69 Tradewind Full Monte Renovation in MN

[GoToasterGo]

Hmm.. so strange that air forums decides to rotate only some of my images.

Anyway, part of sealing up the exterior was closing up a couple larger holes, one which was from and old antenna near the front of the trailer, I'm not sure where the other came from. Anyway we decided to cover them up with some cool Minnesota and Manitoba shaped patches.





Here's a couple more interior shots as the skin starts getting sealed up. You can see the air conditioning is in place.





In one of those pictures you can see the reflectix I installed. I wish now that I would have used prodex but too late now. The reflectix did go in really easy and hopefully it was worth it.

Here's my first batch of wires I got in to run my DC. I tried to color code all circuits to make my life easier later if I need to do any repairs, or make any changes. I was short on a couple lengths but this picture covered about 85%of the required DC wiring.



And here is all the electrical installed AC and DC. I used 10/2 for my 30A shore power to the breaker panel, 12/2 for the air conditioning and 14/2 for everythign else. The DC wire were mostly 14 AWG, some 12 and 10 AWG for higher current draw items and 8 AWG for the DC fridge power. The Fridge should rarely run off DC but it does draw a lot of current so the voltage drop across too small of a wire could lead to problems. I also used 18 AWG for a few different signal cables(thermostat to AC signal, Thermostat to furnace etc..). I probably could have used it for some of the lighter current draw circuits as well but 14AWG was just easier to come by. Also, I ordered all my wire from tinnedmarinewire, they had a great selection at the right price.


MAJOR LAPSE IN PLANNING!!
I had one major lapse in planning. When I started running the electrical the entire belly pan was insualted and riveted along with the banana wraps. Unfortunately I forgot to run the power lines for my electric jack and breakaway cable. Wanting these wires to be nicely hidden inside the A frame of the hitch I ended up having to pull my front belly pan down to run two wires.....

Looks great now though! (I should probably get a pic of this)

This weekend I finished up the insulation on the interior using roxul. I did have to cut all of the standard sized insulation pieces in half as their thickness is for standard 2x4 framed rooms, but with the help of some Super77 3M adhesive everything stayed in place.

Next up interior skins!!!

[GoToasterGo]

Pic of the insulation

[TouringDan]

GTG

Outstanding work!

Sideways photos can be frustrating. The long photo dimension always seems to be horizon.

Dan

[Minno]

Nice progress!
I see you borrowed a couple ideas from us related to wiring colors and shaped patches.

Kay

[GoToasterGo]

Originally Posted by Minno

Nice progress!
I see you borrowed a couple ideas from us related to wiring colors and shaped patches.

Kay

We definitely did for the wiring. I don’t remember the patches on yours. Maybe post a pic and jog my memory.

[dbj216]

Thanks for the update. I wonder how many times I've had to "rework" something because of lack of planning. Your post proves I'm just a normal guy.

I put a Colorado patch on my son's Globetrotter. Colorado is a square state and not recognizable for an ordinary patch. No arrow head, no panhandle, no boot heal, etc., just boring square.

David

[Minno]

Chris put a Minnesota shape over the dent left from having a doorknob on the door where it hit the trailer to the left of the door. Definitely covers a multitude of sins!

Kay

[utahredrock]

Love seeing the progress!

[GoToasterGo]

Originally Posted by Minno

Chris put a Minnesota shape over the dent left from having a doorknob on the door where it hit the trailer to the left of the door. Definitely covers a multitude of sins!

Kay

Ahh yes I mentioned this to Jean and she remembered seeing it.

[rugjenkins]

I've have a Alabama,Texas, and Louisiana patches on mine. My wife and kids keep saying I need Colorado and Wyoming patches [emoji12]. I'm at the same place in my build and just started putting interior skins on. Great work

[Minno]

If it ever stops snowing, we'd like to come see your trailer. MN March is definitely going out like a lion this year! 3 - 4 inches of snow last nite....

Kay

[GoToasterGo]

Kay - You definitely should! It's currently in a warehouse, but like you said, if it ever stops snowing and the ground dries up then it will be in the back yard again. Hopefully we can set something up near the end of the moth.

[steinVT]

Just finished a marathon read of your blog, thanks for posting. I like you am waiting for the snow to go, I'm in Vermont. My trailer, a '56 Safari, is gutted and waiting for the shell to come off. I hadn't planned to, but after seeing your success, I am going to build a gantry system. I like that you can use it to flip the frame and I don't much like working on my back.

I am trying to figure out how long this should take. If you don't mind me asking, are you working full time on this project or nights and weekends? It looks great by the way.

Mark

[GoToasterGo]

Originally Posted by steinVT

Just finished a marathon read of your blog, thanks for posting. I like you am waiting for the snow to go, I'm in Vermont. My trailer, a '56 Safari, is gutted and waiting for the shell to come off. I hadn't planned to, but after seeing your success, I am going to build a gantry system. I like that you can use it to flip the frame and I don't much like working on my back.

