1962 Land Yacht bathroom advice

[Blockhead]

I posted this in another thread and had a couple of good responses - but not quite specific answers. I'm hoping someone in this forum has some experience with this...

I'm a first timer and BOY do I wish I had read through these forums before making my decision! We really got ourselves a doozy.

We need to repair the floor under the bathtub. It definitely has no supports and the floor has some rot. Is there any way to remove the corner tub (see pic below) and do this in stages without removing the entire bathroom? Or is it just an all-or-nothing situation where I need to tear out the entire bathroom and replace all the floor at once?

My hope was to take out the tub and only repair underneath it (supports and plywood) until I can afford to remove the entire bathroom and do it right.

If I can't remove the tub, maybe we can go in from underneath and rig it for now. Is that nuts?

Any advice is appreciated!

[Hittenstiehl]

Laurie,

This is an uneducated but handy opinion only.

Seems you might be looking for an easier fix than what you know is in store for you.

You will either need to disassemble the bathroom because as you already see one piece is connected to the next peace and the next peace and the next peace and the tub will likely not come out without the dividing wall removed.

Or you will need to take off a portion of the belly pan and get up in there and attach something to the framing. Wood or some metal fastened to the framing joists to give you some temporary support under that tub.

I don't think you can get the tub unfastened enough to lifted it up high enough to slide a piece of plywood in there from inside the bathroom.

Possibly you could get two 1x 3 boards slid into the storage compartment door and make an X under the tub and fasten it at each end somehow. from what I recall on our tradewind the tub had a gap under it and didn't sit fully on the floor. That would give you a cross brace under the tub just in case you hit a hard enough bump.

I wouldn't use the tub for anything but laundry storage until further fixes become available.

Sounds like you're doing your research in order to fix it and use it and in the end you're going to have a beautiful trailer and as David said Tradewinds are some of the favorites.

[HiHoAgRV]

The early ‘60’s are a challenge when it comes time to replace the floor since the belly pan is riveted behind the shell. The corners are even more complicated because they can’t be cut at the frame and peeled down. My ‘63 had the floor under the tub replaced at some time and it wasn’t attached to the Cchannel under the wall. Bad. Even worse they never fixed the leaks so it just rotted out again.
If I was 100% set on going camping I would pull the tub and the wall behind it. Replace the ply, run screws down thru the c channel and reassemble it. Then I would plan a time to remove the bath and fix it right.
Remember that the floor goes under the wall. The floor attaches to the frame and the wall attaches to the floor. Without that the shell isn’t connected to the frame.

[Blockhead]

@Hittenstiehl and @HiHoAgRV
Thanks so much - this is the advice I needed.
I'm sure I'll have more questions to come!

[Hittenstiehl]

Laurie you may also want to join the Vintage Airstream Club a subgroup of Wally Byam Airstream Club as they focus on Vintage units. Also watch the you tube podcasts of Tim Shephard and Colin Hyde called the VAP (Vintage Airstream Podcast). There are also some Hands-On seminars that have been hosted in California recently where you can learn the different aspects of putting an Airstream back together. I can't find the name of that right now nor the dates for listings but I think I saw it advertised on vintage trailer sales which is another resource for all your parts and pieces.

[Trons4u]

Here are some pictures of when we disassembled ours, maybe they'll help give you an idea of how it's installed.

[SuzyHomemakr]

OK, here's an idea out of left field... which may or may not work. Taking an approach (like the one described by Hittenstiehl) would be most optimum. I can understand your reticence, in that trying to take apart one thing will probably break two things.

I would try getting some thin penetrating epoxy, the kind made for fixing rot in boats. http://www.epoxyproducts.com/ would have something like this. Be sure to set aside a fair amount of time to wade through their massively confusing website. Then, lay out a pleasing pattern and drill holes through the shower pan, about 3" apart. Using a syringe, inject each hole until full. It will continue to soak in, so do it again. Don't walk away! As soon as the first batch catalyzes, inject a second batch (with a new syringe) to fill the holes completely, as needed. This is known as "hot coating", and chemically bonds the two layers so that you don't need to rough up the surface of the first.

Figure that this will either take care of the rot, or at least firm up the pan enough so that the flex doesn't bother you. Probably make the pan less slippery, too!

[SuzyHomemakr]

Wait a minute- is that a steel tub? I take back my post if it is... but the penetrating epoxy could be used on the floor.

[Blockhead]

@Trons4u those photos are super helpful so we know how things are laid out/put together.

@SuzyHomemakr I thought it was just fiberglass and that is a really interesting idea for a quick fix. I'll research that a little bit more.

I like the continued post replies - we're taking a break from the bathroom to focus on updating all the windows/screens and building beds (some fun stuff that looks like progress) and will come back to the bathroom in a week or so (maybe).

[SuzyHomemakr]

Originally Posted by Laurie B

I like the continued post replies - we're taking a break from the bathroom to focus on updating all the windows/screens and building beds (some fun stuff that looks like progress) and will come back to the bathroom in a week or so (maybe).

I used my Airstream quite a bit while remodeling, so I agree with gets the beds done! You can always shower in the campground.