1973 Boler 1300 updating - Page 2 - Fiberglass RV
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Old 07-08-2019, 10:41 AM   #21
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Name: Bob
Trailer: Boler 1300
British Columbia
Posts: 204
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Frame on!

Thought I better continue documenting. Turns out getting the frame back under Lita was a little more time consuming than I expected. I guess I just figured things would line up and it would plop back into place. A little more complicated than that. Sliding the the frame back under was really no problem, but getting everything lined back up as we brought the shell back down took quite a bit of time. But with my friend Norm's assistance we slowly got it where it needed to be. And it turns out that the shell wasn't really aligned well on the frame to begin with but because I was remounting the shell to the frame through the new tabs on the frame I was drilling new holes anyway and was able to get things nice and square.

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Once the shell was back to where we wanted it I drilled new holes for the 5/16 mounting bolts. I added extra backing plates on the top side cut from a poly cutting board and used fender washers and nylon locknuts. I think that will keep things secure. I also used some closed cell foam canopy tape on the frame to give the shell to frame a bit of a cushion. We'll see how that works out.

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With the frame back under Lita I finished wiring the running lights and then tossed the furnace, house battery, some extra tool boxes and bits and pieces inside. We hooked her up and did a quick tow down to the local DOT weigh scales after hours and ran her over the scales to see what we had for weight. 550 kg (1212 lbs) all in. Which when I account for extra stuff (propane and the bumper etc) will probably have us at around 700 kg. I'm good with that!

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And she towed like she wasn't even behind the vehicle. Love it!

The finishing touch was an awesome new bumper built by my son the welder. He does really good work and the bumper was done and installed in no time. We were ready to finish the interior and get travelling.

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Old 07-08-2019, 04:42 PM   #22
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Nice work Bob!!
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Old 07-08-2019, 10:03 PM   #23
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Thanks John! I've been really enjoying this project. Got her just about done and I'm really happy with how things have turned out.
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Old 07-11-2019, 09:04 PM   #24
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Time to hit the road!

The plan was to have Lita ready for an overnight shakedown trip to Comox for a get together with family and friends on the Canada Day weekend so the push was on to get the interior ready to go. I knew that not everything would be done but figured I could make her presentable and good enough to sleep in. First was to put down the new vinyl flooring. It went in quickly with no major problems and with it all trimmed out with some custom made maple molding it looked really nice.

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Next was to spruce up the new (to me) Suburban propane heater and reinstall it. Unfortunately the PO cut a great big hole for the heater exhaust and then just covered it with a big louvered vent so something had to be done. Instead of doing some major fiberglass fixit work I got my son to TIG up a spacer out of aluminum. Looks really good and should work great.

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I needed 2 more doors. One for the front bench battery compartment and one for the spot where the previous refrigerator was and has been turned into storage. My pal Gord had some spare maple boards so we set to work. I had seen a pic on instagram of someone who had made a door/flip up table in the refrigerator section of the lower cabinet so borrowed the idea and repurposed a fold down leg from an old scrapped tent trailer. It works well and looks good. And with that we were ready to take off for the long weekend. Water and propane plumbing needs to still be done and I have to finish the closet reno but she's useable.

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Our trip up to Comox was great. Lita towed like a dream and the bed was really comfy. All in all the shakedown trip was a big success and we're looking forward to doing more. We definitely aren't finished but we're good to roll now and we love it!!

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Old 08-05-2019, 06:43 PM   #25
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Solar install

Since the last post we did another quick trip. This time out to Sproat Lake overnight and it was a good test of uphill/downhill towing. Still giving Lita a big thumbs up. When we got back home I decided to switch tracks and get the solar panels installed. I was given a couple of 40watt panels a while back and I figure they'll be a good start. I'm not sure how much power I'll use at any given time, but right now I have a 105Ah deep cycle battery and I think that'll do just fine. The LED lights onboard draw almost nothing and even when I get the water pump wired in to the system although it draws 7 amps I don't think it will be a big draw overall either. It'll be a good test.

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I was looking for a decent controller and found the Renogy Adventurer on sale at Amazon for a decent price so ordered it with the BT-1 bluetooth module for monitoring via the smartphone app. I've had some previous experience doing a solar install on my workshop so this was a quick job. My plan is to eventually fabricate a rack for the trailer tongue but right now I just have the panels on a 10 foot line so I can move them around as needed. I won't go into all the wiring as it's all pretty much been hashed over in the forum before but for anyone interested it's not "rocket surgery" and with a bit of rudimentary knowledge and care adding solar doesn't have to be a nail biting experience.

