Skin removal

[Salty]

Reaching out to learn about removing and reinstalling interior skins, bracing, rivets used, tools required etc

[silverloaf]

Use an 1/8" drill bit and drill through the rivet. The washer will spin onto the bit and the back will fall behind the wall.

If you want rivets to match the color of the ones removed, Vintage Trailer Supply has them. A standard pop rivet tool is all you need to install new ones.

[Salty]

Once all the rivets are drilled out, will the panel just drop or do you need to pry it off?

[silverloaf]

The panels will pretty much fall off. There might be some rare sticking from spray foam residue on the face of the interior framing.

The biggest resistance will result from not complexly drilling out each rivet. You only need to drill through the rivet and wall 3/4" or so. New rivets have a 1/8" diameter body.

[silverloaf]

I started removing the lower interior skin on the front of our trailer in order to reconstruct some rotted floor. If you zoom in, you can see there is nothing of a adhesive nature securing the skin to the framing.

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[Salty]

I had a conversation with Chuck Cayo today regarding pulling the skins and re-wiring. Your pics just emphasized a point he made. The manner in which the trailer is built, the frame is set up and the flooring installed and then the ribs and spars, then the outer shell. Next comes the wiring, the wire is laid on and taped to the outer skin. and then the foam is sprayed over it.
Mind you, the wire passes through the C channels via grommets, etc, but it is absolutely buried.
And it's daisy chained.
There was more to the conversation than that, I'm summarizing , but you get the point.
I'm thinking of creative ways to avoid having to refoam but I have as yet not arrived at a good plan of attack.
I thought about just running the inverter power to the transfer switch though a hidden conduit down low on the road side, but that still leaves the old 120 ac wire in place and the conversion to 12 VDC lighting up in the air.
Guess I'm just going to have to suck it up and quit whining. I notice Locktite has an interesting foam product with an R value of 7.87

Something I wanted to ask. On the inside of the trailer, the curved windows. Is that supposed to be lexan or?
Lastly, if you ever have the opportunity to speak with Chuck Cayo about ANYTHING I believe you'll find he is patient, thorough and quite willing to share his knowledge. I wish I had more time to speak with him today. As it was I was late for a meeting, but worth it.

[Razorback]

The curved windows are glass..... at least ours are. One time a couple of years ago, Chuck told me he had just a few of those left and was guarding those closely. If he no longer has them, maybe he has an idea or two of how to replace them?

x2 your comments about Chuck! I would gladly spend a couple of weeks of vacationjust to go work with him if he’d have me! Would love to have him Permacoat our Avion while there!

[KYAvion]

Salty- is your AC and DC wiring in bad shape? Just wondering the reason for replacing it?

[Salty]

I have two areas I don't like that have been spliced with wire nuts. Thats what got my attention to begin with, and then....
I'm going to set this up for solar. As many panels as I can safely mount on the roof. somewhere between 600 and 900 watts. I started looking at the current standards for RVs - NFPA and such and wanted to bring this silver lady into the 21st century.
To me that means Marine wiring rated for 105C with appropriate gauge sizing to handle 60 amps of solar charge current and 300 amps continuous of 12VDC. The added benefit of going to 12V LED lighting throughout and then the niceties of USB ports for charging. And of course, 12/3 triplex for the 120 AC side of things.
TV coax I can live without, but I may throw some RG6 in, just to be safe. As for Cat 5/6 I may run some of that as well, but that is down the list, way down. The existing speaker wire is sufficient at this time.
One benefit of having the skin off behind the refrigerator is there is a nasty dent on the roadside skin that, if I talk enough smack, I might could get my son to knock out the dent

[Salty]

@ Razor
My outside curved window is glass. It is the inside that I'm inquiring about. That is currently a curved piece of Lexan on mine and pretty ugly (scratched ) at that. Hence my question