'76 Shasta rebuild

[cowcharge]

Flushing out the water heater, with the handy hose adapter the PO left in the junk drawer. Lots of diswashing liquid and lots and lots of water and tipping and sloshing. Starts to get heavy with a full tank. The heater's been unhooked for years, but with the drain plug in, so there was a few pints of water stagnating in the bottom. All kinds of disgusting algae-stuff came out, along with a spider.
It rained all day yesterday, so I'm still not sure if the fresh water tank's leaking through the patch or not. I think it is, and I will probably go ahead and re-solder the lowest corner of the patch. I musta missed an air bubble in the seam the other night.

Attachments:

[cowcharge]

Yay, it's not the kind with an anode! The heater looks to be in pretty good shape, other than a bit of rust there. I haven't tried to light it yet as it hasn't been hooked up and the trailer had no pump. The POs only had the trailer hooked up for city supply, with cold water running in every line. I bought a water pump on Ebay the other night, for $55 with shipping. Once it arrives, I'll hook up all the water lines and see if the heater works or not. I also need to get a couple of check valves and hand valves so that I can use both city or tank water without having to change anything, and to eventually be able fill the tank from the city water just by opening a valve or two. I'll also be able to test the furnace, once the water heater gas line is hooked up again. Onward and upward!

Somebody email me a new fridge!

Attachments:

[distant75]

Looks good. You've done a lot of nice work.

[cowcharge]

Thanks, Distant. I'm on a very low budget and time constraints, so I can't really do everything that I'd like. I'd really like to have been able to strip it right down to the frame and sandblast it, and totally gut the cabin and all that, but c'est la vie. The cabin can always be jacked up off the frame in the future. I'm replacing the floor in sections. Once the bedroom's functionally done, with walls and ceiling insulated but maybe not panelled, and with the water system together again, then I'll remove the bathroom and rebuild it in a chunk, then across the hall to do the kitchen, with the front end left for last, since it's in fairly good shape. It's a challenge doing everything from the inside. I'll be tearing out ceilings and replacing bad frame pieces while the aluminum's still in place, or with just the edge peeled back. No idea what I'm gonna do with the fridge. It's dead, and too big to fit out the door, so I'll probably end up sawzall-ing it in half like others have done.

[cowcharge]

I had some tiny weeping leaks in the lower patch, so today I ran another thick bead of hot glue all the way around, roughly doubling the amount from the first seam. Then I took my soldering iron and remelted all the hot glue, so that the new bead was completely melted into the first bead. The glue sticks take the heat really well, and stay soft and flow for a long time, so I could melt two inches or so at once, sculpting it with the tip of the iron into a fairly smooth "snowbank" that would self-level a bit. Continuously melting into the next section as I went, so that in the end there were no "joints" anywhere.
Whenever I hit one of the leaks, the tiny drops of water left in the plastic would pop and boil, I could see the bubbles forming in the molten plastic. I just kept probing the seam, killing bubbles until there were no more pops. The plastic of the tank itself doesn't take heat anywhere near as well as the glue sticks. It burns from the soldering iron pretty easily, and leaves brown flakes where it burns. It's also a lot stickier than glue sticks, it doesn't flow when it melts. You have to mold it, like really sticky gum. I recommend melting only enough of the tank joint to let it blend with the glue sticks.

Attachments:

[cowcharge]

The new seam. The areas I had to mess with the most ended up the brownest from the extra heat. The plastic fumes get pretty nasty, so do this stuff outside, with plenty of ventilation. The tank's filled up out in the yard again and didn't look like it was leaking, but the cold water was condensing the air like crazy so it was wet everywhere. I'll check it tomorrow after the sun warms it up. The patch is low on the tank so all the weight of the water bulges the patch out. But once it's framed into the bedroom, it won't be able to bulge, so if it can handle sitting on my lawn unsupported, it will be fine in the trailer.

Attachments:

[safetybruce]

cowcharge, I have enjoyed taking your journey with the rebuild with you vicariously through your postings. You are doing a great job. I think when you paid the PO, you bought the trailer, when you are finished with the interior rebuild you will OWN than trailer literally and figuratively. Keep up the good work!

[cowcharge]

Thanks for the encouragement. I had to stop insulating the wall and work on the tank in order to find the correct new higher position for the outside filler. Going out to check for tank leaks right now.

