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Originally Posted by RivrCtyStrmr
.....riveters and leak finders??.....
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for the rivets - steady as she goes - all the reading in the world will not make the first one any easier
buck up that confidence and drill the puppy out.
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Originally Posted by RivrCtyStrmr
We know very little about the viabilily of the appliances. The Dometic refrigerator appears to cool but it is also very mildewed and cracked in the door and gasket.
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Check out our photos - is your fridge the same size or smaller? We had the same problem with the interior door - our seal was fine but the plastic was held together with duck tape. There is a Dometic guy up here in Canada that has tons of the parts. We were lucky to pick up a replacement door for $29.00. We removed our door and the replaced the bad parts with the good parts - sorry the left over is long gone - but I could look up that fellows number for you? pm me if you think it might be an idea for you.
Sort of depends on what you want to do with YOUR trailer - keep it all orginal and get into the Vintage scene - or do you want to make the trailer fully functional right away.
a $29.00 price tag compared with a 400-600 price tag was the intial decision for us. Our fridge works great.
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Originally Posted by RivrCtyStrmr
The Bowen hot water heater seems original; we haven't yet figured how to tell if it is even functional.
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You can follow one of our threads about the Bowen Water Heater - when we look back oh how green we were!!! to the point of almost blowing Peter's head of - with no orifice in the flame mechanism. - We were so tuned to getting all the parts to fire her up - that we bypassed the fact that it might just leak - so learn from our mistake - fill it up first and see if it leaks - if it comes out the bottom then you will be replacing it. For good deals try Camping Worlds discount store in BowlingGreen Kentucky
OLD PROPANE LINES???? if they are the orginals - they will be extremley britle and need to be replaced. As the pipe is outside the belly pan it is susceptible to stones - with britle copper it will punture and crimp easily affecting your presure. The Propane appliances are very sensitive and if they do not have the right pressure they will not operate. This could lead you to believe that the appliance is faulty when in fact it could be a split or pin hole in the lines. Next take your Regulator to a profession propane supplier and have them test it.
The stovetop seem to work, but we've not yet lit the oven. [/QUOTE] We have to turn all the burners on to perge the lines if we have not used her for a while. Our oven cooktop works great to.
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Originally Posted by RivrCtyStrmr
We have no idea whether the Hydro Flame furnace is viable.
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Recommend that you completely remove the furnace to inspect and give a thorough clean - they are not often used by most people (hmm no Canadian Climates in the South
) There could be nests or surface rust accumulated - huge fire hazard. With all the 69's I have met that have this furnace the big comment is that they have replaced the old thermo-coupler and the pilot light gasket and she fires up no problem. We are in the midst of that process now - waiting on parts.
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Originally Posted by RivrCtyStrmr
Does anyone have an ordering of priorities for newbies to get started?
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Of course all of the above is burried deap within the bowels of this forum and could take you months to get answers to all your questions. And I am sure you will figure out there are 100 different ways to do the same thing.
The most important item while she is sitting on your driveway going no where is to leak proof her - it does not have to be a pretty job but there is nothing worse that have a leak unoticed. Check everywhere after a rain or better still during a rain - behind the seats, under the counters in the trunk.
The 69's have a pop rivet in the window eyebrows where water can drip inside the window - the window well will then fill up and overflow inside the trailer drip down the wall then along the ledges and keep going toward the floor. If this is unchecked for 35 years then there is your floor rot - we were lucky that only a portion of the compartment lid was just starting to show sign of water damage. Thus we jamed those holes really quick. parbon silver or clear is a good quick fix - put it everywhere - lights markes, rub rail - seams that have space - clean up with paint thinner.
Window and door gaskets check - big job - time consuming - but worth it
Up at the atenna is another big culprit - or around the AC. Another sneaky one is the stink pipe - there is now a black rubber gaskect that you can install to prevent rain from dripping onto the black pipe and down in through the closet again to the floor.
A big tell tail of water damage is the original floor is no longer there or the tiles have lifted and long gone. We were extremely lucky in that department.
Before going anywhere - systems are always a good thing to start with. Plumbing, Electrical, Applicances.
A really smart investment on these old trailers is a NEW Axle and full running gear. They are made to travel on soft feet - not hard nails - and the speeds in which we now travel compared to 37 years ago is considerable.
You can make your wish list on all the appliances -but the two best to have is a proper charging and operating electrical system and nice to have running water. But a 5 gal jug will suffice as you knock off the items on your list.
Do you have any manuals for your appliances???? We found really nice people at these forums who also just purchased a 69 GT a month after we purchased ours. Theirs came with the original manuals and a lot more headaches than ours did - but we had no manuals - they copied everything for us. PM me if you would like a copy.....of a copy.....
for those who have seen this a 1000 times I do appologies - but I know what it is like to wade through 100's of threads to try and get a quick answer which we all can provide.
Keep your questions coming - that is what this forum is and info exchange - and it is really great!!