Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

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Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

November 06, 2012, 06:45:06 pm

Other then new wood flooring, we are relocating the wire run that is currently in a box about 3 inches wide at the floor and runs from the entry to the dining cabinet. You can see by the discolored plywood how large that run was. The new way- will be to add an outside corner of wood, stained to match the new wood floor. More info to come. I had to use my Fein saw to cut the floor to relocate the wires. I thought others may like to know that these runs can be made less obtrusive.

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #1 – November 06, 2012, 07:26:13 pm

erniee,

Looks like a good start keep us posted. By the way what are the 6 bolts that we can see in the pic.? What type head do they have? We can't tell on our monitor. That must be how the floor is tied to the frame (just a WAG) but sure would like to know for sure.

Pamela & Mike

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #2 – November 06, 2012, 07:27:32 pm

Ernie,
I would be beholding to you if you could post a picture of the floor without the carpet but before modification? I have installed real bamboo flooring up to the kitchen in our coach so far, and I noticed that hump along the sidewall. Very curious as to how that looks underneath the carpet, and how I'm going to work with that when I install the flooring for the rest of the coach. I was very much thinking along the lines of what you've done here.
Don

Quote from: erniee – November 06, 2012, 06:45:06 pm

Other then new wood flooring, we are relocating the wire run that is currently in a box about 3 inches wide at the floor and runs from the entry to the dining cabinet. You can see by the discolored plywood how large that run was. The new way- will be to add an outside corner of wood, stained to match the new wood floor. More info to come. I had to use my Fein saw to cut the floor to relocate the wires. I thought others may like to know that these runs can be made less obtrusive.

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #3 – November 06, 2012, 07:31:44 pm

Those are rolok bolts that go across the coach and secure the top of the compartment divider in the basement to the main floor framing. Same as what's coming up through the fiberglass skin on the bottom of the coach. You can likely see these if you pull the drawers out of your wardrobe closet and look down at the plywood subfloor where it is above a basement dividing wall.
Don

Quote from: Pamela & Mike – November 06, 2012, 07:26:13 pm

erniee,

Looks like a good start keep us posted. By the way what are the 6 bolts that we can see in the pic.? What type head do they have? We can't tell on our monitor. That must be how the floor is tied to the frame (just a WAG) but sure would like to know for sure.

Pamela & Mike

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #4 – November 06, 2012, 10:29:36 pm

Quote from: acousticart – November 06, 2012, 07:31:44 pm

Those are rolok bolts that go across the coach and secure the top of the compartment divider in the basement to the main floor framing. Same as what's coming up through the fiberglass skin on the bottom of the coach. You can likely see these if you pull the drawers out of your wardrobe closet and look down at the plywood subfloor where it is above a basement dividing wall.
Don

Don,

That is what we thought they were. Mike wondered how the upper portion of the divider bulkheads were connected. He thought that it was the same as on the underbelly but not for sure. The way our coach is laid out there is carpet or a cabnet floor that would have to be removed just to check & see, too much work for that.

Pamela & Mike

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #5 – November 07, 2012, 07:21:00 am

Don, the photo shows 3- 1"x1" strips. Foretravel had the wires coming up from below in 3 different locations. I cut the plywood and Willie was able to zip tie them and then moved the whole bundle against the wall. A 1/8 inch of luan was used for the original cover.

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #6 – November 07, 2012, 11:44:51 am

Thanks Ernie, that is helpful. I ran into a similar situation around the base of the bed. In that case, I rerouted the cable along the vertical wall of the bed platform and then made a piece of molding that had a hollow for the cable. the hardest part was working in such a tight space! Even in my experience which is limited to our coach, I can see that the most difficult part of working on interior remodeling in a coach is the tricky molding and trim. One needs to come up with all kinds of creative solutions

I hope you post more pictures as you proceed on this project, very interested in seeing how you tackle some of those tricky areas...
Don

Quote from: erniee – November 07, 2012, 07:21:00 am

Don, the photo shows 3- 1"x1" strips. Foretravel had the wires coming up from below in 3 different locations. I cut the plywood and Willie was able to zip tie them and then moved the whole bundle against the wall. A 1/8 inch of luan was used for the original cover.