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The controller is quite nice and with the app I have all the charge data at my fingertips. The controller is in the front compartment and the display is accessible but not easily so I like that I can check things with my phone.

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So with an afternoon of work I have a decent little solar setup that can be expanded if needed. I do want to clean up the wiring so I'll be working on that tomorrow and then get back to finishing the interior stuff. Gotta have a change up every once in a while!
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Old 08-06-2019, 05:08 PM   #26
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Name: Sandra
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I really enjoyed reading the history of this project. Thanks for adding about your recent adventures. She is a beauty
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Old 08-06-2019, 05:16 PM   #27
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Thanks a bunch! She's still a work in progress but we're really pleased at how it's all come together and we're having a great time making her our own. Probably won't get the exterior painted until next spring but she's dry and comfy for now and we're enjoying the heck out of her!!
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Old 08-21-2019, 07:12 PM   #28
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Bits and pieces finished off

With the major work on Lita complete and a couple of successful road trips under our belt it's been time to move on to the smaller jobs (sort of) to get the interior and basic systems finished up so that over the winter I can deal with the exterior. Our new closet door has been waiting for quite a while to get hung and before it went up I wanted to redo the shelves and wire up the exterior porch light and second reading lamp in the dinette/sleeping area.

I ran the wiring for the porch light and reading light along the front of the step up to the dinette under the stair nosing. Just enough room and saved me a lot of wire. I wired in a light switch for the porch light on the exterior of the closet so I can turn it off and on from inside. Pretty straight forward wiring and nice to have those extra lights.

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Can't just do one project at a time so while I was doing the wiring I also pulled the shelves out and stripped the linoleum off them and the fir (I think) trim. I resurfaced the shelves with the some of the leftover laminate that I had from the countertop project and trimmed them out with some more maple. Looks nice and fresh and once I hung the closet door it all tied together and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

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The final bit of work on this section was to re-plumb the propane for the cooktop and furnace. In a previous life as a marine mechanic I had plenty of experience with propane plumbing and flaring tubing so this wasn't a tough job but the hardest part as always was getting the lines run so that there were no tight bends or kinks. After checking the fittings for leakage I fired up the cooktop and success!

I had kind of waffled about putting propane back in the trailer but it's nice to be able to boil some water for coffee in the morning without going outside sometimes, especially here on the "wet coast". Also nice to have a little heat.

I was a little concerned about the furnace. It's an older Suburban GT6-3A that was given to me by my pal Norm out of a tent trailer he had and it was replacing the older semi-functioning unit I had pulled out. It looked like it had hardly (if ever) been used but you never know about these things. I was pleasantly surprised when it fired up straight away and heated up in no time. I'm happy to have some heat for those shoulder season trips but will definitely get the CO monitor installed in short order. And I tracked down some clamps to secure the propane lines so another 10 minutes work and we were now 100% functional.

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Next on the list was replacing the front and rear window seals. They looked pretty original to me and with the layers and layers of silicone smeared all over them I knew they were going to take a bit of work. Next post
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Old 08-23-2019, 04:30 PM   #29
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Name: mikeh53
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�� I have a 1969 13 foot Boler... (similar restoration And then some)

And I have a 26 foot Magregor sailboat....

So I guess I have a double whammy on those symptoms still lots to do on both and the longer I have them more there is to do, go figure!
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Old 08-26-2019, 09:40 AM   #30
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Name: Bob
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Used to have a Vancouver 27. I hear you Mike !! Always something to do
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Old 08-26-2019, 11:05 AM   #31
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Name: Bob
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Time to do the windows

I was dreading the task of resealing the front and rear windows in Lita. But I spent a lot of time on the forum and the rest of the internet doing my due diligence before attempting it and thought I could handle it. I pretty much followed Ian G's sage advice in the end. I ordered up the WREK 1522 from Argus Industries in Winnipeg a while ago and with most of the other jobs taken care of figured I better get at it while there was still some summer left.

I started on the front window first. Window removal went smoothly and then came the task of cleaning all that old silicone that somebody slapped on with apparent abandon. I was looking around for some silicone remover and found "Silicone Buster" at the local hardware so thought I'd give it a try. Put it on. Let it sit for about a 1/2 hour and then started scraping. It actually did a pretty good job and with a couple of applications and a scotch brite pad I was done pretty quickly. There may be other better silicone removers out there but I was happy with how it turned out YMMV.

