Little Girl Refurb 1972

[Minno]

Back to the belly pan the last couple of evenings. Thank heavens we have the hardest part done now. Once we have a piece cut, we position it under the trailer, and hold it up with a 1x2 and bottle jack. I then drill rivet holes and install clecos, and then Kay follows me installing rivets. This lets me continue to drill holes while rivets are being installed. Even with the Little Girl up on blocks, there still isn’t a lot of room under the trailer for this work. Next time, taller blocks. Or a shell off and install the belly pan before putting the shell back on. If there is a next time that is…



I fabricated a piece to go under the two gray tanks. This piece has a single bend at the front and a “z” shaped bend at the rear. Not having a metal break large enough to handle a 60” wide sheet, I used a couple of pieces of 1x2 boards clamped together where I wanted the bend and bent the aluminum that way. If this wasn’t underneath the trailer, I would never have done it this way. But, it came out ok for the belly pan I think. Not the prettiest, but functional. I do need to tweak the rear seam a bit with a body hammer to close it up more.



This evening, we installed the piece that goes between the gray tanks and black tank. The cutout is where the black tank drain pipe will be installed.

Hoping to get far enough along to install the axles this weekend.

[HiHoAgRV]

DUDE! in the last photo...your jacks are upside down...or they are the SouthAmerican version...

[Minno]

Well geeesh... no wonder I can't get them to stay up!

[Minno]

Ooh, Ooh, my turn to post! Chris was working on fabricating some S-shaped edge covers for the belly pan areas around the tanks when I got home from work today, so I decided to try my hand at getting the banana wraps into some sort of shape other than creased and crumpled. Chris had bought an automotive repair kit for $30 with an assortment of hammers in it.
I started with the curb side wrap as the lesser of the 2 evils:


and was able to bang it out to this:


Then I tried the street side wrap which was in worse shape
:

and was pleased with the result also:



It's a great stress reliever! I'm not tall enough to use the roller we got from Kyp on the work bench, so I'll let Chris do that part later.

Kay

[HiHoAgRV]

Originally Posted by Minno

Ooh, Ooh, my turn to post! ... I'm not tall enough to use the roller we got from Kyp on the work bench, so I'll let Chris do that part later.

Kay

The work looks great! I did a similar one using a home-made roller. I placed a lawn chair cushon on the ground, layed the banana wrap on it and went at it with the roller.

[Minno]

Most exciting news first - we installed the axles today! Not exactly the easiest thing Kay and I have undertaken, but most of that problem was because Little Girl is parked on the grass (well, dead grass after 4 years, so mostly dirt now), and the last thing I wanted to do was drag the hubs through the dirt. But, plywood, rope, some ingenuity from the both of us, and raising the trailer another 3 or 4 inches and we got ‘em under her, jacked up into place, and bolted on.



Here she is with her new legs and shoes. She sits at least 4 inches higher now, even taking into account the blocks I put under the tires to keep them out of the dirt for now. I have plenty of room to crawl under and finish the belly pan, side wraps, and plumbing projects we still need to do under her (drain and propane). It was really nice stepping into her the first time after we finished the axles and wheels, and feel her move under our feet like a normal trailer. With the old axles, there was no springiness to her at all, so it was almost like she had stabilizer jacks down all the time.

We were quite excited to finally get the axles back under her, and went out to dinner to celebrate.



Yesterday, since it was rainy, I installed the outlet under the bed. This is for our electric mattress pad or electric blanket – whichever one we end up with.



I also ran the 12 volt wiring into the wall for the reading lights and speakers. I cut and installed the left side of the wall skin over the bed (glued and headless brad nailed into place). The circle in the upper left-hand corner is for one of the speakers. It’s basically a donut I cut out of red alder and glued to the plywood to provide enough depth in the wall cavity for the speaker.

Chris

[Minno]

Finished the other part of the bed wall today. The speaker mounts sure look like one is higher than the other (well, they do to me while in the trailer), but they are the exact same distance above the bed frame as the closer picture shows.






I also worked on moving a 110 VAC outlet on the wall by the galley (it was too close to the bed), and Kay installed new screening in all of the window screens. She had removed the screening and repainted the frames this past week. Now we need to buy the fuzzy stuff to go around the window handles, and glue that on.

Chris

[Minno]

Another wet day yesterday, so we worked inside again. We did the rest of the plumbing under the bed so we could install the plywood top the rest of the way.