I am trying to figure out how long this should take. If you don't mind me asking, are you working full time on this project or nights and weekends? It looks great by the way.

Mark

Hi Mark,

Glad you found my posts useful. As you've probably read from many other expect it to take longer than you think . During the non winter months I get in around 40 hours a week. This was originally just evenings and weekends until I was able to negotiate cutting my hours back at work to only work Monday through Thursday.

Best of luck with your '56 Safari!

-Kirk

[steinVT]

Hi Kirk,
I plan to do the same, cutting back to half time in May. I have most of the interior refinished in my basement and am looking to working outside with steel and aluminum.

If you don't mind, some questions about your gantry. Looks like it had 12 foot side columns. Was the top beam 12 foot as well?

Did you stabilize the interior at all with cross beams attached to the ribs? Did you bridge the door opening with wood?

Thanks,
Mark

[GoToasterGo]

Mark,

Sorry for the late response I’ve been traveling a lot recently. I think the top beam was 10feet, I actually found some really nice plans here on the forums. If you search around you should be able to find them. Or message me again this week and I’ll try and find them when I get back home. The only real support I used while the shell was off the frame was a couple of “tables” that I set the frame on. I made these out of left over pieces of 4x4 and some left over ply wood. I needed this as the 69 shell has pieces of aluminum which wrap around to the below and hang below the c channel when the frame is off. I did nothing at all to the door opening, but my door was also in rough shape already when I got the trailer.

Hope this helps.

[J. Morgan]

Originally Posted by GoToasterGo

Hmm.. so strange that air forums decides to rotate only some of my images.



Anyway, part of sealing up the exterior was closing up a couple larger holes, one which was from and old antenna near the front of the trailer, I'm not sure where the other came from. Anyway we decided to cover them up with some cool Minnesota and Manitoba shaped patches.



Attachment 307258



Attachment 307259



Here's a couple more interior shots as the skin starts getting sealed up. You can see the air conditioning is in place.



Attachment 307260



Attachment 307261



In one of those pictures you can see the reflectix I installed. I wish now that I would have used prodex but too late now. The reflectix did go in really easy and hopefully it was worth it.



Here's my first batch of wires I got in to run my DC. I tried to color code all circuits to make my life easier later if I need to do any repairs, or make any changes. I was short on a couple lengths but this picture covered about 85%of the required DC wiring.



Attachment 307262



And here is all the electrical installed AC and DC. I used 10/2 for my 30A shore power to the breaker panel, 12/2 for the air conditioning and 14/2 for everythign else. The DC wire were mostly 14 AWG, some 12 and 10 AWG for higher current draw items and 8 AWG for the DC fridge power. The Fridge should rarely run off DC but it does draw a lot of current so the voltage drop across too small of a wire could lead to problems. I also used 18 AWG for a few different signal cables(thermostat to AC signal, Thermostat to furnace etc..). I probably could have used it for some of the lighter current draw circuits as well but 14AWG was just easier to come by. Also, I ordered all my wire from tinnedmarinewire, they had a great selection at the right price.

Attachment 307263



MAJOR LAPSE IN PLANNING!!

I had one major lapse in planning. When I started running the electrical the entire belly pan was insualted and riveted along with the banana wraps. Unfortunately I forgot to run the power lines for my electric jack and breakaway cable. Wanting these wires to be nicely hidden inside the A frame of the hitch I ended up having to pull my front belly pan down to run two wires.....



Looks great now though! (I should probably get a pic of this)



This weekend I finished up the insulation on the interior using roxul. I did have to cut all of the standard sized insulation pieces in half as their thickness is for standard 2x4 framed rooms, but with the help of some Super77 3M adhesive everything stayed in place.



Next up interior skins!!!

Creative patches rule! My son cut this one for me, he has skills!

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by J. Morgan

Attachment 311066

Creative patches rule! My son cut this one for me, he has skills!

Beautiful! Does your son do work in New England? [emoji3]

[GoToasterGo]

I’ve made a few more leaps forward, I’m pushing hard to have the trailer fully functional by the end of July.

After the insulation, I quickly got going on the interior skins. I was going for the fewest number of seems possible so I used the longest sheets I could find from airparts inc. These were 4x12 sheets of 5052 H32 .032”

Using these large sheets definitely caused some headaches but it looks great now. The most difficult aspects of using the long sheet were:
1. Trying to line up all the cuts around windows, lights, wiring, etc...
2. Not having any warpage or bubbles in the aluminum.

Here are some progress pics.





Next up I worked on the end caps. I found a post on here titled “Aluminum Interior End Cap segmented” by Larry b. Which was an amazing method to remake the end caps, it took about a day per end cap but the ended up looking amazing.





Next I taped up the inside for painting, rented a sprayer and got after it.







Overall, I’m very pleased with how the interior is coming together. 8 more weeks and she should be close to done.

[Minno]

WOW! Looks fabulous!

Kay