75 Sovereign- Full Renowski-(help)

[TheGreatleys]

I did BC plywood with a couple of coats of marine epoxy (West System) on each piece. Very pleased with how it turned out. I think that's a great way to go.

Window and door gasket removal. Get yourself a can of GooGone adhesive remover, the stuff in the metal tin. A fine stainless steel wire brush, and a nice sharp razor blade. Remove what you can with the blade, then soak the rest with the goo gone and brush with the wire brush. Repeat to your satisfaction. The brush will scratch the aluminum to a "brushed" finish, but it'll be behind the gasket anyway so you'll never see it. Clean with carburator cleaner to remove the goo gone before applying the new gasket.

Those windows are way harder to put back than they are to remove. Looks super easy. Isn't. Be prepared with some patience and maybe a friend to help.

All that hardware covered in rust? Get a pack of red out/iron out water softener cleaner powder. Not salt, just the red out powder. Make a solution in a small bucket of water and soak your rusty parts in it overnight. It'll look new in the morning. Works for rusty tools, too.

[Howardhome]

[Howardhome]

[Howardhome]

Hello all,

I mean to update over the weekend but I’m currently done disassembling the windows from frame and have them all clean! I used 39 razor blades with a window scraper to remove all the gunk and old expired film and they are looking great. The frame is ready to go and my buddy will come do some welding Thursday and add a couple outriggers and fix the few cross pieces I clipped with the saw.
My original plan was to add the subfloor next and then the belly pan and insulation later. Do you think that’s a good idea? Also what bolts should I buy to secure the shell to the floor and what bolts for the subfloor to frame? I kept the bolts and am leaning towards steel for strength and then get a washer for the perimeter to avoid corrosion of aluminum touching steel. Stainless steep just kinda scares me, sees weak. Thanks!

[Monza]

You're on the right track, keep researching and asking, the answers are all in previous threads.

You'll want to order up some new axles as well, they will be needing a replacement for sure assuming they are original.

Good Luck! Keep up the pace.

[rucos]

Good job on the windows .....I owned a Glass shop for over 40years and those were a real mess(and I've seen some messed up windows ...LOL)
Go slow on reinstall as mentioned above it is a lot harder than removal ...... but you'll do fine.
Keep up the good work but watch that you take a brake and don't burn out!! You still have another 400-600hrs of work to do!!! ...........LOL

[Kayode]

My wife and I are trying to wrap up our reno of a 1976 Caravanner. Hopefully, we only have a couple more months of interior work....see #1. We are in a similar boat. The housing in the Bay area is ridiculously expensive, so rather than paying high prices for a poorly built & maintained rental, we decided to go this route

#1- Everything is going to take three times longer than you thought it would, and don't throw away anything until you have completely replaced it.
#2 - Focus on waterproofing
#3 - Learn to Buck Rivet & basic metal working
#4 - Find a local hardware store that has a good selection of screws/bolts.
- Hopefully, you kept the wafer screws that connect the sub-floor to frame because they don't exist any more..see #1) We used Stainless steel bolts to join the shell to frame.
- Buy a Tap & Die set (GearWrench 114PC 82812) and try to standardize the bolts. I wasted a lot of time trying to find the exact replacement screw/bolt, but most times the sizes didn't exist or were very difficult to get.
#5 - Pay for a Gold Membership at West Marine

We also read up on the threads, but approached things slightly differently.
- Waterproofing - where we could, we checked all of the rivets on the outside (

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYmQsn6DlE4

), and replaced them with Buck rivets. Once you start replacing the rivets, you'll definitely be able to identify suspect ones that you can't test for. (Olympic rivets are garbage.)
-Gluvit - We scrapped off all of the old caulk in the interior, and we used Gluvit to seal the leaks. This stuff is messy, but awesome. It gets in every crevice.
-Butyl Tape - We used butyl tape to attach all exterior hardware ( https://marinehowto.com/bed-it-tape/), so that things were water tight, but we could also remove the parts if necessary.
-Subfloor & shower wall - Marine Grade plywood & SaniTred (https://sanitred.com)

- Wiring - This is where the membership comes in handy. We rewired everything with Duplex/Triplex wire, and used heat shrink connectors.

-Solar - Reach out Watts!...Seriously that is his name Savannah and Wes are awesome, and are based in Santa Clara. They were able to make us some custom cut industrial panels. (https://www.tinywattssolar.com/) Tell them the New Yorkers sent you

-Brakes & Axles - we went a little over kill on this one, but we plan on being road warriors. Kodiak - Disk Brakes, Tucson (ABS) - Get the one that integrates with your existing brake controller, Dexter 7,000lbs axles - ABS system requires it. Thanks to Mr. Truck (

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=porlGrbxO6Q

)

- Polishing - Slow and steady wins the race -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGBI-kTXkno

- Interior stuffStove - Dickinson MarineHeater/water heater - Alde **If you want to go this route, you need to order everything in the next month, Alde America was purchased by a company that will not sell to individuals***Shower head - https://nebia.com/ We haven't tried this yet, but it looked promising on kickstarter

I plan on doing a more formal write up. However, in the interim, please feel free to ping me and we'll happily share what worked/didn't for us.

[Howardhome]

Great Info Kayode!

