Kinda hard to see on the grey hangar floor, but we cut the new aluminum to fit using the old belly pan as a pattern. That's it for now....Duane will work on installing it under the trailer in the next few days.
Friday, December 9, 2016
Belly Pan Replacement
Duane is about finished with the plumbing/wiring that needed access to the belly....looks a lot different under there since we first got the trailer!!
Kinda hard to see on the grey hangar floor, but we cut the new aluminum to fit using the old belly pan as a pattern. That's it for now....Duane will work on installing it under the trailer in the next few days.
Kinda hard to see on the grey hangar floor, but we cut the new aluminum to fit using the old belly pan as a pattern. That's it for now....Duane will work on installing it under the trailer in the next few days.
Thursday, December 8, 2016
More awning work
The awning is coming together slowly.....those 8' and 18' long seams are long!!!!
Making the "bead" that will slip thru the aluminum railing on the camper to hold the awning in place. 1/4" line from the hardware store.
Using a special pressure foot that allows me to sew close to the cord.
I did the same process (with a slightly smaller cord) to make the piping at the top of all the narrow edge trim pieces.
There is one 18' piece and 2 - 8' pieces of this..... These will have scalloped edges as soon as my orange colored binding comes in the mail!
And the last thing I did today was applique these patches - they are at each point that we will install the brass grommets for the support poles. It's just re-enforcement. We will install the grommets after I attach the side pieces to make that sewing a bit easier.
And that's it for today!!
Making the "bead" that will slip thru the aluminum railing on the camper to hold the awning in place. 1/4" line from the hardware store.
Using a special pressure foot that allows me to sew close to the cord.
I did the same process (with a slightly smaller cord) to make the piping at the top of all the narrow edge trim pieces.
There is one 18' piece and 2 - 8' pieces of this..... These will have scalloped edges as soon as my orange colored binding comes in the mail!
And the last thing I did today was applique these patches - they are at each point that we will install the brass grommets for the support poles. It's just re-enforcement. We will install the grommets after I attach the side pieces to make that sewing a bit easier.
And that's it for today!!
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Homemade awning
The Avion needs an awning....so I ordered a roll of Sunbrella material that would match the 70's vintage trailer.
The awning rail on the trailer is 18' long....so it's gonna be a LOT of material!
The material is only 55" wide. And of course, I want the strips to run perpendicular to the trailer.... so I had to cut and sew 4 eight foot long pieces together to make the 18' width.
I did a "flat felled seam". Easy seams, but cumbersome when you've got pounds of material to work with!
Duane stood on the other side of the sewing machine and helped me feed all the bulky material thru.
Nice, hidden seam on both sides with no edges to fray.......but I had to match up the pattern 1/2 way thru the blue stripe to make sure the pattern repeated correctly.
So far, so good! 18' long by 8' deep. Now I'll need to make a decorative edging, install support post grommets, and piping that will allow the entire awning to be attached to the trailer. Later!
The awning rail on the trailer is 18' long....so it's gonna be a LOT of material!
The material is only 55" wide. And of course, I want the strips to run perpendicular to the trailer.... so I had to cut and sew 4 eight foot long pieces together to make the 18' width.
I did a "flat felled seam". Easy seams, but cumbersome when you've got pounds of material to work with!
Duane stood on the other side of the sewing machine and helped me feed all the bulky material thru.
Nice, hidden seam on both sides with no edges to fray.......but I had to match up the pattern 1/2 way thru the blue stripe to make sure the pattern repeated correctly.
So far, so good! 18' long by 8' deep. Now I'll need to make a decorative edging, install support post grommets, and piping that will allow the entire awning to be attached to the trailer. Later!
Curtains
Time to start putting this puppy back together!!
Let me remind you of the "before" photo from the day we picked it up.
I had taken all the "soft" furnishings out when we first started our refit. Although the hard surfaces were moldy, the apparently brand new curtains and cushions were pristine. I stored them in the house and they're like new still.
Ready to start putting it all back....
In the berth area - sheer first. There's a rod top and bottom.
Curtains in place.
More sheers in place.
I'm glad I marked each curtain when I removed them! There were 8 different pieces for this front area.
This was much harder than it looks! There are hooks on the top AND the bottom of these curtains to keep them in place. I had to use pliers to pull each of the 100's of hooks tight. Looks nice!
Let me remind you of the "before" photo from the day we picked it up.
I had taken all the "soft" furnishings out when we first started our refit. Although the hard surfaces were moldy, the apparently brand new curtains and cushions were pristine. I stored them in the house and they're like new still.
Ready to start putting it all back....
In the berth area - sheer first. There's a rod top and bottom.
Curtains in place.
More sheers in place.
I'm glad I marked each curtain when I removed them! There were 8 different pieces for this front area.
This was much harder than it looks! There are hooks on the top AND the bottom of these curtains to keep them in place. I had to use pliers to pull each of the 100's of hooks tight. Looks nice!
Monday, December 5, 2016
Electrical
Duane is finishing up the wiring under the trailer. Need to have that all complete before the belly skin goes back on!!
He's installing a waterproof junction box up at the tongue and installing all new brake wiring.
I've been working on the main door seal - the source of previous leaks....not to exciting but has to be done!!
He's installing a waterproof junction box up at the tongue and installing all new brake wiring.
I've been working on the main door seal - the source of previous leaks....not to exciting but has to be done!!
Sunday, December 4, 2016
Aluminum Belly Pan
The "belly skin" was in pretty rough shape when we removed it when we first started working on the trailer.....it had some severe corrosion - lots of holes.
I tried to clean it up and we thought about patching the holes....but have eventually decided it must be replaced with new.
The belly pan is almost 5' wide - and most aluminum sheet is sold only 4' wide. Using 4' wide sheets would require piecing....not ideal.
So, after literally hours on the internet and phone, I found a grat supply house in Greensboro that stocked 5' aluminum sheeting!
They had the sheeting in stock - Duane had to fabricate a structure to secure it to our pickup since the 5' width is wider than the pickup bed.
The supply house was amazing - any metal or tubing you could possibly want was there!
Metal all secure and ready for the ride home! Now the real work on it can begin.
I tried to clean it up and we thought about patching the holes....but have eventually decided it must be replaced with new.
The belly pan is almost 5' wide - and most aluminum sheet is sold only 4' wide. Using 4' wide sheets would require piecing....not ideal.
So, after literally hours on the internet and phone, I found a grat supply house in Greensboro that stocked 5' aluminum sheeting!
They had the sheeting in stock - Duane had to fabricate a structure to secure it to our pickup since the 5' width is wider than the pickup bed.
The supply house was amazing - any metal or tubing you could possibly want was there!
Metal all secure and ready for the ride home! Now the real work on it can begin.
Friday, December 2, 2016
Back to work for a bit!
The weather has been ridiculously warm for the first of December!
Getting back to work on the Avion - maybe this will be the "home-stretch"!
I didn't take a photo of this in place....but it's basically the "yucky" water disposal piping....of course, it was original and we just didn't trust it to be intact. In fact, we saw some "evidence" that it was not in good shape.
So, out it came - this is just part of it.
And after a day of much difficulty and (slightly) profane words, Duane has it all re-plumbed with all new components - ready for whatever we throw at it!!
Getting back to work on the Avion - maybe this will be the "home-stretch"!
I didn't take a photo of this in place....but it's basically the "yucky" water disposal piping....of course, it was original and we just didn't trust it to be intact. In fact, we saw some "evidence" that it was not in good shape.
So, out it came - this is just part of it.
And after a day of much difficulty and (slightly) profane words, Duane has it all re-plumbed with all new components - ready for whatever we throw at it!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)