As I worked on putting the galley together, I came around a small bend and there before me was a number of roads branching from the one I was on. I had planned to take this same route for awhile longer, but I knew from studying the map earlier that this was coming up. Well the whole TC experience is about taking unknown roads, right? The sign said "Fridge 1 mile". Let's hang a left.
This is the fridge we're using.
It's a Hadco 410. Do any of you have one of these? I had one once before. And if you have paperwork and know how to scan it, I'd sure like some original documentation. Both operators manual and installation manual if I can find them. PM me if you can accommodate.
As you may know, Lil' Queeny came with an ice box. I have that stored on the shelf until some year when I get all my extras together and can figure out what to do with them. This fridge came from our 1966 parts camper, the 11' unit.
The fridge I had before came in my Dad's 1972 wood frame 12' camper. While my folks were using it, DW and I were camping with them at a family reunion. We had a new baby, our first, and we had a PU bed converted utility trailer with a used non-cabover half-height TC with stove top, fold down bed, and counter with sink. No systems, just shelter. The stove top didn't even work without propane, and there was no tank. We pulled it with a 1971 Blazer that was too cool for many years. I mean the Blazer was too cool for many years, not that we used that camper for many years; we soon replaced it with our first canned ham.
But on that camping trip, after a couple days, my mom noticed DW was at that "it's time to go home and have a shower" stage of camping with a lot of others around kicking up the ever-present combination of camp-fire ash and campsite dust that had once been grass. She asked DW, "do you want to take a shower?"
(Mom loves to tell this story). DW answered, "you have a shower!?!" Yes, they had a shower, in the form of a wet bath in their camper. That is about the first of forever times I heard my wife say, "that was the best shower I ever had". That's now almost a catch phrase for us every time we clean up after a long trip or a hard day's work in the yard.
Eventually, (after our first canned ham - a 1954, and our back-packing stint), Dad got his motor home - a Class A Pace Arrow. Wow, was he proud and in hog-heaven! He gave us the TC, as we had by then a 1972 GMC 3/4 ton. After using it for a few trips we realized it was too far gone, and it was way heavy for that truck. You remember those days and how we hauled overweight all the time? Kind of gives "unsafe at any speed" new meaning.
So we located and bought another canned ham, parted out the camper, and stuffed the little 1960 trailer with modern amenities from the '72!
Voila! That's the long way around saying, the donor fridge was a Hadco 410. What are the chances?
Well that deserves another view.
I'm pretty certain the previous Hadco 410 had the very same door insert. That's to say, the embossed faux wood grain over wood fiber 1/8" paneling. The wood grain pattern was painted, dyed, whatever, black! Well here you go.
This is how it compares side by side with Lil' Queeny's birch paneling.
We don't like it, especially DW. We've thought of multiple ways to surface it, the first choice of course being to replace it with real wood birch paneling from the extra doors or something. But I had looked multiple times and we had none that was both wide and tall enough. If it was tall enough, it was too narrow, and if it was wide enough, it was too short. I think we had settled on a hammered copper paint finish.
Then the other day I was rounding up final birch pieces to finish, like the archway channel cover...
and the two bathroom doors, neither of which was wide enough for the fridge door...
and this wide enough, but too short wardrobe door...
and then I came across this...
an even BIGGER wardrobe door from the parts camper (can you believe it? Two big wardrobes in the parts camper?). And it had width and height! I was stoked! It had been stored way up on the top shelf with the other doors until I took them all down to remove frames.
That's what I'm talking about baby!
And it even had enough height to provide door panels for the above and below the fridge openings I've made, and in a continued same pattern wood grain as the fridge! Whoa, this is getting weird. Am I on Candid Camera? What's going on here? Is somebody kidding me right now?
Not only does it have the extra for above and below doors, but it has the extra for a "fridge controls cover".
Okay so it's worth a third view. Here it is again. This time notice the bottom, that's where the controls are and it is missing the controls cover panel.
Five Star RV in Denver (used parts) didn't have a cover. I was going to have to make one. I knew from previous ownership it was a metal cover in the shape of about a 1x4 with a length equal to the fridge width. It had two vertical tabs on the bottom that inserted into slots for a sort of hinge effect. Then two spears on its top that slid into spring retainers in the fridge frame, much like the door catches I've installed. I'm pretty certain I can make another short, wide door for the cover, after the style of all the other doors in the camper.
The first thing to do was remove (and save for "vintage parts" reasons) the template.
The fridge door is easy to remove, and is reversible. Two hinge pin screws and voila!
Then the bottom frame that acts as a retainer.
And I'd sure like to figure out how to make, or get replacements, for these little plastic bushings. There are three required (probably four original as they pop into position and stay in that corner until they break and fall out. But two are needed for the hinge pins, and one for the door lock pin. I might make some out of plastic stock or even wood.
And here it is against the donor door. 1/2" to spare!
Now let's see if I can get the panel off the sandwiched plywood without destroying it.
