Sink & faucet...

Starting on the funnest part!  Starting to pick out the finishing touches.  This cool sink from Ikea has a  built in drain pan and several components like dish drying racks, cutting board and colander.  I also like that I can set a hot pan on it if I go with wood or other temperature sensitive countertop material.  Currently thinking butcher block maple from lumber liquidators but I might still go with formica or solid surface if I can find product I like better.

 This is a cool Ikea faucet.  I like that it's small, has single handle operation and an integrated spray head.  

Buttoning up inside & framing furniture

Reattaching ceiling panel

 I've done most of this work by myself, and that makes for some creative solutions to act as extra hands.  In this case, I built a wood frame just below the ceiling so that I could support the center ceiling aluminum without having it fall and have its own weight cause a crease.  It worked great.

Bed frame

 Above is a picture of the bed frame.  Trying to accomplish a bunch of objectives here.  First, this trailer has a tailgate with rear storage, so the bed frame had to be above that...giving it a height of 24".  I also wanted an oversized water tank because I'm not worried about weight (tow vehicle has a Hemi) and it just seem luxurious.  So, the center compartment is huge to accommodate a 60 gallon fresh water tank.  Other concerns were that this is built over my two waste water tanks, so I had to be careful where and how to attach this frame to the 5/8" floor.  The sheet of plywood you see on the right side looks out of place in this pic, but it's the end panel for my kitchen cabinet.

This picture shows one of the big problems I had to solve.  This corner had a fiberglass shower stall that broke when I removed it.  I had no idea how hard it would be to cover this area with aluminum.  The white triangle piece is fiberglass cut from the shower and all of the silver strips are a trial and error effort that finally paid off with the help of a fishing buddy. 

Here is the bed with the plywood cover.  I used high grade 1/2" maple from Lowes.  Its about $42 per sheet.  I could probably get away with a lower grade 3/8" product but I'm not taking any shortcuts.  I cut the back corners first.  Process is to get a piece that is oversized and about the right shape, then I made a scribe (1/2" x 1/2" x 18" square & pointed stick with a hole drilled in it for a pencil to poke through).  I drilled several pencil holes in my scribe tool and basically just cut and re-cut until I could match the irregular shape of the walls.  For me, being patient and taking my time paid off & every joint is within 1/8" of perfect.

Back to the outside to add a gravity water fill spout.  This barely fit under the gold trim, under the top of the bed on the inside, and still had enough fall to the top of my 60 gallon fresh water tank under the bed.   Guess I can't always be unlucky:)

 Here's another first for me.  Decided to go with curved radius corners on my booth.  You can see in the back that I cut a big half circle out of 3/4" plywood and then cut the circle in half to make two 1/4 circles.  Then I put lots of studs for surface area to attach the skin material later.  I'm using HD screws for everything.

 

Hard to explain how great it was to paint the inside.  Not the first coat though.  I ordered razzou zolotone textured paint and bought a special sprayer to apply it, and could not have been more disappointed.  One application my ass.  Anyway, it was a disaster.  I tried putting it on thick enough so that it would cover the primer and then it dripped and I had to wipe it off...  My recommendation is to pass on zolotone.  It did help to soften some texture changes but wasn't worth the $200 - especially since I had to paint two layers of primer and 4 layers of latex over it anyway.  Primer and good latex is hard to beat.

 This shot shows paint in the other direction and the 60 gallon fresh water tank.  Hope the framing is strong enough to hold the 500lbs of water sloshing around...?  I'll come back and make it stronger later.

Installed these tall panels to go define fridge/convection oven space and also added a back and end to kitchen cabinets.

 Here you can see the table and beginnings of my radius booth.  The table has a latch that swings the top down to bed height and also allows it to go outside for use.  My buddy has a table like this in his RPod and I love it.

Buttoning up the exterior

It's been a long time since I posted any progress.  I lost my shop space, so I took some time off for awhile and then got around to working on it again but not posting updates.  Here is the start to a series that will catch things up.

