Coast Resorts Open Roads Forum: Avion truck campers

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Topic: Avion truck campers - Hundreds of photos

Posted By: Reddog1 on 03/29/12 11:24am

Depending on my mood, I have used from 2" to 6" spacers to raise my TC. Other than making it easier to load the sides of the bed, and washing the top of my cab, I see no difference in the truck/TC. No change in MPG.

I find it a bit comical, you Avion guy's/gal's put patches on your TC's, and they are almost looked at as a badge of honor. The rest of us TC'ers spend a lot of money trying to hide the patch. That is one of the things I really like about my molded fiberglass TC, a can of plastic body filler and a can of spray paint, and not much I can't repair. The molded fiberglass is tough, and not easy to damage.

Wayne

Posted By: Jamm3r on 03/29/12 11:51am

rfuerst911sc wrote:

Nice looking rig. I got a 1968 C11 in December and ran into the same rear bumper interference issue. I'm curious what do you plan to do about the rear bumper? Leave it off or lower it ?

Thanks. I'm planning on leaving the bumper off for the time being. I'm only planning on unloading the camper seasonally (to use the truck to plow snow) so there's nothing that has to be done before fall. I may experiment and see if I can get someone to make a thinner bumper that would satisfy the legal and practical requirements while staying in the space available.

1971 Cayo C-11 truck camper, 2010 Airstream Classic, 1997 Chevrolet K2500, 2004 Chevrolet Suburban 2500 8.1.

Posted By: Avion C-11 on 04/01/12 03:16pm

Guys, thanks for the great feedback! I am happy you all are enjoying the build!

67avion wrote:

I haven't stopped in for a while. Luckily, our construction/housing business is going full steam. But, What a job you're doing.I'll bet you're on the road before we get old 67 Avion running. Congrats.

That's a great idea! I will do that for sure. That way I can make one that looks like it is not backwards too!

[image]

* This post was edited 04/01/12 03:50pm by Avion C-11 *

Happy Camping!

Avioncamper.wordpress.com

Posted By: Avion C-11 on 04/01/12 03:44pm

This week the major project was rebuilding the left side window and sealing the last big leak. In addition to that we got some more deanodizing and polishing done, started to rebuild the front window and work on the marker lights.

The left window was the second major leak on the left side. The first was fixed when I rebuilt the bunk but this one has been harder to track down partly because of the loads and loads of sealer that previous owners had applied but also because there was two things happening. One is the corner window glazing leaked and the other was where the upper metal frame and lower metal frame came together and basically acted like a scoop to run water straight into the camper. There was also a rivet under the frame bulging the whole thing out.

First we deanodized, removed old sealer and polished the frames. Sounds simple but that took two weekends!

Then we re-glazed the windows by cutting off the old glazing and using Tempro 635 to re-glaze it. Temro is great for this job because it cleans easily with alcohol and makes a nice bond. I used Parbond injected with a syringe in other places that were hard to get to and to fix the frame leak.

Third we replaced all the old window seals and gaskets.

Lastly we Temproed around the outside of the window frame do seal it all up.

After the left window was sealed it rained the next night and day so we were able to verify that all leaks are stopped!

The next day we deanodized and polished the front end cap, cleaned up the window and began rebuilding all the seals. I also got a little work done on making the round bezels for the marker lights I'm not 100% sure that I will use these bezels. It is a lot of riveting and I could send the lights I have back and get ones that would cover the old holes from the original marker lights. Those bezels looked great on the tail lights but it's tough to know when enough is enough.

So here is the major offending leak [image]

From the inside
[image]

Removing the old glazing
[image]

Taped for deanodizing
[image]

Deanodizing
[image]

With the frames polished and the old gunk/sealer removed you can now see the water scoop area of the frame.
[image]

The first resealing I did was to remove the screws in the corners and inject Parbond until it fully came out of the 45 degree frame cuts and the glazing channels.
[image]

This is what the parbond looks like squeezing out of the corners.
[image]

Then I taped off and reglazed cleaning with alcohol as I went.
[image]

Then I taped off and sealed around the outside of the frame
[image]

Installed new rubber seals in the lower windows. See the black rubber in the below pic.
[image]

Outside dust seal.
[image]

Started working on the front endcap. You can see all the sealer that is caked up on there in this photo. It is easy to remove that stuff with a heat gun and a wire brush we have found. Of course you wouldn't want to do it that way unless you planned on polishing it afterward because you will remove the anodizing with the wire brush.
[image]

Frame and encap mostly deanodized, cleaned up and ready to rock and roll.
[image]

This is a very satisfying piece of the camper to polish! It's been a long time in the making but we finally have a whole endcap polished!
[image]

I wanted to get the left side finished this weekend but we didn't get the back endcap polished. It is deanodized though!
[image]

These are the bezels I started making. I could go buy different lights that would cover the old holes or go with this idea. Any opinions?
[image]

I will look at this angle all week!
[image]

Sorry for the long post but I had two weeks worth of pics. There's more on the blog if you want to see them.

Posted By: 67avion on 04/01/12 04:08pm

On the question of the bezels. I think the more polished rivets the better! Go for it.

Posted By: 69cayo on 04/01/12 05:42pm

The "water scoops", as your refering to them are where the upper fixed window and the lower window slide together.
From the factory that channel was filled with caulk before the two windows were assembled.
The corners of the upper window were also caulked before assembly which leads me to believe the glazing vinyl is there just to hold the plexiglas not seal out water.

Dennis

Posted By: AnEv942 on 04/01/12 08:10pm

An opinion for what its worth..The side markers-the bezels would look good I think. The front & rear ID lights?. "Those bezels looked great on the tail lights but it's tough to know when enough is enough."

Seems as there so high on crown you really wouldnt see them as on rear (or sides), but more importantly think the partial view & 3 so close would detract from what your looking at on the nose. Youve also got the badges going below. So my opinion on the 3 id lights would be- no...maybe one large bezel for all 3 lights-maybe. But Im sure at this point what ever you do will be looking good.

01 Ford F250 4x4 DRW Diesel, 01 Elkhorn 9U
Our camper projects page

Posted By: Avion C-11 on 04/02/12 05:29pm

Good ideas! I had not thought bout a single bezel for the three on top.

Posted By: ardis8500 on 04/03/12 03:01pm

Chris, that thing is awesome! The next time I am going thru Columbia, I may have to stop by and see this in person. Spectacular!! Any idea when the maiden voyage will be?

2002 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 HD LT, 2WD, 6.0L
Home-made belly bar up front and Tork-Lifts in the rear
2nd Hand Happijac spring loaded turnbuckles.
1996 Palomino Bronco B-1200 Pop-Up TC
1976 Jeep CJ-7 - usually on trailer behind truck.

Posted By: Avion C-11 on 04/03/12 06:13pm

Brian, you are welcome any time! I'll PM you my phone number.

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