Well, today I had other household chores to tackle, but did manage to fit in hacksawing through the Hydroflame heater's exhaust to remove it from the kitchen cabinet finally. I then finished unscrewing the kitchen cabinet from the walls and floor and got it moved into the garage. I see the curbside wheelwell has suffered damage from a blowout (I assume) on the front side of it. Someone patched it with sheet metal and fiberglass on top.
Anyway, with all that exposed, now the trailer is completely empty all the way back to the bathroom, my garage is full, and my husband is worried this will either cost a lot of money, or tie up the trailer all summer. Or both.
Anyway, with all that exposed, now the trailer is completely empty all the way back to the bathroom, my garage is full, and my husband is worried this will either cost a lot of money, or tie up the trailer all summer. Or both.
Stef,
I felt the same way when I discovered the rot under my wet bath in the 71 Tradewind. If you stick with it you will have it done in no time.
I can attest to the fact that after the rapairs are all done, the trailer feels soooo much more like it's yours! It's sort of like removing the previous owner''s last little remnants of ownership. Plus, it's healthier for you and hubby to be in. My wife and could really tell the difference in how the trailer smells after the repairs.
I'd be happy to get rid of that old trailer smell!
I had a very good day today. I tore up the old vinyl under the bathroom closets and got a good look at the floor, and it looks very good back there. I'm not going to mess with the bathroom. That means the teardown is done, I'm ready for the next step.
I also had a visit with Darol, a local Airstream restorer. He came to have a look at my project and share pictures of ones he's done. His work is spectacular, especially the cabinetry. He thought the work I had to do didn't look too bad, and he gave me some tips on getting it done.
He also said that he had fixed other 68s with bad floors, and he blames the spray on foam insulation underneith. Apparently it seals the bottom so well that water gets on the floor and can't dry out through the bottom, so it just stays wet and rots away. He said my sheet of vinyl on top doesn't help either. The floor needs to be able to breathe.
Well, my goal for the rest of today is to finish cleaning the interior walls (Darol said Soft Scrub with Bleach was the thing to use) and then get them out of there.
If you can call destroying my trailer progress! This evening I scrubbed all three front interior panels clean and removed them. The channel looks like it is in good shape. I can see a variety of fasteners - elevator bolts, some installed downward, some installed from underneith, regular hex-head bolts (I assume from the POs repair work) and what appear to be staples. Otherwise no other surprises so far. Tomorrow I'll be cleaning up the side panels and removing them. The one behind the fridge is particularly gross, and it looks like there was a small fire there at one time, the back of the cabinet was charred.
Then I guess we start cutting wood.
Speaking of wood, my husband nixed the polyboard idea. He wants to go with a sure thing, so I guess we'll be using the old standby, Marine-grade plywood.
Here are two pics, one showing the panels off, one showing a bolt and staple in the channel.
In your photo with the bolt and staple I see some aluminum that appears to be bent over the outside edge of the channel. My guess is that is the bananna wrap metal. If that is true then it might be pretty hard for you to get the bananna wrap off to access anything around the edges from below. It looks like it might be installed underneath the upper body panels too. I think this means that it would be a very good idea to use some sort of fastening around the body edges that can be done entirely from above. Can you tell yet if your model has the c-channel on the bottom of the u-channel along the bottom of the walls?
I would say most of us have used ACX plywood - I debated and debated because marine does not have any voids and probably uses a little better core than ACX - in the end I decided to go with ACX. It uses the same glue as marine.
Ken
__________________
1956 Flying Cloud
Founder :
Four Corners Unit
Albuquerque National Balloon Fiesta
Rally
Vintage Trailer Academy - Formerly the original
restoration rally
Got the streetside panel off. What a fight it put up! I think this is as far as I will be disassembling the trailer. My plan is to replace the wood from the fridge vent on the curbside rearward of the door, around the front and down the streetside to the wheelwell.
Still having trouble getting the vinyl off the part of the floor that I will not be removing.
So what's the next step? This is getting pretty intimidating!
Got the streetside panel off. What a fight it put up! I think this is as far as I will be disassembling the trailer. My plan is to replace the wood from the fridge vent on the curbside rearward of the door, around the front and down the streetside to the wheelwell.
Still having trouble getting the vinyl off the part of the floor that I will not be removing.
So what's the next step? This is getting pretty intimidating!
It may not be the first-choice in methodology for a travel trailer, but it is what was used with my '64 Overlander, and an acquaintance utilized this method with a '61 Bambi as well. Running a luan plywood underlayment (.25") over the entire surface to receive new sheet vinyl flooring is a possibility - - it would require using a leveling compound between the old floor with the vinyl covering and the new bare plywood. It added approximately 25 pounds to my Overlander over the "original" carpet. The installer who handled the installation of new Congoleum Industrial Grade sheet vinyl indicated that the underlayment would provide a much more stable substrate than a single layer of plywood - - I am very satsified with the result after three seasons of use.
