I wanna be.....your Sledgehammer...

    Big day of progress this past Wednesday. Dad had given me the heads up that he had done some demolition on his own since my prior visit, and boy, he wasn't kidding.

At the rate we're going, we should buy stock in frigging contractor bags.

The mess of shit left behind from the countertop removal, as well as the previously shown breaker box. The hole in the wall is from the original water heater and retaining tank....the whopping five gallons it held is wholly inadequate.

    As you can see, he had completely removed the kitchen counter and cabinets. We had already discussed switching the entire kitchen setup to something that hugged the wall more (a straight counter top), with a deeper, single bowl sink, all while keeping the roller door cabinet above the original stove/oven combo. After our last session, we also decided to look into what a four-burner gas cook-top would cost, as neither of us plan on using an oven all that often (In fact, a good quality toaster oven will more than suffice.). We found just what we were looking for on-line for under a hundred dollars, and the decision was made. Out with the old stove, and (eventually) in with the new. This opens up more space in the kitchen area, and will give the option of additional storage beneath the cook-top. All in all, a great trade off.

   He had also removed the original hot water tank/heater, which he has decided will be swapped for an on-demand tankless water heater. Welcome to an actual hot shower when you want it, as well we being able to wash dishes without having to wait for additional hot water.

My electrician cousin, Jake, came by to inspect the turtle's wiring situation. I think he was shocked by just how poorly the electrical situation was. The numerous splices, random live wires, and general disarray left by previous owners got him to the point where he just said, “If it's in the way, cut it. We're going to rewire the whole thing from scratch anyway.”. It was great to have him stop by and lend his expertise, and I look forward to helping him in the near future when it comes time to reinstall the electrical system. It's going to be a great opportunity to hang out with him, as well as learn a few things about electrical work that I know precious little about, aside from installation of outlets and switches.

Perhaps not the best example of the shit-show of wires we've been finding, but the sheer number of random splices and wires to nowhere has to be some kind of record. I'm starting to think that whenever something got wet and shorted out they would just find a good point in the system, throw a splice on, and run the wires wherever they needed a new set.

With Dad having removed the kitchen counter, that left only the bathroom area to be demolished. After taking out the refrigerator, we knew that the tall corner cabinet in the rear passenger side could be safely removed without the ceiling collapsing on our heads. That was first to go. I'll spare the details of its removal, as there was no finesse involved. The sledgehammer, reciprocating saw, and crowbar made relatively short work. The only care that needed to be taken was in not damaging the exhaust pipe for the waste tank underneath the toilet. Luckily the shelves built around the pipe were basically falling apart, and didn't take much to come out.

I used a modicum of self-control when removing the cabinet. Some screws were removed, but aside from avoiding that black PVC pipe like the plague, I just had at the cabinet with a variety of different tools until I was tearing pieces out by hand.

   Cabinet gone, and now we have access to the box which contains the deep cycle marine battery. It obviously can be accessed from the outside, but we could tell however it was secured to the inside of the vehicle would need to be repaired.

Yeah....styrofoam wasn't going to save this bad boy from water rot.

Bad, bad, and more bad.....actually, this thing was soggy and downright gross to handle.

...and by 'repaired', I mean completely replaced. The plywood surrounding it was so water-damaged, I was able to vacuum most of it up. The steel casing inside the plywood is rather rusted, with almost no stability to the bottom of it. I think this is going to be my first attempt at welding, as the bottom of the box badly needs replacing.

   We also found this gem while mucking around with removing the battery box:

This....this is something special.

   Yeah....that's a fuel line...plugged with a drill bit....secured in place with a screw clamp...This is a great contender for the “There, I Fixed It” website. We're going to have to trace that fuel line back to its point of origin and see about removing or plugging it in a more....”professional” fashion.

   Okay, on to the bathroom sink, toilet, and tub. The plan is for the toilet to be replaced with a composting one of some kind (the specific type is escaping me at the moment), and the sink replaced (similar to the kitchen one) with a deeper one. Dad wanted to reuse the bathtub, but when we removed the bathroom sink, we found that someone had cut a pretty shitty hole in the outer wall of the bathtub. It makes me call into question the overall durability of the tub, and with how much work is going into the restoration of the interior, I'd hate to see it ruined by a leaky bathtub..

