Well, after 2 weeks of putting every spare minute I had into it, the interior is done! Well...done as in back together. Naturally I have a few ideas and um....I'll tell you later, my wife is coming!



Just kidding, she's been a real sport about all the time I've spent on this.

I've ground out the rotten patches of flooring which fortunately were pretty small and patched them, and the floor has been shimmed up and supported just as it was when it came out of the factory. Then I put in 1/4' subflooring plywood to make up for the lost height of the carpeting compared to the lino I was putting in and to provide a nice smooth new surface for the glue. Then I put in the new tiles, opting for a stripe pattern instead of the checkerboard I had origionally planned. The floor was then edged using a vinyl weatherstripping tape in dark brown that I glued to the floor and cabinets with contact cement. It is very thin stuff and will do for now but if it doesn't wear well I'll replace it with thin oak 1/4 round next year. The weatherstripping looks good though. I chose it over normal baseboard simply because I couldn't find a vinyl baseboard that wasn't way too big for such a small interior. Picky huh?

The electrics have all been checked and the fan over the furnace repaired along with a few lights that needed rewiring. I still need to find some new light lenses for the ceiling lights but haven't had any luck matching them. I expect I'll end up replacing them with new fixtures instead.

The carpet on the stairs was steam cleaned, which took an hour and a half before I was satisfied. The main floor carpet was torn out and tossed as being beyond recovery. The seat covers were steam cleaned and aired, all the curtains were washed by hand and aired and the venetian blinds were hand washed and rinsed. Also replaced was the origional mattress which was pretty musty smelling. Then the entire interior was washed down and polished before putting all the bits back in.

All this done in a plastic shell in 30 to 35 degrees celcius! So...I lost lots of weight and um..any crooked cuts are to be blamed on my frequent breaks for cold beer.....


Anyhow...to see the photos just click on my Flickr account link below...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stillwtrs-pho...57600931270334/

I hope that works... there are too many photos to post here, and they are large. Feel free to browse my other photos while you're there.

The trailer is now usable again and I will be taking it for a week long vacation to Sylvan Lake by myself on the 27th to relax and try it out. Of course I still have much to do on the exterior but I will be doing that over an extended period of time. So far on the exterior I've cleaned the roof and replaced both caps on the stack vents and re-caulked everything up there. Also replaced all the front clearance lights, fixed the light over the hitch and will be replacing all the rear clearance lights this weekend. It will be ready to go on the road after that and I'm looking forward to taking it on a short trip to the lake where I'll have a long and much needed rest.

Scott:

Congrats but I can't see the pix. I think you have to make them public.

CindyL

What kind of lights? I replaced all the lights in my 1979 1700 and still have all the old lights. You're welcome to them if they'll help you.. They're the rectangular flat fixtures with square white "lenses".



Congratulations. It feels great to use the trailer after putting all that work in. We just finished the second trip after practically gutting the interior of ours.

Cindy, I'm not sure why they didn't show up. I made all the photos in my account public last night. - Edit... Just rechecked and my main setting of private was still on, Oooops!
Thanks Cindy!

Can anyone else see them?
....................




Herb, those sound like these ones and I'd love to have them. Mine all work but every lens is either cracked or missing. Can I ask why you replaced yours?

Hi Scott, lookin' good! I had no problem viewing your photos. Your other photography is amazing too by the way! Looks like you've got it all livable now!


Tell us now, tell us now! We want to know!



I will keep my 's open for you on the hwy that day. Enjoy your week at the lake!

pic's look great and you have done a wonderful job and earned a rest. Ruth & Jim

Good job Scott! It looks wonderful!

PM me with your address and I'll stick them on the grey dog or parcel post... I'll take some pictures first and you can confirm before I ship them.

I replaced them because they were all yellowed, and the switches on some of them were flakey and I didn't feel like putting the time into them... So I bought some $13 truck dome lights that I think look/work better...

You can see a sample in this picture:

http://www.beer.org/gallery/Boler17-refresh/IMG_5443

Under the storage compartment above the window is a double version of this light... Is that what yours are?

Edit: looking at your pictures, I think mine are different lights. Yours are more 'modern' I think and the lenses likely won't fit. But you're still welcome to them. btw, your trailer looks awesome.

You can get new lenses at the RV store, if you don't get these. Penny, TX

I know exactly what you mean.

AWESOME results so far...

Herb, you are right those are definitely different from the ones in my trailer. But.. Thank you very much for your offer. It was kind of you.

