Floored!

This is a view we've wanted to see for two years!

We still have a zillion bolts and screws to drive down (isn't that what Sundays are for?), we have lots of other things to attend to (including the very dead battery in our tow vehicle) but our front end floor is in.

Ironically, it wasn't until Wednesday that we realized why we've been having such a hard time getting this stuff in...the 3/4" ply we used (we think it was that thickness, but remember--we bought it two years ago) was a little thicker than the old flooring material. If you notice, we've started planing edges to match. Well, we are still learning...

Our approach to installing the flooring was by partial sheet. Full sheets are a stronger option--but not always most practical for installation. For us, partial sheets were a necessary compromise: I cannot handle full sheets of plywood by myself--in this marine grade, it's just too heavy--and finally, smaller pieces are just easier to fit.

We solidified the joints by battens, strips of wood screwed underneath, mating up the new pieces to the old flooring. It's a technique we learned from other members of our unit of the Airstream club--and it seems to work. It has involved a whole lot of screw setting (and we still have a lot more to do). However, now that the new floor is down, it's feeling really solid. That's very, very nice.

Getting Floored for Easter

Two years ago, we started this job by cutting out flooring sections. Today--after putting down insulation and trimming--we set in our first flooring section back in.

But I must digress here. Insulation. Easy to cut. Annoying as all heck. Despite wearing full coverage clothing, a respirator and gloves, it left me feeling so itchy I had to jump right into the bath immediately after laying the stuff down. Ick. Thank goodness that stuff didn't go into my lungs! On the plus side, the Airstream now has a well-insulated front section (a welcome alternative to rodent poop and nut shells). Hopefully the effort will make cold nights a little warmer from here on in.

Bolting the flooring down was surprisingly laborious, but not particularly difficult. We needed to trim to get the piece to fit in, then we had to mark the location of the outriggers. Not having the access to use elevator bolts, we used self-tapping screws, setting them 3" apart (since we couldn't use the elevator bolts, we decided to set them fairly close. That means drilling lots of pilot holes and countersinking, which we took turns at. We found the countersink a slightly fiddly, since there was no effective way to gauge how deeply it went in. Rick (who drills with far more force than I do) felt he'd drilled some of his holes too deeply--but the screws still seemed to set fine. Getting the self-tapping screws to screw in--even with pilot holes--was also difficult. They were extremely wobbly. I couldn't handle this at all, but Rick managed--though that came with a few curses and retries.

There will be more bolts to set at the periphery, but we turned to attaching a batten (more screws!) and setting in the second half of the front section. Using a large sheet of cardboard to refine fit and map out the position of frame members, we raced to finalize the fit as dark fell.

Alongside that, we spent time on littler projects. Rick positioned the two new AGM batteries he purchased last week, set in the boxes and did small modifications to the trailer wiring. I scraped off old vulkem caulking and drilled out the broken rivets to clean up the old furnace hole (which we'd had covered by plastic). I don't quite know what to do there, but I will be covering it up with a new piece of aluminum. I may try placing the old radiator cover over it to disguise the patch, but that depends on whether I can pound the poor old dented piece into a reasonable shape.