B190 Enthusiasts

Looks like I haven't updated this lately, but that's partially because I haven't done much over the winter. I did manage to get a day to work on it yesterday though! Still working on removing parts of the interior so I can remove the walls and redo them to address the water damage. I managed to get both sets of upper cabinets out yesterday, and I took the bed apart. And found standing water under it (sigh). I removed the bed frame as well, so I can rebuild that.

Pictures attached!

Holy moly! I could never…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sub2RainEN wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 23, 2022 10:28 pm

Holy moly! I could never…

Yeah, that about sums it up. Ooh, I have more pictures I'll post in a bit!

What is really helpful about your rebuild is that it reveals what is behind the walls and how things come apart, and hopefully go back together!!

micabarry wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 26, 2022 8:24 am

What is really helpful about your rebuild is that it reveals what is behind the walls and how things come apart, and hopefully go back together!!

Thanks. I'm not the first to tread this path, but the others seem to do it so quickly that they aren't stopping to take pictures. I kind of envy them, honestly, because they are done with their restorations while mine plods along, but it is good documentation.

I am kind of regretting how this thread is shaping up, though - it's so long that no one will be able to find anything. I should slice it up into more useful threads.

These are from Sunday. Got the sides removed. Looks like I'm going to have to remove the wall in the bathroom, which I'd hoped to avoid, but I can't get the rear panel out with both walls in place. My plan is to remove the tub, etc., and take out that wall completely, then see if I can find a way to just loosen the other wall without removing it entirely. I'd prefer to avoid having to rewire everything...

The lower pieces of insulation will have to be replaced, which isn't surprising.

I can find three sources of water: The third brake light, the stove vent, and the cab windows. The latter one isn't a surprise to anyone, I'm sure. Ahhhhhh, Airstream what were you thinking??

Your helper looked in need of that recharge.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sub2RainEN wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 26, 2022 6:15 pm

Your helper looked in need of that recharge.

Yeah, he was pretty happy just to lounge outside like that. Wasn't even that warm. All that relaxing really wore him out.

There was a whole discussion here about insulation that I split into a separate discussion here because I felt like it deserved not to be buried in my build thread.

Installed the new third brake light today!

Tried to reinstall the window...did not go well. Removed it again. The fiberglass is a bit curved in the area, so the corners of the window were out away from the top. Gonna have to think about this. Might have to do one of my wood "frames" around the window to flatten the fiberglass in that area.

skater wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 09, 2022 6:58 pm

Installed the new third brake light today!

Tried to reinstall the window...did not go well. Removed it again. The fiberglass is a bit curved in the area, so the corners of the window were out away from the top. Gonna have to think about this. Might have to do one of my wood "frames" around the window to flatten the fiberglass in that area.

I just put the DS window back in my van this weekend. I had to frame out the surround with wood in order to provide enough resistance for the inside clamping ring to pull the window tight against the outside of the van. Same issue, first try I had a lot of gaps around the flange, once I supported the inside with wood went in fine. I also doubled up on the gasket material, you can see it on the side of the van. I'll scrape that off once I'm sure everything is water tight..

kstills wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 12, 2022 10:11 am

I just put the DS window back in my van this weekend. I had to frame out the surround with wood in order to provide enough resistance for the inside clamping ring to pull the window tight against the outside of the van. Same issue, first try I had a lot of gaps around the flange, once I supported the inside with wood went in fine. I also doubled up on the gasket material, you can see it on the side of the van. I'll scrape that off once I'm sure everything is water tight..

Does that clamping ring really help? I couldn't decide how much clamping force it can provide.

It's a paradox - you almost need the interior wall in place to do the clamping ring correctly, but you don't want to install the interior until you're sure it's not leaking. So, I think you kind of have to install the clamping ring the way you did, then be prepared to remove it when you reinstall the interior wall. I sat and pondered this for a long time and couldn't come up with another answer that made sense. Fortunately the putty will hold it in place without an issue for that short period of time - it was really hard for me to remove the window that didn't go in correctly.

For future reference, the depth from where the window edge rests against the side of the camper to the clamping ring up against the interior window frame is about 1-1/4", so the wall (shell + wood frame + interior) should be at least that thick. But, you don't want to go too much thicker than that because the clamping ring doesn't provide any trim for extra depth to hide the interior of the wall beyond what the window would cover - it's just a flat ring. Sigh.

Frustrating design. Not thrilled.

To add to my frustration, I traced the window frame that will go inside on a piece of scrap 23/32" plywood I had from another project. Then I cut along the trace I just drew, defeating the entire purpose. I'll save that for the window above the sink. Fortunately I have a full 4x8 sheet of the 23/32" plywood. I drew it out on that, but it started raining, so I stopped there.

skater wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 13, 2022 9:07 am

kstills wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 12, 2022 10:11 am

I just put the DS window back in my van this weekend. I had to frame out the surround with wood in order to provide enough resistance for the inside clamping ring to pull the window tight against the outside of the van. Same issue, first try I had a lot of gaps around the flange, once I supported the inside with wood went in fine. I also doubled up on the gasket material, you can see it on the side of the van. I'll scrape that off once I'm sure everything is water tight..

Does that clamping ring really help? I couldn't decide how much clamping force it can provide.

There was literally no way I was going to get the window flush to the outside of the van without building a secure frame on the inside and then using the clamping ring to pull the window flush to the outside of the van. I had to have my wife push up on the bottom of the window to make sure that the gap at the top corners wasn't too severe, then tighten each screw a little bit in order to draw the window against the van side. The wood support was ~3" when I needed about 2.5 in order to make sure I could pull the window into the curve I needed.

It's a paradox - you almost need the interior wall in place to do the clamping ring correctly, but you don't want to install the interior until you're sure it's not leaking. So, I think you kind of have to install the clamping ring the way you did, then be prepared to remove it when you reinstall the interior wall. I sat and pondered this for a long time and couldn't come up with another answer that made sense. Fortunately the putty will hold it in place without an issue for that short period of time - it was really hard for me to remove the window that didn't go in correctl

Well, depends. I'm framing the windows out in order to get rid of the curtains and use shades of some kind, so the wood support I'm using will become the means by which I frame these out. It will actually be easier to mount that large panel on the side of the van this way I think. I won't be into the smaller windows for another year or so, but I assume the build issues will be the same.

I should have added that I'll mount the wall over the window, then build the frame to cover the transition from the window to the wall.

skater wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 23, 2022 7:52 pm

Looks like I haven't updated this lately, but that's partially because I haven't done much over the winter. I did manage to get a day to work on it yesterday though! Still working on removing parts of the interior so I can remove the walls and redo them to address the water damage. I managed to get both sets of upper cabinets out yesterday, and I took the bed apart. And found standing water under it (sigh). I removed the bed frame as well, so I can rebuild that.

Pictures attached!
20220422_134258.jpg

skater,

Was there any insulation under the bed frame? Looks like there is an inch or two there where some could go, no?