It's really tough to figure out how or why this hole was made through the under sink cabinet and into the tub. The unfortunate thing is that it's there, and the tub will most likely need to be replaced.

We wrapped up the afternoon by pulling down some of the faux brick on the wall in the kitchen area and finally having at the ceiling, which is completely down now, including the section surrounding the air conditioner. It's pretty obvious that rodents of some kind made a pretty comfortable home for themselves at some point over the years. The two rear corners above the cabinet and sink were stuffed so full of mouse bedding and waste that they were bulging. I'm glad that we'll have removed all the nasty shit that has built up over the years that will drive the old allergies crazy, and that we will know that there aren't furry little hitchhikers leaving turd surprises in dishes and other places.

Hmmmmm....looks like this section is pretty saturated and bloated....

OH COOL! Just what I've always wanted! A pile of urine and feces saturated stuffing!

More filth.....

....aaaand yet another swollen-with-mouse-shit section.

THE AFTERMATH...

   It pretty much looked like the interior of the RV had thrown up all over the driveway by the time we were done. I'm going to have to borrow a truck from someone to get all this shit to the dump. The less time it sits rotting alongside the garage, the easier it will be to pick it up and load it.

Despite the rusted floor, exposed piping/wiring, and the visible steel frame of the roof, it somehow looks....better than before. I think it's just a collective sigh of relief that the gutting portion of the project is basically done. We've still got a metric shit-ton of work to do, but it will be easier with a (relatively) clean slate to work with. We're going to have at the floor with an angle grinder and orbital sander to remove the loose rust, patch holes with the appropriate materials, and then give the whole floor a spray with rust-converting primer, then a coat or two of actual primer before we put the plywood down. That's all for this week...

...on a side note, to user:lets_be_friends on reddit, here is a photo of the gas hook-ups for the refrigerator. I don't know if this will help you with your current fridge issues, but if it does, I'm glad I could be of service. Keep in mind that the refrigerator is supplied electrically by a standard 110 volt plug, and that the gas line that feeds into it was attached to one of the two inlets in the picture. The other inlet fed the gas heater that was originally mounted underneath the refrigerator:

Here are the two gas inlets. The line just screws onto them, and then this section attaches to the propane tank mounted underneath the vehicle.

 

NO GOD....NOT THE BEES !!

     Alrighty....Dad has made some solo progress in between his job and working on his house. He's spent a couple afternoons cleaning up the rusted areas of the floor, both in the cab and the living space. A wire brush attachment for the drill has done a fine job of removing loose rust from several areas, which have since been sprayed with rust-converting primer.

This is an example of what we found when the rubber floor mat was removed from the cab. There are multiple holes rusted right through which will require some riveted steel and Bondo to repair. If done correctly, the repairs should outlast the vehicle as a whole.

As you can see, the large areas along both sides of the living area still require quite a bit of attention. Dad had at the with the wire brush, but no matter what, it's still cleaning a large area about a quarter of an inch at a time. We're going to try a random orbital sander with some 60-grit to remove as much rust as possible, followed by the rust-converter spray. (Sorry for the poor photo quality...I was rushing a bit when I took it.)

  So after a brief discussion, we decided that in order to continue the removal of the subfloor, all cabinetry must be removed, as well as the refrigerator and sink/kitchen counter. This caused us to focus specifically on the removal of the two overhead cabinets to begin. Here is the process in both photos and words:

This is what both overhead cabinets looked like to begin with. They are comprised of two end caps held in place with three screws, and the actual cabinet portion. The roll-down doors are easily removable (covered later), which allows access to the L-bracket that runs along the entire inside top edge of the cabinet, securing it to the ceiling.

The cabinet on the passenger side had sustained visible water-damage, and as a result had been crudely reattached with this P.O.S. L-bracket. Upon removal, it was obvious that it served little to no purpose.

After removal of the end-cap. The coaxial cable from the analog TV antenna has been run through the outer wall into the cabinet. I'm not sure if this was original or not, but considering the previous owner had the television installed on a shelf beneath this cabinet, it made sense. The analog antenna will obviously be removed and replaced with a digital one, but we may re-run the cable through the existing opening.

The tracks for the roll-down doors. Removal is simple, as the door just needs to be pushed a bit to the left or right to pop one side out of the track. Re-installation could be a bit on a pain in the ass, but we're not even sure if they will be reused.

