ;-) drilled the pieces and shot 3/16" rivets in (I think)... nice to be solid as a rock back there again...it's probably been a coupla decades since it was...:



today I put the first coat of white Poly on the still-in-place overhead bath pieces. I'm thinking of leaving the inside of those overhead cabinets unpainted as a little memento of how faded it once was (not because I'm too lazy to paint them....really). The existing doors are starting to delaminate and they just seem too dang heavy so I think I'm gonna make some new ones our of white plexiglas instead...



I just LOVE white plex in a bath. it just seems to FIT in a clean kind of way. I'm a big fan of Carlos' Safari too and I noticed he used plex for some full length doors so I'm thinking I might go that route for the long vertical bath closet too...and while I'm at it for the sliding doors too. when I renovated my darkroom after the Big K I added a small bath/shower and fashioned a mini vanity out of an oak wall cabinet and sliding plex doors:



pretty soon I'll be reinstalling the black tank and I'm currently trying to support the black tank with new foam board, in this shot you can see my carving attempt under the dump flange:



next episode:...who knows!

[Lothlorian]

Photo:

I am right behind you. I just fit the template today, and I am still debating if I want to cut the replacement floor down the middle like you did. Or try to go in from the back with the whole piece of material. I am using the nyloboard and even though I am happy with it I have insecurities about using a brace after I cut it.

I really like the aluminum ruler idea. I need to check my supports to see if they are all intact. I will take pictures today.

I painted my bathroom, sink, counter top, and tub, but I am going to give it all a light sand and touch it up with a second coat.

SIU Bound

Brian

[fotochop]

if you have access to something like a front end loader like Pizzachop you can use it to press down on the entire back frame to slip your un-cut floor in. I didn't have that kind of access so went with plywood and cut in half, which is quite solid. You could also use biscuit joints etc down the middle if necessary which would help.

second coat of poly on plastic parts is highly recommended..