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #7 – November 07, 2012, 06:20:28 pm

Don, that flooring is looking outstanding. Nice job, I'd like to do the same someday.

Chuck

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #8 – November 07, 2012, 06:32:07 pm

Don,

NIce work, if the day job doesn't work out, perhaps ou should be in the Foretravel chassis repair and interior upgrade business!

:-)

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #9 – November 07, 2012, 06:41:27 pm

Thanks Tim and Chuck! I had finished up to the kitchen before I discovered the bulkhead issue. The trim in the bathroom makes the bedroom trim look like a piece of cake, especially the carpet covered toilet pedestal (can I say yuck?) and the shower. I have pictures and I have been planning on posting some sort of write up on the flooring project. I plan to go on up to at least just behind the Pilot/Co-Pilot seats and maybe all the way to the dash, which is what prompted me to ask Ernie for a before picture... I want to know what I am up against before I rip up the carpeting. All that is waiting on finishing the basement project for now. Anyway, I don't want to derail Ernie's thread and I don't know how to break this out, so I will just start a new one at some point... In the mean time, I am looking forward to seeing how Ernie handles some of those molding/trim challenges... it is always nice to see what the pro's do.
Don

Quote from: Chuck Pearson – November 07, 2012, 06:20:28 pm

Don, that flooring is looking outstanding. Nice job, I'd like to do the same someday.

Chuck

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #10 – November 07, 2012, 07:02:48 pm

Today, I installed the entry trim. The wire runs at the bed base will be laid flat and glued with thermoplastic. Willie wants wood on the verticle surface of the bed base. I'll install the wood on the floor, and then fit the wood on the bed base. I did the first runs of wood, today.
The accelerator pedal can be removed with backing off a couple of screws. The braked pedal has a valve attached and Willie thought we should leave that intact.

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #11 – November 08, 2012, 03:04:06 pm

Let me know how the wood in the bedroom works out. I was told that the rubber carpet pad was 100 dollars a foot and it was sound deadening and that a wood or tile floor int he bedroom will make it too noisy.

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #12 – November 08, 2012, 03:17:08 pm

John,
Good thing I saved all the rubber pad then! I will definitely post on our impressions of the sound levels after we hit the road. I put 1/4" cork underlayment under the bamboo, which also had about 1/8" cork underlayment glued to its underside. So far, although I haven't taken it on the road since I put in the flooring, tests while idling and fast idling with a db meter showed virtually no difference. The rubber pad is the same as what is on the inside of the generator hatch in case you are curious. It is very heavy and dense. I suspect it is also under the front seating area... I can feel that there is a place where the underlayment is thicker up there that feels similar to what I noticed in the bedroom before I pulled up the carpet.
Don

Quote from: John S – November 08, 2012, 03:04:06 pm

Let me know how the wood in the bedroom works out. I was told that the rubber carpet pad was 100 dollars a foot and it was sound deadening and that a wood or tile floor int he bedroom will make it too noisy.

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #13 – November 08, 2012, 03:18:34 pm

Interesting to put a cork under layer there. That might help a lot.

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #14 – November 08, 2012, 03:53:18 pm

I have wood in my bedroom and don't think it is noisy. But I have no idea what is under it, as it was there when I brought the coach.

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #15 – November 08, 2012, 06:18:58 pm

$100 bucks a foot- someone is pulling someones' leg. If it was worth that much, then the pile outside the coach is worth stealing! I have floored many pusher coaches, and haven't had any negative comments from lack of sound deadening. Cork can and has been used as a sound deadening, but it needs to be all over the coach to keep the height the same.

