2006 Hallmark Ute rotted wood repair
I'm going to start off my first post by saying I've been perusing this site for sometime, and have learned a lot...espcially lubing Happy Jacks. My wife and I have had this Hallmark Ute for a year....
Forum Discussion
I've had a few PM's asking if I've continued with the repair of the Hallmark Ute...yes I have.
I picked up the synthetic material from Fargo, MN, and had all of the pieces cut to the widths I needed. My ittle table saw could not handle the 50" x 120" sheets. A local cabinet shop has a CNC router table and from my prints I made a material list listing all of the widths I was going to need. I then can cut the pieces to the necessary lenths with my miter saw.
Two sheets of 3/4" #30 denisty synthetic board...$50 per sheet (one heck of a great deal.)
Cutting sheets to necessary width...$75 + $25 tip.
I purchased online a Senco one inch crown stapler. It was a factory rebuild...$100, along with 5000? one inch wide 3/4" staples.
During my last post back in August 2013, I had the fiberglas walls removed and prints made. After I had picked up the new synthetic wall material, my wife's daughter decided to get married and have the whole ceremony at our house. As you could imagined, any spare time I had went to the wedding preps. The wedding was the weekend before Halloween...so it carried that theme...haunted trail and all.
Because I do not have heat in my 30 x 40 building, by the time the wedding was complete, winter started arriving and it didn't want to give up until well into May. My fingers do not work well when I have to deal with minus 30F for several months.
I currently have the back wall, the RH wall, and the front wall completed. I've got a couple of hours left on the LH wall and it too will be completed. I'll get some pictures up very soon. The material is quite easy to work with. I have a carbide tipped blade and it cuts clean. I recommend cutting it outside or with some type of shop vac attached to the saw...don't want to be breathing in the fine fiberglas dust.
All of the pieces are joined together using Loc-tite polyurethane construction adhiesive and staples. I purchased some cheap adjustable bar clamps from Harbor Freight.
Note--When gluing and stapling, be sure to flip the piece over and reclamp. Once the staples are in one side, they will pull open the opposite side and leave a gap. Securing both sides with staples ensures a tight butt-joint. I recommed using thin rubber gloves when you're gluing, otherwise your hands and fingers will be black for a couple of weeks !!
I do not have a friend with a drywall panel lift, so I found one on Ebay for $140 shipped. I need to use this for removing the one-piece over-the-cab bunk section. The panel lift will hold the bunk as I unfasten it from the front wall, and also hold it for me while I remove some rotted would that is/was secured to it. The roof raising hardware is also attached to the front wall. I'm going to just tie up the front to the rafters.
At all four corners where the jacks are secrured, I wasn't sure how well the original lag bolts would hold to the synthetic material vs the original pine wood that was there. I was chatting up with my local welder friend and he recommended I have him make a steel plates with nuts tack welded to it, and fasten them to the inside of the frame walls, and use machine threaded bolts. This would keep the holes from wallowing out. He also suggested letting him modify the jack brackes to include a plate that would slip under the camper corners to help support the weight.
That'll be it for now, I'll be back very soon.
I picked up the synthetic material from Fargo, MN, and had all of the pieces cut to the widths I needed. My ittle table saw could not handle the 50" x 120" sheets. A local cabinet shop has a CNC router table and from my prints I made a material list listing all of the widths I was going to need. I then can cut the pieces to the necessary lenths with my miter saw.
Two sheets of 3/4" #30 denisty synthetic board...$50 per sheet (one heck of a great deal.)
Cutting sheets to necessary width...$75 + $25 tip.
I purchased online a Senco one inch crown stapler. It was a factory rebuild...$100, along with 5000? one inch wide 3/4" staples.
During my last post back in August 2013, I had the fiberglas walls removed and prints made. After I had picked up the new synthetic wall material, my wife's daughter decided to get married and have the whole ceremony at our house. As you could imagined, any spare time I had went to the wedding preps. The wedding was the weekend before Halloween...so it carried that theme...haunted trail and all.
Because I do not have heat in my 30 x 40 building, by the time the wedding was complete, winter started arriving and it didn't want to give up until well into May. My fingers do not work well when I have to deal with minus 30F for several months.
I currently have the back wall, the RH wall, and the front wall completed. I've got a couple of hours left on the LH wall and it too will be completed. I'll get some pictures up very soon. The material is quite easy to work with. I have a carbide tipped blade and it cuts clean. I recommend cutting it outside or with some type of shop vac attached to the saw...don't want to be breathing in the fine fiberglas dust.
All of the pieces are joined together using Loc-tite polyurethane construction adhiesive and staples. I purchased some cheap adjustable bar clamps from Harbor Freight.
Note--When gluing and stapling, be sure to flip the piece over and reclamp. Once the staples are in one side, they will pull open the opposite side and leave a gap. Securing both sides with staples ensures a tight butt-joint. I recommed using thin rubber gloves when you're gluing, otherwise your hands and fingers will be black for a couple of weeks !!
I do not have a friend with a drywall panel lift, so I found one on Ebay for $140 shipped. I need to use this for removing the one-piece over-the-cab bunk section. The panel lift will hold the bunk as I unfasten it from the front wall, and also hold it for me while I remove some rotted would that is/was secured to it. The roof raising hardware is also attached to the front wall. I'm going to just tie up the front to the rafters.
At all four corners where the jacks are secrured, I wasn't sure how well the original lag bolts would hold to the synthetic material vs the original pine wood that was there. I was chatting up with my local welder friend and he recommended I have him make a steel plates with nuts tack welded to it, and fasten them to the inside of the frame walls, and use machine threaded bolts. This would keep the holes from wallowing out. He also suggested letting him modify the jack brackes to include a plate that would slip under the camper corners to help support the weight.
That'll be it for now, I'll be back very soon.
