Our Days Spent in Remodel Shop

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Our Days Spent in Remodel Shop

September 22, 2014, 08:12:01 pm

Day One at FOT. 07:30 this morning we met Luke the Service Advisor - by 08:00 our coach was in the bay being torn apart by David's crew. It looks like a tornado blew through the interior. One window was "blown" out, the fridge and microwave and ice maker and dining room table and "J" portion of couch and bedroom TV and VCR were removed, and good progress made on new construction. Hope they can remember how it all goes back together!

Last photo shows our "neighbor" in the next bay: a beautiful "naked" U240, lots of restoration work done inside and out. Sweet!

Re: Day One in Remodel Shop

Reply #1 – September 22, 2014, 08:30:50 pm

Quote from: cajk – September 22, 2014, 08:12:01 pm

Day One at FOT. 07:30 this morning we met Luke the Service Advisor - by 08:00 our coach was in the bay being torn apart by David's crew.

Last photo shows our "neighbor" in the next bay: a beautiful "naked" U240, lots of restoration work done inside and out. Sweet!

Speaking of "sweet", David likes the chocolate-filled donuts from Shipley. Kolaches (koe-LAH-cheeze - a Tex-Czech pastry, sometimes sweet like a Danish, sometimes savory with smoked sausage and/or cheese and/or jalapenos like a giant pigs-in-a-blanket) and donuts from there or the shop next to the gas station on the same corner as Lowes are big hits in the shop as well.

Re: Day One in Remodel Shop

Reply #2 – September 22, 2014, 09:07:05 pm

Speaking Donuts, heck all of em boys love em Donuts and do not seem to picky, just grab & smile.

Am delighted to see the two GV coaches in the shop, that is a good sign to me, sure indicates value worthy of some investing. Some how I can not picture that on a 20 yr old Winny etc.
Cheers

Re: Day One in Remodel Shop

Reply #3 – September 22, 2014, 09:07:59 pm

Someone knows how to keep the mechanics motivated on their coach

"Retired Mechanic"

Re: Day One in Remodel Shop

Reply #4 – September 22, 2014, 09:13:06 pm

Dave M, you are so right. That is a beautiful sight to see those coaches being made ready for another 20 years. We had an ORED and a U280 and there is nothing like those interiors....and as I've said before...that mid-entry door.

Re: Day One in Remodel Shop

Reply #5 – September 22, 2014, 09:26:46 pm

Looked in your coach today to find David F. - Looking good.

Re: Day One in Remodel Shop

Reply #6 – September 22, 2014, 10:10:26 pm

Quote from: Dave M – September 22, 2014, 09:07:05 pm

Am delighted to see the two GV coaches in the shop...

Another view - classic profiles!

Re: Day One in Remodel Shop

Reply #7 – September 22, 2014, 10:31:59 pm

What a couple of great looking coaches!!!

Re: Day One in Remodel Shop

Reply #8 – September 22, 2014, 11:41:35 pm

Nice photos, Chuck. Keep them coming.
jor

Re: Day One in Remodel Shop

Reply #9 – September 23, 2014, 08:03:54 am

Closeup of wall construction, revealed when window is removed. Interesting to see if (like me) you have never seen the "interior" construction of the walls. Pretty sturdy stuff! I didn't actually measure it, but the wall looked to be about 2" thick - more knowledgeable members (Don?) could probably verify that number...

Re: Day One in Remodel Shop

Reply #10 – September 23, 2014, 09:07:27 am

Really great to see the coaches being upgraded and how the progress is made each day. Tks for posting. Every coach seems to have its own personality and look. This comes from the owner and what he or she likes. Since car mfg have brought back many old models could the GV be on the radar for Foretravel??

Re: Day One in Remodel Shop

Reply #11 – September 23, 2014, 10:29:56 am

Chuck,

Thanks for posting the pics. They are a great help to others looking to work on their coach themselves. Takes the mystery out of "what's under there?"

Keith

Re: Day One in Remodel Shop

Reply #12 – September 23, 2014, 10:44:02 am

Wow! Like Dave M. I can't imagine doing this to any other early 90s coach. I really do love the "look" of these old GVs (although I am kinda partial to those skookum stainless steel bumpers LOL). I've mentioned this before but the new "efficient" RV designs look suspiciously like GVs with their bull-noses and rounded rooflines.