I added this period porch light.  It's the spartan art deco model available at Vintage trailer supply and other retailers.  The one that came with this project was a hideous square thing with rotten plastic cover.  I like this improvement.

 Here is the reattachment of the original gold anodized trim.  After all of the work re-manufacturing the frame and floor - I was completely shocked at how well the holes lined up.  I don't remember a single hole being off by more than 1/16" !!!

This is a picture of my new water heater install.  This one didn't fit the old hole, so that is a new piece with original drip molding.  Now that I look at it, I probably should have moved the drip down closer to better protect the heater....

Installed a new license plate holder that is very close to the original.

 Square Patch over the old furnace exhaust hole.

Construction

The phase of new construction is now underway.  I was going to leave the interior end caps in place but there was still a mouse smell - so I pulled the endcaps, cleaned them, and sprayed them with Kilz primer.  Then, I used an enzyme cleaner and doused all of the skin inside the walls.  Smell is all gone now and I've started installing Reflectix insulation.

This was one of the last bits of insulation.  You can see pest damage & tunnels.

Reflectix insulation going in.

Wiring from under the chassis.  Brown wires are for the brakes.  120v black (with plugs) and red wires are for the 2-way holding tank heaters.

Cast your votes!

Interested in this project?  Want to help determine how it turns out?  I've added three poll questions to ask folks following the blog what equipment and material choices they'd like to see used.

1) Which fresh/cold air system?

2) Which wet bath concept should I use?

3) Which furnace should I use?

In order to vote, view the blog on a computer screen and see the options in the left column.  For some reason, it doesn't work on the mobile site.

Insulating the floor and belly pan install

It's been tricky to attach the shell over the bellypan but I got it all figured out and sent rivets through the top shell, belly pan, 'C' channel, and belly pan.  The belly pan aluminum is crimped over the channel, so the rivets go through it twice.  

  Here's where old meets new.  I used the old pan in the corners - because I didn't think I could figure out how to shape the aluminum and they are still in fair condition.

New pan on the street side.  Looks great.













This is "foam it green" brand sprayfoam.  It's the 202 kit of structural, closed cell product.  I put it on thick, so it only covered about 80 sqft.  Price with shipping was about $250, so that's more than $3/sqft.  Not as expensive as some options but certainly more than others.  Overall, I'd say that I'm moderately pleased.  It is fairly rigid and has decent adhesion but wasn't very difficult to remove in areas of overspray.






One of the biggest complaints I've heard is that the product makes a mess.  So here's a picture of the mess.  Not too bad in my opinion.

Buttoning up the belly pan over the sprayfoam insulation.  I had to carve off a few bits.  For carving, I used a dewalt saws-all blade as a knife & it worked great.

Reattaching the shell

 Finally have the shell back on the chassis.

In this picture, you can see that I've removed the sawhorses and have begun lowering the shell back onto the chassis/floor.

As with lifting it, I use a bottle jack to support half the shell, put some short legs on the wood frame and lower it down to the new level.

The 'C' channel and brackets attaching it to the studs were in bad shape.  In this picture, I'm fabricating new L brackets to make the attachment. Easier to drill holes in the large material before I cut it.  

  Cutting the new brackets.

Piling up the new brackets.

Reattachment is tricky.  This Streamline trailer had belly pan wrapped and crimped on the 'C' channel.  I'm faced with the challenge of trying to figure out how to make sure my wood floor has the right radius corners (old ones were so rotten I had to guess), attach bellypan, attach shell, attach floor, and sprayfoam the underfloor.  In this picture, you can see that I've crimped one section of bellypan so that I can lower the shell over it.

 Removed most of the external wood framing.  These back two legs are allowing me to use floor jacks to adjust the shell for final touchdown.

 Instead of rebuilding the curved corners, I'll keep them and wrap as much new material over them as I can.

 This extra sheet of new is to guide the lip of the shell over the new bellypan lip.

