'74 Excella Rebuild - The new chassis

[DanielB]

I appreciate your honesty. I don't see the cutting corners thing though. The aluminum from the interior is thick and sturdy and I think that it will hold up better than the usual stuff. I can't use it on the interior anyway, so it's either that or throw it away.

For the interior I'm thinking wood paneling.

How it looks is only of marginal importance.

[wasagachris]

Daniel well it's a little like closing the barn door after the horse is gone now that you've already started but the interior skins are actually part of the structural integrity of the shell. I don't think wood panelling will do the same job.
Why do you say you can't use the skins anyway?
What are you going to use for the center section of the belly which is 65 inches wide. None of the interior skins are that wide?

[DanielB]

I couldn't reuse the interior skins because sections because they just wouldn't work with the new floor-plan that I have in mind.
I don't know about the underbelly.
Wood is just an idea. Aluminum might be good for the interior.
My goal is to keep the entire project under 10K including the initial cost of the trailer.
Just the ac, furnace, water pump, water heater, and all of that junk will take me to around 10K.
The interior panels are critical though because they can't easily be taken off and replaced like a belly pan.

[constructor]

Good luck Daniel.

[DanielB]

Thanks Ann. It's all good.

[DanielB]

Ok.. I had to follow through with the underbelly thing just to a point where I could see in real life what I was thinking in my mind.

Got a can of rubber undercarriage spray, sprayed one of the underbelly pieces that I had cut and tacked everything in place.

It turned out better than I expected. I think that it is going to look awesome. I am missing one banana wrap anyway so I'll go ahead and get 4 new banana wraps and have them black.

Everything beneath the bottom trim will be black. I think that it sets off the gray aluminum very well. Yes, it is gonna be awesome.

I definitely won't be having the big blue stripe down the side. Am I the only one who think that looks gaudy? Ugliest thing ever IMO.

I will have a few seats from my new old passenger van. These will be my first furnishings. I'll take the bottoms off and construct some boxes (with carpet or something on the bottom). I'll get to check how their color matches with the new tile.

Awesomeness..

[Wsmith]

Originally Posted by DanielB

Update on the awesome bases. Not awesome. They seem to do good as long as there is no "pull" on them. For the smaller wires they are doing fine. For the romex, not.

So I checked into the double sided automotive trim tape. At around $9 for 15 feet of the wide stuff. Too much for me.

Went back to Lowes and found these Romex holders. A bag of 100 costs around $4. Taking nails out and using screws (actually 1 screw is sufficient) into the wall and ceiling bows to hold up the Romex. Shouldn't need to use many.

Have you thought about using either a tie wrap with a hole in the end that you could rivet to the bows or a sticky back for tie wraps that has a hole that can be secured with a rivet. The regular sticky backs will stick to the outer shell for a long time if its clean and you tie wrap to them

[DanielB]

The regular stick backs that I got are not holding up on anything horizontal. I'll keep an eye out.

[Wabbiteer]

I am missing one banana wrap anyway

Which corner is non wrapped?

[4RXLA]

I happen to like the Excella blue stripe...

[DanielB]

Originally Posted by Wabbiteer

Which corner is non wrapped?

It is the streetside rear.

[Wsmith]

Originally Posted by DanielB

The regular stick backs that I got are not holding up on anything horizontal. I'll keep an eye out.

They would have to come from a electrical supply like Grabar Supply Not sure what is in your area. I think you have found your solution. They are made to hold large conductors in a service pane and cabinets. The ones I have are nylon not sure of the brand.

I am thinking about using a Wilson art laminate with a thin metal laminated to it. I haven't gotten far enough to price it yet. I checked Home Depot and they don't have it. I plan to start out using it in the bathroom.

[DanielB]

I went back by the electrical wholesale place today and the stickers looked like the same as at Lowes. It's all good though. I'll use the romex holder things that I have and they should work fine. I have a whole bag of them anyway. Got some more long 1/8 aluminum rivets today just for that.

I looked at laminate sheets today at Lowes. Theirs were around $50 a sheet.
I looked too at birch plywood and they have it for about $20 a sheet. I'm still leaning toward the birch. Definitely would have to have a moisture barrier between the wood and the insulation.

Some would say that the continuous aluminum sheets are needed for structural integrity. I don't buy that. I worked on framing crews for a number of years when I was younger.

We braced walls with one sheet of plywood on the corner or a cut in 1x4 in the wall. I can't see where plywood sheets riveted to the studs on the entire interior would be any appreciable structural disadvantage versus having aluminum sheets.

[DanielB]

A pretty satisfying day today. A little progress every day..

So I'm set with my outer belly pan sections. They are cut, bent, and ready to go, but I need to get the insulation in before I can rivet them on, so that is the project this weekend.

