Trillium Belly Band: is this a workable fixit?

[David Tilston]

JIM! There you go giving away all my secrets.

JOKE! No dead bodies. It is a rather large grouping of Trilliums though. Two in the driveway, and four in the back yard.

I have cleaned up a bit since you visited Jim. All the 1300's are now under the tent, and only one 4500 outside. The other two 4500's are still in the driveway.

[Carl V]

Dave,
You mentioned in post #10 "Forget about the metal plates, unless they fall out on their own. "
Did you actually just filled the crack with Bondo, leaving some or most plates in place?
I am contemplating an eventual belly band removal on my 'new to me' 5500. The band is still in place but has a silicone seal all around applied by the previous owner. I can see bumps where the metal plates are and probably have swollen due to rust, but they are very shallow and barely visible (you have to look at the right angle to see anything).

My plan would be to pull out these plates one by one like many have done here (there must be a lot of them on a 5500...), then fill the crack with short strand Bondo, sand level, and repaint. But if one can just leave them in, and Bondo/sand over them, that would save a lot of work.

[David Tilston]

The metal plates are flush with the inside surface of the shell. If you just Bondo over them, I doubt they will be a problem.

Removing them was not too tough though. I cut them in half with a Dremmel with a cut off wheel. Then pulled them out from one side, then the other, like rotten teeth. It took less then 4 hours, on a 4500, but I burnt out my cheep Dremmel.

[Colleeno]

Originally Posted by Borrego Dave

I've been invited to Trillium Heaven!! If me and the old Ford make it all across Canada, which I hear is kinda big, I will visit Dave with wings on. But I'll leave a trail of busted rivets behind so they can find me. Just in case.

[Carl V]

Ok , so I'll try to get them off first, and if some are too hard to remove I'll just leave them in there.
The trailer is leaking somewhere, as I found water in 3 corners. But I'll start with the most obvious (windows and roof vents) and see from there.
Thanks!

[David Tilston]

Originally Posted by Colleeno

I've been invited to Trillium Heaven!! If me and the old Ford make it all across Canada, which I hear is kinda big, I will visit Dave with wings on. But I'll leave a trail of busted rivets behind so they can find me. Just in case.

Across Canada? I am in Calgary. I have driven to Seattle to pick-up parts, twice. 12 hours of road time, max:
http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f...tml#post543489

Colleen, I just took a look at your public profile. Is that a 1300, or a 4500 you have? It looks like you have a 14" vent, which makes me think 1977 4500.

Attached is a picture of "Heaven". This was before the end of the worst vacation ever:
http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f...ver-60777.html
So there are only 5 trailers in my yard. Can you find all 5? Ah, it's a trick question. One is completely hidden by the tent. One is just sticking out under the tent. But, you can see my wife's bus.

[Colleeno]

Originally Posted by David Tilston

Across Canada? I am in Calgary. I have driven to Seattle to pick-up parts, twice. 12 hours of road time, max.

Colleen, I just took a look at your public profile. Is that a 1300, or a 4500 you have? It looks like you have a 14" vent, which makes me think 1977 4500.

Attached is a picture of "Heaven". This was before the end of the worst vacation ever:
http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f...ver-60777.html
So there are only 5 trailers in my yard. Can you find all 5? Ah, it's a trick question. One is completely hidden by the tent. One is just sticking out under the tent. But, you can see my wife's bus.

My Trilly is a 1980 1300 that I paid too much for. But live and learn. Your compound there really does look like Trillium heaven to me .. the little trailers have habitat, shelter, and others of their own kind. It also looks like you have ROOM to work which I have precious little of. My garage door is too small and my garage too filled with all manner of crap to ever get my Trilly in there. My driveway just fits her. We can't park it on the street without the local constabulary swooping down with tickets. So, as much as I am a Trillium hoarder at heart, I will need to limit myself to my own 13 feet. Also, as bad as I am at geography, I was aware of the general location of Calgary, but my mind is just so preoccupied with my post-retirement cross Canada journey to PEI I think all of Canada is 3500 miles away. Heck, you're within spitting distance.

What are you and your wife planning for the bus? Maybe a bed and breakfast?

