What have I done.

[Martha D]

Thanks for your thread. I got my 1983 Casita in January and I’m getting ready to take off the shag carpet off the walls and floor carpet up. Will be making a todo list once I start working. I know that I want to update the vent and evidently set up solar system.
Any tips? Besides me calling my son-in-Love.

[mary and bob]

Jake; most of us Uhaul owners use elevator bolts through the floor to tabs on the frame. Elevator bolts have a large flat head that will set flush on the floor. They are not a rounded head like a carriage bolt. Might be a good idea to use stainless steel bolts. Elevator bolts were factory original in the Uhauls but they were steel and many have rusted away to almost nothing where they pass through the floor.

[Tom Haberski]

This may be useful. "Rookie versus 1990 Casita", on this forum. A NC fella did major work on his rig. Several others have done what you are doing. Worth the effort to deep research and learn what you can. I re-worked on a 1996 16' LD Casita, but didn't post much.

Bon voyage

[Jaketheplumber]

Originally Posted by Martha D

Thanks for your thread. I got my 1983 Casita in January and I’m getting ready to take off the shag carpet off the walls and floor carpet up. Will be making a todo list once I start working. I know that I want to update the vent and evidently set up solar system.
Any tips? Besides me calling my son-in-Love.

Hi, Martha! I highly recommend Removing the carpet. The difference without it is night and day. I have completely gutted the entire trailer. Removing the carpet went a long way to making it feel clean and fresh. Get a good respirator ($40) and a long sleeve turtle neck. Go hard!
If you want to fully remove all the carpet you will need to pull the cabinets, benches, kitchenette, shower walls and pan. They basically carpeted the entire shelll before installing anything.
It’s a big job. Also, You will need to find something to replace the carpet with. I chose reflectix for insulation and a synthetic white leather to re-line the walls with. Gets expensive pretty quick. Vent fans are easy and fairly inexpensive.

[Jaketheplumber]

Originally Posted by mary and bob

Jake; most of us Uhaul owners use elevator bolts through the floor to tabs on the frame. Elevator bolts have a large flat head that will set flush on the floor. They are not a rounded head like a carriage bolt. Might be a good idea to use stainless steel bolts. Elevator bolts were factory original in the Uhauls but they were steel and many have rusted away to almost nothing where they pass through the floor.

Thank you! This is a great idea. I am welding tabs this weekend and will take a look at these. I was thinking of notching the vinyl floor planks to clear the bolt heads but a flat head sure would minimize the work!

[Jaketheplumber]

Originally Posted by Tom Haberski

This may be useful. "Rookie versus 1990 Casita", on this forum. A NC fella did major work on his rig. Several others have done what you are doing. Worth the effort to deep research and learn what you can. I re-worked on a 1996 16' LD Casita, but didn't post much.

Bon voyage

Thanks, Tom.
Funny, I have about fifteen hours on the webs and only about ten in the trailer I’ll check out that thread now.
I’ll update the progress pics tonight. Right now my largest concern is what to do with the bathroom. No grey tank and pan is a mess. Can’t find a new one so am looking at fitting a cassette style toilet.

[Tom Haberski]

Here's the thread of a major reconstruction of a Casita that I earlier mentioned. A simple search of what I gave you didn't come up with anything. This should.







http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f...ead-75022.html

[Martha D]

I’m going to start pulling the carpet out this weekend and yes I will be replacing something back onto the walls but that’s still in the deciding stage. How hard is it to take the cabinets and benches out for someone without skills? Luckily I don’t have a bath to deal with.

[Jaketheplumber]

Originally Posted by Martha D

I’m going to start pulling the carpet out this weekend and yes I will be replacing something back onto the walls but that’s still in the deciding stage. How hard is it to take the cabinets and benches out for someone without skills? Luckily I don’t have a bath to deal with.