That 2" wall thickness doesn't surprise me. The other day I was lounging in the recliner in our U225 and just "rapped" on the wall next to me. Solid!!! In start contract to most RVs.

The only annoyance to a GV - at least our GV - is that there is virtually zero view out of the front windows unless you're either standing up or sitting in the front seats. But on the road those front seats are unequalled. I often look down into the cockpits of 18-wheelers. But the two side windows when parked are pretty big all by themselves and the two windows in the bedroom are fantastic.

After almost 3 years of ownership and nearly 8,000 miles I have to say that we're still in love with our "entry level" Foretravel.

Craig

Re: Day One in Remodel Shop

Reply #13 – September 23, 2014, 01:04:57 pm

Another series of posts that make us extremely thankful that we were able to find and buy our Foretravel. We can't think of any other brand we would rather own!

Re: Day One in Remodel Shop

Reply #14 – September 23, 2014, 01:58:02 pm

This one I do happen to know for our coach (99' U270), and I would guess is likely the same for all of the Unihome/Unicoach models, even if the layers differ somewhat. On ours, the blue styrofoam is an inch thick and there is some brown foam of a different (stiffer) constitution. My guess is that they found the brown stuff to be easier to adhere to the laid up fiberglass outer skin. From left to right, there is ¼" Luan plywood, .060" FRP or Filon sheet, 1" blue styrofoam, ½" rigid brown foam of unknown composition, approx. 1/16" fiberglass, and finally the gelcoat. This is a plug from my installation of the washer/dryer. It is shiny because I coated it in the epoxy I used to stick the basement skin back on. This was a test to see how the epoxy resin reacted with the styrofoam before I stuck the skin back on. I am not sure if the blue styrofoam would have fared as well with Polyester resin. Also, it makes a nice souvenir to show people how our coaches are made...

So the short answer is 1 ⅞"
Edited to correct orientation and omission!
Don

Quote from: cajk – September 23, 2014, 08:03:54 am

Closeup of wall construction, revealed when window is removed. Interesting to see if (like me) you have never seen the "interior" construction of the walls. Pretty sturdy stuff! I didn't actually measure it, but the wall looked to be about 2" thick - more knowledgeable members (Don?) could probably verify that number...

Re: Day One in Remodel Shop

Reply #15 – September 23, 2014, 03:26:03 pm

Correct! Good catch... Post is edited above to correct.

Quote from: TulsaTrent – September 23, 2014, 03:18:21 pm

Don,

Did you mean left to right?

Did you forget the 1/2" brown foam?

Or did I misunderstand?

Thanks,

Trent

Re: Day One in Remodel Shop

Reply #16 – September 23, 2014, 04:40:48 pm

Thanks so much!

These photos are inspirational for us.

Ted

Re: Day One in Remodel Shop

Reply #17 – September 23, 2014, 06:04:58 pm

Quote from: acousticart – September 23, 2014, 01:58:02 pm

This is a plug from my installation of the washer/dryer.

Don, that looks a little different from the cross section of our wall. On ours, there is no brown foam stuff at all - just blue foam. Different model year, different wall construction?

Re: Day One in Remodel Shop

Reply #18 – September 23, 2014, 06:24:56 pm

I am not sure Chuck... it may be that the areas around the window cut outs are done differently. Since each void between the frames would have the foam pieces cut to fit, FOT may have used the blue foam against window framing support because there wouldn't be the expanse of fiberglass skin to bond to the brown foam. Again, I am just speculating. AFAIK, FOT uses Polyester resin in their lay up process (from conversations with Rance at Xtreme P&G) and I could easily imagine that the Polyester resin would melt the styrofoam in a chemical reaction. Just a WAG on my part though... I have always used epoxy on all of my coach projects so far, and so haven't experiment with the Polyester.
Don

Quote from: cajk – September 23, 2014, 06:04:58 pm

Don, that looks a little different from the cross section of our wall. On ours, there is no brown foam stuff at all - just blue foam. Different model year, different wall construction?

Re: Our Days Spent in Remodel Shop

Reply #19 – September 23, 2014, 07:47:05 pm

Day two at FOT. No great photo ops today. Everything looks pretty much the same, but a lot of activity was going on in the background. The new microwave install was finished late yesterday afternoon. It looks great!

