Coast Resorts Open Roads Forum: Avion truck campers

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Topic: Avion truck campers - Hundreds of photos

Posted By: D1trout on 12/02/15 07:55am

Silver, glad to see you've mastered photo posting. It's always a bit of a scramble for me.
Looking at your very nice repairs, I'd urge you to consider completely epoxy coating all the wood. The problem with the breathing idea is that water will get in. There will be leaks and the water will take a very long time to get out. I'd be guided by the notion of building a boat - no raw wood anywhere. Nothing will waterproof as well as epoxy. I'd also caulk each fastener hole you make into wood as you insert the fastener.

Rastaman, regarding water heaters, I'm mounting a small demand heater on the wall above the sink. I'm not planning to exhaust it through the roof. I reckon it won't be on long enough each use to make carbon monoxide an issue. Rather like using the stove, I will open a window or ceiling vent.

I'm mounting the truck frame again today, in anticipation of permanently attaching Argo to the truck. The all-aluminum frame flexed too much when loaded so we've replaced the bottom cross members with steel ones. Pics as I move forward...

Dick

Posted By: garryk6 on 12/02/15 08:01am

C10 doors are plywood with a birch veneer. I used two C11 doors I bought off eBay. They worked but did not complexly match the C10 doors. My doors were not painted but we're de laminating and real ugly. I followed suite from the other guys here and reglued and clamped then sanded stained and Danish oiled the woodwork ( new and old). The sink is elevated to give just enough room for the drain piping to clear the propane box I built around the old refrigerator access door. I then Mounted a horizontal tank there. Hope this helps!
Garry

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: D1trout on 12/02/15 08:05am

Silver is right on about stripping the cabs. They are very thin veneers so sanding is risky. Ck out Aquastrip, which has worked well for me with varnish and marine paints. Just don't leave it - or any stripper - on long enough to dry. A cabinet scraper will make removing the old finish easier and can minimize sanding. My feeling is that in less you're in love with the particular wood stain color of your cabinets, paint them some solid complimentary color, preferably a light shade. Just my 2c...
Dick

Posted By: ticki2 on 12/02/15 08:08am

Silver

I am surprised that your cabinets are particle board . The only ones I've seen or heard of are birch veneered plywood . The only particle board I found was the counter top .

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

Posted By: 69 Avion on 12/02/15 08:15am

I had my C-11 cabinets refinished and I didn't see any particle board anywhere. Mine are made out of birch veneer plywood. In fact, I didn't see any particle board anywhere in the entire camper.

Ford F-350 4x4 Diesel
1988 Avion Triple Axle Trailer
1969 Avion C-11 Camper

Posted By: 67avion on 12/02/15 08:22am

Ticki wrote:

Silver

I am surprised that your cabinets are particle board . The only ones I've seen or heard of are birch veneered plywood . The only particle board I found was the counter top .

If you look back on this long string you can see my work on restoring the cabinets...and using marine hull paint on the lower portions of the bottom cabinets. My cabinets were all wood and finished with veneer. I think the discussion is around 12/12/11....

Trout, what's up with the frame etc and why no photos?

Posted By: SilverPompadour on 12/02/15 09:31am

Sorry, I am probably mistaken about the particle board, likely plywood. The same approach to refinish either way.
D1, the epoxy issue has been a major debate in my mind since the start of this restoration. My forum reading leads me to believe there are two schools of thought on this. All agree that despite out best efforts, these campers leak even if we are able to seal them temporarily. School 1 Sealing the entire panel with epoxy will do the best to keep water out of the wood. The argument against is that any water that finds its way in will have no chance of escape. My worry is water intrusion at the fasteners. On my sailboats, I employ the 'Don Casey' method of Oversizing each fastener hole, and filling with epoxy to isolate the fasteners from the core wood. I didn't think this would be too easy with plywood although in hindsight if I had marked each hole before installing the panel, might not have been too bad.
School 2 Leaving the panel raw it is susceptible to moisture but has at least some chance of drying. Avion did not coat the wood in my camper and it lasted 40+ years. I'm 35 so 40 years works for me. I still wanted to do better.
After watching the inside of my camper thru a few rains, I've noticed all my leaks stay to the very outside of the panels. I made the decision to only coat the perimeters and to try to let the unwanted water bypass the panels and drain somehow. This gives me the option of completely coating the panels later if I change my mind(hopefully before the water gets in). It also saves lots of money on epoxy. I use Total Boat 5:1.
When I started, I thought I was just doing wings and the bunk. If I had forseen total wood relpacment, I would have fired up the spool gun and done it .'Argo' style for sure.

1968 Avion C-11
1993 Dodge D250 LE Cummins

Posted By: rastaman33609 on 12/02/15 10:09am

Silver...I obsessed over the same issue for many weeks. I contemplated other options, oil primer and oil paint..However after all the effort to get to the wood in the wings, I broke down and decided to go with the advise given here. I was actually ordering West Systems epoxy when they told me about 'total boat' 5:1...so I saved $50. I had already used CPES on the edges of the wing and bunk boards, 1 gallon of the 5:1 did both sides of all the ply for wings and lower board for the bunk. I also used the 5:1 to glue the 2 pieces of 3/4 ply for the wings together.

Installing the bolts for the jack mounts I will go crazy with sealant. I did use some exterior deck screws to secure the 3/4 wing wood together using sealant there too.

My only concern now is that I also sealed up the aluminium under the bunk area and the wings that if any water gets in I don't think it will be able to find a way out.

Posted By: D1trout on 12/02/15 10:19am

Silver, I'm not sure I'd wish the Argo approach on anybody unless he had demonstrated a reckless and whimsical determination in other parts of his life...
Fasterners are certainly the most common source of water intrusion. I don't think I'd go so far as to epoxy core the holes, but caulking each hole with Trempro or the like seems a reasonable precaution. I still think full epoxy coating is the deal, but an oil-based paint might suffice. Or perhaps one of the newer water-based epoxy paints. They are certainly more pleasant to use than oil-based.
Epoxying the edges is a good precaution in any case.
I would observe that because the factory built a C10 or C11 in a particular way doesn't mean that it was the best way. Economics dictated a lot of their material and construction decisions. If I were doing a wood replacement rather than the "full Argo", I'd use a synthetic panel of plastic or fiberglass instead of wood.
Ah, the clarity of hindsight. If we had known what we were getting ourselves into when we first laid eyes upon our Avions...
Onward!

Posted By: rastaman33609 on 12/02/15 10:21am

D1trout...I must have gotten seduced by Garryk pretty wood cabinets, and forgot about how much effort and work I have already put in this project and how much I still have left to do. So now that you have confirmed my original plan of repainting, I think that is what will happen, to do it right will be tedious enough.

I am still searching the web for some color combination ideas,as I am thinking one color for the frame.and another for the doors,

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