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Old 06-27-2014, 09:05 AM   #181
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1981 31' Excella II
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Wire wheel won't hurt on the window frames. Emory paper won't hurt either. Clean is the most important thing to get a good bond.

I would use buck rivets which are stronger and won't leak if they are done right. You will have to have someone on the back side to buck the rivets. I don't think I would use Olympic rivets over large areas and where strength is important. Places where the C-channel meets the floor would not be a good place for Olympic rivets or riveting your hold down plate to the rear skin would not be good either. When riveting time comes you just need to pay your buckers in beer but don't let them have it till the job is done.

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Old 06-27-2014, 10:35 AM   #182
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Great thread here Matt, I'm taking notes!!!
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Old 06-27-2014, 08:17 PM   #183
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Solid Shank rivets, aka buck rivets, are far superior then the blind Olys. I also prefer to use the aviation MS rivets because there are more choices in the diameter, alloy, and length then those sold through VTS. As far as the rivet gun, the kit sold through VTS is fine but if you choose to install the MS470 rivets you will have to get matching rivet sets. Most aviation tool suppliers sell starter kits with everything you need to shoot all of the popular size rivets in use today. As far as finding a Bucker, its real easy to learn, I have taught several how to do it in just a few minutes, and beer is generally the payoff.

Why don't you just swing by my place and I'll have you shooting rivets in no time at all.
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Old 06-29-2014, 01:24 PM   #184
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Roger all on the buck rivets, sounds like the way to go. I must admit I am clueless on rivet guns and which can shoot which rivets. Thanks Aerowood for sending me on an internet learning crusade regarding rivets. Started with Wikipedia and the history/basic info on rivets and went from there.

From what I understand now the MS470 is a military spec universal head rivet. This is different than the VTS kit which sells a 3x rivet gun and rivet sets for 1/8 brazier and 5/32 modified brazier. Brazier heads are generally wider but not as tall as universal heads and the modified brazier has a smaller head than the standard brazier correct? I shouldn't be surprised that a C-130 flight engineer and Mech (Aerowood) would have specific tastes when it comes to rivets.

Seems to me that the VTS kit is a better bet for me given it includes Clecos and an assortment of rivets. The additional rivet sets and bucking bars in the aviation kits I have seen are all pretty foreign gear until I learn more.

Next project this coming weekend is installing a Furrion 30A external power port and new 110 wiring throughout the trailer. Dropped off the frame on Friday, pics to follow.




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Old 06-29-2014, 01:26 PM   #185
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There she is next to a welder in the shops lot. Owner said it would be at least 2 weeks till they start work as they need to order and pickup the steel, etc.


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Old 07-05-2014, 07:02 PM   #186
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Millertime's rear bathroom rot '76 Tradewind thread

Work day! My wonderful wife was so kind to watch the kiddos today so that dad could get his electrician skills some practice.

First thing first though I pulled out the ladder and took down the hoists to get them out of the weather until I need them again once the frame is back. On that front my axles were delivered to the welders this weekend. The transaction with Colin Hyde was seamless and he even took a few moments of his time to give me some advice on my new frame and some plumbing questions I had, thanks Colin!

Last night I hard wired an old extension cord into the ac control board. First thing this morning I attached the hanger bolts and hooked it up. Guess who worked in the air conditioning today?

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I started one circuit at a time replacing the old 110 wiring with fresh 12-2 with ground. The old stuff probably would have been ok but I found several areas with some moderate to severe chafing that would have worming through eventually. The airstream installers were hit and miss with their grommets and anti-chafe materials that I quickly learned. That reminds me I still need to go back and treat a few areas. Running the wire is easy, keeping it organized not so much. The old plastic hangers are hit and miss if they are still holding to the wall. They will have to go eventually anyways once I had reflectix. For now I am using what remains to keep things from looking totally crazy. Any recommendations once the reflectix is up to keep the wires along the walls? I was thinking duct or aluminum tape just to hold it in place till I got the interior skins back up. I bought some adhesive squares that accept zip ties also, but I am doubtful they can hold much weight. I kept all the factory outlets and also added several more new ones that my wife requested. For the outlets themselves I decided to replace the current ones as they looked well past their prime, many had what looked like plastic kid protection prongs broken off in them. Their replacements were white (rather than ivory original) tamper resistant models from HD that I mounted in shallow junction boxes.

Attachment 215722

A word on shallow junction boxes. By comparison normal junction boxes are mansions compared to these babies, which do fit easily between the interior and exterior skins. I learned from some trial and error that to fit an outlet in these requires cutting your wires, the ground specifically, to a custom length for each side so that no wires really need much folding as you mash the outlet into the box, which you still sort of end of doing a little. I also added GFI outlets to the beginning of every circuit ( my trailer originally had 2 outlet breakers, one for just the single kitchen counter outlet and one for all the others). I upgraded to 3 circuits with the extra outlets.

The exterior outlet is going to require some more research as the outlet airstream put in is sort of a unique metal mount that holds the outlet much like the interior. I might just fit a gfi in there and attach a box behind it but there will be a small gap, not exactly code but no way any fingers or anything will ever get in there, will seal just to be sure.

