84 Shasta Motorhome Rebuild/ Repair
Hello all I'm new to this forum and after reading for 2 soild days of oldtrucker63 Dodge rebuild has really inspired me to share my project. Here is go's.... In the begining there was a CL ad, a poo...
Forum Discussion
So lets talk about the damage I have found and some of my plans to repair.
I noticed from the start that the floor was soft and saged in the middle toward the front, but I saw no reason why as there did not seem to be a water leak from roof or vent. and when I walked on it I could hear the sounds of sheet metal crinkling. Floor to the ouside walls and through to the back/ bathroom completly soild inluding under cabinets and compartments.
Here are some picture of the removel of the interior sections to expose the floor.
This is the area where the soft floor is, notice the two random circle holes cut into the carpet. The couch is on the left side and the chairs are the right side.
The couch removed exposing what loos like a newer water heater and the enclosure for the gen set.
Forward section of dinette.
Rear section of dinette, also where the water storage tank is.
Dinette completly removed
Took the enclosure off the genset and removed the water heater. I find floor to be strong so far, but lets see when I get the carpet and padding up.
Sorry I didn't take any pictures of me removing the carpet, paddind and tack strip, use you emagination lol.
Look at what I found, a 2'x 2' patch in the floor and no evidence of water damage.
This is a soft spot ahead of that patch.
This is what I found, anybody get what's going on here? took me a cup of coffee and a few minutes to get it but it looks like the foam has been melting and with out the support of the foam and combinded breakdown of the OSB = Soft spot, why is the foam melting?...... Ding! the exhaust runs under this part, there is a very serious flaw to this motorhome, there is no heat shielding underside abouve the muffler and piping and worst off, somebody repaired it at one point and didn't correct the cause. This motorhome I bet stunk after long hot drives!!
I will address this before this thing go's back in service.
So now I know why the soft floor and for the most part the rest of the floor is not to bad, there is rot under the water heater but thats really the worst of it. So I removed what I was going to replace. Here is some pictures of that.
Under the water heater.
More under the water heater, there must have been a leak with the old water heater.
And after the dust settled, this is what I ended up with.
View to the front.
View to the rear.
Well I know some of you may have noticed that I did not evenly remove the floor, rather I only removed what needed to be replace. The reason for this is purly to save money and the floors construction is very hard to take apart, there is a steel frame 1" thick and filled with a 1" isulation foam and glued to the OSB top sheet and to the sheet metal below thus making any part that isn't rotted away very hard to remove and like I said before the rest of the floor is very solid and does not go under the walls but the walls are mated to it on the side, so any wall rot and water damage is just in the wall. And the rear bathroom floor is plywood not OSB (thank you Shasta)so I think it will turn out just fine, infact had it not been for the heat damage to the foam there would only have been a small area were the water heater was that needed replacement.
Since the floor is not sitting under the walls and is a steel frame I'm going to move onto the left wall repairs/ distruction, so stay tuned!
I noticed from the start that the floor was soft and saged in the middle toward the front, but I saw no reason why as there did not seem to be a water leak from roof or vent. and when I walked on it I could hear the sounds of sheet metal crinkling. Floor to the ouside walls and through to the back/ bathroom completly soild inluding under cabinets and compartments.
Here are some picture of the removel of the interior sections to expose the floor.
This is the area where the soft floor is, notice the two random circle holes cut into the carpet. The couch is on the left side and the chairs are the right side.
The couch removed exposing what loos like a newer water heater and the enclosure for the gen set.
Forward section of dinette.
Rear section of dinette, also where the water storage tank is.
Dinette completly removed
Took the enclosure off the genset and removed the water heater. I find floor to be strong so far, but lets see when I get the carpet and padding up.
Sorry I didn't take any pictures of me removing the carpet, paddind and tack strip, use you emagination lol.
Look at what I found, a 2'x 2' patch in the floor and no evidence of water damage.
This is a soft spot ahead of that patch.
This is what I found, anybody get what's going on here? took me a cup of coffee and a few minutes to get it but it looks like the foam has been melting and with out the support of the foam and combinded breakdown of the OSB = Soft spot, why is the foam melting?...... Ding! the exhaust runs under this part, there is a very serious flaw to this motorhome, there is no heat shielding underside abouve the muffler and piping and worst off, somebody repaired it at one point and didn't correct the cause. This motorhome I bet stunk after long hot drives!!
I will address this before this thing go's back in service.
So now I know why the soft floor and for the most part the rest of the floor is not to bad, there is rot under the water heater but thats really the worst of it. So I removed what I was going to replace. Here is some pictures of that.
Under the water heater.
More under the water heater, there must have been a leak with the old water heater.
And after the dust settled, this is what I ended up with.
View to the front.
View to the rear.
Well I know some of you may have noticed that I did not evenly remove the floor, rather I only removed what needed to be replace. The reason for this is purly to save money and the floors construction is very hard to take apart, there is a steel frame 1" thick and filled with a 1" isulation foam and glued to the OSB top sheet and to the sheet metal below thus making any part that isn't rotted away very hard to remove and like I said before the rest of the floor is very solid and does not go under the walls but the walls are mated to it on the side, so any wall rot and water damage is just in the wall. And the rear bathroom floor is plywood not OSB (thank you Shasta)so I think it will turn out just fine, infact had it not been for the heat damage to the foam there would only have been a small area were the water heater was that needed replacement.
Since the floor is not sitting under the walls and is a steel frame I'm going to move onto the left wall repairs/ distruction, so stay tuned!
