Need Help please

[My66Dino]

We have a 1966 Airstream Trade Wind. I'm replacing all of the copper water lines with pex because the copper has more holes than swiss cheese. I've been able to disconnect the copper every where except for at the shower/sink.
This particular shower/sink is an all in one. My daughter was able to disconnect from the back of the sink but she was not able to get anywhere with the shower. Anyone ever run into this problem before?
I'll try to get some pics to post to give y'all a better idea. Not much room to work with from what she said and I'd rather NOT unrivet the sink and remove it unless absolutely necessary.
Thanks,
New Airstream Owner.

[submariner]

If I'm not mistaken your sinks overhangs the tub. What I have done in the past is cut an access hole underneath the sink and made a cover for it. It is not visible , but surely make any install and repair much easier.




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[Cochese]

I had to remove the entire tub/ sink combo on my 65 overlander. Might be possible to accomplish this another way, but I doubt it! Have you inspected the floor under tub & toilet, etc? Chances are there is rot, unless you're very lucky! Removing the entire assembly is a major PITA! That's when the cash hemmoraging begins...


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[TouringDan]

Cochese is probably correct about there being floor rot under the tub. My plywood is a bit soft there, but I sure am not going to remove the whole bathroom and the rest of the interior to fix this problem. It is just not worth it. Remember, new solutions have new problems.

I removed the tub/shower faucet and the sink faucet. The tub/shower faucet was a piece of cake; the sink faucet was a pita. See posts 37-40 and post 58 in the following link titled "Dan's 66 Tradewind Improvements".

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f116...nts-94152.html

I will try to take a photo tomorrow of the finished vanity, both from the top and underneath.

Good Luck, Dan

[cwf]

Well, howdy Cou-San!

Welcome! You have great folks with great advice for you. Hope it clicks in soon!

Oh, we are picture freaks here if you can post some we would love to see how things are going!

Btw. If wood not totally ate up, you may be able to patch.

[My66Dino]

Wasn't able to get pics yet but I am for certain that the floor and sub-floor is still good. We just tore up the old and put in new laminate and the PO used marine plywood and varnish in the rear access compartment which is where the swiss cheese copper pipe is. So, we aren't worried about under the shower. The problem we ran into is removing the copper from the back of the shower faucet. We got the sink detached easy but the shower did not move at all. My daughter even took off the front knobs. I'll see about getting pics tomorrow. I like your idea of going with LEDs. Much easier and it will be less drain on the battery.
Thanks, Dan. I like your ideas. It's always a great help when someone else has already gone thru the experience.

[submariner]

though i share some photo. the below shows , how my bath turned out, after replacing the faucets and changing everything to pex .

[submariner]

here some pix of the plumbing for the water heater and the toilet i did.
the water heater has a by pass, in case you want to shut it off.
as for the plumbing to your bath room faucets, I removed the sink and then added the access hole as mention earlier, so i can easy get to any possible future leaks..


hope that helps some

[TouringDan]

Stefan

Wow! Spectacular work on your bathroom. I wish mine looked that good. What did you use to refinish the sink?

Nice job on the pex plumbing work in the rear hatch also. Is that floor tile or vinyl covering the wood?

Dan

[TouringDan]

Stefan

Looks like you still have the original univolt (battery boiler). I replaced mine with a Progressive Dynamics 9245 (?). It is much smaller and lighter and does a nice job of charging my two golf cart batteries.

Dan

[TouringDan]

I forgot the photo.

[submariner]

The uniVolt I had was still in a good condition and I did not see a reason to replace it. As for the tile, I used commercial grade vinyl tile to match the rest of the original tile . Only the tile in the very back got replaced after I pulled the toilet to rebuild it .


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[TouringDan]

66Dino

Here are photos of the sink with new faucets and a new drain, and also some photos showing the access hole in the bottom of the sink and plumbing connections under the sink.

Dan

[Landshark]

Originally Posted by TouringDan

Stefan

Wow! Spectacular work on your bathroom. I wish mine looked that good. What did you use to refinish the sink?

Nice job on the pex plumbing work in the rear hatch also. Is that floor tile or vinyl covering the wood?

Dan

X2!

Gorgeous tub and lav--what did you refinish with?

Vivian

[submariner]

We had the bathroom partially disassembled and had a friend paint it.. Not quiet sure what brand of paint he used, but it was made for plastics

As for the access hole, this was similar to what I did, except I cut 4 corner holes with a 2" hole saw and then cut it out. I need up making an access plate for it. Unfortunately do not have any pic.


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[J. Morgan]

On my 75 access is different, and possibly my copper was slightly less damaged, but on a couple of fixtures I left a foot or so of the original copper in place and flared the pipe to accept fitting to adapt to PEX.

I did this for ease of installation, made possible by this last foot or so of copper near the fixture valves having not been frozen before.

[mimiandrews]

Originally Posted by My66Dino

We have a 1966 Airstream Trade Wind. I'm replacing all of the copper water lines with pex because the copper has more holes than swiss cheese. I've been able to disconnect the copper every where except for at the shower/sink.
This particular shower/sink is an all in one. My daughter was able to disconnect from the back of the sink but she was not able to get anywhere with the shower. Anyone ever run into this problem before?
I'll try to get some pics to post to give y'all a better idea. Not much room to work with from what she said and I'd rather NOT unrivet the sink and remove it unless absolutely necessary.
Thanks,
New Airstream Owner.

Don't know if your Tradewind is the same as our '66 Safari--rear bath with sink overhanging the tub. If so, access to the fittings for the shower are through the same access hole under the sink as those for the sink.

You have to be on your back in the tub with your head under the sink to get there. I find that a small crescent wrench with wide jaws is the most useful tool in that area.

Good luck!

[Zil]

I had a similar problem. Solved by leaving a "tail" of copper and a shark bite pex to copper. Just put the fitting on the pex and pushed the end onto the copper.

[My66Dino]

Finally got pics of underneath and behind both the shower and sink facets. Also, bought a long handle tool specifically for facets. I'm hoping this will help since the wife wants to replace the sink facet and I'm not ready to cut it off in fear of doing damage to the fiberglass sink.
My daughter took all the pictures and it is viewable to the public.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=5b3a81522d

[cwf]

Let us know how this works, please.