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I once again had dropped Lita off at my friend Fred's shop so that if things went sideways with the weather I would have a place to work indoors but the big day was a nice hot sunny one so outside it was. With the silicone cleaned off I first warmed up the seal in the sun and it slipped on quite easily. I figure I'd try the window install on my own and if I had any problems I could call my friend Gord. Fingers crossed. I started reinstalling the window from the bottom left. With soapy water and judicious use of some pry tools I made in advance (Thanks again Ian G.) the window was in place in about a 1/2 hour. Not bad and I could breathe again. Getting the locking strip in place took a bit longer actually but slow and steady work had it done in about another hour. Phew.

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Another day, another window. Rear window was pretty much a repeat of the first window. My friend Gord had come over and gave me a hand with the actual window install which helped and since it was a cooler day I had a bit more trouble getting the locking strip in place but I figured it was due to the cold rubber of the seal. No problem, a little bit of heat with a blow dryer and things went along faster.

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After the windows were in it was time for the leak test. I seriously hosed the front and back down and everything stayed dry inside so we were done! A great feeling!! And on our trip to Sproat Lake this weekend we didn't lose a window at highway speeds, so bonus! As far as projects go with with Lita this year that's almost it. A bit of hardware to install inside. The wine rack to finish and curtains to put up but we're leaving the side windows and exterior bodywork for the winter and doing short trips while we get the feel of travelling with Lita.
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Old 09-24-2019, 11:10 AM   #32
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Final finishing touches

With Lita being functional and having a few shakedown trips under our belt it was time to do some finishing touches and take her French Beach Provincial Park here on the Island. The Pacific Marine Circle is a route I've wanted to to do for some time so figured it would be a good first "real" adventure. But first we definitely needed curtains.

Heather had been looking around for some fabric and found a piece at the Salvation Army thrift store for $4. Too good a deal to pass up. It had a Hydrangea pattern (which for some reason I always get mixed up with Chysanthemum) and some nice complementary greens so thought it would work well. The cushions are currently still a dark pink (and will definitely be getting recovered next season) but in no time at all my sweetheart had whipped up some awesome front and rear curtains and the pink upholstery even looked okay with them.

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I wanted to get the external water system plumbed in as well. I know we could just use the external jugs as is, but really wanted to see if my combination city water/external tank combo would work for us.

I had previously purchased 2 seven gallon jugs (one for fresh, one for grey water) and a water pump. I wired in an external marine 12 volt plug in to a on/off switch on the lower cabinet. I figured I could use the plug for the water pump but also for any other 12 volt gadgets as well (compressor etc).

The water pump I mounted in a spare plastic box to keep it out of the weather and drilled it for the inlet and outlet, wired it to a 12 volt plug and then plumbed the pickup and outlet lines.

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Worked like a charm! I do have some modifications to make to the pickup but I was really pleased to have a fully functional water system to take with us.

And the final touch was to build and install the insert for the wine rack. That was a pretty quick job. The hardest part was crawling into the cabinet to get the measurements and install it but it turned out great. The plan is to use at the campsite only although I'm sure I could rig something up to keep the wine (or whatever) from flying out while travelling. I'll figure something out... On a different day.

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Oh and I almost forgot! I also built a nice little maple backsplash that covers my wire run at the back of the lower cabinet just to top things off.

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Looks good!

And it was off to French Beach. It's a small park, no services but the sites are nice. We had a wonderful stay there on the official shakedown cruise. It's not so crowded after Labour Day and we'll definitely go back.

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The Pacific Marine Circle did test us on our way to Port Renfrew though. The road is paved but pretty rough so when we arrived at Botanical Beach for a stop on the way home things were kind of flung all over the place. But the cabinet latches were solid and It's a learning experience for our next trip
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Old 12-28-2019, 12:53 PM   #33
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Cabinet support and jalousie window refurb

I haven't done a lot on Lita lately. But I thought I'd post what i have done over the last few months just for continuity. Earlier in the fall I pulled out my forge and anvil and got a little artistic. I wanted to make a support for my upper cabinet because it never had one and I had an idea to do something in a tree motif. I've already posted this in another thread but thought I'd add it in here as well since this is my redo thread. I think it turned out great and I'm really happy with it.

