Nor-Cal fire detector

I decided to install a fire detector in the Safari today. Never can be too safe! Keep in mind, I am still on a tight budget!



Ya can't be serious all of the time.

NUTZ

Got the floor patch installed. One thing I didn't count on is that the elevator bolts I bought have a 1" dia head on them. You can't tighten them down enough to go flush with the plywood floor. I used a Forstner bit to drill thru the first ply of wood, tightened the bolt then covered with a latex caulk. While I was at it I caulked the seam. I also removed another piece of interior sheet.






We are about to get our first rain here in No. California. I have holes above all of the windows where the PO had installed "Eyebrows". I removed then as they were all torn up. I filled the holes with "Pop" rivets then Vulcam. To cover this mess I am installing new eyebrows over all the windows.

Floor repair

Today I set out to start the floor repair. I removed the street side skin and then cut out the rotted section.

The outriggers looked really good but since I had some leftover POR 15 in the fridge, I gave them a quick coat.



I then cut some 5/8ths plywood 3 inches wide, applied construction adhesive and screwed them to the floor as splice joints. The replacement piece will go in after the POR 15 cures.

The destruction continues

Got some more torn out today. I think they must have an entire staff of engineers to figure how to put in just a couple of extra rivets to keep it interesting.



Several rivets later and a whole bunch of rusty screws that were covered in carpet cement, here we are!



You know how it is," while I'm in this far, I will take a look at this". Good thing I did. This is the inlet to the water heater and the copper pipe feeding it. Good thing I checked it now.Plugged solid. Another item to add to the list!



So far, this is the worst floor damage I have found. There was a missing piece of sealant along the side of the water heater door.



You know ole "Blue eyes had to make an appearance!

Lets wreck this baby!

We went to our first rally last week. What a blast! Met some really great people had had a fantastic time. Next one out here is scheduled for April on the Northern California Coast. We are planning to go but I thought we need a little interior work done first. Well one thing turned to another and I am now doing a complete interior overhaul. Floor, electrical, plumbing cabinets and anything else I can do. This is the starting point.


After a few hours gathering tools, drilling rivets and finding hidden screws this is what I ended up with.



Of course, the required dog picture!

The Electrical Gods Hate Me

I have my first rally coming up this weekend. As could be expected, I went to test my lights and nothing is working right. Everything on the truck looks OK.
Tonight I moved on to the trailer. I pulled apart the plug to check the color scheme.
I cleaned off the wires to eliminate the possibility of corrosion being the culprit.
This is what the junction box looked like. Not as bad as many I have seen on the Forum.


I hate wire nuts so I changed things out to this. This is the cover for the junction box. On the right is a 25 amp circuit breaker for the electric jack. Due to the wire size, I left the ground wires connected with a wire nut.
This should make it easy to check connections. I even made up a legend with a color code and covered it with shipping tape. The foam tape is to try and keep out or reduce the moisture.



Of course, the Boss was there keeping an evil eye on me! Notice the emergency tennis ball in his armpit! Can't be too well prepared.



The lights still didn't work. I then tore apart the ground buss at the back. Cleaned the wires and connections. I got the signals to work but the clearance lights (new) had a real faint glow, like a cigarette coal, but really faint. No stop lights. With all of these problems, I figure it has to be a problem with a ground. Since I have the junction board, I will be able to easily check continuity from the trailer plug to the junction board, then check grounds. I will also be able to check voltage to see why the clearance lights are so dim. Back to it tomorrow.



This is what I ended up with. Its a lot easier to work with than wire nuts. I got everything working today. I did a few things before testing so I am not sure what happened to fix it. I think it was cleaning all of the contacts on the trailer plug. A small file and the brass contacts shined up, everything working!!

NUTZ

Stove vent replacement

The original vent was twisted and warped. I'm not sure why. After removing it I found that the screen over the vent had holes about 1/2 inch square. We got some skinny bugs here in Northern California so I backed it up with leftover aluminum screen from the windows. I know that this may be a bit too fine but I don't really think this vent will be used this much.
After installing the vent with new butyl tape and Olympic rivets it looks like it should.



The most interesting thing I found with this installation was rather unexpected. The vent cover is black plastic painted silver. There were a few nicks the cover got during shipping. There was also a few marks left from the black "Sharpie" where I had marked for holes. I had a "Metallic Silver" sharpie that normally is used for marking steel. It so happens that it worked great for touch on the vent. Like touch up paint for your car. They are available at any welding supply or stationary store.



The focus isn't the best but it says "Metallic Silver"

Hugo's got Gas!

Pretty slow week. I am still trying to get ready for the rally in two weeks. I decided to install the propane tank holder I got from Vintage trailer supply.
The install was very straight forward. Just line it up, remove the POR 15 coating and weld down.

The coating on the tank holder is some really good stuff. I had to grind it off, weld then recoat the weld areas with more POR15. A new top coat and we are ready to go.