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Old 02-18-2020, 10:03 AM   #61
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We had a 1-day weekend workday but made some progress. Work concentrated on the rear bedroom inside.

The top cabinet over the bed had damage to it, requiring repair it before we could reuse it. The cabinet also required it be cut down by 5/16” in width to accommodate our repair method on the right rear wall where we doubled up the wallboard thickness.

Damage to the cabinet came when removing it from the camper. Most all the screws holding it to the walls had the heads rusted out. I ended up grinding the heads off on most of the screws and the balance became ripped out during removal. Between the two events, I need to repair the damage before we could install the cabinet. Here are some of the progress pics.

This picture is after I removed a bunch of staples holding the old vinyl welt bead on and broken/ground off screws out of the back of the cabinet frame.




The cabinet width required cutting and the broken 3/4" wide mounting boards replaced at the other edges. With Sunline using the pocket hole screw method on some parts of the cabinet, it makes it easy to take them apart and then put them back together.


Last was to clean up the old vinyl welt bead where I could and install new where it had it could not be saved. The cabinet is now ready to mount.




While the cabinet repair looked simple enough, and it was, it took time fiddling with all the custom fit parts to get it back together. Same fiddling time thing with the next topic, the bedroom floor and bed supports. BenB started on this area while I was dealing with the cabinet repair.

Here is the start of the bedroom flooring.


And the flooring re-installed. Not shown is the time and tedious efforts to unroll, clean up, warm with a heat gun, and flatten out the warped flooring from being rolled up for the last 2 years. It took a good 2 1/2" hours just dealing with getting the flooring prepped and fitting flat. It shrunk in all directions. The removal cut joints were made under the bed frame to allow the frame to cover and hold that area down. One inch wide crown staples were used around the perimeter to hold it in place. I have found using small 1/2" wide staples seems to want to crack this aged floor tile.


Then comes the bed framing. Some parts could where reused, and others had to be made new to replace rotted and warped wood. We had to adapt the original supports to not be in the middle of the new cargo door we added. These pics show a leg in the middle of the door opening that required altering to move the support to the middle of the bed and attach the end of the support directly to the wall.




Here is where we left the bed frame area for the day. The cargo opening is now wide open. It just does not show in this view.

Next was to mount the overhead cabinet in the bedroom. We left the right rear wall to the back wall corner joint unattached so we could move the wall out some to insert the cabinet that has no clearance on the sides.


Here we are all finished up. The welt bead is around the new shower, rear wall, and right sidewall. The roof area is now all prepped to install the ceiling when the time comes.


That is it for last weekend. More yet, to come!

Work tally on time and materials to get to this point;

Work completes Day 31 of the repair.
2/16/20; 2 workers for a combined total of 12.67 hrs.

233.19 hr. - Total work hours accumulated to date: 2/16/20

New material use: 2/16/20


$1,114.82 Prior material subtotal 2/9/20
$29.31 work weekend material subtotal. 2/16/20
-------
$1,177.13
Materials Subtotal to date 2/16/20

Thanks for looking.

John
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Old 02-18-2020, 03:29 PM   #62
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Very nice John! Your making some serious headway between the T-1950 and your pick-up. Quite the undertaking.
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Old 02-19-2020, 04:31 PM   #63
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Thanks John, Yes it is starting to come together and it is coming out well. Still a lot to go, but we are gaining.

Thanks for the comments. Glad folks are checking in on us.

John
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Old 02-19-2020, 06:11 PM   #64
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I’m really enjoying seeing the guts of the t-1950. I’ve picked up a few tips just this last set of updates.
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Old 02-20-2020, 10:03 PM   #65
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tod Osier View Post
I’m really enjoying seeing the guts of the t-1950. I’ve picked up a few tips just this last set of updates.

Hi Tod,

Thanks. Glad you like seeing up close and personal what your camper looks like, behind all the walls and roof...

If you have any requests on specific pics inside or out of a T1950, ask away.