 All of the external wood is gone and starting to lower the back.

 Installed the rear 'C' channel and lowered the shell.

 All of the interior wood framing is gone and starting to make solid attachments all around.

Finished Wastewater System

Wastewater system is done!!!  Both holding tanks are in and glued.

I had to alter the frame but was able to put two holding tanks between the floor and belly pan.  These tanks are from Inca Plastics and are 23 gallons each.  Tanks were just a bit warped and didn't fit within the dimensions on the blueprint, so I had to cut some of the iron and re attach.

 Here you can see the cable valterra valves.  I welded a piece of angle iron to mount the handles and will figure out how to make that look pretty later.

Things are starting to look good!  The new wheel wells are beautiful.  Lafe Shoopman of L&C Custom did a great job on the wheel wells and only charged me $300 for both.  I lifted the trailer 3.25" with the new InlandRV (dexter) torsion axles and so I took three inches out of the wheel wells.  This should give me precious extra cabinet space.  My only complaint is that InlandRV did not respond to three requests asking them how much travel I should allow for with the new axle setup.  Annoying.  I couldn't wait forever so I just cut off what I added in height.  If that doesn't work, I'm going to be super pissed at InlandRV.

Put the trailer back under the shell!  Oh hells yeah.  Feels great, can't imagine how good it'll be to get it reconnected - much less useable!

So far, it's looking pretty good.  The rear end was completely rotten, so I didn't have much in the way of templates.  My plan is to lower the shell down onto the chassis and make the final adjustments to the wood and attach the bellypan, etc all at once.  I think I'll be able to do any needed modifications but we'll see:)  I also plan to use structural sprayfoam under the wood floor as I put the belly pan on.  Lots of stuff in the airforums about how sprayfoam falls apart but I can't find a credible account of closed cell foam failing - so I'll give it a try.  Properties are too good to pass up.  Fiberglass batt is popular but it's also the reason I had to do a frame off in the first place!

Turning the corner...

Finally turned the corner on my restoration project!  Can't tell you how good it feels to be constructing instead of destructing.

 Steel work is done! 80% new steel.  New ribs, hitch coupler, step, tank supports, etc.  Everything looks great and is mostly square:)  I say mostly because the galvanized ribs in on either side of the wheel wells were a little tweaked and I got them close but not perfect.  One turned out being 3/8" bigger than the other. Everything else is surprisingly perfect.  Like within 1/16" end to end.  BIG SHOUT to my friend Adam Pfiffner (Bloxx & Pfiffner Design Build) who is renting me shop space & helping me get the hard parts right.  Like installing the axles - his design, layout, & welds are perfect. He's the one that helped me with hard and important stuff like axles, hitch, steel design, etc.   

Now starting to install the wood floor.  I went with 5/8" marine plywood (AB) and then coated both sides and edges with smith's two part epoxy.  Very happy with the smiths product.  Using two kinds of fasteners from vintage trailer supply.  one is a bolt through and the other requires a drill & tap.

Floor is all cut and almost done with the smiths epoxy coating.  Must admit, I'm nervous about the shell fitting my curved corners.  The front should be very close because I was able to save sections of the old floor to use as templates.  The rear floor was so rotten that I had to guess.  

 Finalizing my floorplan.  This is the fun part!  Originally, I was going to work around the existing floorplan and infrastructure to make it work for our family of 4.  Going the full monty means I have total flexibility to do whatever I want - & that's pretty cool.  Here's a simple sketch of my design.

Laying out the floorplan with masking tape.  This was awesome to see it lifesize for the first time.  

 Installing the plumbing.  Bath is giving me the most headaches.  I want to do a wet bath over the wheel well.  Why doesn't someone make a kit?  I've looked everywhere and can't find one - so playing with ideas to build my own.  you can see a fiberglass pan here but I'm not going to use it.  After consulting Kent @ Blue moon, I've decide to bite the bullet and go with custom stainless pan & fabrication.  Then I'll do teak or similar accents.