Trillium 1300 Renovation

[Randy Bishop]

I covered it with marine vinyl glued over the plywood...I then ran several beads of construction adhesive over it and took 4 dead man T-post That I wraped in the scrap vinyl to keep from damaging the surface and wedged it against the ceiling...I filled the area missing fiberglass on the roof with FRP panels (FIBERGLAS REINFORCED PANELS) that you can pickup at any Lowe's or building supply store....I then drilled 1/8 holes through the fiberglas roof used a counter sink-bit on all the holes and then screwed the roof to the plywood from the top with stainless steel screws..Then fiberglassed the roof... covering all the screws and cracks and sanded it smooth and painted it...Turned out alot better than I had expected...The big help was a air file I found at a yard sale for $10.00 it really made quick work on the patches and really showed you where the fiberglass need more filling..Before I used a palm sander on alot of my fiberglass work.... when done everything was smooth but not level and straight once painted you could still see the patch at certain angles.....I used 40 grit paper until it was flat and level then used 180 grit to smooth it out... And finally 400 grit on the palm sander to finish the process you can't tell where the patch is now...........

[lhanna]

Wow......just wow! I have been on here many times but managed to miss this thread. I just can't get over how amazing this unit looks.......and how crappy mine looks now. I am a lot closer to Trillium in Calgary than a lot of you and very happy to see some parts have been put in production again so I may be able to spruce up my Lil' Darlin, but definitely not to this standard. Randy, when you are sanding, fiberglass repairing, painting, clear coating () do you do it all outside or do you have a booth? The results look flawless. Kudos to you and your "collection" and I'll be harassing you and the others soon as I will be tackling more windows and possibly repairing (trying to repair) a botched patch job from the PO. Will probably end up with a big duct tape cross and "OUCH" written above it! Thank you again for the awesome, inspiring and informative transformations.

[Roy in TO]

Nice job Randy!

I noticed that the front and rear shelves above the seats were fiberglass. Were they original in 76? The ones in my 79 are aluminum frames. I noticed that Tom @ TrilliumRV is using the fiberglass shelves on the new models he is producing. I wonder if they would fit the old trailers?

[jgoldwood]

Wow... very nice. Ever have the desire to fix up some trailers for those of us that are mechanically savvy? haha

[Randy Bishop]

Originally Posted by lhanna

Wow......just wow! I have been on here many times but managed to miss this thread. I just can't get over how amazing this unit looks.......and how crappy mine looks now. I am a lot closer to Trillium in Calgary than a lot of you and very happy to see some parts have been put in production again so I may be able to spruce up my Lil' Darlin, but definitely not to this standard. Randy, when you are sanding, fiberglass repairing, painting, clear coating () do you do it all outside or do you have a booth? The results look flawless. Kudos to you and your "collection" and I'll be harassing you and the others soon as I will be tackling more windows and possibly repairing (trying to repair) a botched patch job from the PO. Will probably end up with a big duct tape cross and "OUCH" written above it! Thank you again for the awesome, inspiring and informative transformations.

I have a buddy that has a paint booth...But on the 2 U-hauls I'm redoing now I'm using the thinned down paint/foam roller trick I read on here...I done got one in the process now got it sanded and patched up with 3 coats rolled on so far and I'm really surprised how good it's turning out...I've got to wet sand it and put 2 more coats on before I'll be done...I'll post pictures on that project in a couple of days and you can see for your self....

[Randy Bishop]

Originally Posted by Roy in TO

Nice job Randy!

I noticed that the front and rear shelves above the seats were fiberglass. Were they original in 76? The ones in my 79 are aluminum frames. I noticed that Tom @ TrilliumRV is using the fiberglass shelves on the new models he is producing. I wonder if they would fit the old trailers?

Yes those shelves are orginal...I think the 1300 have this type shelves and the 4500 have the aluminum might be wroung but thats how the ones I own are...I've got (2) 1300 with this type shelves and the 4500's are different some have one shelve and some have 2....

[David Tilston]

Randy,

What years are your trailers? The reason I ask is that many of the 1979 and later model 4500's I have seen seem to have the fiberglass seats of a front dinette, even if they have the front gaucho.

BTW: I am pretty sure you are correct about the fibreglass shelves on the 1300, and aluminum and plywood shelves on the 4500. Not all the 1300's had the shelves.

[lhanna]

This may be a dumb question but I'm still playing the "newbie" card or should I say "girlie" card?! But here goes - in all pictures I have seen of the gut jobs where the trailer has been stripped down to bare bones, everything removed except fiberglass benches, kitchen, cupboards, how do you paint these items? The pictures seem to show the ensolite still on the walls as well so I'm a little confused (edit - easily). I only ask because the interiors look so flawless. I'm not planning to redo the ensolite or trim, but I do have a bad repair on one of my benches from the original owner that I would like to tackle. I just don't know how to match it up with the rest of the fiberglass after the repair. Oh lets be completely honest, I don't even know how to do the repair but as usual just getting ahead of myself! My thought process is to tackle a little fiberglass repair on the inside before I tackle the bigger boo boo on the outside. I keep reading about a fiberglass tape? Thoughts?

[Randy Bishop]

On the ones I own and renovate I don't ever paint the interiors I scrub the "LIVING CRAP" out of them..You can buy battery operated scrubbers that helps alot...for the walls I've found that if you use bleach/water deluted 50/50 in a sprayer works best on really tough stains..Make sure you open all windows and put a fan in there the fumes are really bad..As far as all the cabinets and benches I use 600 grit sand paper and wet sand them if there are alot of rusty stains or something that can't be washed off, since they are gelcoated you can remove the outer most layer without damaging the finish then you can either leave them as is or coat with RedMax for a really good shine..

[thrifty bill]

Originally Posted by Randy Bishop

Ordered the hinges from Outback nearly a month ago but they are on back order and I don't know when I'll get them but hopefully soon can't do much with the door missing seems every time I uncover it to do some work it starts raining.. So I decided since I've installed LED's everywhere on the exterior execpt the tail lights i would tackle that problem..Since all LED tail lights are smaller than the orginals I decided to rebuild the orginals. I had a set of LED's that took off another trailer because they are so short they don't cover the orginal holes so I took them apart and married the two together so the orginals are now LED's..Here's a few pictures..I haven't installed them yet hope to do so tomorrow..

I followed Randy's suggestion and converted my DOA curb side tail light to LED. I'll do the street side next. I removed the original figure from inside the light, and replaced with a sealed LED unit. Bought a set off eBay for $12.99.

I had to trim the top and bottom a little bit to fit inside the original housings.

The really only problem was that my original lenses are in mediocre shape. So I did some gluing and did the best I could. Overall, I am pleased with them.