1975 Boler Complete Restoration....my once in a lifetime project!

[Shanos]

Onto windows.... I decided that I wanted to replace the original side and door windows with radius corner slider windows that I found at Sunview Industries in Summerland, B.C. For myself, it wasn't important to maintain the original appearance and components of the Boler and for my taste, I think the look of radius corners on the windows is more in-keeping with the curves of the Boler. The original windows needed some work and found a new home (thanks to this forum). Here's one of the new windows...

[Shanos]

The front and rear windows were not cut with straight lines, nor were they lined up well with respect to the seam between the top and bottom. I made a template from 1/4" MDF with 3 1/2" radius corners (same radius as the new side windows) and used a small router with a flush-cutting bit to re-cut the front and back windows

[Shanos]

I made similar templates for the side windows and re-cut those...

[Shanos]

Interior view of the new window cut outs....

[robeye]

I like those windows.. and the Max vent is one of my favorites.. I'm going to fill in the small vent and center a proper 14 " one.

Keeping the 13 " wheels and have ordered baby moons. I lifted the axle 2" so the smaller size works. New tires of coarse.. I like those rims... You are modernizing you boler.. that's good.. I installed one of those electronic mini fridges in the Boler.. it struggled this summer in the 30+ heat. So I'm spending $$$ on a 12 v compressor truck fridge.

[Shanos]

Now to tackle the door. Not wanting to have future cracks in the body from stress from the door, I decided to build and attach a solid frame around the door. I made templates to fit the curves on the right and left sides then glued layers of baltic birch plywood cut to match the curve of the templates (router with a flush cutting template bit). Using Proform Pliogrip urethane structural adhesive and every clamp I owned, I glued one side and the top to the body of the trailer. Clamps off...it held!! Glued on the second side and I now have a very strong frame around this opening.

[Shanos]

My original plan for attaching cabinets was to glue a number of blocks along the lay-out lines for the various cabinets. Since the angle of the walls is not consistent, I needed a way to determine the angle to make the face on the block either level or plumb. I hope the photos depict this adequately...

[Shanos]

Here's one of the blocks with a scored face to increase the surface area for the Pliogrip to adhere to...

[Shanos]

After a lot of time determining the angles, cutting and preparing the blocks, they are all in place!

[Shanos]

More pics...

[Shanos]

The plan was to adhere 1/2" polyethylene foam (recommended insulation from Escape Trailers) to the hull and then adhere a liner of some description to that foam. I found several choices for marine hull liners and got samples to check the appearance and test the adhesion to the foam. I was determined not to use a solvent based contact cement to adhere the foam and liner...just too stinky and awful! I tested the adhesion of the foam to the fibreglass and some of the liners to the foam using water based contact cement. They adhered but with enough force, could be pulled apart. Not super confident with this system but couldn't come up with any other solutions. A lot of cutting and fitting of foam and hull liner seemed to be in my future.

[Shanos]

After a bit of a break from the restoration I went back into Boler. To my dismay, I found that many of the blocks that I glued on were quite easily removed! I expect the small area of the blocks was inadequate to support against much force. Not wanting to fibreglass all of these blocks and not feeling very confident that the polyethylene foam or fabric were going to strongly adhere with the contact cement, it was time to go back to the drawing board! After further research into adhesives, here's what I came up with:
1) glue strips of 1/4" bendable plywood to the hull of the Boler with Sikaflex 252. The representative at Sikaflex assured me it would be more than strong enough for what I was doing
2) Glue 3 additional layers of 1/4" bendable plywood to the first layer using Titebond III and 23 gauge pin nails
3) Insulate with spray foam insulation between the 1" thick strips adhered to the interior
4) Use 3 mm bending plywood as panelling attached to the strips
5) Attach cabinets to the 1" thick strips

[Shanos]

The Sikaflex 252 was super strong!! As you can see, the plywood broke before the adhesive! Purchased my first 2 sheets of 1/4" bending plywood (super flexible!!). Ready to start...again. I knew there was lots of work ahead of me but I felt much more confident in the strength of the adhesive and knew that I would get better insulation with the spray foam. Adhering pieces of bending plywood wood as panelling would likely be no more work than cutting and gluing hull liner and would give me a great interior!