Just don't wait too long, it will start closing up soon. The hope is, this camper makes it to the campground before summer. This year....

John
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Old 02-21-2020, 10:50 PM   #66
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Amazing!
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Old 02-24-2020, 07:52 PM   #67
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We had a 2-day work weekend and made good progress. Many small items that take time but does not seem to add big things to the camper.

We started with mounting the rear ceiling over the bedroom. I painted the sun yellowed old joining strip with Krylon Fusion white paint which my first time using the Fusion paint. So far, the paint has worked well on ABS plastic. You need to use multiple thin coats. You can see the older yellow strip and then the paint strip. The lighting/camera did not help show how yellow the yellow was or the blend on the white ceiling. This strip was very brittle and did crack in a few small places. I can glue the pieces back on. I have not yet found a source for a new joining strip.

The old yellowed strip


The painted strip (pic lighting not good, but the paint came out well)


Using a thin putty knife, we worked the old roof ceiling into the new roof area. The install took some time not to break the strip and get all 8 feet joined. The shower wall added some complexity to the joining as the rafter had a little upward warp that we could pull straight over the wall, just it pinched the strip trying to join the old to the new ceiling. The ceiling is now all on and fastened.






We then divided and conquered 2 tasks at once. BenB did up all the DOT light wiring, the inside 12 VDC ceiling light wiring, added an extra 120 VAC outlet and ran wire for a fan in the living room. We also ran a new wire to do a roof AC unit T stat compressor and fan control upgrade. The older nonducted AC unit uses a thermal bulb T stat setup as the compressor control.

We also powered up the DOT wiring and inside 12 VDC from a battery to test out the 12-volt wiring. All works as planned. Here are the rear wall DOT lights in test mode.


While Ben was doing the wiring, I started prepping the roof for new decking. We start by taking up all the old insulation, vacuuming up all the sawdust and aluminum chips left over when Sunline made the camper. And we check everything on the roof also when the insulation is off.

What a surprise I got right when I started. Sunline left a “new feature” in this T1950. A pneumatic hex bit driver. Someone must have come up short at the end of the day a Sunline. It has been rattling around up in the ceiling since September 2003. If Sunline were still in business, I would mail it back to them. At this point, I’ll add it to the tool collection.




Here are some pics with the insulation removed and the sawdust/chips still in place. To prep the roof for decking, all these added OSB and luan boards need to come off to allow the new decking to be flat with the rafters. These OSB and luan boards are needed for the Sunline budboard roof system to stiffen the roof up in certain areas and have something to holds screws at attaching points such antennas, tank vents, and attic vents.








Here we are now all vacuumed up, with the boards removed prepping it for the new roof decking.




The Sunline budboard roof system flexed enough that the roofing material would flex from the front 14 x 14” vent hole to meet the front wall seam. When you added rigid decking, you need to address the rafter just after the front wall to the roof joint. Sunline placed the rafter flat and we need a vertical one to support and attach the decking. I created a solid rafter piece ripped out of a 2 x 4. Then glued and screwed it to the flat rafter to make a nice transition. To match the arch of the roof, I measure every 12” left to right of the existing rafter and take a vertical height dimension to where I want the roof decking to blend too. Then recreate those dimensions on the 2 x 4, connect the points, and create a line to cut the board too. I freehanded this in the bench saw so it would be cut square to the board. You can do this with a saber saw or circular saw.

Here are the rafter cuts.


The add on rafter part.


Installed on the camper, making a smooth transition from the vent to the front seam. I had to hand plane the ends of the rafter to make it feather out to nothing at the side walls.


I did not get pics of this roof decking splice locations process, so here it is in words. I start with a tape measure at the front wall seam and mark on the left and right walls the decking sheets joints on a rafter. Some joints are on 48” spaced rafters; other rafter sheet joints are less than 48”. On this camper, I found it best to start from the back wall and work to the front. The front and rear sheets are less the 48” to align with the rafter locations. The rafters are also not square to the side walls in all cases. On a budboard roof, this does not matter. On a 4 x 8 ft decking roof, it matters. You have to fudge the position of the sheet joints so the joints are supported on the 1 1/2” wide rafter.

