07-09-2014, 10:14 PM
Well this last weekend the water heater in our 84 died. Looked like a straightforward fix so I ordered a new one and it should,be here by the weekend. Tonight I had a visitor from Canada passing thru who stopped for the evening. Retro was coming thru with his latest project which is a 76 Newell he picked up in Missouri I am sure we will all get to watch this old beauty come back to life in his very talented care. He showed me pics of his other two restorations and he did an amazing job on both. Keith is a very nice person and I hope you all get a chance at some point to meet him as well I was very glad he decided to overnight here.
i brought my coach to where he was overnighting to show him the result of all of our work the last couple of years I mentioned my water heater would be replaced this weekend and he asked about the flooring in the bay. He said many times that area is rotten due to the wood they used being sandwiched between metal on the bottom and a laminate ontop. Add some moisture from all of the water activity and you have a prime spot for rot. Well sure enough the wood was rotten underneath after we poked around it. Luckily it appears only to be that huge bay though. So the heater will go in this weekend as planned but later this year I will have to pull the heater, the water tank, the waste tank and all of the plumbing that's in the bay so that I can strip out all of the rotten wood in there and start all over. hopefully I don't have too much rust damage under the wood.
It's a daunting project but I also look forward to having a very clean looking and updated water bay. After talking to Keith I think it makes sense to use aluminum or metal on the flooring rather than wood again so that I don't have to worry about rotten wood ever again. He has done this to his coach and said he rebuilt and updated his water manifold at the same time as well.
So Gurus this is the planning stage for my project and I would like your input and ideas on this as well since I will have not done anything like this before. I will post some pics of the bay etc in the next day or so to help fuel your input. Thanks as always gurus for your support.
i brought my coach to where he was overnighting to show him the result of all of our work the last couple of years I mentioned my water heater would be replaced this weekend and he asked about the flooring in the bay. He said many times that area is rotten due to the wood they used being sandwiched between metal on the bottom and a laminate ontop. Add some moisture from all of the water activity and you have a prime spot for rot. Well sure enough the wood was rotten underneath after we poked around it. Luckily it appears only to be that huge bay though. So the heater will go in this weekend as planned but later this year I will have to pull the heater, the water tank, the waste tank and all of the plumbing that's in the bay so that I can strip out all of the rotten wood in there and start all over. hopefully I don't have too much rust damage under the wood.
It's a daunting project but I also look forward to having a very clean looking and updated water bay. After talking to Keith I think it makes sense to use aluminum or metal on the flooring rather than wood again so that I don't have to worry about rotten wood ever again. He has done this to his coach and said he rebuilt and updated his water manifold at the same time as well.
So Gurus this is the planning stage for my project and I would like your input and ideas on this as well since I will have not done anything like this before. I will post some pics of the bay etc in the next day or so to help fuel your input. Thanks as always gurus for your support.
Todd & Dawn Flickema
Former owners of a Classic 1984 Newell
71 Karmann Ghia
Sioux Falls, South Dakota