Larry is working on the fridge install. It turned into a lot more work than originally estimated. The existing electrical outlet behind the fridge did not have a feed from the inverter. We decided to use the circuit that originally powered the ice maker (which is now gone). By doing it this way, I can use the existing inverter control panel to switch power between microwave and fridge. The position for "microwave" still functions as before - the position for "ice maker" will now power the new fridge (which seems logical since the fridge has a built-in ice maker).

The hot and cold water shut-off valves for the Splendide were under the old fridge, and had to be moved to allow the lowered floor required by the new fridge. They now reside on the back wall of the closet which holds the washer/dryer, where they are much more accessible. Larry took the opportunity, while the Splendide was out of the cabinet, to re-do several aspects of the Splendide installation which he considered "inadequate". I agreed with and approved all his suggested changes.

The new platform for the Samsung was just finished at quitting time today. I am hoping the new fridge will go in through the window tomorrow.

We now have newly added storage drawers where the old ice maker, and the old bedroom TV and VCR were installed. We lost storage space under the fridge, but gained it back plus some with the new drawers. We will gain additional new storage when the "J" section of the couch is replaced with a new end table unit complete with 1 large and 2 smaller drawers.

The original round dining room table is gone. It will be replaced with a multi-use combination breakfast bar and computer table. The table top will be custom made walnut, and it will be matched by the top surface on the new end table. They were putting the final touches on the table tops today, and (I hope) will apply the finish to the wood starting tomorrow. I'm anxious to see what they will look like!

David estimates 2.5 more work days to finish all the mods, so we will probably be in NAC at least through Friday noon.

Another GV showed up today, which makes a total of 3 GV's in the shop:

Re: Our Days Spent in Remodel Shop

Reply #20 – September 24, 2014, 10:05:57 am

WOW

the new GV that showed up looked EXACTLY like ours. Crazy to see. haha Loving all your pictures. Very interesting to see how it is constructed. Looking forward to seeing all the new changes.
Joanne

Re: Our Days Spent in Remodel Shop

Reply #21 – September 24, 2014, 10:15:48 am

We are living in our coach, and when I saw the picture I commented to Jo Ann that somehow our coach ended up in the remodel shop in Texas. The colors and windows are just like ours, but on closer inspection that one is a 36' and ours is 40. Still, it really caught my eye. Some day ours will be there, too.

Re: Our Days Spent in Remodel Shop

Reply #22 – September 24, 2014, 06:20:53 pm

Day three at FOT. Made good progress today. The new bedroom storage drawers are finished, except for final coats of clear stuff on drawer fronts. The prep work for the Samsung is now complete, and they plan to lift it through the window and move into place tomorrow morning. The two big drawers that go into the space vacated by the ice maker are complete, except for the walnut front pieces. The new dining room table is complete except for final finish coats. It got two coats of finish today, and will get final 3 coats tomorrow. The only big job still waiting is the end table/storage cabinet for the couch. The crew will start on that tomorrow. We are shooting to be done by Friday sometime...fingers crossed!

Photos show before and after in bedroom, and progress on dining table top. The flash makes the color of the new walnut wood look funny - it is much closer to the old stuff "in person", but they will never be able to match the 20+ year old original wood perfectly. That's life!

Re: Our Days Spent in Remodel Shop

Reply #23 – September 25, 2014, 09:20:59 pm

Day four at FOT. The big event today was the insertion of Samsung into U280 orifice. It was a tight fit, even with all 3 refridgerator doors removed. Whole operation went smooth as silk - the obvious result of much experience on the part of FOT crew. The Samsung fit into Larry's prebuilt recess perfectly - only about 1/8" gap on all edges. Hooked up the water supply, plugged it in, and it started getting real cold right away. It looks beautiful - very nice combo with the new stainless microwave.

The dining room table was installed, and looks great. Will take some photos after we get the coach cleaned up. Also finished the installation of drawers and doors in old ice maker spot.

We are basically done, except for the end table/storage cabinet. This will be the big job tomorrow. We may get done tomorrow, or it may run over into next Monday.

Photos below of the Samsung lift (sorry, flash did not fire on first shot), and the trick sliding door Larry built to control air flow behind fridge:

Re: Our Days Spent in Remodel Shop

Reply #24 – September 25, 2014, 09:40:19 pm

New storage drawers built into ice maker recess. We used the doors off the original open space below the old fridge (that was my idea!). They fit perfectly after they were flipped around. The small drawer was already there - just removed the face and used it in the bedroom on the new drawer in the (old, removed) VCR hole. Fun, fun, fun!

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