Homemade AC Cover

wagonman76 · 04-23-2010, 07:26 PM

My AC cover was not in that great of shape when I got the Sunline in 02. Back then I taped all the cracked pieces together. I'm surprised it is still even intact today but it is in pretty sorry shape.

New ones are way out of my price range, ones I found were $100 to $130 and that doesn't even include shipping. Used ones aren't cheap either and I'd expect them to be UV damaged and cracking before long.

So I decided to make a new one out of metal. I started with the skin from a discarded water heater, laid out the flat pattern in one piece, cut it out with my grinder, pressbroke the pieces using the corner of my porch, and welded it together. For the cooling openings, I cut out large openings and welded in some scrap pieces of perforated plate I got from work, and calculated the open area to make sure it was at least what the original slots were.

It weighs about the same as the original. Right now it is just ready for paint. Only cost less than a dollar worth of welding wire, and about $9 for a quart of paint. Still needs to be painted, supposed to rain all weekend.

Will post pics pretty soon. Anybody know of a fast and simple filesharing site? Photobucket is absolutely killing me on dialup.

paulr · 04-24-2010, 01:23 PM

I use photo bucket but my wife loves googles picasa, she says it's faster and easier to use. Can't wait to see the pics, my ac cover is in bad shape too.

**Sunline Fan** · 04-24-2010, 02:15 PM

I use Photobucket as well. I've also found it's the easiest to diagnose for others if the picture isn't showing up correctly. The others, Webshots especially, are near impossible to diagnose because the picture code is a bunch of gibberish with no order to it.

Jon

wagonman76 · 04-25-2010, 08:42 PM

Got the first coat of paint on it today. Looks ok except for about 50 black flies that landed in it. In this water wonderland we have lots of bugs. But I guess it will look like that sooner or later riding on top of the trailer anyway. I'll coat it again to make some of the weld seams look a little better.

I uploaded my pics (and a bunch of others) to a photo album in this site. Hopefully they end up coming through pretty soon.

paulr · 04-29-2010, 08:57 PM

thought I would bring this to the top, I would like to see pics of the cover, any ideas why the pics aren't showing up?

wagonman76 · 04-30-2010, 10:14 AM

Well when I made this thread I uploaded the pics to the photo section in this site because it was pretty fast and seemed like a nice idea. But now I'm noticing that the last pics that were approved were from Sept 09. So I guess I'll just fight with PhotoBucket sometime pretty soon, or look up Picasa. They've accumulated so much BS in the site that it rarely works on my dialup anymore. Anymore I call it BotoF***et.

Anyway, I did get another coat of paint on it. This time I caught a break between bug hatches and got a clean finish. I also set it on top of the camper just to see how it looked. It's pretty uncanny, the proportions of it look just like a mini Sunline sitting up there. So much that I'm going to paint a dark brown frame around the vent rectangles to mimic the windows, and add a dark red and dark blue stripe to mimic the stripes on the trailer.

wagonman76 · 05-05-2010, 06:51 PM

Ok here we go. Thanks much for the info about Picasa, yes it is much faster and without all the BS.

Original AC cover.

Front, after welding.

Back, after welding. I patched a couple holes on the top, it won't be seen from the ground anyway.

After removing the paint, rust, and stickers. I also welded a frame of flat bar around the back lip to stiffen it.

First coat of paint, full of black flies, front.

First coat of paint, full of black flies, back.

Dry fit on the AC unit. Fits perfectly and all the holes line up. See how much better it'd look if I outline the vent with dark brown, and add a dark red and dark blue pinstripe to mimic the top window?

2nd coat turned out better, I also painted the inside to keep it from rusting out. No pics yet, all it does now is rain and supposed to snow Saturday. Will add the stripes eventually then will put it on.

I could have gone all out and made it nice and curvy like the original. I have a couple old dishwashers that I could have taken the tubs and used sections of them to make the corners radiused. But I just wanted something fast and simple.