Once the roll-down doors were removed, we were able to have clear access to this bracket that runs the length of the cabinet and attaches it to the ceiling. Remove a bunch of screws, and the cabinet is almost detatched.

Alright....here's where things got a bit sneaky. At this point, we couldn't figure out how the cabinet was still attatched to the wall, and that's when we noticed that the bottom of the cabinet had a removable panel. It makes sense, as it allows most of the wiring for that side of the vehicle to be run out of sight. We just pried the panel off, and removed the screws that attached the cabinet to the wall. After that, it came right off. The same process was followed on the drivers' side to remove that cabinet, which we actually plan on possibly painting and reusing, as it is in solid shape with no damage.

   So both overhead cabinets were removed, which allowed more clearance for our respective heads, and also allowed full access to the cabinet surrounding the fridge, which came out next.

Upon removal of the passenger side cabinet more of the water damage became apparent. Here you can see the lauan paneling literally falling apart. It made for easy removal, but increased our level of concern for how badly fucked up the ceiling was.

Ta-da! Here's the side of the fridge, completely exposed. Removal from the cabinet it was mounted in was relatively simple. It is held in place by a series of phillips-head screws in the front edge, hidden behind rubber plugs. Pop the plugs out, insert a screwdriver, and remove. After that, detatch the gas line and 110-volt plug, and it more or less comes right out. It's definitely a two-man job, but not obscenely heavy. On a side note, I'm not sure why my father looks so portly in this photo....he's really not built like that, I just think he was moving into frame as I took the picture.

 

 

    Dad was on the fence with regard to whether or not he was going to keep the original fridge in the RV. He was concerned that it was excessively heavy, and that a new, electric-only unit might make more sense. This, of course, had several drawbacks:
   -The fridge would only be operable when the vehicle was plugged in to exterior power, run off of a deep cycle battery reserve (absurd, as it would drain one in no time), or being run off a generator. Basically, you be driving around with a forty-pound cooler.
   -It generally takes six to eight hours for a fridge to reach optimum temperature, so while you could attach the RV to an exterior power source in anticipation of leaving for a trip, once you left and drove to where ever you were heading, you'd have to start the whole cooling process all over again upon arrival. Again, you're driving with a forty pound cooler, now it's filled with pickle and pimento loaf of questionable freshness.

   No one like spoiled deli meats.

    Anyways, we've decided to plug the original unit in and see how well it functions. Hopefully it still works in an acceptable fashion, as replacement gas/electric units start at around a thousand dollars.It'd be nice to get some use out of it while looking for a refurbished unit. We'll have to wait and see.

SURPRISE! YOU'VE GOT BEES!....Well, there were some at one point. Man, vacations in this thing must have been a blast for the previous owners' kids. It was damp, possibly moldy, and filled with stinging insects. Nothing like a weekend on stained upholstery, whacked out on benadryl, being attacked by bees to build memories to last a lifetime.

   Needless to say, it was an eventful afternoon. We started to remove sections of the ceiling, and discovered that it is, in fact, built on a steel frame, which is great news. It means that there are no weight-bearing cabinets in the whole of the camper, and that we have something good and solid to attach the new ceiling to.
   Dad made some more progress in my absence, and the kitchen cabinets have been removed, so we're almost to the point where we can remove the remainder of the floor back to the bathroom. I think we will hold off on repairing the steel floorpan until all the plywood is out, so we can bondo, rivet, and (possibly) weld* all at one time, rather than section by section.
  Another update later this week...until then...stay cool, dear readers.



*yes....that is correct...I am going to try and teach myself how to weld. I got a book from the library, and Dad has had a stick-welding setup for well over ten years that neither of us ever bothered to learn how to use properly. I've always wanted to have welding in my skill set (makes me more useful if/when the zombies come....I can fight, heal, and weld, amongst other things...hell, I'm a post-apocalyptic Renaissance man), so this seems like the most appropriate time. Catch ya'll later !

