Flashback

Jennifer found some pics of shortly after we obtained the camper that show some of the damage.



This shows the original wheels/tires and some of the rot up front.


Whatever the question, caulk seemed to be the answer. Note the hole where the awning support attached. This was likely one of the main water entry points as water runs off the awning gutter and right over the bracket mount.


Hard to tell, but this is the lower front looking inside. Note that all the wood rotted away under the aluminum skin.

Pulling the contact paper ended up pulling down part of the ceiling...

Here you can see a lot of the rot. Most of the existing lateral studs ended up being rotted in the corners. Everything from just above the window down was replaced as well as the corner pieces and some of the lower side pieces (plus the whole floor)

Ditto

On this you can somewhat see the floor and pan damage. Front aluminum skin did not match the rest of the coach - so someone knew about the leak and either ignored it or made it worse.

Little reorganizing

As you can imagine, the garage is getting a bit cluttered with the whole interior of the trailer stored in there, plus all the appliances, tires, tools, building materials, and now, transmission rebuilding space.

Last night I did some cleaning/organizing. Moved things I won't need for a long time into the basement, organized the rest in order of need. Decided I'd move the lower cabinets into the trailer for storage. The refrigerator is next.

This helps me visualize how things fit together, and gets them out of my work area.

Front LH side. This cabinet is sort of a headboard when the dinette turns into a bed.


Inside of the cabinet that holds the stove:


Sink cabinet. This one has the most damage.

Oops. I guess that's my thumb. This is the other side of the stove cabinet with the smaller sub-cabinet inset for clearance to the dinette booth.

View towards the front.

Ditto:

Sink cabinet. Refrigerator/furnace cabinet goes to the left.

Stove cabinet:

Another view towards the front.

All the panelling was water damaged on the front panel. Based on where the cabinets fit, I'm hoping to scavange panelling from behind them to cover the front and any other exposed damaged areas. Hopefully, I'll have enough.

Update - Floor is done

Took a few days off to work on the camper and the truck. Of course, it rained half the time.
However, the floor is now in.

Here's the luan plywood halfway down on top of the subfloor


I know I took more pics, of the work in progress, but I can't seem to find them.

Anyhow, here's the finished floor with Dupont Sedona vinyl

Pattern detail:

Pattern is purposely not geometric. I'm not sure how square I can get everything put back in. No point in highlighting that. Plus, most of the "squares" that made up patterns were so large, they would look silly in a small space like this.

Some recent pics

I don't have a lot of time to write this morning, but I'll throw up some pics and will try to comment later

Windows all in. Repaired front awning attached. Running lights installed.

White square towards the bottom front is for the cargo door. I have the door part rebuilt from scratch and need to mount it in its frame and clean up the flange.

Took the wheels off for access - you can't see it, but the "body" is now securely bolted to the chassis for the first time since we bought it.

Also, the wheel wells are coated with truck bed liner for undercoating after being sealed against the frame and body where necessary. Left the wheels off as I want to do one more check of the brake/bearing adjustment.

Still have three running lights to install out back.

Just won an ebay auction - miraculously found the exact tail light needed to replace the broken one - correct side with the clear window for lighting the license plate. Now I don't have to try and retrofit another, or patch the old one.

You can see the sloped part of the rear camper where the tail lights attach (hole covered with metal foil tape). We have a plastic "wedge" that goes behind the actual tail light that matches the tail light profile (an elipse with the sides cut off) There is only one new tail light available that I found that has wedge adapters to bring the light surface vertical and it is rectangular. We may have to go with them down the road if we break one of our lenses as ours aren't made anymore and they're near impossible to find. I found references on the web to people searching for them in vain going back to 2001. Luckily, the ebay seller didn't list the right part number off the light in the auction, or more people might have found it and bid.

Large white squqre in front of the wheel well is where the water heater goes. Our old one (propane only with pilot) had a pinhole leak in the tank that I didn't notice until I was reassembling it after completely rebuilding it (cleaning, paint, new fittings, etc.). Got a decent deal on a new combination gas/electric with direct spark ignition. Just flick a switch and choose which method of heating.

Best of both worlds and safer.

Between that and the new furnace with DSI, the only pilot will be in the stove/oven and the fridge (which has the burner outside the coach and has a p/e igniter). Piezo-electric igniters for the stove are very inexpensive. Oven is going to have to stay with a pilot, unfortunately. May put in a p/e ignitor so we don't have to keep matches around and risk dropping one on the new floor and melting it.

The big piece of pink insulation and metal door behind it are what I use to cover the entry door, under the tarp, when I expect rain.

Interior shots.

As of this writing, I have the floor covered with exterior luan plywood underlayment in preparation for the vinyl floor. Here are some shots of that work in progress.

Front of trailer is to the right. Brown boxes on floor are wheel wells. Jennifer cut the insulation for the front wall and installed it.

Plywood (coated with spar varnish) floor is on right. New luan subfloor fitted on left.




Shot from the front back.

The black tank vent is on the left, next to the pliers. Pink blocks of insulation hold up the drain for the bath sink and shower (shower trap is sunken into the floor). Where it elbows between the shower drain and the wheel well is where it drops into the grey tank.

Hole in the floor is for the toilet. I'm adding a 1 1/2 inch offset flange and raising it up about 4", which should give me more room in the very cramped bath and still let the toilet clear the drain line that runs behind it. I would also like to run a duct along the drain line to heat the back of the trailer and the bath as the new furnace is set up for ducted operation.