In some cases, you may only have 1/2" of rafter area to support/screw down the sheet as the rafters are not square to the side walls. So far, all the roofs I have done, this worked out. But you have to prefigure the left and right wall top plate and fudge the joint location. The 4 x 8 sheet has to run parallel (enough) to both sides of the camper.

We then insulated the roof getting ready for the decking.


I used 3/16” decking. The floor underlayment is declared 1/4,” but it is not. It measures 0.210”, which is a heavy 3/16” or a real light 1/4". The decking is solid laminate, exterior glue sheets. With it being this thin, you have to reinforce the areas where tank vents, attic vents or antennas mount as it is too thin in my book to support a screw and not strip out. I add 1/2” OSB or plywood to the back in these areas in most cases. Sometimes you deal with it on the roof itself with an insert piece of 3/4” pine board or OSB/plywood.

See here for backer boards added for the crack up TV antenna and an attic vent.




The TV antenna backer board is a little large, but I used the old one I took off and just cut it down to fit between the rafters.

Then start installing and screwing them down. This decking being this thin, needs to be screwed down well to prevent the sheet from buckling. The X marks the spacing the manufacturer recommends.




We only had time to get the 3 sheets up. And they still need the hatch vents, AC hole and the rear wall cut/trimmed out. The router with a straight carbide cutter and a bearing on the end does quick work of this when the time comes. It just makes a big mess. We have to put cardboard inside the holes to not have it snow sawdust inside the camper.

That is all for this past weekend. More yet, to come!

Work tally on time and materials to get to this point;

Work completes Day 33 of the repair.
2/22/20; 2 workers for a combined total of 14.50 hrs.
2/23/20; 2 workers for a combined total of 13.00 hrs.
Weekend subtotal: 27.50 hrs

260.69 hr. - Total work hours accumulated to date: 2/23/20

New material use: 2/23/20


$1,177.13 Prior material subtotal 2/16/20
$199.29 work weekend material subtotal. 2/23/20
-------
$1,376.42
Materials Subtotal to date 2/23/20

Thanks for looking.

John
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Old 02-24-2020, 08:16 PM   #68
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Wow! Awesome job

Will the T-Stat work like a regular ducted AC and turn the fan off instead of maually having to turn it off?

Can you imagine hearing the hex driver rattling and not know what the heck it was!!
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Old 02-25-2020, 04:33 AM   #69
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Feel sorry for the person who left the hex driver there.....spent the last 16 years trying to figure out which co-worker stole it [emoji3]
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Old 02-25-2020, 08:24 AM   #70
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Wow! Awesome job

Will the T-Stat work like a regular ducted AC and turn the fan off instead of maually having to turn it off?
Hi Joan,

I see you caught that little tid bit on the T stat... I have done a mod to one non ducted AC unit on a friends camper I worked on last year. In this case, the new digital T stat was wired to a relay which takes place of the older thermal bulb T stat. The relay controlled by the T stat, is a switch that turns the compressor on and off to regulate the cooling. This mod is part of what you are talking about.

In my friends case, they wanted the fan to run all the time. They need the "white noise" of the blower running so they can sleep. The wife wakes up all night long if the blower would turn on and off.

What you want to do is take this upgrade one step further and turn turn both the fan and compressor off when the T stat reaches temp. This conversation just came up over the weekend with my son. For right now, I just added the T stat wiring and brought 12 VDC power to the AC unit area. I will decide which approach we will take later, fan to cycle down with the compressor or run all the time. The wiring to the AC unit does not change, but it will up in the ceiling at the AC unit.

The issue with cycling the fan off with the compressor is condensation frost build up issue. On the non ducted systems, the AC controls are pretty simple. The fan runs all the time, the compressor cycles on and off as the older thermal bulb T stat dictates. There are no frost controls as the fan is running all the time when the compressor is off. Any frost on the inside coils that forms when the compressor is running, gets melted off by the fan running when the compressor shuts down.