[Colleeno]

A few more pics of my trailer to show some mods. The original awning got ripped to shreds in a gust of Utah wind, popped the rivets right off the roof. So I bought an EZ awning from Bus Depot and some adhesive studs from Sailright for attachment. I'll also include pictures of a bed extension platform I made that folds up for daytime storage and fits in a pocket under the permanent bed platform. (We have a small dinette in the front we keep up all the time.) So my main mods other than the front window fix, are door rehanging (I'll include pics of my home-made "hinge hatches"), new awning, bed extension, and a few other etceteras. What I need to do now is some exterior clean and shine, and actual camping in the darn thing.

[David Tilston]

My wife drives bus for First Student, (formerly Cardinal).

A front dinette Trillium is a sweet trailer.

I still say you have a 14" roof vent. Is this factory? I think some of the later 1300's got a 14" vs. a 9" vent. Handy for putting a Fantastic, or Maxxfan on, which it looks like you have.

I especially like your door hatches for the door re-hang. Any details on that?

What did you do to the front window?

[Brigitte Doyon]

He! Could somebody help me? I have bought a Trillium 4500 1978 since 2 months. I still have water in it. I have repaired cracks on the fiberglass, changed the roof hatch, changed the screws around the windows, changed the moldings around the windows, put missing pup-rivet. I just read that we should not used silicon on fiberglass and I used lot of lot of silicon everywhere. Could you tell me why I should not use silicon? I still have water under the floor and sometime in one wall. Maybe you had the same experience. Please excuse my English, this is not my native language...

[Borrego Dave]

Originally Posted by Brigitte Doyon

He! Could somebody help me? I have bought a Trillium 4500 1978 since 2 months. I still have water in it. I have repaired cracks on the fiberglass, changed the roof hatch, changed the screws around the windows, changed the moldings around the windows, put missing pup-rivet. I just read that we should not used silicon on fiberglass and I used lot of lot of silicon everywhere. Could you tell me why I should not use silicon? I still have water under the floor and sometime in one wall. Maybe you had the same experience. Please excuse my English, this is not my native language...

Hi Brigitte and welcome. As far a sealing any vents and windows you need to remove all the old butyl tape, clean it up good and use new butyl. Just changing out the screws won't do any good. Silicone is not a good idea for a good seal on fiberglass as it doesn't last all that long. Silicone is used a lot on stick built trailers but doesn't work well with fiberglass and leaves a crummy residue. BTW, a small bit of butyl under the rivet snap cap will seal them as well. Others will chime in soon.

[Brigitte Doyon]

What about the fiberglass. It has been painted and it,s not shiny. I wonder what to do whit it?

[Carl V]

Brigitte,

Is the paint just dull or is it damaged, flaking or scratched?
If it is just dull, you can simply wax it.
A popular solution is using Zep floor wax (que tu trouveras chez Home Depot).
There are a lot of threads on this forum about it, here's the main one:
http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f...ell-43004.html
Of course a thorough cleaning/scrubbing is required before waxing.

If the paint is not in good condition enough for waxing, you may consider stripping the old paint and either repainting or leaving it unpainted depending on the gelcoat surface you will uncover. In either case, a time consuming/costly job for sure.

[David Tilston]

Brigitte, We love pictures.

[Chris McVeigh]

Our belly band had gaps develop over the years and these were successfully fixed by drilling out the old affected rivets and replacing them with new 3/16th" rivets. Not as drastic as re-fiberglassing and certainly worth trying.

[SylvieK]

Originally Posted by David Tilston

The easy method would be to fill the gap between the upper and lower shells with Bondo. Forget about the metal plates, unless they fall out on their own. Sand it flat, give it a coat of paint and stick on a self adhesive belly band.

The reason I grind out the belly band is to give more surface area for the new glass to stick to. The reason I use glass is that I like the look with no belly band. Using just Bondo I would run the risk of cracking, when the trailer hits a bump. But if there is a belly band covering the seam, then no one would see the crack.

No I don't have a source for a self adhesive belly band, but they have been discussed here:
https://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/...and-66748.html
https://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/...and-49852.html
https://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/...ent-52026.html
https://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/...ion-45509.html

Hello! So you believe leaving metal plates there ok? I was wondering about this since most of my plates aren’t rusted and very tedious to grind through. I was thinking of removing the few that have rusted (max 10) and just fill the rest and ok plates in short strand bondo. Sealing off the plates this way would block off oxygen and water, therefore wouldn’t rust right? Thanks for your input on this idea.....