[Glenn Baglo]

All I can say is "Wow".

[Shanos]

The Sikaflex rep that I spoke to was extremely helpful and advised me that the fibreglass should be prepped by giving it a rough sanding and then clean with warm water and a little bit of dish soap (non-scented to avoid oils). I did that and went as far as to spray the interior to rinse it off well. That led to an unhappy discovery....more on than later. The rep also said this adhesive works best leaving it as a bead at least 1/8th" thick (i.e. don't press the strips tight to the hull). I think one of the things I most enjoy in this project (and any project), is the problem solving that is required! In order to ensure that I left a 1/8" thick bead, I cut 3/8" wide spacers from 1/8" thick baltic birch plywood that I attached to the strips of bending ply spaced approximately 3" apart. I made the spacers slightly less long than the width of the plywood strips (1" or 1 1/2"). I had elaborate plans of making adjustable length braces to hold the first layer of strips in place. On further thought, this seemed slow and cumbersome! How to get the 1/8" spacers to stick to fibreglass...
I tried double sided tape....not strong enough. What about hot melt glue?! More than strong enough (in fact it sticks really well!!) but with a very short open time, i was limited to gluing 12" long strips. That was ok! The very repetitious process began...
1) Prep 12" long strips of bending ply by nailing spacers 3" apart with 3/8" 23 gauge pin nails (my poor pin nailer owes me no favours now )
2) Apply beads of Sikaflex 252 between the spacers (I didn't skimp on adhesive). I discovered that this adhesive is so thick that a special caulking gun was required. Even with that it was very hard work to use a manual gun. No way I could do the whole trailer with a manual gun! My new best friend...a Ryobi cordless caulking gun!! Set on a very slow speed it worked awesomely!!
3) Apply hot glue to the 4 spacers per strip and very quickly press it into place pressing the spacers tight to the hull. The strips adhered very well and followed the curves of the trailer beautifully
4) Repeat over and over and over....

[Shanos]

I started with the windows. I first applied the corner pieces then filled in with straight strips between...

[Shanos]

The front and back window required more work to create a 1" thick layer with precise curves at the corners, straight lines between the corners and a smooth edge since this would be visible. I left enough space for the gasket to be installed later for the plexiglass windows. Worked carefully, lots of sanding, 2 coats of primer and I was pretty happy with results! I received a lot of assistance from my helper in the background

[Shanos]

Back to my unhappy discovery...After rinsing the inside of the trailer with a hose, I discovered water that kept surfacing in a knot hole in the plywood at the back of the trailer. I thought it would dry out with time in the warm weather but that didn't happen. After removing a small piece of the floor, I discovered that the plywood in this area had began to rot and there was a lot of water underneath! Obviously a water problem from before my washing! I couldn't leave this since it would be very, very difficult to fix down the road. I drilled small holes in the rest of the plywood floor to find any other wet areas and removed this plywood. Wasn't the most fun job but not the worst either! Help from a friend made it a lot easier!!

[Shanos]

Cut new pieces of 1/2" plywood and adhered them to the floor with lots of PL Premium adhesive. I used screws through the bottom of the trailer to pull the plywood close to the floor. After removing the screws once the adhesive was cured, I meticulously filled each hole with black Sikaflex 252 (sigh...why does everything have to be so hard?! ). Invisible repair in the end!! I applied a bead of Sikaflex to all the seams where the plywood floor met the trailer so water couldn't get below the floors in the future should there be any water issue (shouldn't be but plan for the worst ).

[Shanos]

Before laying the rest of the strips in the trailer, I wanted to place conduit to run my electrical wiring. I purchased 1/2" inside diameter, flexible plastic conduit and 3/8" inside diameter plastic waterline and adhered them to the fibreglass with hot melt glue. Worked really well! Once the foam insulation was sprayed in, this conduit wouldn't go anywhere!