New 1976 Land Yacht Owner

[tdturn2]

Greetings All,

I'm a new RV'er and my wife and I decided to fix up a 31' 1976 Sovereign Land Yacht (International). We're very excited, and sweating like crazy working on it daily here in San Antonio, TX. I'm starting to wish I began this project in the winter.

Anyhow, I'm here for help and advice. The outside of it is in pretty good condition, however the inside has little to salvage. So, I'm in the process of gutting the inside.

I've just purchased some marine-grade plywood and looking forward to laying it in this coming week. Any tips or advice on this?

Thanks in advance,

Terry

[Maryw164]

Welcome to the forums!

You'll find lots of great info/advice and very friendly folks. I'm no expert on total reno's, but I'm sure someone will post that is with some helpful advice. We are doing the basic DYI type stuff ourselves. The bigger projects we get professionals to help with. We are the 3rd owners, and originally thought it was in pretty good shape, but after using it it's hard not to want to upgrade and or remodel some aspect to our own tastes, in addition to the usual repairs needed. So far we have replaced the shower valve, kitchen faucet, installed extra new ceiling vent fans, replaced gaucho couch w/ mattress & bolsters to make a day bed setup, made new curtains, daybed & bolster covers, repacked wheel bearings, will be adding Centramatic balancers & upgrading to new A/C unit, ripped out carpet to install all new vinyl flooring, replaced bath lower panels w/wainscot. That's just the start of the things we plan to eventually change/upgrade. It's kind of an addiction. So it has been an adventure, but to be honest regardless of the new challenges our vacation last summer with our "new to us" '72 AS Sovereign 31', it was the most relaxing and enjoyable one we have ever had.

Mary

[bullydogsmom]

Have you torn up the old plywood yet? Be prepared for any suprises. I'll cross my figers for you that all your floor stringers and outriggers are in good shape. That's were most of us have our problems.

Do some reading on the restoration threads, lots of us have done what you are about to do. and have posted advice and pictures of what we have done.

The old floor must be removed from the C-channel that runs the perimeter of the trailer, you have to remove the lower interior wall skin to access this channel. You will find bolts that will have to be cut off to remove the old floor, or in our case the floor was so rotted the floor fell out and we had to cut the old rusted bolts off to get them out of the channel so we could slide in new flooring.

You have a BIG trailer so maybe try and do one section at a time, front, middle, back so the the trailer has some support as you work. The entire trailer is bolted on through the c-channel, floor, frame. kinda like a sandwich.

Good luck, post some pictures of what you find when you pull up the old floor. The people on here are great. No question too stupid or silly to ask.

Have fun.

Annette

[wahoonc]

I am doing something similar with mine, but only the floor at the front and back was bad, and I plan to reinstall the original interior with some upgrades. If your floor is bad all over, I would suggest pulling the belly pan and get the trailer stabilized with jack stands on a solid surface. They become quite flexible when chunks of the flooring are removed and if you put them back in with the trailer in a flexed position it gets quite interesting.

Aaron