We connected the galley drain line to the forward gray tank. The drain is the closest ABS pipe in this picture, with the vent line behind it. We also added to the blue and red pex lines and brought them up and over the wheel well. The goal was to give us as much flat storage space as possible. One of the last things we did was run the furnace ducts under the bed. The one in this picture continues aft to supply heat to the bathroom. We made a box with basswood side and a ¼” plywood top to protect the duct. The piece of plywood sticking up behind the ABS pipe is to prevent anything that is sitting on top of the plywood top from sliding forward.



Here’s the same area but taken from the bathroom looking forward. Here you can see the pex lines wrapping up around the wheel well. You can also see another duct that will supply heat to the hallway right next to the bed.



A more top down shot, showing the ducts going under the bed. I’ll build a platform over the top of these to not only protect them, but give Kay a step up onto the bed.



A side shot showing the ABS pipes running forward to the galley. The bottom one is the sink drain, and the top one is the vent from the tanks.



After the plumbing project was done, we attached the plywood top to the hinge and set the mattress in place. Even with the plastic on, the mattress is quite comfy! But I think we’ll remove the plastic before our first outing...



One other project we were able to work on during the week was the replacing of the stair outriggers. Cut off the old ones, welded on the new ones, primed, and painted them. Just got the paint done this evening, so once it dries, we can install the new steps.



Lastly, the new hitch lock arrived today! I think the way it helps prevent the trailer from being stolen is that it contains a small singularity inside it, and the weight causes the tongue of the trailer to embed itself in the ground. In other words, it’s impressively heavy. Fit over the ‘72 rolled lip tongue just fine, which we weren’t sure of when we ordered it.


We did try to install the gas struts for the bed platform this evening. But, the two struts I received do not budge! They seem to be stuck in the fully extended position. I called the supplier, and they gave me the manufacture’s name and phone number. I’ll call them tomorrow since it was too late today. Oh well – only a minor set back for now.

Chris

[Minno]

Forgot to post about the struts. They were fine. The woman I talked to said that we might have ones that are too strong for what we need, or the angle was wrong on how they were mounted to the lid. Turns out it was the angle. Once I changed that, they work fine. I'll try and get pictures tomorrow or this weekend.

This evening, I installed the steps and Kay installed the fuzzy stuff on the screens.



The steps go up and the steps go down. They latch into the locked up position just fine. I did need to tweak the locking handle a bit, as it was catching on the outriggers. Some grinding on the inside of the pivot arms solved that issue. I also needed to cut out a ½” strip across the bottom door frame for the new locking handle to fit.



Here are the side covers I made to keep out mice. Pop riveted in place, and then a bit of vulkum on the front and rear to seal the larger gaps. None across the bottom to allow for drainage.



Here’s Kay installing the fuzzy stuff on the screen frames with hot glue. Well, that’s part of her arm in the second picture anyway…



And here are two of the screens installed. We did put the handles back on the windows as well, just forgot to get a picture of them. Six of the screens are installed now, so we can open her up for ventilation-without-bugs again.

[Minno]

Rented a sheet metal brake today and finished the belly pan around the black tank and under the bumper. Many thanks to Wabbiteer for posting pictures of his bumper storage area – it made installing ours sooooo much easier.



Here are two pics of the belly pan under the black tank. The first one is showing the front of the tank, with the cutout visible for the black drain pipe. The second one is looking at the rear of the trailer. The bends are to form the bumper storage tank. The lip catches inside the bumper.




Here’s the inside of the storage area. I had returned the metal brake by this time, so I used my little brake to bend 3 pieces of belly pan sheet to form a front wall for the storage area. This will protect the sensors on the back of the black tank as well as keep critters from getting into the belly from this storage area. Not sure how I ended up with an uneven line. Took 3 pieces of aluminum, cut them to the same size, bent them the same amount at the same place, riveted them in the same way, and ended up with an uneven line. Oh well – it’s a storage area and stuff will hide it I suppose.




Here’s the bumper set in place. It’s loosely bolted in, but not with the correct bolts yet. A trip to Ace will resolve that. We need to rivet the belly pan to the bottom lip of the bumper yet too.


While not helping me with the belly pan and bumper, Kay put two more coats of clear poly on the headboard wall, the bathroom vanity and medicine cabinet. After dinner, we installed the speakers and reading lights on the wall:



We're not overly impressed with the light output of these LED reading lights. I'll do some investigation and see if it's perhaps a wiring problem, or if we need something a bit stronger. A different bulb perhaps. We do like the look of the lights, so we don't really want to replace them.

Happy Mothers Day to all mom's out there!

Chris

[Minno]

Did some testing this evening and figured out the lights. They work just fine. And my wiring is ok too.

