I Really Like This Stuff

Prodex Insulation.

I'm mostly doing what has already been documented on Airforums by Malconium, Uwe, Carlos and others. Rich the Viking got me thinking about 2 layers and that's the way I'm going to go. Using 1/2" deep strips of foam insulation between the shell and the first layer of Prodex, glued on with foamboard adhesive. The next layer of Prodex will sit on another 1/2" deep strip of foam insulation and that will just about fill the 1 1/2" cavity inside the ribs. The wiring will go between the two layers of insulation.

Like many have done, my Prodex came from Insulation4less.com  and I ordered the tape for the seams and edges from them as well. Hopefully, one roll of insulation gets it done.

It's so easy to work with this stuff. Cuts with scissors, simple to fit. I had one day with the sun out (must have been weeks ago ) and there was an amazing difference between the bare shell and the insulated sections--hot and cool. It's been wet and fairly cold the last few days and I can see the heater warming the trailer up quicker as I get more of it insulated.

Likely the Last Outside Work Until Spring

Our weather has been a tease this week. It rains, clears up for awhile, and then rains again.

I pulled off the fiberglass forward endcap so I could buck rivets for the Wally plaque and do the antenna install. Don't know of any other 50's trailers that have the endcap in fiberglass instead of thirteen aluminum panels, but there must be others. It's so big and unwieldy that it'll likely go back up just as soon as I get the Prodex insulation installed. Planning to cover the fiberglass with a 13 panel redo in Baltic birch later on.

You can see the big roll of Prodex insulation in the endcap picture, that's next up.

 

Decided to patch the lower antenna mount hole and put the Wally plaque over it, moving the antenna slightly higher. Looks the best to me this way.

 

Where Do I Put the Wally Plaque?

I've got the patched holes for the center mount radio antenna and I'll be putting the new antenna on as soon as I take the inside forward endcap down. Thoughts on where the Wally Byam Caravan plaque should go? From the info on the VTS site with the original instructions: "...directly over the front and rear window will be the Wally Byam Caravan plaque. Directly over the plaque will be the number. Directly above the number will be the Caravan Club decal." Do you think I should put the plaque just above the antenna mount or should I patch that lower hole so the plaque can go directly over the window?

Got the 320, 400, 500, 600, 800, 1000 grit sanding done on the rear endcap and made a quick pass with the compounder today. Not perfect as it still has some pitting, but I really don't think I want to take any more material off. Looks pretty good now and I think I can be happy enough with it. Many many hours spent here.

 

I installed the bulkhead passthroughs for the solar panels today. They're made by Blue Sea Systems and all of their electrical stuff is really good quality. I'll be using one of their AC breaker panels later on too. Blue Sea in Bellingham, so it's a local company too. They mount through 3/4" holes in the patch installed after the center roof vent was removed. All 4 solar panels will feed through those two posts.

 

Lighting our Fire

Not really a work session today, just leak checked the propane line I installed yesterday. But we fired up the heater for the first time and sat inside the warming trailer as I soon started yawning and felt that I badly needed a nap.

I just love this little heater. Excuse the shoddy cabinet it's temporarily mounted on--it has the original cutout from the Panel Ray and will be replaced later. The exhaust pipe is also the air intake feed--it's double walled. Therefore the heater is using no air from inside the trailer for combustion (a good thing). There is no noticeable heat on the outside skin after running for a hour, so the fresh air side of the deck pipe seems to insulate heat from the exhaust very well.

Let it run for 30 minutes or so to burn off the brand new odors and then brought Pam in to sit by the fire. Nasty wet drizzly Washington day outside.