Down to Bare Metal

 

Looking Forward

Dirty and Tired

I had hoped to work on putting new glazing and seals on the trailers Air-O-Lite windows but the specialty gasket didn't arrive before the weekend. So I decided to get to work removing the interior paneling and insulation. I really didn't know what I'd find but I was very curious.

First I had to remove all the widow trim rings, electrical fuze box, etc. I must have unscrewed about 200 #6 3/8" sheet metal screws.

The wall panels are installed first and the wrap-around roof goes on next, so I needed to reverse the order to remove them. I was slightly concerned that I'd find an insulation with asbestos in it so I pulled off a small panel on the back near the tail light so that I could check.

Panel next to back window

I was able to pull out the panel and the insulation still had a manufacturers brand mark on it. Little did I know that I had gotten really lucky: there was only one other place in the whole trailer that you could see any marking. I was soon to find out that it had all deteriorated like the characters at the end of "Avengers Infinity War".

KIMSUL Insulation For Trailers




I took a break and searched the internet for information about "Kimsul Insulation for Trailers". The internet is so good for this type of thing! I was able to find that Kimsul was a Kimberly-Clark (yes the toilet paper company) cellulose insulation that was widely used in trailers and homes. I also found an inspector who'd had it tested for asbestos and said it had come back "negative". Awesome, back to work.

I began pulling out the roof wrap panels. The panels are roughly 1/4" thick. They are screwed to the aluminum spars. The spars are 1.5" deep to there is a void between the outer skin and the panel for the wiring and insulation. They nailed small 1.5 wood blocks to the end of the panel to create a standoff from the skin.

1.5" tall block along wall edge of panel, note "welt" stapled to edge that interfaces with the wall panel

Between panels there was a cleat that ran from one side of the trail to the other. The was attached to the panel, but not the trailer skin or spar.

The edges of the roof panels that met the wall panels had a small bead "welt" (or "gimp") stapled to them to hid the gap between the roof panel and the wall panel.


The process to remove the panels was pretty straight forward. I just moved along one by one. The worst part was the insulation that had basically decayed like paper does over time. If it came down as a full bat, as soon as you tried to pick it up and put it in the trach can it would disintegrate into a black power sort of like ash. What a mess!

After I finished the rood panels I started on the wall panels, but first I marked them so I can use them as templates for the new panels I'll be installing (probably not Birch like the originals, but haven't decided).


Removing the wall panels

Wall panel removal went smoothly and I finished in a few hours. I finished by vacuuming all the insulation remains up.
Wearing gloves kept my hands clean



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