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With Lita safely in my friend's shop for the winter it was time to pull out the side windows to redo them. I have started with the small forward kitchen jalousie and the door jalousie. The window on the door was just fine this season, but the kitchen window had some leakage during rainstorms so was definitely in need of some help. After 46 years it was certainly time to clean up the corrosion and replace the shrunken seals. I picked up replacement seals and some other parts from Vintage Trailer Supply. Price was good and USPS shipping was not too expensive. I always have to mentally calculate the exchange when I'm ordering from the US Although FYI for those in Canada you will be charged GST/PST or HST plus a 10.00 CBSA "handling fee" when it comes across the border so there you go.

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Drilling out rivets on the kitchen jalousie was a bit of a pain but no problem. There was a lot of silicone slopped around the frame so that took some work with the silicone buster goop I'd used previously on the front and rear windows. The door jalousie had been pulled previously I think because it had #6 screws not rivets and came out easy.

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And then the disassembly, cleanup and polishing began. Let's face it, she's 46 years old and I don't have the patience (or need) to put a showroom finish on the windows but it certainly did take a while to get the aluminum frame cleaned up and polished. I started with 320/400 grit emery cloth, moved on to 0000 steel wool, and then finished off with aluminum polish. All in it probably took me about 5-6 hours per window with disassembly, cleaning and reassembly (second window of course went faster). I took it slow because I did NOT want to try and replace any broken bits.

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While I was replacing the seals I also replaced the little plastic doohickeys for the arm, the internal screws and nuts and one of the crank arms. Everything from VTS worked great and I'm really happy with them. I also put in new bug screens.

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I've only reinstalled the window in the door but she's looking pretty sharp. I'm trying to decide if I'll go back to rivets for the kitchen jalousie or change to ss machine screws with nylocks. I'm leaning toward the SS screws I think and will get on it this week.

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The rear jalousies will come out next and they need a little bit more work. One broken pane, wonky crank actuators and the seals of course will be on the list. Good thing Lita's still in the shop

Bottom line for me on redoing jalousie windows - Go ahead and do it. Skill level beginner. No special skills particularly required and no special tools. Replacement seals and parts are available. Just take your time.
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Old 01-08-2020, 03:52 PM   #34
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Trailer: 1974 Trillium 13 ft
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Did you research or decide what you will get for a new cooktop?
I have Trillium and need to replace mine.
Thanks!
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Old 01-08-2020, 04:02 PM   #35
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Name: Bob
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Hi Sandy! I put a new 2 burner propane cooktop back in. Got it off Amazon and since I was installing a new countertop wasn't bothered with making the old hole fit, just cut a new hole. I did have to redo the propane line to it because the fitting was at the rear of the new cooktop versus the front of the old one.
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Old 01-08-2020, 04:53 PM   #36
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Trailer: 1974 Trillium 13 ft
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Thank you- That was quick!
I saw from the photo that it’s a FlameKing. Any special reason you chose that? I haven’t begun researching cooktops yet, so I’m not sure what I need to care about, other than the existing countertop hole.
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Old 01-08-2020, 05:14 PM   #37
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Name: Bob
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You've just happened to catch me when I'm doing some online time in between projects

It seemed like a decent stove at a decent price and so far has worked fine. For the amount we actually use it (AM coffee mostly) I figured it would do us. Had to play a bit with the alignment on the mounting screws for the stainless top but I'm okay with it. I like having a smaller and a larger burner too.
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Old 01-08-2020, 06:09 PM   #38
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Sounds good. Coffee and maybe a little wash up water is about all I need too. Thanks so much for sharing all the great information.
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Old 02-17-2020, 01:06 PM   #39
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Curbside jalousie window refurb

My big jalousies are in serious need of some love but I started with the curb side because it needed the most work. Broken pane of glass, wonky crank operator and the seals were in pretty nasty shape.

I wasn't sure how long it would take to clean it up and get everything replaced and back together but let me say it's taken a lot longer than I had anticipated. Most of the delay was because I had to wait for parts since I wasn't sure what it might need until it was out. Also since these windows are not easy to find I did NOT want to break anything I couldn't fix

Drilling out the rivets and removing the window took me about a half hour and went pretty smoothly. At this point it didn't seem like it would take too long.

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Disassembling the window into its components didn't take too long either. I did use a bit of heat initially to help break the screws loose. I was being a bit paranoid. Shoutout to Ian Giles for his great Youtube disassembly video.

