Coast Resorts Open Roads Forum: Avion truck campers

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Topic: Avion truck campers - Hundreds of photos

Posted By: JoeChiOhki on 11/19/11 07:19pm

Avion C-11, what brand of fiberglass resin mix is that and what kind of temperature range does it need to cure?

I need to repair my fiberglass truck fender, which means I'm likely going to need to put a couple layers of cloth in to strengthen it where its been broken, but the weather has gotten cold and for the most part, damp.

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Posted By: Avion C-11 on 11/19/11 07:28pm

JoeChiOhki wrote:

It is West System 105 with 206 hardener and normal glass. With 206 the temp range is 60-100F but with 206 hardener it's good down to 40.

Here's the chart: http://www.westsystem.com/ss/cold-temperature-bonding/

Happy Camping!

Avioncamper.wordpress.com

Posted By: JoeChiOhki on 11/21/11 10:53am

Avion C-11 wrote:

JoeChiOhki wrote:

Thanks, I shop around and see if anyone here carries the West System epoxy products [emoticon]

, got the fender partially glued back together today and reattached to the anchor points. Had to use my heat gun on low to warm the surface and epoxy enough to get it to actually cure, next step will be to sand down the area and coat in some more material and layer some cloth down to reinforce it.

Posted By: garryk6 on 11/22/11 05:03pm

Well Avion builders... Avion's are built tough!! We'll put together a trio report when we get back, but they are great!!!

Garry K
Wife + 4 kids
Retired Military Family.... Alway's on the move....
2002 F350 CCSB 5.4 6spd 4x4 in AK
1966 Avion C-10 Truck Camper

Posted By: garryk6 on 11/22/11 05:42pm

Well, what I wanted to say, with 22ft seas on the ferry, snow and ice covered roads. sub-zero temperatures, and the Avion is doing better than I expected. I am sooooo glad I added the extra insulation, and wish the weather/wind had cooperated to allow the camper to come off to get the insulation in the floor... But other than that, it's doing pretty well.
Well back to the adventures!! with the family!!
Garry

Posted By: Avion C-11 on 11/25/11 06:45am

Hey guys, I'm getting a lot of work done on mine this holiday and weekend. I'll post some pics later in the weekend but was interested if any of you have thoughts on how to clean up the anodized aluminum. What are your plans for doing that?

Posted By: ticki2 on 11/25/11 09:11am

garryk6 wrote:

Glad to hear you are enjoying your vacation and the Avion even with the extreme conditions . Looking forward to your full report when you return. I'm sure it will help all of us to know which areas need attention for cold weather use . My last time out the nights were in the high 20's and noticed some condensation at the bottoms of the aluminum walls , especially in the lower cabinets . Looking into a computer fan in there for air circulation . Happy Thanksgiving and safe trip home .

'68 Avion C-11
'02 GMC DRW D/A flatbed

Posted By: ticki2 on 11/25/11 09:21am

Avion C-11 wrote:

The best thing I have found so far is some aluminum cleaner for my pressure washer . The instruction say to dilute 5:1 with water . I use an old windex bottle to spray it on , then scrub it with a car wash brush , then let it sit for 5 or 10 min keeping it moist with a fine spray from the hose . Rinse thoroughly . Not perfect but I was very pleased with the result . Did not harm any of the plastic and came out fairly uniform . This doesn't clean the caulking just the aluminum . For the blackness on the caulking joints I have found that Spray 9 does a good job . Let us know what you find works .

Posted By: garryk6 on 11/25/11 12:42pm

Well we got a room last night on a cancelation, so the kids got to spread out, and since we are on base, they have plug ins for the cars and trucks, so since the truck doesn't have a block heater, I backed the TC up to the pole, and plugged it in. So far the icing areas are at the lower areas where the interior aluminum meets the plywood in the overhead bunk, at the floor levels, and at the dinette. I had some loose reflectix that we would put up against the wall that the table hooks to at night. It helped keep the kids warm, but because it wasn't sealed to the wall, the moisture in the air got behind it, and we had a whole wall that was iced up. Also I have some ice around the back door frame down low. Anywhere I have screws going through the floor and are exposed, they are iced up. I will definitely be adding insulation to the floor, and I need to figure out how to add insulation to the inside walls that looks nice around the cabover lower walls and at the wall of the dinette. Still taking notes of how it all works. So far the Wave 3 has been keeping the inside of the camper "warm" with the rear top vent cracked all day while we have been driving around Anchorage. The outside temps have varied between 4F and 14F during the day, and the camper has been around 60F or so when we stop in the evening. The electric has been doing about the same during the night. But when you can run both, when we are all in the camper in the evening, we can actually heat it up to 75 to 80. The problem then becomes that you start to melt the ice that has formed on the vents, windows and ceiling. We had to put some reflectix to seal off the vent above the cabover, so we wouldn't get wet..., but the rear vent I taped 2/3 of the opening up with the reflectix leaving the aft end open so the air goes the shortest distance and doesn't melt all the ice. We will definitely have some clean-up when we get home, but home has been in the teens too!
Well going to take the family out shopping, so have a great friday and weekend! We are supposed to be getting another 4-6 inches of snow here in Anchorage, and the same down the Kenai penninsula to Homer, so we may leave earlier than Sunday AM to make the Sunday evening Ferry.
THanks again for all the encouragement along the way!
Garry

Posted By: Avion C-11 on 11/26/11 05:08pm

We have done a lot of work over the weekend so far.

We got the rear pan final glassed and repaired and coated with and epoxy paint. Final paint and prep will come later. I knew we would scratch it up putting it in the camper.

Built the rear floor out of two 3/4? layers of marine grade. Epoxied that together and then cut out a notch and groove joint into the new floor and old floor.

Put the tub and floor together and manhandled it into the camper. That was a very heavy assembly once it was all together. We ended up doing a combination of raising the floor and lowering the camper into place. It was a tight fit but after several hours of tweaking and adjusting it all came together. In one of the pics you can see a cross member we installed between the wings to wrench the rear back into square so the floor would fit. After removing the old floor the camper wings became very out of square and the back end of the camper became very flimsy. With the new floor in and secure it is once again square and very sturdy!

We had to repair one area in the outer skin where apparently we did not set the depth right on the saw when cutting out the old wood. It put a nice saw cut right through the outer skin. The repair actually ended up looking good and will line up perfectly with the trim piece that wraps around the back of the camper and hides the joint between the aluminum and fiberglass tub.
The joint between the old floor and the new is very sturdy with it screwed from the sides, top and bottom as well as glued. However, I will also glass and fill all the joints from the wings to the floor. This process has showed me how structural all these joints are. It has also shown me how important the inner walls of the bathroom and closet provide some needed structure.
Next up is taking out the inner ceiling around the back of the camper so I can fix a dent, make sure all the wiring to the lights is good and then foam it all back in and move on to replacing the bunk floor.

Spent a lot of time looking at the bunk and flexing it to see how the structure works and where the weak parts are. It looks to me like the part of the bunk floor that goes under the wall area is very thin and when it gets old or rotten it allows the corners to compress when there is weight on the bunk. That compression allows the walls to flex out around the front of the side windows. That eventually creates a crack that will leak a lot of water into the walls and then down into the wings. This is probably what has happened to most of these campers over the years. The good news is that I now see that it can be fixed with some new wood.

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* This post was edited 12/04/11 02:57pm by Avion C-11 *

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