Coast Resorts Open Roads Forum: Avion truck campers

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Topic: Avion truck campers - Hundreds of photos

Posted By: Avion C-11 on 10/29/12 04:23pm

Seeing all these Avion TCs out in their natural environment is making me envious.

07blacktruck wrote:

I've been following this thread for a long time. I am amazed at the quality of work and innovation of the owners. I've been an airframe guy for many years and this certainly piques my interest to have one of these when I get home. In one of the pictures, it shows three patches on each side on the rear of the unit. Was there damage or dents there? Looking at the interior shots it doesn't appear to have been bent. Just curious why you installed these. I will admit to having been out of the loop for a bit so if I missed the reason earlier, my apologies.
Stay safe out there..
Ken

Ken,

There were little dents on the rear/upper left side and a big one on the right. I had punched them out at one point and while the camper was anodized it looked great. However, after I deanodized and polished them you could see a bit of waviness and dents from where I dinged it out. So, I made the patches big enough to cover all that up and be symmetrical at the same time. I hope to have them all polished out soon and will post pics of the final work. Here are the before and after shots to date:

Right Side
[image]

Right side popped out
[image]

Left Side popped out. You can still see it a little on the 3rd panel from the bottom
[image]

With patches. Right side not polished yet
[image]

Happy Camping!

Avioncamper.wordpress.com

Posted By: MichelCleark on 11/02/12 02:11am

I will wait to see your new photos after polishing a cabinets. After polishing the cabinets, this stainless steel will give a better look to your kitchen room. Installing a white kitchen cabinets can enhance the beauty of your kitchen cabinets.

Posted By: 67avion on 11/12/12 02:04pm

We've been working primarily inside of the camper. I would post something,but I wanted to get things to a point where all the tools, etc were cleaned out of the way. Soon, I hope.

Meanwhile we did recoat the roof of the coach. We picked a warmish, still day. My painter, Mike Wright, is used to working on the tops of semi trailers, so this was like a walk in the park. I was a little concerned since I regard the top of the coach as inherently dangerous.

The roof was painted a number of times with various materials.
[image]

Mike recommended that I use a product made by SEM Products. It is a brilliant white that should help in lowering temperatures, flexible, and will reach into the scruffed up paints on the roof. Its a kit and can be sprayed or rolled
[image]

We had to go all over the roof scraping up broken and loosened material. Then he went over all of the surface with a wire brush. We did not go all the way and remove the old material since the process of using power scrapers and grinders would merely smear a lot of the old roofing. It was a tedious job.

[image]

Mike then rolled three coats of the SEM truck liner on the roof over a period of three days. And yes, we did get some acorn nuts from the squirrels as it sat outside. But a little sanding and the debris was removed.

[image]

It appears to have held up well in last night's rainstorm. Weather is coming in again, so we winterized the coach today. I'll post on the interior soon, I promise.

Posted By: 69 Avion on 11/12/12 03:26pm

It looks like it is turning out real nice. I can't wait to see the finished roof.

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

Posted By: 67avion on 11/12/12 03:44pm

I should have mentioned that two of us spent two days cleaning the outside of the coach and applying Parbond to all the seams. My hope was that the cleaning using Bon Ami and synthetic steel wool followed by xylene would give me assurance that the exterior could be brought back to relatively stock. No such luck. It still has an appearance that is "smokie" or patchy. Not satin bright. Therefore I didn't go through with the next step of putting on a coating like Everbrite. I think I really don't have any choice but to paint the coach. In the meantime, its battened down for weather, so I'll have plenty of time to think it over. We're inside a shop now fashioning the tables. Sort of interesting: I got two table posts from a boat store. I had old wood lying around from this project. So we're going to fit twin drop leaf tables on the foot riser. They will turn to the side as one sits and then turn back into place with the drop leaf up. Hope it works.

Posted By: 69 Avion on 11/12/12 04:42pm

My FiL spent three days on the roof of my camper, scraping and cleaning as much of the original coating as he could. He wore out 3 or 4 of those plastic putty knife scrapers.
I was building the trailer at the time. It only took about 3 hours to completely coat it with a coating like the original. The prep work is the hardest.

Posted By: My Blue Heaven on 11/13/12 12:34pm

Lookin' good, D. Cousin Jim would be pleased.

2001 F350 Lariat CC 4WD 7.3 PSD dually, chipped, 4" SS exhaust, 350 hp, Rancho 9000's, front receiver, front & rear Roadmasters
2009 Arctic Fox 990S, storm windows, Cummins/Onan, FastGuns, Torklifts

Posted By: rfuerst911sc on 11/17/12 07:00am

If I missed it I apologize but have any of you Avion owners added scissor steps to your camper ?

Posted By: rfuerst911sc on 11/17/12 03:11pm

The reason I asked about the scissor steps is because someone local was selling a 3 step scissor on Craigslist. In brand new condition I got them for $40.00 so I'm a happy camper.

Posted By: 69 Avion on 11/18/12 01:11pm

I put a set of Torklift Glow Steps on mine. I attached it you my extension bumper.

Check out page 89 of this thread.

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