Here I continue work on the shower drain plumbing access door. This is in essence the threshhold area of the bathroom.
The floor of the bathroom was originally raised about 7" and created a space for (I think) a small black water tank for a toilet, or a storage space accessible from the outside back wall, depending on factory options chosen. In removing my original floor I had discovered a full 1/2" plywood board on top of another 1/2" plywood board, the second having a hole in the center about the size of a toilet flange. Toilet options are found in other Travel Queens of the era, especially in the longer units with room for tanks below truck bed height.
I was going to use the space partially for a grey water tank, an inside and heated 1.5" dump valve, storage for the grey water dump hose, and shower trap/drain plumbing. And by installing a shower pan I had to first raise the floor high enough for the shower drain connection, and then consider the height of the pan as well to come up with a new bottom of the door opening height. That new height was 12.5"
I had to cut out a section of the bottom of the door wall face anyway (the portion that was below the original 7" high floor) to make room for an inside access under the shower. My access door is a donor drawer front from my parts camper that will hinge on the bottom and open downward for plumbing access.
These drawers are all the same height so I had to make a new opening (by cutting and framing anew) that was 5.25" tall. I chose the longest drawer front (which was too narrow to go across the entire opening by about five inches) and started framing calculations based on it.
With the excess opening space I intend to install a small low current draw 12v fan that can be turned on manually (perhaps eventually by thermostat) for either pulling or pushing warmed camper air though my grey water basement.
The piece I would cut out had to be the same length as the space above that it would patch (the area covering the height of the shower pan). So I needed to reduce the lost wood (and length) by reducing the saw kerf (width reduced by the blade to sawdust). Therefore I used my thinnest door jamb saw. I did run across metal fasteners on both sides so ran the hack saw down through those.
It just so happened that by going the lowest I wanted (reaching the underlying wall cleat) and raising the piece upward until the rough opening was the correct height, brought the new upper edge to EXACTLY the lowest it could be to fully cover (and support) the shower pan flange lip. That height was right even with the lip.
I have a plan for how that will work out, but we don't have time to talk about that right now ;) I'll cover that way down the road on the shower door install post. (Shoot - I hope I can figure out something clever by then).
Because I don't have all the gadgets, tools, fasteners and materials found in a real camper factory (or even wood shop), I tend to use ingenuity with what I have on hand, rather than wasting a day driving in, shopping, spending more money buying specialty tools and fasteners, so I checked the scrap wood pile.
In the end I cut a 3/8" piece of plywood to size to place behind the door wall face boards and would fasten it and the face wall pieces together in much the same way as how the factory built my original camper back wall with scraps.
The face wall was 1" (3/4" fir 1x material, faced on both sides with 1/8" birch paneling). So I used basic 1.25" construction screws and wood glue to fasten the 3/8" board from the back side into all the front face pieces.
I started with the back side plywood gusset. Then I cut a 1x2 for the right edge of the access door opening.
Then I needed to face the 1x2 with 1/8" both sides, and trying to match up wood grains on the visible side. I had to cut into similar grained interior paneling wood from the old back wall.
Cutting the old wall pieces to size on the table saw I separated the panel pieces from the 1x pieces and sanded the glue from the back sides on the bench sander. Then I squared up my 1x2 piece.
After gluing I had this.
While the small piece dried I moved on to installing the plywood gusset to the inside of the wall using the wood glue and constructions screws. Then I placed and installed the upper cross piece.
Finally with the small piece dry enough I squared it on the sander and installed it.
After doing more work later in the day on the floor cleats, this is the result.
During the future interior finishing process I'll fill the gaps and see if we can hide the seams good enough. If not we'll use the contrasting paint color schemes on the lower part of the door wall as we'll be using in various other small areas of the camper interior.
Next I cut nice clean 3/4" by 3/4" moldings for cleats out of a clear 1x4 and screwed them into place. I also cut the grey water opening a bit higher in the wall common to the dinette and bathroom, allowing me to raise the front of the grey water tank about 1" for better draining.
Now, more or less finished with the interior walls of the bathroom I looked toward the back and side walls (the camper right side wall and back wall respectively) and notwithstanding some possible minor exceptions, and occasional returns to this thread, the bathroom remodel is done at this point and I'll be moving back into the
Part 4. Structure and New Wood - 11/5/14 post.