What did you guys use to remove the old caulking? The stuff on the ceiling seems pretty easy to remove but the thinner sections around the windows not as much. I was thinking about using a putty knife but maybe there is a better tool/chemical to throw on to make it easier.

I will definitely be looking into Gluvit for sealing up all the seams. Glad I can finally start considering this!

[Howardhome]

[Kayode]

How we removed our caulk:

1. Scrape using a Painter's tool & putty knife - I would get a several and experiment to see which one works the best.
2. Scrape using a Razor - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
3. Apply Jasco - This stuff will burn your skin...trust me on this one, so suite up Breaking Bad style - Face protection ( Uvex Bionic Face Shield), a bunny suite (DuPont Tyvek 400 TY127S) and gloves (Atlas 772 Nitrile Coated Gloves 26 ).
4. Scrape the rest off using putty knife or razor
5. Clean with Mineral Spirits then denatured alcohol.

You can also try using ANTI-BOND or DEBOND. We didn't try these products, but we tried some other ones that kind of worked.

The waterproofing took us 3-4 months, but we also replaced all of window seals (minus the hotdogs). This was definitely the worse part of the rebuild, but your Rig doesn't seem to have Vista View windows so that'll save you a couple of months of your life

Fortunately or unfortunately, it poured rain last year while we were waterproofing our rig last year, so we were able to find and fix all of the leaks...at least for now.

[Howardhome]

This last couple weeks were good as my buddy came to fabricate two outriggers and weld some cross beams i accidentally sawed through. It all looks perfect now, his fabrications were made with $5 scrap metal!

[Howardhome]

Now I can't get too excited about the Pro-15 being done and just slap down the subfloor. I'm really stuck with ordering these dang gray tanks and just being unsure of venting and what kind of kind of fittings ill need and where to put them. Ill order a new fresh water tank 45 gallon which comes with the fittings done. But the gray tanks (55" x 21" x 5" Tank - Cut Corner) Is just a solid piece of plastic unless you tell them otherwise. Vintagetailersupply recommends 1-1⁄2 inch FPT for gray water plumbing. My question is what do I do for venting and where do I place it? I'm going to connect two of these 19 gallon tanks. One will be under the shower and the other connected right next to it. Any advice on inlet or outlet fittings and where to have those?

[57Vintage]

To vent your grey water tanks, I'd suggest looking at where the existing roof vent(s) are placed (street or curb side). That will determine placement of the fittings on your tanks. That assumes the placement won't interfere with interior components and the line can be accessed in some manner in case the tank has to be removed at a later date.

[Howardhome]

Originally Posted by 57Vintage

To vent your grey water tanks, I'd suggest looking at where the existing roof vent(s) are placed (street or curb side). That will determine placement of the fittings on your tanks. That assumes the placement won't interfere with interior components and the line can be accessed in some manner in case the tank has to be removed at a later date.

Thank you! I just found the old photo showing the old vents which I had no idea what they were when I was tearing everything out.

[Howardhome]

Do you have any idea why there are 3 vents for only two tanks? The middle vent is the only vent for the black tank, the vent on the far right is on the corner of the gray tank. But I'm confused about the vent on the far left, it seems like it might be for fresh air for the drain pipe? All those pipes are from the bathroom and kitchen sink and then the pipe goes down to drain but also branches up to vent. I'm thinking I should just go ahead and replicate this and not cut corners but I really want to know the reason behind it if the gray tank already has a vent.

[57Vintage]

I'm not that familiar with center baths, so I'm guessing a little. Considering that your bath sink and shower go thru one drain to the grey water and that left roof vent is not connected to the tank directly, the right vent is to allow air to vent out of the grey when draining bathroom sink/shower.

If that is correct, I'd consider revising the left vent go directly to the tank, separate from the drain line itself and eliminate the right vent. i.e. use the same layout but add a wye above the Tee for the sink and go down into the tank.

I assume the kitchen sink is on a separate tank or does it connect to to that grey tank through something I can't see in the photo.

Hopefully, someone whose done a center bath can give your better guidance.

[57Vintage]

Not the greatest representation of what I'm suggesting because it may affecting floor space, but just to illustrate.

[Howardhome]

Hey team,

Sorry for the long wait for an update. I started full time on August 26 and I’ve been plugging away. Here is what I’ve done so far:
-Cleaned windows and the outside panes are currently at the tint shop
-finished welding. I thought I was done a couple times but thankfully good friends got my frame up to speed and ready for the sub floor.
-finished repairing my wheel wells. I had some cracks on the plastic wheel wells from the demo and had some aluminum covers fabricated to go on top of the plastic which I riveted together (yay first of many rivets).
-Put on 3 layers of Por-15 in total on the frame.
-Tied in the gray water tanks which held up completing the subfloor.
-Laid down 4 sheets of ply wood and have 3 to go.
-Removed the remaining clear coat.

I piped the two grey tanks to each other at a “T” with 1.5” and then converted that to 3” at the frame and then made my valve right outside of my frame. Is this a dumb idea? I’m not sure if there will be belly pan that covers it. I kinda like that it doesn’t stick out far and is ugly but I don’t want to cover it either.

[57Vintage]

Are you going to tie in the black water drain to this location? Might be kind of tight.

[Howardhome]

Originally Posted by 57Vintage

Are you going to tie in the black water drain to this location? Might be kind of tight.

I should have noted that we will get a compost toilet and not run a black tank.