It’s pretty involved. I would not say the removal is terribly difficult. It’s the carnage you leave behind that may get brutal.The dinette benches will come out super easy. They are designed to for easy access to the water storage tank and water heater etc. the kitchenette is a real PIA bc the original fridge is rivited in. And you will need to disconnect the stove from the gas feed, the drain from the sink, the water from the faucet and the electrical from the panel.
The overhead kitchen cabinet and door-side closets are a breeze. I had the trailer completely gutted in under three hours. It was the shower enclosure and pan that added two hours and a second day to the equation. The carpet is backed with cheap foam that turns to a fine dust when you start to separate it from it’s 35 year old partner. It is glued to the FG with contact cement that I’m pretty sure is from another galaxy. It seems impervious to all tools and grinders known to mankind. It was referred to me here that a cupped, twisted wire wheel on a 4-1/2” grinder works great for removal and it Does! However you need to be careful not to cut into the glass fibers too much. If you do, an acetone bath and a top coat of resin should be brushed over these raw spots.
Everything on the early Casitas is held to the FG walls with rivets. These will need to be drilled out. Mine had just under two hundred! If you size your drill bit properly
(I had three different size rivets) and keep your holes from blowing out, than I suppose you could try to line everything back up and reuse these holes with new rivets.

I would be more concerned with what you are going to find while you’re there. Any 1983’ Casita has developed some serious funk. There is a really, really good chance the floors may be rotten like mine were. I had giant holes in the FG floor and side walls at all corners. These may not be apparent now and may not even be issues you need or intend to fix, but once you open that can, it can be difficult to work around those worms.

All the tear down threads I have read, even the ones that say “Newbie” or “Novice” in the title, all seem to have pretty good mechanical understanding and seem to have and know how to hold a tool. They are all very helpful, but always seem to leave out the parts it would seem to me would be the hardest for a novice. Same holds true to home remodel and DIY shows on tv. You see them demo a bathroom and put it back together in a couple days. What you don’t see is the stream of plumbers, tile guys, flooring, electricians and painters they have lined up in the front yard.
I am a contractor and have a fairly broad skill set I’m starting with. I also have a shop and just about any tool you could need. This project is kicking MY butt and I remodel bathrooms for a living. It will eat the next two months of weekends and cost ~$7500 by the time I’m done. I would highly recommend you do it, but also recommend that you maybe read up some more and see if it’s something you really want to tackle.
If you really only want to remove the carpet than maybe consider starting in the back area around the bed frames, and cutting around the cabinets that are riveted down. Or maybe just start with the door. I think you will know real quick if you will want to continue down the path. If you do it will be super rewarding.

Something to consider though is that the finished walls should not be a secondary thought. The insulation is important for more than just retaining/deflecting cold and heat. It also acts as a moisture barrier and helps control condensation that will destroy your trailer. The carpet was good at absorbing this moisture and when it’s gone...

consider REFLECTIX. it’s relatively inexpensive, easy to install, works great as moisture barrier and is available at all the big box stores.

This forum and its members are extremely helpful. You should start a thread and keep us posted.

Best wishes!

[Jon in AZ]

Excellent post and summary of the issues involved! Should be mandatory reading for every newbie.

[Jaketheplumber]

Wow. last two weekends were pretty much useless. Rain and cold and working with Vinylester that just does not want to set up in anything under 70°!! I tried mixing at 1.5% but it kicked fast and starts to gel in about 5 minutes. If I was better at math I’m sure I could calculate a better mix but there was plenty of other things to keep me busy.
I’ll post some pics and some basic descriptions in the following posts. Basically, I get going and forget to snap shots along the way. I was able to make templates for the floors for the inside radius with some old office carpet I had lying around. Every damn corner was different. Love this technique. Press the carpet firmly into corner and trace your lines with a very sharp box knife. Done.
I was able to get the entire floor covered with three pieces. I used 15/32 (1/2”) clean ply. For now I’m using it so I can tramp around inside and make fiberglass floor repairs w/o having to kneel on the old brittle glass. Since it’s not bolted down yet I’m able to pull the larger pieces out when I need to work under them and use smaller pieces of scrap as catwalk. It’s a little sketch, as ALL the original floor bolts are removed so the shell is just floating on the trailer now. When I’m done with the trailer and floor repairs I’ll seal the ply and bolt it down. For now it’s just perfect being able to remove when needed.

I have ordered four scissor jacks and will eventually weld these to the frame but for now I’ll use these to lift the shell so I can pull the trailer out and start welding some tabs.

