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.