Took one of the bulbs and connected it directly to the battery. Nice and bright! Then checked the ground connection for the lights. They are well grounded (0 ohms). Used a jumper to make sure the ground was good as well. Jumpering to a known good ground from the light fixture did not brighten them at all. Then looked at the fuse panel. No fuse! Duh! Installed a fuse, and they both work great!

Our fuse panel has indicator LEDs that light up when a fuse is blown. With no fuse installed, when we turned one of the reading lights on, the red indicator lights up as it should. The puzzling part is that the LED reading lamps also light up, albeit dimly. The only thing I can figure out is that the circuitry that lights the blown fuse LED indicator provides just enough current so that the LED reading lights will light up too. We tested that theory with the other installed lights in the trailer, which have xenon bulbs. With the fuse pulled for that circuit, when we turn the xenon lights on, the blown fuse indicator lights up, but the xenon bulbs do not come on.

Anyway, everything seems to be working as it should, and we are happy with the reading lights and their light output.

[Minno]

Did some experimenting and came up with what I think is a really good way to hang cabinets on the wall without any fasteners showing on the outside. This is kinda based on how the wall cabinets were hung by Airstream originally.



I attached an aluminum strip to the back of the medicine cabinet with eight #4 3/4" screws. I recessed it into the back of the cabinet so it doesn’t show once mounted on the wall. Each screw is countersunk to it’s flush with the aluminum.



Here’s the medicine cabinet mounted in place.





The aluminum strip is pop riveted to the inner skin with 5 rivets.



The right hand side of the cabinet is attached to the side wall from the back with 3 screws.

Overall, it seems strong enough. And the aluminum strip should allow for some flexing while traveling.

[reinergirl]

Very nice looking cabinet. I love the metal "hold in" bar.

[desertair27]

Your cabinets are looking great! Thanks for showing how they mount.

[Minno]

Just had to buy them!

[Minno]

Finally made time today to bend the curtain track for the shower curtain. Made a template of the curve using cardboard, and bent the track to match that curve. Then, using just hand power, I bent the track to match the curve of the ceiling. This is in the rear end cap, so it's a compound curve. Sanded out the marks the metal shrinker left in the track, and pop riveted it into place. "Simple" project that took about 3 hours to accomplish.

Chris

[r.swanson]

bought a 1971 as 29 ft for $500.00 redoing it now

[Minno]

Kay worked on things while I was in Boston last week. She shaved a good portion of the Olympic rivets around the lower part of the trailer, but more impressive are the other two projects.



She modified a shower curtain we bought to fit the curved shower track I installed. Here it is in the open and closed position. It slides in the track easily, and stays in place when closed, which was a concern of ours considering the slope of the curtain track.




She also built curtain valances. I planed some basswood down to ½” thick for the sides before I left, and she used that plus ¼” plywood to build the valances.



Here’s the first one covered in batting and fabric, which she did last night. She has the valances built for all the windows except the front, and she’ll work on covering them over the next week I think.

Chris

[Minno]

Taking a few vacation days to work on Little Girl this week. Yesterday, I lined the furnace plenum with aluminum and installed the duct starter end thingys. I used left over belly pan for the liner.



The first picture is the bottom of the plenum with one of the duct ends installed. The second pic shows all 4 ducts and the plenum adapter for the furnace installed and caulked with high-temp silicone.



Here’s a view of the top and front of the plenum.



Bottom shot again with the bottom plate installed and taped.



A couple of pictures with the plenum installed under the furnace. It’s screwed to the floor and the furnace is screwed to the plenum.



Last night, Kay installed the rest of the ducting that runs from the furnace to the bedroom and bath.



The other project I finished yesterday is the step at the foot of the bed. It serves two purposes. It protects the duct and plumbing, plus provides a step for Kay so she can get in and out of bed easier.



The bottom step is covered with cork flooring, and the second “step” isn’t really meant as a step, so it’s covered with red alder plywood. But since we have grandchildren, and figure they’ll use both steps as steps, I made it strong enough to support my weight on both steps. It’s attached to the bed frame with glue and screws from the inside of the bed, and it’ll be attached to the kitchen wall with glue and screws as well. We’ll add an aluminum corner to the top edge of both steps to trim it out.

Chris

[2Rhinos]

I just removed the furnace from my '74 Overlander.
I admire your unique design with a plenum.
My old furnace discharged out the side and bottom towards the rear of the unit.
Since your plenum sits under the furnace and raises it off the floor, how did you manage to get the vent on the outside to line up?
Also, what brand and model furnace are us using?
You do great work