On the ducted units, they have a control board and a sensor that attaches to the inside coil to keep the fan running when the coil starts icing up. They have frost control.

Here in the midwest, hot humid summer days are common. Frost on an AC coil inside the camper is a very real consideration. If we decide to cycle the fan down with the compressor, I need to create a defrost system. I have 2 ways I'm working/thinking on:

1. Create the same control setup Dometic has on the ducted units with frost control and hope I can fit it in the space of the non ducted air box in the ceiling.

2. Create what is called, an off delay relay for the fan. The compressor will cycle on and off with the new T stat as I have done before. The fan will then run for a time period after the compressor shuts down to melt off any frost that formed to keep the frost from building up. After the time period, which needs to be adjustable, the fan will shut off. I have to experiment with the time delay to figure out what it needs to be. Or dream up a sensor to add to the inside AC coil to turn the fan relay off.

Both are "thoughts" rolling around in my head now. Doing option 2 I know I can fit the parts up in the ceiling. I'm not sure I can fit option 1 up there yet. Option 1 is a little more expensive for the parts, but I know it will work and has automatic frost control.

Stay tuned for more updates. I will be posting when the time comes what we do on the AC unit control.

John
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Old 02-25-2020, 08:37 AM   #71
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Quote:
Originally Posted by johnnybgood View Post
Feel sorry for the person who left the hex driver there.....spent the last 16 years trying to figure out which co-worker stole it [emoji3]
Yeh, that is a chuckle. I'm surprised the thing did not beat a hole in the ceiling board.

This camper did travel west from Ohio to AZ at least once, maybe twice if I recall right the prior owner was telling me. And it somewhere in its life it was in Florida. There was a dealer sticker in FLA on it. When we pull the axles off to do the suspension, I may be able to tell by the spring pin bushing wear if it had lots of miles or not.
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Old 02-25-2020, 10:58 PM   #72
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What a surprise I got right when I started. Sunline left a “new feature” in this T1950. A pneumatic hex bit driver. Someone must have come up short at the end of the day a Sunline. It has been rattling around up in the ceiling since September 2003. If Sunline were still in business, I would mail it back to them. At this point, I’ll add it to the tool collection.
This is awesome!! It had a square bit in it?
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Old 02-26-2020, 09:04 PM   #73
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This is awesome!! It had a square bit in it?
Yes, no. 2 square bit!
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Old 02-27-2020, 06:25 AM   #74
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Originally Posted by apackoftwo View Post
Will the T-Stat work like a regular ducted AC and turn the fan off instead of maually having to turn it off?
I am interested in this as well. I saw some months back that Dometic sells thermostats but I could not figure out how to get it setup to work. In my small trailer, having the AC run all the time is not ideal. It is really loud in such a small space. Having to get up during the night to manually turn it off when it's cold and then get up again to turn it on when it gets hot. I have not found an ideal setting. It would be nice to have a working t-stat solution.

I will read more this evening. Great info!
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Old 02-27-2020, 01:44 PM   #75
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Yu are into quite a project. But knowing you the camper be as good or better than new when you get it finished.
Good reading.
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Old 02-27-2020, 06:35 PM   #76
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I am interested in this as well. I saw some months back that Dometic sells thermostats but I could not figure out how to get it setup to work. In my small trailer, having the AC run all the time is not ideal. It is really loud in such a small space. Having to get up during the night to manually turn it off when it's cold and then get up again to turn it on when it gets hot. I have not found an ideal setting. It would be nice to have a working t-stat solution.

I will read more this evening. Great info!
Hi Tommie,

I have done the T stat upgrade to a Hunter digital T stat already. That fixed the large swings in temp. You set the T stat to a digital number and it regulates the temp with +/- 1 degree. This setup also controls the heat in the camper to the same tolerance if yours has a remote T stat on the furnace.

To get the fan to shut on and off, that is the next step in the upgrade. Have not done that yet, it is in the "thinking" stage

If you are interested in the T stat upgrade only, I can create a post on just that now.