Today I had 1 hour only and needed to do something...ANYTHING.
So I started on some of the 209 holes around the shell that need filling😳. Actually, I made about 30 more holes first. I figured I won’t be reusing the lights or water fill so I pulled those out. Removed the spare tire and ground down every hole on the back and passenger side that was not still being used. Boatworks! Thanks for that referral! That guy has been instrumental. I made sure to donate a little to his channel.
I used some milled glass and some Micro balloons mixed with the vinylester resin. Made a thick peanut butter and went to town. This went fairly quick but then ground to a hault when the resin refused to set up. It was about 5pm with sun behind house. Starts to cool just a few degrees and the resin stays too tacky to sand. Hopefully tomorrow it will warm up again and I’ll be back in business. For now here are some pics from last weekends progress. Basically just lots of foam sanding and a bunch of glassing. Oh, and floors!!!

[Jaketheplumber]

Top left is the huge crack on the roof above the rear window.
Top right photo shows one of two huge cracks in the floor, just to the front of the step leading to the dining area.
Both got two layers of Chop strand mat (CSM) and then a layer of cloth, then two more layers of CSM. The entire step, up and over and about 1 foot to either end! It’s so strong now. Feels like cement. I stand on it no problem. Can you imagine if the whole build was this strong ��

[Jaketheplumber]

Here’s some pics of the new wood

[Dan-NS27]

Originally Posted by Jaketheplumber

Wow. last two weekends were pretty much useless. Rain and cold and working with Vinylester that just does not want to set up in anything under 70°!! I tried mixing at 1.5% but it kicked fast and starts to gel in about 5 minutes. If I was better at math I’m sure I could calculate a better mix but there was plenty of other things to keep me busy.

I've worked with vinylester resin before on a boat project. Helps to have a digital scale to measure it out. I set my scale to ounces and figured out the ratio between resin/hardener was 80:1 to get the 1.25% that was called for. Had some set quickly on really hot days but never really changed the mix.

[JAsanchez2014]

Good luck with the project, love the vintage Casita logo.

[Martha D]

Hi Jake!! I took the plunge and got all the visual carpet off the walls and ceiling. The rug and foam is off but the glue is still attached. I decided not to take out the cabinets. To do this weekend is pulling the rug off of the floor and see what needs to be done.. Slowly it’s getting there. Maybe so shopping.

Question? I read that the Reflectix needs to have air pockets around it to do a decent job. With it against the wall would it still do an accurate job?

Thanks for your tips.

[Jaketheplumber]

Originally Posted by Martha D

.
Question? I read that the Reflectix needs to have air pockets around it to do a decent job. With it against the wall would it still do an accurate job?...

Good job on tackling that carpet! Feels a bit cleaner in there now eh?
Don’t worry too much about the Insulating properties of the Reflectix. It’s still as good and probably much better than carpet. Even without a gap it should provide about an R-1.5 . But you are not really using it for this purpose. Here we are using it as a vapor barrier of sorts. It will block and stop condensation from accumulating inside the cab as it buffers the difference between Inside temp and Outside temp. This typically happens when sleeping inside on a cold outside night. Or when cooking inside and the inside temp increases greater than the outside. That’s when condensation will form and that moisture will seep to the floors.
Use plenty of 3M90 spray adhesive to seal it to the F glass walls and it will not condensate on the inside of the foil.

I did not worry about removing the carpet glue as it’s epoxy based and seems to be fused pretty nicely to the F glass.
Also, I ended up using a pressure washer to remove the foam pad remnants and it was clean and fast. But this is NOT a good idea for you with a partial
Interior and sub floor still intact.

If you want to coat the walls to kill any lingering smells you should check out “Kilz Adhesion”. Kilz is a popular primer and now has a pretty amazing line up of new formulas. The “Adhesion” flavor supposedly will stick strong to smooth surfaces including Glass so it should be great for directly over un-sanded F Glass. Or just go straight to reflectix.

Any idea what your finished wall surface will be? I’ve been pricing out pricy vinyl. Looks killer and can manage the contours easily but it’s $$$

[ststefan]

Question? I read that the Reflectix needs to have air pockets around it to do a decent job. With it against the wall would it still do an accurate job?

[ststefan]

I think the air space being tslked about are the air in the bubbles of the reflectix.

[Jaketheplumber]

To achieve maximum efficiency they recommend using air gaps between surfaces and layers of the material. But they also say that it can achieve 95% thermal block in garage doors when installed flush.