Poppy & Nana · 05-05-2010, 08:02 PM

Loos good but ya just have to love those black flys....they sure were out today!!!

frank · 05-06-2010, 07:18 AM

Looks good, and it should certainly hold up!

Is that a Pontiac 6000 wagon with a snow plow??

- Frank

wagonman76 · 05-06-2010, 10:12 AM

Yep, that's my little plow. Back in 2005, after it being my daily driver for 9 years, I designed a little V plow for it that attaches with u-bolts to the engine cradle and bumper supports. It uses a little ATV winch to power up and down from a controller inside the car. The 3.1 engine is tough as nails and has tons of torque. Been using it ever since then and it works really good, and sure beats shoveling or snowblowing.

**Sunline Fan** · 05-11-2010, 11:57 AM

Here's a test because Troy is getting error messages when he tries to post:

2 coats of almond, bug free. And added the window frame and stripes. The red is pretty close. Don't know what happened with the blue, it sure was dark when I mixed it but didn't dry that way. I think I'll mess with more mixes, see how it dries, then give it another shot and see how it looks. Doesn't look how I expected, almost looks like something to do with a sports team. I'll put it up pretty soon when it's nice out and if I don't like it I can always just cover the whole thing with plain almond paint again.

kanyonkitty · 05-11-2010, 02:41 PM

Wagonman,

I purchased a spray can of Dupli-color for my little 1661. I was able to match up the maroon/burgundy and the blue. Might be worth checking it out. That is how I painted my stripes back on the krinkle texture door skin.

Kitty

frank · 05-11-2010, 04:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wagonman76

Yep, that's my little plow. Back in 2005, after it being my daily driver for 9 years, I designed a little V plow for it that attaches with u-bolts to the engine cradle and bumper supports. It uses a little ATV winch to power up and down from a controller inside the car. The 3.1 engine is tough as nails and has tons of torque. Been using it ever since then and it works really good, and sure beats shoveling or snowblowing.

Now that's slick! I like different. I'd love to see some pictures of the plow if you have them.

I'm very familiar with the 60* V6's, especially the 3.1. Here's mine:

The turbo really wakes it up!

Considering swapping a newer set of 60* heads onto it later this year, or swapping completely to a newer 3.5L.

Nice to have another fabricator in the mix here!

- Frank

wagonman76 · 05-11-2010, 07:44 PM

http://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/ph...?p=29971#29971

Frank, I have opened a new thread to continue the discussion. I would like to know more about your setup too. I see oddities that do not look like the factory 3.1 turbo.

wagonman76 · 05-11-2010, 07:53 PM

Kitty, thanks, I will have to look into that. My door stripes are almost falling off too and it would be nice to repaint them with something good since they are wide and close to eye level. For the AC cover I was just using the kids craft paints (it held up all winter on rocks they painted in the yard), since I only needed a little blob of paint and did not want to spend $10 on paint for two little stripes way up high. I think when the weather clears off someday I will just try some dark mixes and see how it dries, then retape and recoat it.

wagonman76 · 05-22-2010, 07:31 PM

Well I did not have a chance to recoat the stripes, nor would it have been worth it. This paint washed halfway off in the first rain we had. But it was free so it was worth a try. I removed the remainder of the stripes with a rag and some non-grit waterless hand cleaner. It is like they were never there. So I say it is good enough, and it looks ok I think. If I go to redo my door stripes, I will probably take the cover back down and do some stripes on it too.Backhttp://lh5.ggpht.com/_3nBfVKhh_3s/S_iDZkFCboI/AAAAAAAAAE8/jeg6M4uFLVw/ACcover12.jpgFronthttp://lh5.ggpht.com/_3nBfVKhh_3s/S_iDZyLJsXI/AAAAAAAAAFA/B0v_aMXYvjc/ACcover13.jpgEnd of post

wagonman76 · 05-22-2010, 07:40 PM

Well dang I thought I could just post links to a couple pics. But I do not have time to screw with it right now.