Re-imagining a 1948 Boles Aero Trailer

Following installation of the EPS foam board insulation I installed the new wall panels. The original panels had gotten quite discolored from water leaking and condensation, particularly around the windows.  Based on all the images I've seen on the internet, the condensation issue seems to be common to these small "canned ham" trailers. My theory is that the metal window trim that is typical in these trailers accelerates this problem because it sits right up against the endgrain of the wood panels and during cool mornings and evenings, even if you're not using the trailer, moisture in the air will condense out onto the cooler metal window trim and then get wicked up by the end grain of the panels. Original Panels In any case, I chose to replace the panels. Based on a tip I read I saved the old ones to use as templates for the new ones. It was a great idea, but I could have benefited from it better. More on that later. I'm not sure what the wood type was in the ori...

To move forward with the insulation and wall panel installation I needed to be able to do the rough-in electrical wiring and that meant I needed to think through the appliances I wanted, lighting, etc. I'd been thinking about it but hadn't written anything down. I used an idea I saw on one of the "van life" websites and decided to use a visual block diagram to capture "the plan". I started with the major components requiring electrical power. Then I roughed out the physical placement of those components in the trailer. This meant I needed to finalize the floorplan an cabinet layout. After that I broke out the 12VDC wiring paying special attention to where the wiring needed to be embedded in the walls. Most of the wiring will be strung through the cabinets where it's easier to access and not visible. Similar with 120VAC wiring. There's still some room to adjust as I move forward, but the rough-in wiring in the walls is essentially final.  

  Like the floor, I decided to use extruded polystyrene (EPS) rigid foam board insulation in the walls and ceiling. The three factors I liked were: 1) essentially waterproof; 2) good insulation properties; and 3) it doesn't leave as much residual foam dust as regular Styrofoam panels.  The walls and ceiling have room for 1.5" thick insulation so that's what I went with. At 1.5" EPS has an R-value of 7.5. I had to special order it and it took several weeks to arrive. In the picture above you may notice there are areas where I used 1" EPS instead of the 1.5" EPS.  The wood wall panels that will be installed over the EPS are only 1/4" thick and won't provide a good holding surface for anything needing to be securely screwed to the wall. Cabinets, curtain rods, and lights will need to be secured. to the walls. So I created voids for strips of 1/2" plywood by using 1" EPS instead of the full thickness 1.5" EPS. I used leftover marine grade...

  Flooring is done The job of actually installing the flooring was easy. Getting prepared to do it took a long time. I used a vinyl composite tile (VCT) from Armstrong. VCT is not "peel and stick" tile, rather you towel on some special VCT adhesive, let it dry to a tacky surface, lay down the tile, and use a heavy roller to make sure it seats into the adhesive. Where you need less than a full tile or a cut out you use a utility knife to score the tile and then it'll break along the score. It's all easy. Most of the time was spent letting the adhesive dry to a tacky surface. Watching glue dry They make a lot, and I mean a lot, of different colors. There are only a few "patterns" though. Home Depot and Lowes only stock a few different tiles (black, white, grey, and tan). I decided to special order a color I thought would complement the wall panels I'll be installing. That ended up being a fail.  UPS declared the first shipment "lost" after a few ...

  Under Bed Compartment Door Installed My '48 Boles will have a double bed in the rear with a platform that's roughly 18" off the floor. Some of the trailer mechanicals will go under the bed (e.g. water/grey tank, pump, furnace) but there will be room available for storage of camping stuff, etc. Most of the Boles I've seen in pictures had exterior compartment doors to access this space. Only a few of the pictures I've seen don't. I'm guessing it has to do with whether there was a sofa day bed or fixed bed originally installed, but I'm not sure. Picture of a Compartment Door in 1949 Boles 12 Compartment Door in 1954 Boles Miramar In any case I plan to have a fixed bed and I wanted external access to the area under the bed. I think it would be a great place to put an easy-up, chairs and assorted other stuff that is only occasionally needed. People on the Boles Aero Facebook pages were kind enough to share pictures of their compartment doors so I could get...

This post should be subtitled "Be Patient" or maybe "This One's for You Ken". I knew I'd be taking some time off during the Christmas season so I'd hoped to make some significant headway on the Boles renovation. Well I've taken the time off but most of my materials are taking a long time to get here and I'm afraid I'll be making little headway. My next major steps are: flooring, insulation, rough wiring (where the wiring needs to go in the walls), wall panel installation, ceiling panel installation. A couple week of productive vacation time, right? After all Becky is working through the holidays including a weekend inpatient shift and my Icon pass is blacked-out for skiing during Christmas, so there would be few distractions. First I knew there would be significant lead time for the wood paneling I planned to use. Becky doesn't like the look of the original Birch wood so I ordered some alternative samples a while back from Columbia Forest...

S&M Lighting No 303   A picture of the center tail light was what first caught my eye on the Boles. For some reason I just thought it looked cool. I've spent a lot of time sorting out the exterior lights on my '48 Boles. Over the years there's been a mishmash of new lights installed and some of the "more recent" choices were falling apart, not to mention they were just not very pleasant to look at. And the original lights needed some TLC as they were rusted and the wiring had rotted away. In addition to the center-mounted S&M Lighting No 303 brake light, the Boles had four side marker lights. They are Pell-Lite No 300 "beehive" type marker lights. Only the front amber lights still had the original glass lenses. The rear red lenses were some sort of plastic when I purchased the Boles. Pell-Light No 300 Original Pell-Lite Amber Glass Lens Finding an old Pell-Lite is pretty darn difficult, and finding replacement glass was just impossible so I found...