I bought my 1976 31" Sovereign International on June 24, 2010 about two miles from my home.
It's going to be a work in progress. I'll uncover, discover, and recover. It has some old leaks. I suspect the TV antenna and the skylights. I believe the leakage is minimal but I'll see.
We began by removing the living area builtins.
sofa out
Both sofas out along with the mickey mouse corner table and the finger pinch table.
Before removing the rotted floor sections under the window and by the door, I'll remove those nice blue floor tiles.
They appear to be original because the floor is like new under the tiles and the tiles go under the builtins. They come up like they were never glued with a heat gun.
The whole tile comes up in one piece. Unfortunately the glue stays down and stays sticky. Some comes up with Krud Kutter.
I removed the drapes. The end caps come off and there's a screw in the bottom track to remove and the drapes just run out the end.
It's going to be a work in progress. I'll uncover, discover, and recover. It has some old leaks. I suspect the TV antenna and the skylights. I believe the leakage is minimal but I'll see.
We began by removing the living area builtins.
sofa out
Both sofas out along with the mickey mouse corner table and the finger pinch table.
Before removing the rotted floor sections under the window and by the door, I'll remove those nice blue floor tiles.
They appear to be original because the floor is like new under the tiles and the tiles go under the builtins. They come up like they were never glued with a heat gun.
The whole tile comes up in one piece. Unfortunately the glue stays down and stays sticky. Some comes up with Krud Kutter.
I removed the drapes. The end caps come off and there's a screw in the bottom track to remove and the drapes just run out the end.
Carefree awning fabric replacement
Tags carefree of colorado
AWNING FABRIC REPLACEMENT
The replacement awning material is on and the awning is back on. The job took two strong helpers and took 3 1/2 hours, start to finish.
The awning is a Carefree of Colorado. Dealer installed on 1976 31' center bath Airstream. The arms are 21' on center. The material length is about 20' 2". The pull out length of the material total is about 8'. The length from the extended roller to the trailer rail is about 93". Both the roller welt and the trailer rail welt size is 1/4".
I ordered the replacement material from Scottie's Fabric 800-780-8677. scottiescanvas.com Cost including freight to my home was $615.
I ordered satin Alumaguard and R-172 Blue Acrylic fabric. View sample at https://www.recasensusa.com/recasens-awnings.html
The awning roller had a bend to it when I got the trailer. It was straightened to perfect alignment by Midwest Metal Works in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
The scaffold was handy again.
Both springs were good. I removed both and greased them before riveting the caps back on.
We worked on two ladders and a rolling scaffold. I wound the springs 7 turns with a small ViceGrip. The end caps had wind arrows for direction of wind. I wound the springs with the arms retracted with material rolled up on the roller. I removed the arms, one at a time to wind the springs. That made reattaching the blocks to the arms easy. The spring winding was the easiest part of the job. The spring block shaft is well designed to make winding the springs an easy job with the right tool.
I forgot to order a new pull strap when I ordered the awning material, so I bought 2" black seatbelt material and sewed a screen cord of the correct diameter to use as a welt cord into a 12" strip of the material, and then sewed 6 lines to attach the strap to the welt portion.
Both Carefree and Scottie's told me that Alumaguard wouldn't work on curved arm trailers but the forum posters showed me that it does work. I'm glad I listened to the forum members. The Alumaguard worked fine with no problems.
The picture shows the rolled up Alumaguard a little loose on the roller, but when it's rolled slower, it rolls tight to the tube, no problem. It opens fine with a little curve at the first section. That's not a problem. All in all, I'm very happy.
I had planned to sew the awning myself but I'm glad I ordered the material with the Alumaguard. I'm happy with everything just the way I did it.
Thanks to all who held my hand and advised me through this phase.
Additional pictures:
Full view of spring.
Picture of roller tube open.
The spring bar just slides inside the tube and the spring rod end dowel catches on the formed channels inside the roller to make the spring wind on the shaft.
The spring rod just floates inside the tube. It's only held on with the rivets on the end cap.
The replacement awning material is on and the awning is back on. The job took two strong helpers and took 3 1/2 hours, start to finish.
The awning is a Carefree of Colorado. Dealer installed on 1976 31' center bath Airstream. The arms are 21' on center. The material length is about 20' 2". The pull out length of the material total is about 8'. The length from the extended roller to the trailer rail is about 93". Both the roller welt and the trailer rail welt size is 1/4".
I ordered the replacement material from Scottie's Fabric 800-780-8677. scottiescanvas.com Cost including freight to my home was $615.
I ordered satin Alumaguard and R-172 Blue Acrylic fabric. View sample at https://www.recasensusa.com/recasens-awnings.html
The awning roller had a bend to it when I got the trailer. It was straightened to perfect alignment by Midwest Metal Works in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
The scaffold was handy again.
Both springs were good. I removed both and greased them before riveting the caps back on.
We worked on two ladders and a rolling scaffold. I wound the springs 7 turns with a small ViceGrip. The end caps had wind arrows for direction of wind. I wound the springs with the arms retracted with material rolled up on the roller. I removed the arms, one at a time to wind the springs. That made reattaching the blocks to the arms easy. The spring winding was the easiest part of the job. The spring block shaft is well designed to make winding the springs an easy job with the right tool.
I forgot to order a new pull strap when I ordered the awning material, so I bought 2" black seatbelt material and sewed a screen cord of the correct diameter to use as a welt cord into a 12" strip of the material, and then sewed 6 lines to attach the strap to the welt portion.
Both Carefree and Scottie's told me that Alumaguard wouldn't work on curved arm trailers but the forum posters showed me that it does work. I'm glad I listened to the forum members. The Alumaguard worked fine with no problems.
The picture shows the rolled up Alumaguard a little loose on the roller, but when it's rolled slower, it rolls tight to the tube, no problem. It opens fine with a little curve at the first section. That's not a problem. All in all, I'm very happy.
I had planned to sew the awning myself but I'm glad I ordered the material with the Alumaguard. I'm happy with everything just the way I did it.
Thanks to all who held my hand and advised me through this phase.
Additional pictures:
Full view of spring.
Picture of roller tube open.
The spring bar just slides inside the tube and the spring rod end dowel catches on the formed channels inside the roller to make the spring wind on the shaft.
The spring rod just floates inside the tube. It's only held on with the rivets on the end cap.
Total Comments 1
Comments
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Nice. Looks great!Posted 09-01-2012 at 05:30 PM by Lance M 