Good luck with your project!
Kevin
__________________
Kevin D. Allen WBCCI (Lifetime Member)/VAC #7864 AIR #827
1964 Overlander International
1978 Argosy Minuet 6.0 Metre
...Running a luan plywood underlayment (.25") over the entire surface to receive new sheet vinyl flooring is a possibility... It added approximately 25 pounds to my Overlander... I am very satsified with the result after three seasons of use....
I think that will work well as it is a common solution in household situations.
I incorporated a much more labor intensive approach to the situation which I never posted due to the fact that I wanted to test it before recommending the idea. I had a gutted interior at the time, and wanted the re-installation of the base fixtures to mount back in the original rivet/screw holes. My idea adds no appreciable weight to the finshed floor.
So far, so good after six or so trips totaling around 3000 miles through temperatures of 90 degF to below freezing. Be forewarned that my Overlander has only been on the road since September of this year although the floor covering has been down since July or so.
If there is any interest, I will post pictures on my webpage, and provide a link here.
Please, let us know what you did. It's always nice to see another possible solution. I know what you mean about not wanting people to follow my lead until I'm sure something worked, but go ahead anyway!
I think the 1/4 luan idea is a good one. It would be better than peeling up the rest of this vinyl, which is taking about a half hour of exhausting work just to get up a square foot.
If you like the idea of putting 1/4" luan on top of the old vinyl you might be able to find some thinner plywood that is the same thickness as the old vinyl to piece in where the vinyl isn't. One good place to check is Mr Plywood on Stark Street in Portland. They have various sizes of thinner plywoods such as 1/8" for example. Then all you would have use filler on would be the joints.
Wow, Tedd! I'm so glad I'm only partially gutting my trailer! It seems like a sure thing that I will eventually put it back together right. I'd be really nervous right now if I'd had to empty it out completely. Good luck on your rebuild!
Thanks for the heads up on Mr Plywood. I need some 1/8 for another project anyway, and had a hard time finding it before, good to know there's a place to go get it. I'll have to figure out exactly what I'm going to need to do the furniture repairs as well and head over there to get it all at once.
Ok, my little holiday break is over, and today I went and bought a circular saw ans a crowbar, and started cutting out the rotted wood floor. I found the next stringer under the rotted area, the one closest to the wheelwell, and although it is rusty it feels solid. I'll know more when I get more wood removed around it.
My question now is about wiring. There are wires from the univolt, which go down into the floor. Two white and one red. One red and one white appear to be the battery leads, and they come up through the floor about two feet away from where they went in. I am assuming the blue wire and the other white wire go to the tounge.
Feeling underneith with my hand, the wires seem to have been put in, and then the thick foam insulation was sprayed on, so I am having a hard time telling where these wires go. I am afraid I will cut through wires underneith and make a mess of things. So here's my question-
How many wires should be under there - how many wires come from that seven pin connector to the tow vehicle? Are the wires to the brake lights/running lights in the bellypan?
Hmmm - just my understanding - blue should be for electric brakes, then should one lead for the battery and possibly one ground. All brake , running wires should be though the walls.
Course when you cut the floor out you will find out where they go.
__________________
1956 Flying Cloud
Founder :
Four Corners Unit
Albuquerque National Balloon Fiesta
Rally
Vintage Trailer Academy - Formerly the original
restoration rally
Well, I have a better idea of where they go now. I've cut out the rotted area (with a little more to go towards the wheelwell) and gotten my first look at the frame itself. So far it looks really good. Hardly even any surface rust. My goal is to get the wood removed from around the broken outrigger so the welder can come out and repair it.
The first picture is the view from inside the trailer, second picture is from outside (through the battery access door), looking towards the broken outrigger.
Continuing forward on the streetside I've uncovered more of the frame, which still appears to be solid, and the forward corner outrigger, which is also broken off. Not to be picky, but the welds that have broken on these outriggers don't appear to have been all that thick to begin with. So now I'll have two jobs for the welder.
I took a break because as I continued forward I ran into the POs front patch, which was installed using a butt strap. So now I have to deal with wood twice as thick, and rusted out screws set down into the wood. I got tired of that real quick.
Having delt with a lot of rust on my classic mustangs, I was fearing a lot worse, and so I'm pretty happy that so far the main frame channel appears to be in good shape.
Steph
The fastener in your picture of the "U" channel is a screw. It looks like a staple because mostly corroded away. I replaced all of my screws with #10 x 5/8 zinc plated round head steel screws.
This website is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Airstream, Inc. or any of its affiliates. Airstream is a registered trademark of Airstream Inc. All rights reserved. Airstream trademark used under license to Social Knowledge LLC.