Appy-polly-logies

   Sorry for the lack of updates over the past couple of weeks. Between my father birthday, my birthday (a week apart), and rather busy work schedules, we haven't had much time to work on the Turtle, nor update the blog. When the heatwave plaguing the Northeast finally broke earlier this week, we got a pretty solid four-hour session in on the RV this past Wednesday, and I took pictures of the process/progress, most of which focused on removal of the interior cabinets, as well as teardown of the questionable ceiling. It'll all be up here within the next day or two (fingers crossed), and we should be back at work on it again this coming Wednesday. I'll also be doing a detailed entry focused specifically on the restoration of the two front seat swivels, which I'll start working on either Wednesday or Thursday morning.
   Until the next actual update, have a good weekend.

Day 2: Fire and Ice....well, okay, no ice, but FIRE !

  

"FUCKING BOLTS!"

   Alright....so day two wasn't quite as productive as we/I had hoped, but there were a few notable developments.

   First off, Dad texted me the other day to say that he had removed the two front seats and made an interesting discovery. They were mounted on locking swivel platforms which would potentially allow for the seats to rotate 180 degrees and face back into the common area. Can you say "driver/passenger seats AND recliner-style seating for the living space ?". After a few minor adjustments, they will be capable of doing just that.

We would've had to remove the front seats anyway to repair the floor in the cabin of the RV. The floor mat is OBVIOUSLY original 1978 equipment, and served no purpose other than to cover several rusty areas from view. Figuring out in the process that the seats could rotate was a pleasant development.

   This is great, as it has eliminated the need for any additional seating, aside from the convertible sleeper sofa that we're thinking about rebuilding over the water system. The space where the hot/cold water tanks and pump are located can serve only that purpose, so a bench seat of some kind really seems to be the best choice. Once the sub-floor is completely removed/replaced, and all the water-related equipment is back in place, I'll start designing a box frame of some kind to go around and over that stuff. The hardest part will be re-upholstering that frame, but I've got a couple of ideas. If anyone out there has had experience building their own furniture and/or making cushions, shoot me an email and let me know where we can start.

   So the next advance that my Dad made between El Team-o Destructo sessions was starting to remove the damaged cabinet surrounding the refrigerator.  After encountering a set of live wires (always fun), and carefully removing the thermostat (if it works, and doesn't need to be replaced, why trash it, right ?), here's what he was left with:

That goddamned red carpet is EVERYWHERE...anyways, you can see the shelf under the refrigerator just sitting there at a funny angle underneath the foil-insulated space. It's not really screwed into anything anymore on this side, so we can only assume that it is still firmly attached on the opposite side.

    That thing needs to be COMPLETELY redone, and that became more apparent after he pulled one side off and found that the platform the refrigerator was sitting on had broken away on two sides, and the refrigerator is currently just....kinda chillin'...not really on anything specific...it seems stable for the time being, so we put that on ice for another afternoon.

    See what I did there? Two bad jokes about the fridge being "cold"...in ONE PARAGRAPH.

   ....anyways, he also found that someone had done another piss-poor job with installation. Take a look at the picture:

Close-up of ugly carpet, poorly done wiring/gas lines, and the ground beneath.

   Yup, that's daylight you see just beneath the feed lines for the fridge and heater from the propane system. Rather than drill through the floorpan and install them properly, one of the previous owners just cut a 12"x 4" rectangle out of the steel, leaving YET ANOTHER space for water to splash up into the floor and walls of the RV. Add that to the list of "Shit That Absolutely NEEDS To Be Repaired". There is good, solid steel all around where they cut out, so some plate steel, rivets, Bondo, and rubberized undercoating should do the trick, after the replacement plate is drilled out properly for the lines.

   We managed to get some more of the plywood sub-floor removed today, but not a ton. We're back to about even with where the kitchen counter starts, but until my cousin can take a look at the electrical gadgetry located near the water system, we'll have to leave that section alone, and the kitchen counters and heater/fridge tower will have to be removed before we can get any further. Sawing through the section we did remove prompted an unplanned trip to Harbour Freight Tools to get a replacement blade for the oscillating multi-tool ("It slices, it dices"....you get the gist. If you don't own one, get on that shit), Saw-zall blades (fucking CRAP quality blades at that place....buy Lenox blades for anything that involves cutting...sorry about the "f" word, but it was frustrating to get home and burn through two blades and get nowhere cutting a bolt), and return a battery of questionable quality.
   Harbour Freight...where you get what you pay for, and sometimes a whole lot less.
   Thirty minutes later, we were back at work on the final task of the day, removing the swivel mounts for the front two seats. The kitchen counter and fridge were too time-intensive for today, so we decided the swivel mounts were the next best thing. The bolts proved to be rather rusted in place, but a combination of WD-40, elbow grease, and a good solid nuking with the propane torch loosened them right up. One did eventually need to be cut, but I'll take sawing one out of eight any day of the week. After removing the plates and the thirty-five year-old floor mat, we were left with this:

