Building new interior walls & overhead cabinets

[luv2travel11]

Hi all,

Excellent forum. I am thankful to everyone who has come before me and built this awesome collaboration of knowledge. Well I have a 1978 Airstream Tradewind. It's gutted and repainted inside. I have a limited amount of time to get it into livable condition. For me that means getting the interior walls and floors in. I am thinking to build new interior walls and overhead cabinets. There are quite a few photos online but I am wondering a couple of things:

1. What type of wood is recommended: some have mentioned 1/2 furniture grade plywood. My concern there is weight. I have also seen some photos that appear to be using pine. Possibly a combination of thicker hard wood and lighter weight thin wood paneling?

2. What is the best way to attach the walls and cabinets to the shell walls?: Since the old walls are thinner, I can't use the old mounting hard ware. Regular L brackets might look a bit funky if they are visible.

Thank you!
Chris

[sequoyah101]

1. I used cabinet grade plywood. The lightweight stuff the AS uses won't hold screws very well. 1/2" should be fine but AS uses 3/4". I'l use cabinet grade again if I ever take out the rest of the stuff or remodel the kitchen.

I used welded aluminum framing to make up for some of the weight difference and faced it with 1/4" for large panels. The aluminum is so light you can easily pick up a whole twin bed frame with one hand and it is very strong.

2. L brackets made from aluminum angle and riveted in place of screwed with self tappers for sheet metal. I've used lath screws with broad heads. These seem to work as well or better than what AS used to fasten things in place such as the corner cabinets I took out and the angle bracket to support the bed and futon that I also took out.

When you mark the cuts make yourself a large scribe and put a level on it so it will stay parallel to the floor as you make your marks.

Best of success.

[luv2travel11]

Originally Posted by sequoyah101

1. I used cabinet grade plywood. The lightweight stuff the AS uses won't hold screws very well. 1/2" should be fine but AS uses 3/4". I'l use cabinet grade again if I ever take out the rest of the stuff or remodel the kitchen.

I used welded aluminum framing to make up for some of the weight difference and faced it with 1/4" for large panels. The aluminum is so light you can easily pick up a whole twin bed frame with one hand and it is very strong.

2. L brackets made from aluminum angle and riveted in place of screwed with self tappers for sheet metal. I've used lath screws with broad heads. These seem to work as well or better than what AS used to fasten things in place such as the corner cabinets I took out and the angle bracket to support the bed and futon that I also took out.

When you mark the cuts make yourself a large scribe and put a level on it so it will stay parallel to the floor as you make your marks.

Best of success.

Excellent, thank you for the reply. Did you do the aluminum welding yourself? I have minimal experience at welding and that was all under water. Otherwise that sounds like an interesting idea. I was thinking to make new cabinets but with my time frame I may try to salvage the existing ones for now. However I am making new walls.

I have been order happy on Amazon and Home Depot lately. It's costing a pretty penny but down the road I should make a tidy profit, should I decide to sell. The idea is to live in it while going to school and then as a base of operations to build a house when I get some land.

Thanks again,
Chris

[sequoyah101]

Yes, I did the welding.

If you wanted to go extreme you could make the bulkheads out of 1/2" aluminum tube then face it with 1/4" ply. Like a stress box. Very strong but very extreme.

Lots of ways to skin the cat.

[Minno]

We used basswood for the inside framing, and red alder for the face framing on cabinetry. Both are light weight woods. Red alder varnishes up to look like new cherry but doesn't darken like cherry. Local lumber yard carries it for us. Not the cheapest wood on the market but very pretty and light. 1/4 inch alder plywood is the door panels.
Chris also used the original wall extrusion brackets to rebuild the walls. The walls are basswood framing faced with the 1/4 inch alder plywood. He crisscrossed basswood throughout the walls to accommodate any shelves we wanted on them and for strength. For the cabinets he used strips of aluminum screwed to the cabinet backs and then riveted to the skins. He hit ribs at every chance to make everything strong. The base cabinets are fastened to the walls, and float on the floor for flex.
Three summers of trips and no problems so far.

Kay