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The frame was pretty darn grungy so the lions share of the work involved was to get it cleaned up and shined up. And to get rid of all the silicone that was slapped on it. Arrgh!! Once again the process was to not necessarily get it to showroom quality. I initially cleaned the parts with an SOS scrubbing pad. Some of the more corroded pieces got and extra workout with some 320 grit emery cloth and then gave them all a final buff of 0000 steel wool and then a hand buffing with some aluminum polish.

Once the frame was cleaned up, I replaced the seals and gaskets and actuator (got seals and gaskets from vintagetrailergasket.com and vintagetrailersupply.com - crank operator from campingtreasures.com) and slapped the frame back together. It was looking nice!! And I've made sure to document my part numbers for future reference!!

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With the frame back in place it was time to replace the broken pane of glass.
Doing the glass frame disassembly I found that the manufacturer used 1 1/2 inch mild steel self tapping screws on the bottom of the frame and even with some extra heat the heads just twisted off.

Luckily the way the aluminum components are made the the screws go into a channel and I was able to use my angle grinder and thin cutoff blade to carefully split the portion of the screws left in the channel and lever the pieces out. This allowed me to replace the screws easily once i got the pieces out. I will admit my son the welder suggested cutting the screws in half so credit where credit's due. It was still nerve wracking and I really took my time.

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I couldn't get 3/32 glass from our local glass shop. They're all in metric equivalents so got a 2.8mm piece and crossed my fingers. It worked just fine and in no time at all I had the glass back in the frame with a fresh gasket and was ready to reinstall the glass back in the window and get it ready to go back in Lita

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I haven't installed the window yet, although I have done a test fit and it looks awesome!!

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I'm going to leave the window out for a bit longer as that will make it a one man job for me to re-rivet the closet. Also I still have to figure out some interior trim changes (I think I'll get rid of the aluminum trim). I think I've decided that I'll be using SS machine screws and nylock nuts to reinstall the window. Just in case I need to take it out again or maybe the next owner 30 years from now

I think the next window will take a lot less time. I've found some good processes and i know where some of the pitfalls are.

I think for this project I'd give it a 5/10 for difficulty. No real special tools needed if it comes apart okay. Just a lot of time to clean it up. Although if you do have the crappy screws twist off then that'll require extra time and energy.

On to the next window now!!
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Old 03-02-2020, 04:30 PM   #40
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Name: Bob
Trailer: Boler 1300
British Columbia
Posts: 204
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Raspberry Pi media center

As a sort of side project to get me away from the nuts and bolts of Lita's renovation I decided to install a media center in her. You know for those days when you just want to hang out inside, read a book, watch the rain fall and listen to music (we do live on the wet coast) or maybe watch a movie.

Since I'm a retired IT guy (and a bit of a geek) I decided I was going to base it around a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ which is a nice little low powered computer that runs on the Linux operating system.

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For media center software I chose OSMC. Now I won't go into all the details of the setup but it did take me quite a bit of fiddling around with the OS and various system modifications to get it to where I wanted to be. The thing that took me the most time to work around was getting my bluetooth speakers connected and stable. But I did succeed so now as long as the speakers are within range (inside or out) we're good.

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With the system finally configured and operational I had to decide where to put the unit.

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I picked up a little 11.6 inch HDMI monitor/TV from Amazon that is really a sweet little unit and set it up on a swivel bracket mounted on the closet. We usually keep the dinette down so this seemed like a good place for it. It also allowed me to install a power switch and terminal block so that the monitor and media center both power up when the switch is on.

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The system is powered by 12V from my main fuse panel and draws a total of about 2.5 amps. 1.5 for the monitor and 1 for the pi. If I just want to listen to music I can turn the monitor off once it gets rolling to save some juice. And I control it with a little portable keyboard/mouse unit.

The Raspberry Pi and wiring is inside the closet and will be permanently mounted once I figure how I want to do it but it's working great. All my music and videos are on a removable USB stick and can be updated as needed and I can easily remove the pi if I want to do any software upgrades or can do them in place if there's wifi.

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Haven't taken it on the road yet but I think it'll do just fine.

As a project I would say it was about a 6 or 7 mostly because of the configuration needed to get it to work. The Linux OS is not like working with MS products.

The actual physical install and wiring was pretty straightforward and actually the monitor I got has a USB port and onboard media player that you can use (as well as a TV input) if you don't want to mess around with the whole media center thing.

All in all a fun break but with the weather warming up I'm back to the windows and fiberglass. I'm having a whole lot of fun making Lita our own little home away from home and getting twitchy about getting back out there
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