I have seen some in RV stores that are very close to what I have, eventually I'll replace the three fixtures with new ones.

I painted the frame and wheels today. What a difference that makes! Tomorrow I'll be installing the new rear clearance lights and the wireless rear camera, then giving the trailer a good exterior wash.

Looking over the outside I see I need a new lens cover for the door/porch light. I may try my hand at making one sometime. Also when I put the spare tire cover back on I see it is dried out and badly cracked, I barely got it back on. I'll miss the Bigfoot logo but I think I'll try and pick up a nice dark brown one to replace it soon.

Thanks again for your kind offer!

Scott

Scott, you did a great job! This is reading like a how-to for our new-to-us Bigfoot 5th-wheel, which probably needs a lot of the same repairs and more. This is just what we needed, for not only your how-to tips but also for inspiration to tackle our project, which is a bit intimidating at this point. Before we start tearing apart the floor, we have some questions.

What year is your Bigfoot? Ours is a 1984 and we are guessing yours is slightly newer because it looks very much the same except for the fabric and shower enclosure.

What did you use to grind out the damaged floor? What did you use to fill in the damaged floor area?

Is the shower enclosure a one-piece unit or are the shower walls separate from the floor pan?

When you installed the toilet, did you have to modify the toilet flange?

Did you have to make any repairs to the fiberglass on the roof or by the hitch light? We have a gaping hole where the light used to be!

Thanks for your help!

Maureen & Chris

Wow, Scott! Nice job!

Your family may come around. I never camped before we got our Burro last summer. Now we are on our second trailer, and I am sitting out here next to Rocky Mountain National Park again, thoroughly enjoying it. Our campground is spacious, surrounded by mountains, and visited by friendly muledeer and hummingbirds. Of course, the air conditioning is on; I am on my laptop; we just returned from antiquing; I am enjoying my glass of wine; and planning to watch the DVD tonight. We don't call it Howie (Hotel on Wheels) for nothing.

CindyL

Hi Scott,

Congrats on all your hard work. The BF looks great!

We attended Prairie Bolerama this weekend and there was a BF in attendance like yours. I was wishing that we would have taken ours, but maybe next year.

Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Brenda Novakovski

Thank you Maureen. Mine is also an '84.

I used a grinding stone on a 1/2" drill to get the rotten spots out of the plywood floor. Just ground until I got dust instead of pulp. The dips left behind I filled with two part expoxy glue and let it set up. I was lucky in that the water damage was much less than I had thought from the springy floor. That springy/soft feeling was mostly due to missing rubber shims between the frame and the fiberglass bottom. An easy fix. The new floor plywood was put in using contact cement and wood screws. The floor no longer flexes or squeeks, which really pleased me.

The shower enclosure is a one piece unit.

I didn't modify the toilet flange, but I would have had to put some sort of extension in if I had moved it up the the level of the new flooring. Instead I cut the new floor sheets to go around it and sealed the tile to toilet edge with brown silicone. I was able to get away with that because for some odd reason the flooring in the bathroom was all good, just water stained. Very strange considering the toilet was the source of the leak which had caused the floor damage. I can only assume that the trailer was parked most of the time with a significant tilt which caused the water to drain out to the main room and get trapped in the low spot where the floor had sagged.

I haven't had to do any fiberglass repair yet, however I see a few rocks have punched small holes in the lower front by the the frame which I will have to repair.

If you do a search on the forums here for fiberglass patching you'll get all sorts of great info! I'd think it would be simplest just to fiberglass over the hole where the hitch light was. Personally I doubt I'll be hooking up in the dark that much....

Post some pictures of your work as you go, I would enjoy seeing it and learning more myself about these things.

Thanks so much for your help, Scott. Chris has done some fiberglass work before for our old 17' Bigfoot, but never a gaping hole! Regardless, I'm sure he will be able to fix it and it will be as good as new. We did find some good fiberglass repair tips on this forum when Chris did the work on our old trailer. Everyone on this website is so helpful! We'll post some pictures soon.

Maureen

Scott, that's beautiful work! Now you can go out and enjoy your rig.

--Peter

Maureen, you and Chris will do fine. If Chris can build a garage, he can fix a trailer.

--Peter

Thanks Peter!

I had to laugh last night, I caught my wife out showing off the trailer to her best friend. I think she's taken a liking to it, either that or she enjoys having me out of the house all evening working on it...... Hmmmm??

Awe, that's so cute, the Bigfoot has officially won her over!