Today - Gray-water drain and vent assembly and mounting (no sink to drain connection - yet), city-water line and valve, gravity-fill hand-pump valve and under-cabinet line, re-route range gas line.
One must keep in mind, my few operating rules...
1. Seal the weather leaks.
2. Repair water damaged structural issues.
3. Where possible (meaning time not wasted in "pretty" right now), repair water damaged cosmetic issues.
4. Evaluate and make ready for safe and dependable use existing: fresh and drain water, propane gas and electrical systems, and perhaps most importantly,
5. The trailer's name is "Tow-Mater", based on the rusty tow-truck character in the movie "Cars", not "Princess", as in the Julia Roberts character in "Pretty Woman".
Now if I were working on Lil' Queeny, there's a WHOLE different set of operating rules. But Tow-Mater is Tow-Mater, and at times, that means reveling in his rust areas. Or shall we say, less than pretty "looks". ;)
Either camper had/has me dealing with the existing holes in the aluminum siding, whether damage holes or systems holes. Here are two "systems holes" in Tow-Mater we'll be working today. The drain and vent.
First step was to hammer the sheet-metal screw holes flat and get in there with the scraper. Once the remnants of the old butyl and caulking were removed (and the duct-tape temporary patch), I washed the areas with lacquer thinner. Then made a plan for drilling the new wood with a hole saw.
First though, note how the factory didn't exactly drill these holes vertical. The upper hole is set further forward. It also appears to me, they tried to make this error look better by mounting the upper vent grill off-center. True, it centers the "look" better, but it also set up the siding holes. Guess I'll duplicate the position.
So in went the hole saw from the exterior. Just far enough to get out the 1 by, and make a center hole with the pilot drill bit. You can also see some of the gusset metal in there.
From inside, you can see the two pilot holes, directly behind the propane lamp line.
So with the holes finished, the line is re-routed like this, making the range line come in directly from the rear of the range top, as designed. That makes moving the range in and out MUCH easier, than trying to feed the line in and out on an angle, (the mistake I described yesterday).
And the range/lamp tee is still visible below the upper drawer guide, for that maintenance and leak check thing.
And it all clears the planned 12 volt electrical junction spot behind the range.
That did require me to gain a little length by routing the line in front of the ice-box brace-block.
Some day, when a fridge is installed, sitting ON the floor, a new hole and line will be run into here from underneath the camper, even with the front edge of the wheel well.
Now the drain/vent. When you have something like this for an old camper named Tow-Mater, you can't just throw it away and replace it with new plastic. Yeah I know, in the home, I HATE finding metal drain parts. They are the WORST!
One side.
But this is the very thing that you want to try and resurrect, for not only "cool points", but because the parts are built so STOUT!
Other side.
That's not even copper, it's brass!
And I even used the original install method, which I simple thought was "too cool". Wire scrap clamps. Wow.
However, note the lower is 1/2" plywood and the upper is 1 by. That makes the lower stick out 1/4" further than the upper. As it turned out, I made another 1 by block (out of a scrap of original patina 1x2, to match the upper) and re-installed, straightening the clamp a bit too. That more properly placed the twist off cap outside to something which functions well, and looks better. And I still had to use a small cut-off wheel to trim the jut out of the vent pipe a little, so it would properly fit the cover grill.
Here's the outside now.
The new butyl will all get trimmed later.
And that new 1x2 inside on the lower.
But what are those other two copper lines?
Well, one is the city-water valve connection (left side) and the other is the hand-pump connection (right side).
Let's start with the city water valve.
You can't find stuff like this on the home-center shelf these days. So you can't throw this stuff away! You can't replace it with a cheap imitation! So we keep. :) Polish it up with steel wool, a little sharp pointed thing for some crud spots. Oh yeah!
Much of the seals were bad. The grey rubber cone-seal (brittle and too hard) wouldn't seal. It got replaced with one (much softer, not at all sure how well it will hold up) I found in a home center packet of various sizes.
I replaced the valve washer with a perfect match I had in my little drawer of faucet washers. The clear plastic seal on the handle part was just fine. And the rubber washer on the hose connector end was replaced.
But just look at the quality of the valve materials.
Oh check this out.
And what about the hand pump?
First thing I noticed was its weight! All metal I think - well, except for the internal flapper, or however it works. It sounds good, and feels good. And as a matter of fact, on the test-bench it works excellent!
But see it (right) side-by-side compared to the one I pulled out of Lil' Queeny (left).
I don't know if the Coleman was a replacement for our 1968 Lil' Queeny, or if it came original, but it's a far cry from the one in the 1964 Tow-Mater.
Metal versus plastic parts. Angled spout tip. Those features and attention to quality, surely extend further into the innards.
Powerhouse, #440.
Acme Tool and Diecasting Co., Los Angeles, CA
Yeah, I bet a clever guy could rebuild it, if it ever needs to be.
In future, when we get the counter tops done up, this stuff will look even better!