Attachment 215723

I also prewired the airstream for solar. At the moment I just don't have the finances to afford the solar cells, additional battery, etc. At some point though it's in the plans. I like go powers new solar flex kits. Maybe in another few years the price will come down some also. I ran 2 strand of 10 gauge stranded wire from my DC/battery area to just below my fridge vent. Easy to do with no interior skins! Not so easy once they are back on.

Also added some wiring for centerline LED lighting and remarked the old vent lighting wires for the fantastic fans they will power someday

Oh and today I also cut my first hole in the exterior skin. A doozy at 2.5". I installed a new Furrion 30A exterior power inlet just aft of my wheel wells. The location provided an easy run to my planned location for the new AC breaker box. I used the trailers original 10 gauge power cable between the inlet and the breaker location. The wire was still in great shape and saved me buying more 10 gauge wire, not to mention it was heavily protected. My trailer originally had the power cable stored in the bumper trunk where it ran through a hole into the interior. This improvement not only increased my inlet power line length (at cost, found a 50 ft Furrion wire in silver for 80 on Amazon!) but no longer requires me to leave the bumper open when hooking up power.

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Before

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After.... Oh btw using a hole saw on aluminum, or any metal, heats up the workpiece significantly. Do not try and pick up the fresh cut aluminum circle with your hands, or you will burn your index finger like I did.

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Finished product, still need to get some stainless screws to mount it.

Any recommendations on stainless screws for attaching parts to the trailer that I intend on most likely coming off at some point? Would anyone attach the belly skin with self tapping stainless screws if you thought certain sections might one day come off for maintenance. Such as under dump valves and tanks etc.

Still have a few more outlets to wire when I get a minute. Next big job is either installing the reflectix or cutting the new floors to shape using the old floors as templates and putting epoxy on the edges.

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Old 07-06-2014, 08:35 AM   #187
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Now that is a days work!


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Old 07-16-2014, 08:05 AM   #188
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Talked to the welder steel on order! They are custom making the outriggers (also adding in flat metal on the curve to avoid cutting into banana wraps) a new pan for my fresh water tank, and painting the whole thing with POR-15. I was surprised when he called and said that they don't make 5 inch tube (the main rails) in .125 only .25. The increase in weight would be 220 lbs but he said we wouldn't need all the stiffeners airstream put around the axles etc which would make the increase around 200 lbs but much stronger. I said go ahead since we didn't seem to have much choice and that isn't a huge increase overall. Also not sure why I thought my main rails were 4 inch. In either case should get the frame back in about 4 weeks he said. Total for stock minus attachments, labor, and a new water tank pan was $2400. Pensacola has a ton of skilled labor, I think I got a great price. I did supply the POR-15.


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Old 07-16-2014, 12:44 PM   #189
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I think you got an excellent price.

There is a lot of steel and welding in that project.
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Old 07-17-2014, 10:01 AM   #190
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Solar panels

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Originally Posted by millertimeUS View Post
I also prewired the airstream for solar. At the moment I just don't have the finances to afford the solar cells, additional battery, etc. At some point though it's in the plans. I like go powers new solar flex kits. Maybe in another few years the price will come down some also. I ran 2 strand of 10 gauge stranded wire from my DC/battery area to just below my fridge vent. Easy to do with no interior skins! Not so easy once they are back on.
I put solar into my '78 Ambassador - I am completely off-grid in SW New Mexico where sunshine is abundant. Some thoughts while you have the luxury of a ground up resto: Double deep-cycle marine batteries wired in parallel. 10 AWG wire from the PV panels on the roof to the charge controller is adequate. Also between the charge controller to the batteries. I would go with no less than 4 AWG between the two batteries, and if you are going to have an inverter, 4 AWG between the batteries and the inverter, and as short as possible. The wires between the PV panels and the charge controller can be as long as necessary but you want to keep the wires from the controller to the batteries as short as practical. This is because the voltage out of the PV panels is typically ~17 volts, so you can stand a little voltage drop there, but out of the controller is ~13.5 - you don't want too much drop here. I have a 3KW pure sine inverter because as I said, no AC service within 40 miles, so any AC at all comes from my inverter. If all you want is to recharge your batteries, you may not want to waste time (or space) with an inverter. Along with additional 110 VAC outlets, you may want to consider additional 12V "cigarette lighter" jacks. Even my TV/DVD player runs on 12V.
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Old 07-19-2014, 04:47 PM   #191
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Millertime's rear bathroom rot '76 Tradewind thread

WORK DAY! On the docket today was cutting the new floors using the old ones as templates. As I have come to expect it was more work than I expected

My floor of choice was ADVANTECH in 23/32. Yes I know this isn't the standard choice, but it's 50 year guarantee and excellent engineering swayed me towards it. It is stiffer and stronger than equivalent plys and is designed to get wet. It's purpose is to be a subfloor that gets rained on prior to the roof being installed.

Cons, it only comes in tounge and groove so I had to be careful which side I cut and it's orientation. Also, since it is 4 x 8 including the tounge I had to adjust when able for that. There will be one section where I don't think I will be able to get the tounge and groove together as the boards were exactly 48 in wide. In that one I will fill the small gap with epoxy.