Update: It didn't leak! Now I can plot the filler location, finish insulating that wall, and close up the aluminum. According to the USPS tracking site, my pump oughta get here today.

[cowcharge]

I really need to put my nose to the grindstone here, lol. I should have much more done than I do. I wouldn't call it a restoration, though. I'm not really concerned with originality of parts or trying to keep the "old" look. It's mostly about getting everything functional while expending the fewest resources possible. Anything that still works can stay, everything else goes on the burn pile. I'm not nostalgic for kitty cat swinging-tail-and-eyeball clocks or cheap panelling or avocado refrigerators or polyester pants (I do kinda miss the red-white-and-blue, vertically-striped bellbottoms I had in fourth grade, though...). I mean yeah, the thought of having a fully-restored camper pulled by a fully-restored matching old truck is cool, but not cool enough for the time or money it'd take, hehehe. I'm just trying to get the most out of the space I have, since this isn't a very large camper, and I'll probably end up full-timing in it for a while.
I thought briefly about making it into the Galileo... Maybe the next one.

Attachments:

[safetybruce]

Galilelo huh?...geeze...that looks so much like that trailer of mine I thought was a '38 Hayes, I am considering checking to see what those Galileo Trailers looked like, and if they were being manufactured in the late 30's...do you know of any models that didn't have a pontoon on each side...if so, I just might have a '38 Galileo!! But if I do, I'm not necessarily going with that paint scheme. I agree with you about too much nostalgia, but if you still have that kitty cat swinging-tail-and-eyeball clock...I might make an offer, hee, hee...

[cowcharge]

Ha, those clocks probably sell for thousands on Ebay.
The nacelles on Galileo were steel and weighed 500 lbs apiece, IIRC... I was thinking that to fit a replica beast on the roads, the nacelles would have to ride on the roof and be winched down when you parked, lol. Maybe with a built in gas grill and lawn chair storage. I've seen a couple of home-made RV Galileos on the web that weren't remotely close to scale, and they looked kinda silly, like Fisher-Price versions. I can't imagine doing something that ambitious without being as accurate as you could be.
If you haven't got one of these linoleum knives you're missing out on a versatile tool. They're extremely strong and very sharp. I've used mine to not only cut linoleum but to cut the old paneling out. Just draw it along your line five or six times and it goes right through. It's also great for taking old putty tape off things like city water fittings and outside outlets, because of the curved blade. And for cutting the old sealant off my water heater fittings, etc. It was blister-packed with an aggressive little keyhole saw in the $5 bin at NAPA.

Attachments:

[cowcharge]

Ordered a charger/converter today on Ebay, this one:
www.progressivedyn.com/prod_details/rv_conv/rv_converter_pd9245c_2.html

It's got automatic 4-stage charging and all the bells and whistles, $126 with shipping and the remote pendant. A quick check on Google shopping gave me prices of $150 and $208.

I generally stick with "Buy It Now" items on Ebay (especially ones that say "more than ten available"), from big sellers with lots of inventory of overstocks or "new old stock", to avoid getting auction fever and paying more for stuff than I would at Walmart.

[distant75]

Hey Cowcharge, Why the need for 45 amp and not a 30 amp? I'm just curious as I hopefully in a couple weeks will be doing the electrical in mine.

Dennis

[cowcharge]

Hey Dennis, it was the price and the four-stage charging that made me get that converter, and the free remote pendant, lol. I saw lots of three-stage models, but PD's seemed to be the only ones with four (that I found anyway). I have two big old used 6v solar batteries in the camper right now, so I figured having the desulfation stage was good (maybe they'll last a while and save me some money). Maybe I'll build a whole new camper around the converter!


Edit: I started worrying about this after I wrote my response, thinking I'd overlooked something foolishly simple and would blow the breakers of every shore power supply I plugged into, lol. But it's 45 amps DC output, it only draws about 6 amps AC, if my math is correct. Those big old batteries (they're 2" too tall to fit under the dinette seat where the old battery was, so right now they're in front of the road side seat) were part of a bank used in a solar-powered cottage, and are something like 150-200 ah each (even at their advanced age), so 45 amps seemed better for squeezing as much charge as possible out of generator runs and overnight power grabs. I gotta go get a couple of cables made up with connectors so I can fire it up and see how those batteries really do. I only had a car charger to use before, because there was no converter in the camper. Other than to test that the lights are bright and that the stove exhaust hood fan and thermostat/furnace fan both work, I haven't really used the 12v yet.

