Doin' the Full Monte

[Carolinda]

For cleaning crud from inside hard or impossible to reach containers, such as coffee thermoses, I find baking soda in high concentration with water, and allowed to work overnight, works wonders. Perhaps this will work on the white water tanks? When we pulled ours (to replace floor underneath in our 73 Argosy), we discovered the tank had sat directly on the frame and rubbed thin. So, first, need to "weld" the plastic; then, clean. Baking Soda will be my first choice of cleaner. Anyone else have experience with ABS welds and or cleaning?

[Carolinda]

I posted a possible solution earlier when the water tank issue was first mentioned. Baking soda for crud--works like a charm in icky coffee thermoses when concentrated in water and soaked overnight. Might work on the residue from the (?) that was growing in the tank.

[Jim & Susan]

Betcha thought we'd given up and just decided to camp in it "as is". Not hardly, as The Duke used to say. Upgrades, disasters and successes to follow tonight.......

But first, Susan just made some killer guacamole that has my immediate attention.

Back in a few.

Jim

[Jim & Susan]

We finally got 'round to making curtains. Up until now, we've just been covering the windows with whatever we had on hand. This is the LR area. Still gotta do the bedroom and bath.

Maybe we won't look so much like like a prop from The Grapes of Wrath at the campsite any longer.

Nice and functional. Remember, we're not trying to duplicate "The Biltmore". It's just a camper, after all.

Jim

[Jim & Susan]

Curtains next to the door. Note that we still have some work to do as denoted by the clothespin. Tie-backs are in the works.

[Jim & Susan]

Front window area.

[Jim & Susan]

And a roadside view. Does a nice job of hiding the cables from the antenna to the television (which still needs to have the woodwork finished off).

[Jim & Susan]

I have an "unfinished" thread about "break-away" switches that I need to wrap up. I'll do that and link here. Much more to follow.

On edit: If anybody wants to know about the hardware I used for the curtains, let me know. It's cool stuff, though not new to the RV world.

Jim

[Jim & Susan]

So here's the link to the beak-away, whatchamacallit, thing: http://www.airforums.com/forums/f464...ng-124450.html

Jim

[Jim & Susan]

Almost forgot the second most important part. Here's my latest craft brew find. The Dundees are only an average brew. But at $10 for 12, not bad. I'd give it a C-

Jim

[Jim & Susan]

I gotta comment on leaks, but iTunes is causing crashing on the computer (shocking, I know). May be tomorrow night before I get it sorted. Whata PIA.

Jim

[Minno]

In regards to cleaning water tanks: I experimented with cleaning the light green crusty algae out of our old tank before we decided to go new (we drink our water). Someone here on the forums suggested trying denture cleaning tablets, so I bought a big box of cheap ones and did some experiments. It would work on the crusty stuff, for sure. Baking soda is good for odors and gunk cleaning too.

Kay

[Zeppelinium]

Minno (remember?) gave me some hints about cleaning the water tank. I modified Chris' technique and the result was a very clean tank. See the post here.

Zep

[Minno]

Ah, yes, I remember those discussions. I'm glad it worked for you, Zep!

Kay

[Lothlorian]

I recently had a 55 gallon aquarium that I had let go for a very long time. the aquarium rocks and displays were loaded with algae and organic matter. I took it outside and put everything in two buckets and used pool shock. Everything disintegrated to the point it made everything look like new. I let it sit overnight and was amazed at the results. I thought about using it for my tanks.

[Lothlorian]

Hi Jim:

I haven't spoke to you for a long time. Your curtains look great. My wife is making new curtains, but she has her sewing machine in the shop so that has been put on hold. I like what you have done. I just brought my 73 Overlander home to clean and repaint the bathroom. Well one thing led to another and I have put in a new fuse panel and my wife convinced me to order new tambour. I also took the counter top off to be replaced. She could not deal with the color. I pulled the stove apart and cleaned and painted part of it and sent the other parts to be powder coated. I though I was all down with restoration. I guess not.

[Jim & Susan]

No, it's not Talk a Pirate Day. Ran into a problem getting ready for a weekend getaway coming up. May need some help from you all.

We haven't been able to go camping at all this season due to other family commitments (another new grand-baby, married off our last daughter) you get the picture. You know how it goes, yada yada.

So the Airstream hasn't been moved since last Thanksgiving except a couple times just around the block to exercise the axles a little. Yesterday I drug it out and washed her up, shinning like a new dime now. Today decide to pull her around town again just to shake it down for the trip this weekend. Adjusted the brakes, checked the tires and so on. After a few miles I noticed that I wasn't seeing the curb side brake light in the fiber optic viewer on the side f the trailer. I pulled over to check on it (thinking the bulb was burned out) and lo and behold, all the rivets had given way and the entire light assembly was hanging there by just the power connectors for the bulbs. Yikes!

I'm going to post a couple of pics and then run a few things by you guys......

Jim

[Jim & Susan]

So this is the type of assembly (it's resting on the step up into the camper in case it looks a little odd).

[Jim & Susan]

This is how it fits into the cutout on the shell.....

[Jim & Susan]

Problem is that the assembly is riveted on the to shell from the INSIDE, just underneath the bathroom shelf. Dang near impossible to get to. You can tell from all of the crud that I obviously didn't seal around that fixture very well. Water got in and corroded the aluminum rivets to the point that they all broke off.

Couple pic's of the backside of the light and of the rivets coming thru the shell from the inside.