 ...okay so the floor mat wasn't COMPLETELY out yet, but I assure you, it's in a contractor bag as I type. Overall, the floor is in decent shape with only some surface rust to be addressed. Dad wants to take the wire brush to it, but I just remembered that I have some Naval Jelly that might do the trick with no effort aside from brushing it on. We'll probably get some loose stuff off with the wire brush and then leave the jelly on for a while to loosen the rest. After that, it's going to be prime, paint, and a new mat before the seat mounts get put back in.
  
   I think I'll be cleaning up the seat mounts in the next few days, so I'll take progress pictures of those and post the process as I go...maybe even try to get fancy and put some video up here.
  
   Until next time...

  
   ...and remember, on Turtle Island, it's always 11:17.

If disaster seems imminent...

GIVE US A HEADS' UP !

  So it seems that my reddit post has raised some interest in the blog, so I'm just going to throw this out there. If I post pictures/info about forthcoming projects on Turtle Island and you find yourself going, "Shit, NO Chris, don't do that !", send me a message! Furthermore, if you have a solution for anything that we're tossing about on here, do the same. We're open to suggestion on anything, from how to make to RV more energy efficient, to storage ideas. Feel free to hit me up. Have a nice weekend.
   -Christopher

Day 1: RV Evisceration

   If there is one thing I excel at, it's destroying things.
  
   From a decorative egg that taught me my first lesson about why you don't lie when you break Mom's stuff, to my angst-y teenage years where a flood of confused hormones had me convinced that most objects were better off smashed, set on fire, or a combination of the two, all the way up to more recent years when I became a homeowner and started gutting rooms out to the studs to recreate them in my own vision, I've always been rather good at smashing shit.

    ....there...I just took the blogs' curse word v-card like it...never mind....INAPPROPRIATE...

   In any event, if you want something tore up, I'm your guy. Despite the horrible weather conditions today (90 degrees, and easily 90%+ humidity), Dad and I decided to start assessing the status of the interior and see what we could get done. This is how things looked at first:

Starting at the front, this is the cab. Pure 1970's quality right here. Note the CB radio and cassette deck above the drivers' seat, and the quality craftsmanship of the sparse dashboard. Actually, the dashboard is in fantastic shape, free of cracks and will be easy to disassemble. The front seats were scalped from a Toyota van, and while they are faded and need some upholstery cleaner, they're pretty damn comfortable, and really just need some decent seat covers. The tape deck is coming out and getting swapped with (gasp!) a CD player, and the speakers are getting updated as well....CB radio is staying, as you never know when you'll need to call the Bandit.

This is the sleeping area above the cab. Once it is liberated from the eight-armed grips of the spiders living there and the bedding is updated, it will be a comfortable bunk for whomever gets to crash there. Note the freakin' SWEET carpeted walls. I think they should stay that way out of principle.

Here be the kitchen area. The faux-brick finish walls were probably a nice touch in '78, but are in pretty rough shape now. To the left of the picture is where the stove/oven combo originally was, but my Dad had removed it prior to my arrival. The restoration of that will be an all-day project, but we're fairly confident that it will look good as new when we're done.

This is the....I dunno....we'll refer to it from this point forward as the "Common Area". The previous owner decided that they needed more seating, so they bolted a seat from (I think) a Dodge Caravan into the corner behind the passenger seat. They also constructed a bench seat for the passenger side out of 1x4 pine and plywood, and there is the original fold-down sofabed on the left behind the drivers' seat.

Homemade bench seat with pimp-tastic cushion covers. The cushions came with free dead bugs. It didn't take long to determine the previous owners weren't big on cleaning.

The fold-down sofa bed. This came with dead bugs as well, and some awesome stains on the cover that had been fashioned to hide the hideous original upholstery.