[cowcharge]

I got really sick of looking at how dull the paint was on this thing, so I grabbed some polishing compound at VIP, basing my purchase on the one that said it cut with the least effort, lol. Boy does this stuff work slick! Wipe small amounts on with a facecloth, apply a little elbow grease, and voila!

Attachments:

[cowcharge]

Before and after pics. I didn't get a really good before pic, because I didn't think of it before I started rubbing, but in the pic on the left, you can see how dull both the white and the orange stripe were. Right up by the corner of the window you can see where I had already started rubbing. The two pics on the right are after pics. I just quickly did the section between the window and the door, it took about 20 minutes, with going back and removing every smudge I could see. You rub it on with one cloth and off with another, although there isn't much but a few smudges to wipe off, much less than when you wax your car. You have to go back and forth, looking from different light angles to see the spots you miss, but all the grime rubs off eventually, leaving very clean aluminum. It really brought the orange back to life, and revealed that the white isn't quite truly white after all, but a sort of cream color that you really only see when it's next to the oxidated, more white-looking paint.

Be careful not to smear the color from the stripe onto the white, getting that off was the hardest part.

Attachments:

[cowcharge]

Still plugging away at the framing... You can see the new "posts" and the little sockets I made for the bottoms of the studs where I cut off the rotten parts. I used porch paint on the floor. Most of the bedroom floor will be covered with the bed, closet, water tank enclosure etc., so when everything else is done I'll choose some flooring for the small remaining "walkin' floor" and sand the paint off that area. I think the paint'll be sufficient protection under the water tank and heater.

Attachments:

[cowcharge]

I decided against using "U sockets" on the left side stud bottoms. I was trying to maximize the insulation/wood ratio by being minimalist with the wood, and they're strong enough, but they look sorta weak and half-assed. Not my best idea ever, lol. If I were to roll the thing into a ditch, the right side would tear apart at least half a second before the left. I used L-shaped sister-studs on the left side instead. I replaced 6" of the bottom of the studs, and used a 1' piece of stud stock on one side only (same total thickness as the U-socket things, it's just on one side of the stud instead of divided between the two sides, and they're twice the length). The left wall's gonna be under the bed with the water heater, so I'm not as worried about the insulation, and this is stronger, which is good for carrying the water heater. I'm on the fence about re-doing the right side. LOL I want to just out of an irritated sense of symmetry, but I'm not keen on the idea of pulling it all apart and making more screw holes in the footer.

I do wish I had the time, money and enclosed dry space to strip all the aluminum off and gut this thing all at once. Framing by peeling back the edges of the siding is tricky, especially with the corner posts, since I had to replace them all the way up to the back wall midpoint (where the two angled halves of the back wall meet, under the windows). It's causing a few wrinkles in the aluminum, because unless you completely remove the bottom strip of siding, you can't completely remove the next piece above that. The way the folded seams work, you have to separate the seam on the lower pieces for a longer distance than you need to just for the framing, in order to be able to separate the piece above that, and the piece above that, and so on. So the bottom piece is pulled apart at the seam for a longer stretch than the next one up, which is pulled apart a little less than the one below but a little more than the next one above, and so on. Pulling the top, male edge of the siding strips down out of the female edge of the strip above, and out away from the frame, without being able to separate the entire seam, puts a bump on the lower edge wherever you stop separating the seam, like the inside edge of a piece of masking tape when you try to tape around a corner. I'm trying to minimize the creases but I'm not perfect, and I'll have to see how well it goes back when I push the siding back together...

I'm still trying to figure out the best way to hide the movement of the water tank filler. I have to move it up about a foot because I rotated the tank 90 degrees, and I'm trying to figure out how to do the same thing with the siding that I did with the water tank; cut a piece out for the new filler location and stick it in the hole where the old one was, invisibly. Again, I'd love to tear it all apart and replace the whole piece of siding with the old hole in it, but time and money don't allow that level of repair, unfortunately. Maybe I can find a wrecked one somewhere that I can cut a patch from, or fabricate something that looks half decent.

