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Preparation
- click on any image to enlarge -
 
(Left) Original curbside insulation with
the inner skin removed. The wires lay on both sides
of the insulation.
(Right)
The mineral wool (white) insulation that crumbled and emitted
fine particulates into the air when touched. A
full respirator was necessary to work with the stuff.
 
(Left) Area aft of the door opened up.
(Right) More manufacture workman graffiti - and
just in case you didn't know which factory the trailer
was made...
 
(Left & Right) OK, gross. You never
know what is lurking behind your walls. You couldn't
tell from the outside or inside, but with the skin
removed we found a large rat or bird nest where
they had enlarged the hole around the bathroom
vent pipe under the vent cap.
 
(Left) One of the areas in the insulation
where some critter had built a nest in years past with
elaborate tunnels and urine corroded nesting areas.
(Right) The crown area all opened up and cleaned.
 
(Left) Curbside galley area and the
extensive corrosion area that existed behind the skin
(Right) With the inside skin out, dents like this
one in one of the end caps were were easily popped
out.
(Above) All the corrosion areas on the
skin and frames was removed with a high speed die-grinder
with scotch-brite pads, and then primed.
Leaks
 
(Left) With the inner skin out, I checked
for leaks with a garden hose. Even I was extremely
surprised with the number of leaks, especially in
the ends caps, that were present.
(Right) You can see the trail down from the leak, and
at the bottom of the trail was, you guessed it, corrosion
and a rotted floor in the past.
 
(Left)
Aft end opened up showing the old automotive body
sealer Airstream used to seal the endcap seams.
(Right) It wasn't always successful as seen by the
evidence of this leak that had been going on for quite
awhile.
 
(Left & Right) Once
all the leak spots were identified with the garden
hose, I cleaned them with a wire brush and sealed
the areas with Polyurethane sealant.
New Insulation
 
(Left) Streetside before
cleanup.
(Right) Same area after corrosion cleanup, priming and installation of the Relfectix
insulation layer.
(Left) Curbside before
cleanup and after, with the Reflectix and fiberglass
batt insulation.
 
(Left) Looking aft with
the Reflectix installed once the leaks were fixed.
(Right) Odd wedge shaped cuts were required to fit the
end caps.
 
(Left & Right) Endcap
assemblies are easily removed once the center skins
are out, as they are only held is place with a few
pop-rivets. The removed sections reminded
Krista and I of a Cylon Raider...
 s
Some of our best work
always ends getting covered up.
 
(Left) Some of the
original fiberglass sections were reusable and
I cut them up and used them in bays that
had lots of lots of wiring - 1 layer on the outside
of the wire, 1 on the inside - sorta like a sandwich
with a wire
filling.
(Right) Tacking the skin panels back up.
 
(Left & Right)
Clecoing the inner skin panels back over the
new insulation. Riveting is done with a pneumatic
rivet puller from Harbor Freight and 1/8" x
1/4" rivets from there too.
More
to come
Finished Skin Panels all
installed, Zolatone painting the panels ....
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