Panel to replace hole left by removal of water tank?

[simonavery]

Hi, I have removed the old water tank from my '68 Overlander 26', and am planning to install a tankless heater in its place (brand not decided). However, currently, I am left with a hole in the side of the trailer where the tank came out and from the removal of all the old propane tank fittings that were accessed from the exterior. The collection of small panels and aluminum strips that I removed in order to remove the old tank were flimsy and did not survive, apart from a small vented panel which I have kept. The doors that come with the new tankless water heaters are not big enough to fill the space, and are painted anyway, so are of no use. Is it possible to buy a vented panel which I can cut to fit this space? As I see it, the only other option is to buy the bottom-vented RV-500, and just fit a plane panel which I will need to cut to fit? Any advice will be much appreciated, thanks.

[rmkrum]

Search for the tankless water heater threads on this forum--I installed an RV-550 that fit exactly into the hole left by a standard 6 gallon Atwood hot water heater. The 550 is available with an unpainted door that matches the AS nicely.

[mimiandrews]

We had to use a couple of sheet metal "patches" to reduce the size of the hole our old water heater left in the side of the trailer. Two strips of .040 thick 2024 Alclad and a few Olympic rivets did the job.

We were able to get an aluminum finish cover from Precision Temp, so it almost matches our trailer. Ours is brushed aluminum--some here have mentioned getting them to supply the cover un-brushed so it can be polished.

Sorry I'm too far from where the trailer is stored to get pics.

[flygrrl]

Colin Hyde has a machine to make vented panels, they look awesome. He may be able to make a panel you could just rivet in. It would require precise measurements but would look like it came that way from the Mothership.

[simonavery]

Thanks for all the good suggestions. I contacted Colin Hyde, as I think I'm going with an Atwood heater, so the Precision Temp solutions are not possible. I'll post pictures if this works out. Thanks again.