I did find a place about three hours away that does complete rebuilds on old fridges for $400, but I'm told their recharging machine takes the winter off, so I have to wait until spring.

Attachments:

[diamondrelics]

It's a darn good thing you have a sense of humor. Looks like you have a job ahead of you. She looks good though and I'm sure you'll enjoy her when your done.
Tanya and Dirtball

[cowcharge]

Hi Tanya. You gotta have a sense of humor to do something as silly as rebuild one of these things. Trying to trace the water damage routes... The missing converter and water pump... The endless little aluminum cuts on your hands, the face full of mouse turds when you pull a ceiling panel out, the bees nest in the floor...

Sorry, no new pics at the moment.

Ok, so I got the bedroom put back together enough to re-staple and seal the back corners of the siding, and reinstall the rear wall siding except for the lowest strip, which I'm leaving off for the time being, as it's the only way I can get a 4' sheet of plywood into the camper. Haven't screwed the trim back down yet because I want to do all of that at once, after I make sure of the wood along the roof line. It looks ok so far but I want to make sure and replace any rotten stuff before I reseal the whole length of the trim at once.

Got the water heater reinstalled and hooked all the water lines back up with my new pump for a test. Had a couple of small leaks where I didn't tighten the hose fittings up enough, but the worst was leaving the drain plug out of the tank! It sat flat enough on the new floor that only the tiniest little trickle was seeping out (I thought the plug needed some teflon tape, that's how slow the leak was) until I moved the tank and broke the seal, lol. Then I'm like "where the hell did all this water come from?" I quickly ran outside and cranked the jack up an inch or two to make the water run out the back.

Since the water heater's back in, the propane system is now closed up and operable, but I couldn't get the pilots of either the water heater or the furnace to light on my first quick try in the dark. Figures. At least the stove works...

[cowcharge]

Wow, it works! I started out without much hope, trying the simple, free-to-fix things like you're s'posed to, expecting the whole time to have to shell out for a new valve in the end. I mean the thing's 35 years old, and I've read lots of tales from folks replacing two, three or four controls in just a few years. But when I disconnected the pilot gas line at the control and turned the knob to pilot, I could hear gas, so I knew the line was plugged downstream somewhere (and felt a leap of hope that I'd save $75). Lo and behold, the pilot orifice was plugged. While I had it apart I cleaned the spider nests out of the burner, and after that the pilot stayed on and the burner fired right up. It would only run for about a minute before it shut off with an official-sounding click, though.
Turns out the draft from the burner was sucking the pilot flame far enough away from the thermocouple to cool it and shut the gas off. So to pull the pilot back out of the chimney's draft a bit, I moved the small bracket that holds the pilot and thermocouple "out a hole" on the larger bracket that holds the burner. There were several holes in the larger bracket, allowing me to position the pilot in or out or left or right, so I just used the one farthest out. If that makes sense. It only got me maybe 1/4" farther out of the chimney, but it was enough. I also closed the air shutter a bit from maybe 1/3 down to 1/4 where they say to put it, even though it adds some yellow to the flame. I also took a tip from another forum somewhere around here among the dozens I've read in the last day and gently bent the pilot tube and the thermocouple a little closer to each other, to help keep the thermocouple engulfed even if the flame got drawn off a bit.

You can see the results in the pic, taken at 10 pm with my wicked expensive 007 infrared flash unit-I mean by holding my finger over the flash. My composition would be better if I hadn't sat on it and cracked the LCD screen. The tank (no insulation on it) got very warm within 45-60 minutes (I didn't time it).

Now I got no idea why the people before me, or before them, unhooked the thing in the first place, and there are a couple of things that still worry me. One, although I had steamy water coming out of the faucet and the temp control lever was all the way to the left, the burner showed no signs of being ready for a break. Maybe it just has cabin fever after all these years, but can just the thermostat fail on these things? I kinda expected it to shut down, but it kept purrin' along. I turned it off when I got thirsty and came in here to write this, lol.
The other thing could be much worse. I was shining my flashlight into each end of the, what is it called, the flame tube? There was water back in there... Now we've had a week of pretty constant rain, and the heater was sitting on the ground part of the time, so maybe it's just rain water. If it is, I'd think it'd be all evaporated after an hour of burner action. But if I go out tomorrow morning and there's more, I'm probably screwed with a leak between the tank and the flame tube. I turned my "city" water hose off but didn't open any faucets, so it ought to hold pressure for a while and force water out of the tank if it's a leak (please no).

