There was a leak somewhere in the yucky back window....it cause a small amount of rot in the bathroom floor. Not anywhere near as bad as the front floor, but it still had to be addressed.

Out came the toilet (Duane had already removed the "black water" tank and plumbing underneath the bathroom floor).  No visible sign of rot here - but the floor felt "spongy".

Out came the plumbing and cabinet (that you've seen me re-finishing) and vinyl flooring to expose the rotted area.  Note that you can see to the outside of the trailer thru the floorboard near the tub - it was that rotten.

The under layer of the floor was mostly structurally sound.  He did have to replace some structural boards at the top left side of the photo, just like we did around the entire front of the trailer.  He treated this flooring with a rot-stabilizer made by Minwax and called it good. 

New flooring and support boards going back in place.

A little foam to fill the void space.

And the top layer to finish it all out! I know areas look kindof water-stained, but it's all sturdy and will be covered with brand new flooring eventually.   The hole for the toilet will be cut later as he re-installs the plumbing and black water tank.  Yum.

Cabinets

I think I now have a paint brush permanently attached to my hand.....

I've removed all of the cabinet faces now and all of the drawers.  Alot of screws!

Did I say ALOT of cabinet doors?   Each one gets cleaned, sanded, dust removed and at least two coats of polyurethane.

One good thing is that this trailer has lots and lots of storage!!

Bathroom Vanity Refurb

Here's a look at day 1 for the bathroom vanity.

There is some floor rot at the rear wall....so everything in this photo had to be removed. 

We removed the countertop/sink, removed the doors, did a little structural repair and some sanding.

I decided that I wanted the "inside" to be white...so that it will be nice and clean looking.   This is how I finished the day....more refurb later!

Rear Window Progress

The rear window was in rough shape....

Here's the Day 1 photo:

I've left out lots of intermediate steps...I removed the old glazing  and the old cloudy windows.....lots of cleaning up the "goop" that was used to keep the old windows in place.    I took the existing windows to my local glass shop and had them make duplicates in safety glass, tinted gray.

The process of putting the new glass is was pretty straightforward.  I stretched some regular automotive black "goo" into a thin bead around the entire frame.

Hard to see, but the glass is in place now.  You're seeing the reflection of the hangar roof....

Then we put on the same black glazing we'd used on the other windows.

And here is the completed window!!!  We're not putting it back in place yet because we're busy fixing the floor rot in the rear of the camper.  Installation is pretty easy - just about 20 screws and some sealant.   

More cabinet finishing

We went on a 4 day long weekend to Ocracoke over Easter, so progress on the Avion ground to a halt! 

Beautiful weather here now, so we will be working in comfort for the next month or so until the crazy hot weather sets in.

I can't believe I don't have a good "before" photo - the best I can do is the one from the first day -  most of the wood is very nice, but the finish is faded and scuffed in a lot of places.

I have taken most of the cabinet doors off and re-finished them with tinted polyurethane -  Minwax Polyshades Antique Walnut if anyone is interested....

 Here I've put a few of the doors back on - I'm trying for a tad darker look.  Still have lots to do!

More window repairs

The boat weekend hampered Avion progress a bit!

Finally got the glazing that we needed to repair the windows.   Easy process:

Window with old, brittle, shrunken grey glazing.  I know it's hard to see the difference between the glazing and the aluminum!

And there you have it after a little cleanup!  I've done most of the side windows....not looking forward to the large front window!

Lot's A Sanding and Staining

I'm currently working on the interior cabinetry - just cleaning/sanding/staining it.   I'm removing all the cabinet doors and finishing them separately.  The finished one is on the left and the sanded one is on the right.  I'll post more photos of this as I re-assemble.

Another little fix-it

The curtains in the Avion are a little complicated. But the tracks that hold them in place are all in good shape. The one thing that bugged me was that the rods that hold the sheers have rusty attachment hardware.

So they had to be fixed! I soaked them overnite in the "rust conversion" liquid.

Then a couple of coats of off-white paint (screws painted too).

No more rust!!

Lots of little accomplishments

There are seemingly a thousand little things to do!! The clearance lights were in sad shape.

I know it looks like Duane just took off the old and replaced with new....but it was much more complicated than that! Lots of rust removing and rewiring. But they all look great now!  Plus, they're all sealed up and won't leak thru to the interior anymore!

The "levelers" that are attached under the trailer were pretty rusty, but in good shape.

You know the drill - remove rust - paint with RustOleum rusty metal primer -

Then a good top coat of aluminum paint.  Good for another 30 years!

The tail light "holders" were a bit rusty too....soaked them in some rust-dissolving liquid....

And gave them the usual treatment....also did the same for a light fixture base and a 12 volt outlet cover.  See what I mean?  Thousands of things to do!!

And more staining/varnishing on the inside!

Easy way to remove window film (tinting) from the Avion side windows

Some of the windows on the trailer have the tinted film just like what is applied to car windows.  I assume this is to reduce the UV rays coming into the trailer.

Someone either didn't do a great job installing it, or time just caused the film to draw up.  So, it needed to be removed.  I probably won't replace it - the windows will be covered by two layers of nice curtains....

Here is the window in place - you can see the defect of the upper window. 

All the goop on both the window and the frame has to be removed....this is Butyl tape in case you're interested - it comes off nicely with Xylene....a slow evaporating solvent.

The red arrow shows the defect - there is a big air bubble here.  You can see it from the outside, so it needs to go!   The trick to easy removal is the clothes steamer pictured at the top of the photo.

Absolutely do not get a razor blade anywhere near the window!  That was my first thought, but I read about this trick and it's fabulous!  (A razor blade will just cut off some of the film, leaving the nasty glue - and a big job to get it all off chemically!)

The idea is just to steam it off - the steam heats up the film and the underlying glue.  It releases all at once from the glass.  Absolutely no residue if you do it slowly enough.   

And there you have it - the film is all in one piece and the window just needed some Windex to be crystal clear!