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #16 – November 08, 2012, 06:27:36 pm

Quote from: erniee – November 08, 2012, 06:18:58 pm

$100 bucks a foot- someone is pulling someones' leg. If it was worth that much, then the pile outside the coach is worth stealing!

I looked at our receipt from last year, $4.35/sf and our bedroom took 36 sf. It's a heat and noise resistant material, probably fire-proof as well.

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #17 – November 08, 2012, 06:45:54 pm

I wrestled with trying to keep the rubber padding under the bamboo floor in the bedroom, but the height difference would have been a killer. In the end, I decided to do the cork underlayment throughout the coach and the all of the way to the front with bamboo with the possible exception of underneath the pilot and copilot chairs. I may keep the current carpet at least in the pilot's area... for the time being, still haven't decided yet. All of which brings to mind, an advantage of going horizontally across the coach. Makes it easier to do it in stages. Right now it is stopped at the entrance to the kitchen area. There is a piece of trim at the sliding door that meets up with the carpet as a transition. All I have to do is take that piece off and then continue on as I had before. I removed about an inch of carpet padding under the carpeting, and continued the cork under the edge the carpet so that I can tape the seam in the cork underlayment when I continue the floor towards the front of the coach. It is difficult to describe in words, so I'll attach a few pictures... being worth a thousand words and all

Don

Quote from: erniee – November 08, 2012, 06:18:58 pm

$100 bucks a foot- someone is pulling someones' leg. If it was worth that much, then the pile outside the coach is worth stealing! I have floored many pusher coaches, and haven't had any negative comments from lack of sound deadening. Cork can and has been used as a sound deadening, but it needs to be all over the coach to keep the height the same.

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #18 – November 08, 2012, 07:00:31 pm

same with my 95 - ordered from the factory with Ginger Oak.

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #19 – November 08, 2012, 08:09:23 pm

Don, thats looking real Good

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #20 – November 08, 2012, 08:20:02 pm

more walnut today

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #21 – November 09, 2012, 12:06:58 am

Looks beautiful! What type of flooring is that? Is it a laminate or walnut veneer? I like the color and the random lengths. Not too dark like some of the walnut that I've seen.
Don

Quote from: erniee – November 08, 2012, 08:20:02 pm

more walnut today

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #22 – November 09, 2012, 07:31:13 am

The wood is an engineered product with real wood veneer.

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #23 – November 09, 2012, 10:10:23 am

Good job on the bed base Don. We used plastic panduit to house the wires on each side of the coach when going from carpet to wood. painted it dark brown and no one seems to notice until I point it out. The walnut panelling and the Brazilian Teak floor go well with the dark brown paint. I've got to run power from the foot of the bed to the head so we don't have drop cords all over the place but with 270 lbs it's difficult to get in there and harder to get out!

Re: Willie Wilsons U320 renovations

Reply #24 – November 09, 2012, 03:40:51 pm

Hi Larry, thanks! I remember admiring the Brazilian teak floor and your coach when we met you guys at the thousand trails Park in Pio Pico. Although I'm not quite 270 pounds, I don't have fond memories of working down there on the floor alongside the bed! It is very difficult to get out once you've been in the same position for a while squeezed into that little space. fortunately, our coach already had outlets in the front of the night tables, although I had to disassemble them and pull the wires out in order to reroute the cables up on the sides of the bed platform which involved drilling a new hole closer to the platform and then feeding the cable back through. Fortunately that resulted in a shorter run so I was able to reuse the same cable.
Don

Quote from: lgshoup – November 09, 2012, 10:10:23 am

Good job on the bed base Don. We used plastic panduit to house the wires on each side of the coach when going from carpet to wood. painted it dark brown and no one seems to notice until I point it out. The walnut panelling and the Brazilian Teak floor go well with the dark brown paint. I've got to run power from the foot of the bed to the head so we don't have drop cords all over the place but with 270 lbs it's difficult to get in there and harder to get out!

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