Attachments:

[waywardho]

Just read all four pages while I should have been outside closing up and putting things away for the night after working on our Shasta. Your last post left me hanging and I can't wait now to tune back in tomorrow to find out if you have a leak or not (please no!).
I have enjoyed following along with and look forward to the next episode! Have fun and good luck!!...Janet

[cowcharge]

Thanks Janet! It's 36 degrees outside, so I think I'll wait a bit before I go out and kneel before the Propane God (not throwing up, but close).

Maybe I should turn this into a novel... How 'bout "The Shudder of Shasta" (what you feel when you pull up the first bit of linoleum and actually SEE the damage you knew was there? Sorry for the Bram Stoker pun, I couldn't help it, I mean the thing IS sucking the life out of me...)?

If it was a Class A I could call it the SuckuBus.

[cowcharge]

They say wood heats you twice, right? Well propane makes you cold at least four times, if my experience is any guide.

Attachments:

[cowcharge]

Ok, so there was no water in the flame tube on my water heater today, so maybe I lucked out and there isn't a leak between it and the tank. But the pilot wouldn't stay going today, lol, so I couldn't see if more water showed up like it did when I ran it last night. Like the thermocouple never got hot enough to keep the gas valve open. Maybe the thermocouple just decided to die. Maybe this thing's too elderly to draft into service without two knees and a hip replacement...

[Red Dirt]

Hot water? What a luxury.

These poor old beasts definitely require hip and joint replacements. Keep up the good work and the sense of humor. The paint shined up great.

Red Dirt

[cowcharge]

Red Dirt, if you weren't so hot for the 50s, you too could have hot water, hehehe. Having hot water is the single most important indicator of civilization, lol. That and ice cream.

Ok, so I stole a thermocouple from my buddy's hot dog cart (it was left over after I swapped some valves around for him) and swapped it for the old one in my water heater, and it works! I left it running for an hour, went back outside and heard no roar so I figured it went out again, but it was just sitting there happily on pilot. I went inside and turned the hot faucet on and nice hot water came out, but not real hot, since I had the temperature lever all the way to the left (I like my faucet hot water to be sterility hot, no energy-wasting mixing valves for me, that's what the cold faucet's for and no, I don't have any kids that might get scalded). So I ran the hot water down and the heater started back up again, all by itself! Woohoo! Once it was going (half an hour ago) I went back out and nudged the temp lever up to maybe 1/5 of its total travel.

-Half an hour later-
Just came back in. It was already back on pilot, I ran the faucet again, let it get hot, and I couldn't hold my hand under it for more than about 15 seconds before it got too hot to bear. Sweet. Once the water ran down the burner started up again like it's s'posed to, I think I may have it. ;D
Now where can I squeeze in the Jacuzzi...
Howard

[Red Dirt]

Oct 13, 2010 14:38:46 GMT -5 cowcharge said:

Now where can I squeeze in the Jacuzzi...

Dude, you crack me up! Congrats on fixing it.

Me, I'm off to boil some water on the stove.

Red Dirt

[cowcharge]

Got the 35 year-old furnace going today, with very little effort, once I figured out which way to turn the valve... The mechanical spark igniter even works! Still gotta clean a bunch of mouse-chewed toilet paper out of it before I can run it for long. Also fired up the oven, which also worked fine. Well, except for the dead mouse in the bottom. It's filthy right now, and really stinks, I'm not looking forward to that cleaning job.
So other than the dead fridge, everything gas-fired works!
Got about half the bedroom ceiling insulated tonight as well. S'posed to be stormy tomorrow, so maybe I'll tackle cleaning the stove and the furnace and watch for leaks. The wood along the roof edges that I've exposed so far looks good from the inside. I can't see if the outer edge is rotten without taking apart the edges of the siding, which I don't wanna do unless I need to replace wood... I am planning on removing and resealing the entire length of roof drip edge, but I'd rather not undo the siding joint if I don't have to.

[waywardho]

Sounds like your on a roll!!! You must have been smiling ear to ear when the furnace and oven worked for you and the roof edges looked good! Great luck! Now you should go buy a lottery ticket before you tackle the cleaning!...Janet