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I copied the old floor exactly, it was tempting to just measure and mark but I was surprised I find that even symmetry escaped whoever put my trailer together. Any assumption might mean it won't fit back as well on the body so copying them is the way to go.

So my original floor was 5/8 ply with exterior grade glue. Thus the c channels are sized to 5/8. In order to make my flooring fit the C-channels I used a straight bit in my router and removed around 1/8 inch from the BOTTOM (very important) so that the c channel sits level with the top of the floor as it should. The ADVANTECH cut and routed very nicely with little to no splintering. After a quick test fit I was off to the races making sawdust. The routing took just about as long as marking and cutting the floor itself. Other tools to have for this project is a good circular saw and jig saw.

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My floor was 6 sheets, with one of th only about 2 ft wide the others were 4 ft or close to.


The other small challenge was cutting the rear floor section. The rear section had some extensive rot. Enough rot that I couldn't just connect the dots. I had no idea when the curve stopped, etc.


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I found a large piece of cardboard and went into the shell and traced the rear curve, marking bolt holes. Matching up where the hold down bolts are helped match up where on the curve I had traced. This worked pretty well and I was able to figure out the rear curve.

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All the Cutting routing, and cleanup took a full 8 hours nearly. I was hoping to get the epoxying of the edges done also, but I guess that is a project better suited to weekday evenings as the epoxy needs the evening to cure. Meaning 1 board a night.

Next big project is installing the reflectix and finishing up a few remaining power outlets.


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Old 07-19-2014, 08:32 PM   #192
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Okay so you are cutting the floor before you get the frame back? And what is with the particle board? Oh pardon me the engineered wood crap? Yes I know this comment will bring the wrath of the community but 20 years of service and one thing that I did learn is how to pick a fight! I have heard all of The claims and looked at the sample in the water tank that has never shown any sign of damage but I have seen a lot of failures and swollen wood! Sorry it is your airstream and you gotta do what you gotta do! Keep us posted!
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And thanks for the update


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Old 07-19-2014, 08:42 PM   #193
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While I don't know that I would have used that product myself, I expect that at a minimum it should last another 35 years.....

And that will probably be good enough...



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Old 07-19-2014, 08:51 PM   #194
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Loving the replies, thanks for the support Cliff . Any reason why not to cut floor prior to frame delivery? I guess if they don't replicate it correctly I might have needed to make adjustments. I cut the one 2 ft wide section extra long planning on ripping it again once frame is here and floor goes in to handle any small (inches) adjustments.




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Old 07-19-2014, 09:19 PM   #195
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I have to agree with cliff. OSB won't hold up as well as plywood in situations where it gets wet often and for months or years. Eventually the OSB glue gives up from expansion and contraction and then all that extra surface area makes it rot quick. Whatever you get you need to coat it with something especially the edges. With OSB everything is an edge. The floor will get wet.

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Okay so you are cutting the floor before you get the frame back? And what is with the particle board? Oh pardon me the engineered wood crap? Yes I know this comment will bring the wrath of the community but 20 years of service and one thing that I did learn is how to pick a fight! I have heard all of The claims and looked at the sample in the water tank that has never shown any sign of damage but I have seen a lot of failures and swollen wood! Sorry it is your airstream and you gotta do what you gotta do! Keep us posted!
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And thanks for the update


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Old 07-20-2014, 03:34 AM   #196
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The floor edges (front and back) talking panels not wall edges depend on cross members to keep them from flexing that is where the two panels meet. When a new trailer is fabricated it is possible that 1 may be off just enough to miss that edge, mine was off and I did not even have that outrigger replaced it was off by .5 inches and that made it so that I had to tab the outrigger to support the joint.
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Old 07-24-2014, 05:54 PM   #197
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Did a but of reflectix installation yesterday. Went pretty quickly overall. THEN I realized I had forgot about the 1/2 inch of required dead airspace. Hopefully the 3M spray adhesive I used on a few of the ceiling pieces is forgiving. Going to goto Lowes or HD and buy some 1/2 foam to cut into strips and glue to the wall. My original plan was 1 layer of reflectix and then pink fiberglass to fill. Given the 1/2 inch air gap that doesn't leave a lot of room. Would 1 inch of pink fiberglass be all that effective? Many forum posts had people doing 2 layers of reflectix.

Tonight I am pulling out the first of the 6 floor sections and epoxying the edges. I only have a quart of epoxy hardener included so I don think I will get through all 6 even if I only do the outside edges and not the adjoining sections.




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Old 07-24-2014, 07:44 PM   #198
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Why are you using the pink stuff? I would use the reflectix foam board then a second layer of reflectix. That is just me though!
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Old 07-24-2014, 08:24 PM   #199
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You know, that pink stuff helps with noise quite a bit.

I think it makes a difference when I park my trailer mere yards off of busy highway 70 in Las Cruces.


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Old 07-25-2014, 03:13 AM   #200
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Noise reduction is a good thing and I was just wondering thanks for the info! I swore off the batting a while ago but that is just me I also quit jumping out of perfectly good airplanes and leaping into the ocean from a helo! It's all good !
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