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jismay · 08-01-2012, 03:08 PM

Hello all.

I bought this coach a few months ago, and have finally gotten to the point of making real progress (albeit mostly in a backwards direction).

I have started updating my blog 2 Wheel Nomads with documentation of my efforts, but I will keep this thread updated as well.

Back in May I found this "gem" on craigslist.

It needs some work, but I got it for a decent price, and the repairs shouldn't be too spendy.

So far the list of major needed things:

New tires all around, some are 7.5x16 with 1990's date codes
Refrigerator vent cover is missing
Fix some water-damaged floor and re-lay subfloor and either laminate or vinyl
General interior cleaning
Both mirrors are very loose and need to be re-mounted
The refrigerator doesn't get cold enough, so long term will need to get new coils. Short-term will remove and use a dorm fridge instead
Need dicor and eternabond on the roof to make sure there are no leaks
Right-rear corner cap has some damage that will probably require removing that piece and molding a repair section in fibreglass.

The good things:

The motor runs fine (smokes a bit on startup, but oil consumption will show more in time whats going on)
Motor passed California SMOG, which contributes toward a decent assessment.
Except for the refrigerator, all the appliances work.
The generator starts fine and runs both AC units
Both rooftop AC's work fine.

jismay · 08-01-2012, 03:18 PM

I finally got a start on renovating/repairing the bathroom in the coach this weekend. From visible water damage on the floors it was obvious that there were one or more leaks somewhere in the bathroom.

Before Pictures

You can see through the access panel under the shower pan where persistent leaks have done horrible things to the underlying carpet.

It appears that there was a leak in the roof that was "fixed" previously. The actual exterior repair looks decent enough, but the interior part has pushed down part of the ceiling in the bathroom. This will be addressed before the bathroom is completed.

The shower is constructed in three main pieces, a shower tub and lower walls that is a one-piece fibreglass molding, and two panels which form the upper walls.

After Pictures

After pulling the trim pieces off, etc. I got this far. The upper panels were attached to the actual wall panels with doublesided tape. The panel on the right side took the wall panel with it when I started pulling, but I needed access anyways. So far I'm seeing no evidence of roof leaks, which tends to support my previous thinking that the water-damaged floors were due to leaking plumbing. I'm stuck on final removal. I need to remove the toilet to get access to the remaining flange on the shower base, but I need to pickup the right socket first.

jismay · 08-01-2012, 03:19 PM

Finally got the toilet off the base and got a good look at the toilet supply line and the toilet riser/base.

Is that a screw clamp on the water line? Crap, it is... Well, at least I have pretty good confirmation of at least one leak source.

jismay · 08-04-2012, 09:03 PM

After finally managing to get the toilet removed last time I moved on to the removal of the toilet riser and shower pan to give me access to the spaces under the shower. I also removed the heater on the other side of the wall to expose the rest of the shower/toilet plumbing.

A view of the backside and underside of the shower with the heater out of the way. More hose clamps here.

I'm really starting to hate these things. The T on the upper right is the hot water line, and then both hot and cold run off to the lower-left to what appear to be drain valves.

A little elbow grease and the toilet riser is removed along with the blackwater pipe down to the tank.

And finally we can pull the shower pan out of the way and get a better idea of the carnage. There seem to be three major leaks in play that I have identified so far:

The toilet supply line which damaged the walls directly behind and adjacent to the toilet, and then out into the floor in front of the galley.
The distribution manifold behind the heater which seems to have run forward and damaged the floor along the driver's side wall of the coach and under the dinette across towards the entrance door.
The major leak under the shower pan. I am still unsure if this is due to a leaking shower drain, a crack/leak in the shower pan that I haven't noticed yet, or another leak up under the bathroom cabinetry

After a little carpet removal and a little vacuuming things are starting to look better.

Amazingly quite a bit of the carpet under the toilet riser had a plastic barrier sheet on top which caused the water to flow into the walls and the subfloor but not into the carpet itself.

I still have quite a bit of cleanup to do in the heater compartment, as well as more carpet removal in the bathroom itself. I also forgot a few things during my Home Depot run, so I will need to pick those up before I can re-do the plumbing and start putting things back together again.

nightriderrv · 08-05-2012, 09:09 PM

Wow not doing right the first time and this is the mess it ends up being I've seen it many times

jismay · 08-08-2012, 04:24 PM

After getting enough destruction done to get a good look at the state of the plumbing I finally got a start on ripping it out and putting it to rights.

The toilet supply line. The new PEX manifold on the top replacing the old leaky PB piece.

The new main bathroom distribution manifolds. The old PB with the old T on top is the hot water line. I had to splice in a new elbow to remove a leaking joint. The completely new PEX manifold is supplying the cold side for the toilet and the shower. Both the hot and cold run off camera to the bottom to two of the low-point water drains.

The same manifold seen from inside the bathroom. This will be under the shower pan when everything is put back together again. In the top-center you can see the SharkBite push fitting joining the old PB plumbing to my new PEX manifold.

I used a mix of PEX parts, PB adaptor fittings and SharkBite fittings to put this back together again. The SharkBite fittings are great in tight spaces where you can't get in to crimp things together, but they're much more expensive than the crimp-type fittings.

CowboyUpFord · 12-09-2012, 02:48 PM

I need to get in to the toilet plumbing undet the platform the toilet sits on but I can't figure out how to get that top ring off that the toilet attaches to. I can turn it but it doesn't seem to unscrew or slide up.

How did you get it off so you could remove the platform?

Quote:

Originally Posted by jismay

Finally got the toilet off the base and got a good look at the toilet supply line and the toilet riser/base.

Keyair · 12-19-2012, 12:47 PM

Looking good!
Keep it up!

tderonne · 12-19-2012, 01:55 PM

If the refrigerator gets somewhat cold, I'd work on it a bit before I tossed it. Did you try it on AC? If it works better an AC the burner and chimney might just need to be cleaned, they rust and make a mess pretty easily.