Went to Lowes and scoped out the insulation. I got a roll of R19 unfaced insulation for $15, a roll of 30 weight roofing felt ($15) and a gallon of roofing cement ($15). The felt and cement were to create moisture barriers.

First, in each compartment I sealed around the edges with roofing cement deter any moisture from getting in from the sides. Pic 1.

Then I put two lines of duct tape under the outriggers to hold up the insulation. Pic 2.

Cut the insulation pieces. Pic 3.
Put the insulation in place. Pic 4 and 5.
Cut pieces of roofing felt to create a water barrier. Put felt in place. Pic 6.

The insulation fit great. The width of the insulation was the same as the width of the outrigger compartments so all I had to do was cut lengths.
6 1/2" thick and 15" wide insulation.
The one roll (39'2") may be enough to do both sides. I may have to do something different on the front and back.

I also ordered a buck riveting kit from Vintage Trailer supply yesterday. I should be done with it in one weekend then I'll be looking to sell it.

[DanielB]

Well.. I've been working on this thing pretty much non-stop since the first week of December. There have been two times that I have felt like I've reached the top of some hill where I can stop and take a breath and feel good. The first was when I got the shell back resting on top of the chassis. The second is today. Not sure why today is a big deal. Somehow it just is.

I finished insulating under the outriggers today. The underbelly pieces are cut and fitted and tacked on and ready for riveting.
The only thing left to do otherwise is to trim around the wheel wells to fit a second trim piece on, and, of course, to paint them with undercoating.
Total cost on this around $30.

I'm thinking for the back and front I might go with spay on foam insulation.
The battery box won't be going back in.
The area under the frame where the spare goes will be insulated. Spare will go in the TV.
The hole in the floor where the hose reels went will be insulated as well. Impractical in my view. That area will be insulated as well.
There will be no areas of the floor that are not insulated.

Time to take a shower, do a little shopping, do laundry, and go pick up some Excella emblems that the PO emailed me that he had for me. Thanks Lionel. You are the man!

[DanielB]

Insulation issues.

Do I want to sacrifice floor insulation in order to have a spare tire carrier, fold out steps, and a box for hose reels?
No. Insulation in the floor overrides those things.

Windows? Convert the double pane to single pane and reduce the insulation ability of the windows in order to get to the inside to remove bubbled film?
Right now I'm leaning toward no. Replace the gaskets, throw some dark film on the windows and let it ride.

[Wsmith]

You are so well insulated and using high efficiency foams I would probably put the tire rack and steps back in.. not sure about the reels I seemed to backlash the power cord a lot in my younger years. It was a tight fit for my arm to get up and get it back on track.

Have you got room for 2" of insulation. You could put a 3/4" add a 1/4" or so air gap and another 3/4" sheet and with the thermal break improve the R-value. Put a few 1/4" spacers in to keep the sheets separated.

You have done a great job of stopping air infiltration from what I have see, so having a couple of small areas of less insulation wont make much difference in anything, at least compared to the original.

I hope to start taking my interior apart tomorrow in the front and rear of mine and inspect under the floor in my weak flooring area.

[DanielB]

Thank you for your insights.
Good luck with your project. This can turn into a lot of work really quickly. Is your floor weak from water from the topside of the floor?

At this point in the process these side wrap areas are necessary to do first in order to get the shell completely riveted on.

When looking at the underside, the amount of area that is without insulation is disturbing, especially where the spare tire goes. That is a lot of area. I'll have plenty of time to consider alternatives because I believe that the center part of the belly pan will the the last thing that is done and can wait for a long while

The thinking on the steps is this. I had an old motorhome before and in it there was a box that was used for a step. It set right inside the door and I just pulled it out and set it down whenever needed. I never went in without using the box, so it never got in the way. If I had a decent set of steps I could follow the same routine. I'm thinking that I'd rather step on real steps than the fold out things, they are practical, and I get to insulate the floor by the door where the fold outs would live. I can't see a practical reason to have the fold out steps.

When they built the chassis using 5" C channel, they lowered every other crossmember 3/4" for the plywood floor breaks, so on the underside the available area for insulation is ~5 3/4". This insulation that I'm using now is for 2x6 walls and says 6 1/2" (5 1/2 is with of 2x6) so it is great size (and cheap) and is R19.

Beginning with the idea of an entirely insulated floor at R19 as a beginning point, I can work on some compromises and adjustments as I go.

[DanielB]

Just had a thought. My Airstream will be less like a luxury liner and more like a warship.

USS Excello!

Thanks for the emblems, Loinel.

[DanielB]

Sheet metal work is bad enough. Add rolling around on the ground..
Anyway, got the side underbelly situation rounded out. All pieces are tacked on and the fit looks pretty good and I think I'm ready to start the riveting.

Still need to do some trim work around the wheel wells. I think it came together pretty well. I am satisfied.