The throne room. It's a bathroom in a camper. This is actually the least of our concerns with regard to renovation/updating. It has some classy faded NASCAR stickers in the window which are coming out ASAP. I actually just took a picture of this because I'm a mature, grown-up man of thirty who still thinks toilets are funny.

   So needless to say, the "common area" and kitchen are the first priority. The furniture all needs to be replaced, and the carpeting put down by the previous owner was FILTHY and covering a sub-floor of questionable stability (read: lots of soft spots). We tossed about the idea of recovering the sofa bed, but when I mentioned the thirty-plus years of ass-sweat and the possibility of any number of children having been sick on it, we decided it was better off being removed. Addressing the sub-floor issues would require the removal of most, if not all furniture and cabinets, so that meant the homemade bench seat and sofa bed would have to come out.
   ...and that extra chair behind the passenger seat. Yeah, that was first to go.

   Here's the "common area" after the bench and 3rd seat were removed.

  
   At this point, we were able to remove the carpet from behind the front seats all the way back to the vinyl tile in the kitchen area. Underneath the edge of the sofa bed were traces of the original red shag carpet (which, surprisingly, was in better shape than the replacement carpet) as well as some linoleum that was probably put down as a rudimentary water barrier in the event of the hot or cold water tank leaking.

The linoleum allows for easy clean up...of an otherwise inaccessible area.

The 1978 Chevrolet Mobile Traveler came with a free dirty fish tank held in place by a crudely cut piece of aluminum flashing. Actually, this is the water reservoir, probably much cleaner inside than out. It was still removed, drained, and will be sterilized with some chlorine before it is replaced. We were careful to not disturb/damage any of the plumbing or electrical system that was hidden underneath the sofa bed, and took numerous pictures so we are able to reassemble things correctly in the future. The wiring for the water pump and circuit breaker needs to be updated and done correctly, as there are a couple of wires that go nowhere, and the ones that are connected are attached to each other with wire nuts, rather than being soldered. Luckily, Dad is pretty handy when it comes to electrical work.

    Carpet is up, and (surprise, surprise) the sub floor has some serious water damage. There were numerous holes that went straight outside where I'm sure water was leaking/splashing up between the steel floor pan and the plywood. Most were actually supposed to be there, but there were several that had been drilled for some unknown reason and then left unplugged. We still had to get the linoleum up to find the remaining bolts holding down the plywood, but knew that once removed the plywood would come up without difficulty.

The entire corner behind the passenger seat was shot, and the water damage extended up the wall. From feel alone, I was able to determine that the wall behind the sofa bed hadn't sustained any damage, which is great. Having to replace the bottoms of both walls would have significantly increased the amount of work to be done.

 

We decided that getting the first half of the sub floor removed down to the floor pan would be a good stopping point for the day. As you can see, the corners behind both front seats were the most obviously affected by water seepage. Luckily, the rust you see is only on the surface and there is still plenty of good metal. A simply sanding and prime/paint should get it back in decent enough shape to put a new sub floor down.

       After we get the entire floor out, we'll have to patch all non-essential holes to prevent further water damage. Dad is leaning toward putting linoleum down in the entire living area (common area, kitchen, bathroom) as it will be easy to keep clean, water resistant, and lighter than a laminate or possibly even carpeting. The decision was made to name the RV "Turtle Island". More to come after the next demolition session.

In the beginning...

So, this is the basic background for this blog....
   My father, David, recently found a RV for sale on the local Craigslist for a mere $1,900. I found out about the purchase and offered to help him with the restoration/update of the vehicle. David (dad) is interested in traveling, possibly even permanently residing in the "Mobile Traveler", and I'm interested in having occasional access to it for weekend Mountain Biking trips. Being the type that always likes to plan ahead, I began scouring the internet for images and information on his new toy, but despite having the model year and type, I was unable to find anything.
   My first look at it was today, July 4th, and we immediately went to work.This is the first time either of us will be remodeling a recreational vehicle.

   So here she is from a couple different angles. She has just over 42,000 original miles, limited rust (a bit under the front edge of the hood, and a few tiny bubbles here and there, but nothing major of note), and the previous owner had given it a Krylon paint-job in a style true to its late-70's origins.

Needless to say, I was rather surprised by how good it looked from the outside. I'll be honest, the paint-job leaves a little to be desired, but all things considered, it's decent looking.