John
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Old 02-27-2020, 06:48 PM   #77
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Yu are into quite a project. But knowing you the camper be as good or better than new when you get it finished.
Good reading.
Simon,

Good to hear from you again. Glad you are still with us.

Thanks for the good words.

This is a good project, it is very therapeutic and fun. There is always something new to learn and figure out with each of these restore projects. This one, should be out in the campground this summer where it should be.

Then, I have 3 more to finish restoring...

Take care,

John

PS, Maybe someday, we may meet up in the same campground once again. Most likey, this time in the Sunline and not the tent. There is no way I can get the wife to go camping again in a tent...
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Old 02-28-2020, 10:33 AM   #78
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If you are interested in the T stat upgrade only, I can create a post on just that now.
Thanks JohnB. I appreciate that. No need to create a separate post. I will continue to follow here. I don't think I am going to get much use out of the trailer during the Summer months this year. I have to start repairing the water damage on the back. The tail lights have to be replaced to pass inspection. Since the wall is rotted out in that area, once I take the old lights off there isn't anything to screw the new lights into. I knew it was coming. The inspection has sort of forced my hand.
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Old 03-05-2020, 08:30 AM   #79
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Thanks JohnB. I appreciate that. No need to create a separate post. I will continue to follow here. I don't think I am going to get much use out of the trailer during the Summer months this year. I have to start repairing the water damage on the back. The tail lights have to be replaced to pass inspection. Since the wall is rotted out in that area, once I take the old lights off there isn't anything to screw the new lights into. I knew it was coming. The inspection has sort of forced my hand.
Hi Tommie,

While this may not help the back wall rot, it may explains why there is nothing to mount the rear lights to. And may give you some options to maybe camp and then do the wall later.

I am not totally sure on the older campers, Sunline Fan or someone who had had their older camper wall apart can confirm what I am going to show.

Sunline didn't do the best job on how they mounted the rear stop/turn/tail lights. All the 2004, 2005 and some of the 2006's I have had apart have no backer board behind the siding to hold the rear tail lights on. They just screwed into the very thin siding. I have seen some that the holes were stripped out. A prior owner plugged them with putty and drilled new holes. The heavier light of the stop/turn light bouncing down the road can affect the holding power on those screws, and it is worse if the installer over tightened them or tried too very much. The putty tape may have been what made them semi work. Even if this old method they used was not the greatest, it did work. I suspect just about all Sunline's were made this way except the last year or so.

On the later 2006 and into 2007, Sunline finally started to add a backer board behind the siding of the stop/turn light. This would give some support to help hold the light on. Trying to compress the sealing tape, putty or butyl during install can almost strip out the siding. For sure, one needs to warm the sealing tape, then slowly tighten. The front hitch light on the front wall of the camper also started to get a backer board in this same time frame.

Whenever I do a rear wall repair, I now always install a backer board (ideally 3/8" or thicker) fastened to "both" wall studs so the light fixture screws can hold onto something more than paper thin siding. The little clearance lights on the camper, they are still only in the siding metal and not as much of an issue. But do not over tighten them either.

One really wants to only tighten any of these light fixture screws with a screwdriver. In the modern days of cordless drill drivers, while they can be used to zip up the screw close, stop 1/4" to 1/8" away from full in and do the rest by hand. They will strip out the siding in a heartbeat.

Here are 2 pics of a 2007 model. They stapled on a 1/8" piece of luan off of a stud to hang over. Somehow they goofed on the size or location. There are 4 screws to hold the rear tail light on, only 2 are in the backer board shown by only 2 screw holes in the board. All the prior campers I have had apart, other than a late 2006 model, had no backer board at all.





On yours, if there are holes that are stripped out, one way to help is go up one size in screw. Like from a no. 8 to a no. 10 screw. You may have to drill the light fixture for the slightly larger clearance hole, but the larger screw can often bite into the siding in the old hole. You can try the larger screw in the siding before drilling the fixture to see if it will work. Worse case, you have to add new screw locations. Add them towards the inside of the light drilling new mounting holes in the fixture, not just shifting the light over. That way you can make a screw hole repair better when you have the wall off. Use the old stripped out holes with the backer board then works well.

When the time comes and you have the rear wall off, as you have done before, Eternabond on the inside of the siding over any extra old holes. And a little piece of Ebond on the outside. And add a backer board so you have it when you put the wall back together.

Hope this helps

John
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Old 03-05-2020, 09:31 AM   #80
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We had a 1-day work weekend last week, but cleaned up the roof and started on other wall rot areas.

After getting the last roof decking panel on, we had to somewhat “seal” up the camper. All the roof openings to the inside living space needed a cardboard cover on the inside. When we router cut out the opening on the roof and sand the joints, it snows sawdust all over. Not good to have it snow sawdust inside the camper.

Since I am also working on frame rust on my truck in the next bay over, we put the entry door back on with four screws in the frame so we can still use it, blocked up the windows with cardboard and temporally put the cargo hole doors back on. What is worse than sawdust, rust scraping dust. Brown haze everywhere, it is like drywall dust but brown.






Then we finished up the roof decking. All the holes are cut, trimmed, and all the screws had a putty knife run over them to check for a high screw. Next came the 3” wide belt sander. The entire perimeter of the camper decking edges gets sanded not to cut the roofing. All the large openings on the roof get sanded. All the decking seams and a pass overall screw heads get sanded. The sander will find any high screw. It takes off the gold color plating on the screw head. Then you deal with the high screw. High screws or real low screws create issues with the roofing membrane. In all this, my 36-year-old Craftsmen belt sander gave up the ghost right at the end of the job. The switch went out. I have a dead spare sander my son gave me for parts, and I will remove the switch out of it to get mine to run a little longer.

Here is the roof decking all ready for a new roof membrane when the time comes.




Next was to go over every wall and look for water entry damage. We removed any rotted wood or wood shim and will address each location. Since this camper has been drying out for the last two years apart, the water staining does not look as bad as when we opened it up, but we will address it.

The left side seemed to have the most infections. The bath widow leaked, the outside shower leaked, the shoreline cord hole leaked, and the fridge vent cover leaked.


We took out all the bad wood shimming and staples. What is left is water-stained wood that is still solid. I will use Rot Dr. resin to treat all these areas. Here is the left side area cleaned up, ready for treating.


The left front cargo hole had the start of a leak. Here it is ready for resin treating.


Next was the front wall. Both the left and right corner moldings had started to leak, the left and right side of the front window started to leak. Here are those areas cleaned up ready to resin treating.




The right side of the camper large window next to the door has a small leak at the bottom. I will resin treat that area too.

For eight years, the camper was stored outside with the camper nose high, with a good-sized leak that was partially patched in the back wall/roof area. This significant rear wall rot took out the entire back of the camper while the left side and front side only had the starting of water damage. Since this is a total restore project, we will fix all of them. The left, front, and right walls are not that bad to fix now. If they are left unrepaired, in time and camper use, they will rot out the front and side of the camper.

All for now, more yet to come.

Work tally on time and materials to get to this point;

Work completes Day 34 of the repair.
3/1/20; 2 workers for a combined total of 10.67 hrs.

271.36 hr. - Total work hours accumulated to date: 3/1/20

New material use: 3/1/20


$1,376.42 Prior material subtotal 2/23/20
$21.44 work weekend material subtotal. 3/1/20
-------
$1,397.86
Materials Subtotal to date 3/1/20

Thanks for looking.

John
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Current Sunlines: 2004 T310SR, 2004 T1950, 2004 T2475, 2007 T2499, 2004 T317SR
Prior Sunlines: 2004 T2499 - Fern Blue
2005 Ford F350 Lariat, 6.8L V10 W/ 4.10 rear axle, CC, Short Bed, SRW. Reese HP trunnion bar hitch W/ HP DC

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