Now you’re probably saying: “Well that’s all well and good, but I don’t have a central vacuum system!”  Well, neither did I, so I went low tech (read cheap) and built one.  I started looking around at garage sales and scored an Oreck Portable vacuum for $5.  Basically, any brand of portable vacuum will do, so long as it has a hose attachment.

Installing the Central Vac
Knowing that there is a lot of wasted space behind drawers in most RV kitchens, I pulled a large drawer out below my oven and found a void that was about 10″ deep.  The hardest part of this project was finding power for the vacuum and this was accomplished by tapping into a 120v line that was running nearby. (Note:  If you are uncomfortable with working with electricity contact a licensed electrician to put in an outlet.  But there goes the “cheap” part of the project!)  There may be an outlet in your basement that your converter plugs into that could be used.  After wiring in an outlet, it was just a matter of cutting out a place in the baseboard for the Vac Pan assembly, securing the vacuum and connecting the two.  To wire the vacuum to the VacPan, I simply removed the on/off switch on the vacuum and connected a set of wires to the VacPan.  I used heat shrink on these connections.  I used zip ties to secure the vacuum in place.
 

Pros & Cons
The only downside to this arrangement is changing bags.  We’ve been using the system for over a year now, and haven’t needed to empty it yet, but since we are not fulltimers yet, we can’t judge how often it will be necessary.  The plus side is that it does not take up precious basement storage like conventional central vac systems.  And since it is so easy to use, you will find yourself using it more often than dragging out the broom/dustpan combination.  The kids like it so much, you may have to limit how often they sweep the floor!

The manual and parts list covers these 1984 Models:

• Pioneer Series
  • Redwood
  • Columbia
  • Newport
  • Cape Cod
  • Jamestown Limited
• Americana Series
  • Colonial
  • Sun Valley
  • Royale
  • Shenadoah
  • Sequoia
  • Williamsburg

Download the Owners Manual: Click Here

Download the Parts list: Click Here

First I removed all the canvas off the tent trailer. Since a tent trailer is designed to have the canvas removed, this was a rather simple task. You will also need to decide if you are going to paint the inside of the trailer too. In my case, I did – in fact I tore out the inside completely cause I was planning on doing a complete restore. 

Canvas removal and body preparation

Outside: In order for the paint to look nice and adhere well, you need to remove all the decals, pin-striping etc. After all the decals are removed, you should give the outside a nice light sanding with about 120 grit sandpaper. 

After sanding, give the trailer a nice power wash. This will get all the loose dirt and sandpaper residue (for the original paint & sanding) off. 

Now it is time to mask off the areas of the trailer you don’t want to get painted. I masked off:

• Tires
• Door handle / latch
• Side lights
• Rear lights
• Trailer Tongue

For the parts I didn’t mask off AND didn’t want painted, I removed. for example, I removed the outside freshwater supply inlet and the land line power inlet.

Freshwater Supply Inlet

The Tongue on my Trailer was rusted and a very brownish color – I used this spray I got from Wal-mart that turns rust into black primer. Came out looking real nice.

Ok- now before you go any further, you will need a few items for the painting. Here is what you will need:

•  an HVLP Paint sprayer (I purchased this at Harbor Freight on sale for $17)
• An air compressor (the bigger the better as far as gallons go – but at least a 2 gallon)
• Vaseline
• 1 to 2 Gallons of Oil Based Paint for painting steel (I used BAR-OX Gloss enamel white paint. It is made by Devoe Paint and I purchased it from Neumann Paint and Supply 928-472-9054)
• Paint Thinner

Now it is time to paint. First, make sure you are out in the open so the paint fumes and over spray don’t get on anything you care about. Now start your air compressor going to fill up the air tank. To get the paint ready, fill your HVLP sprayer about 3/4 of the way with the Paint. Now add paint thinner in small doses to make the paint more like water in thickness. This is so you don’t clog up your sprayer. Attach your Paint Hopper to the HVLP sprayer and then attach the sprayer to the Air hose.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  Take that Vaseline that I told you to have handy and smear it on all parts of your body that is exposed to the air – Face, hands, ears, neck etc. WHY? Because you are going to get overspray and oil based paint doesn’t come off very easily. Having Vaseline on your skin allows you to just wipe off all the over spray that gets on your body. It is like wearing a paint suit, only cheaper

To spray, start at one end of the trailer and spray about 12 inches away from the surface of the trailer. Continue horizontally about your arms reach. Then let go of the sprayer trigger. And repeat this process back to where you started from. You want even spray stokes back and forth. Do this a total of two times before moving lower on the body. Then move to the area you haven’t painted on that side of the trailer and repeat this process over and over until the whole trailer is painted.

Painted popup trailer

When you are done painting, let it dry for at least 24 hours – then use a buffer and buff your new paint job

I am in the process of writing a series of step by step articles (with pictures!) about my restoration process. If you would like to be notified about that series then subscribe to my blog in the yellow box below.

On the mechanical items I need I will prolly shop at Auto Zone and Auto Parts Warehouse.

I determined that this Recreational Vehicle could use these inside updates:

• New flooring ( the carpet was nasty – and for camping, I would rather have something easy to clean than high pile carpet)
• Minor cosmetic fixes to cabinet corner bead
• New laminate edge strips for the dinning table and other surface edges around the coach
• A thorough detail cleaning
• A serious cushion shampooing

Outside:

• There were minor cracks in portions of the outside walls. This can be repaired with JB Weld
• The access doors to the outside storage compartments could use replacing
• The awning mounts needed re-enforcing
• A complete re-caulking of seems is also in order

I will be shopping at Walmart, Camping World and Al’s RV for all of my RV replacement parts and materials.

I know what you are thinking at this point. How much did you pay for this?? Well, I picked up this motorhome for about $3,000. I figure I will put about $400 into it for the updates I listed above. All in all, my family is really going to enjoy this.

I am in the process of writing a series of step by step articles (with pictures!) about my restoration process. The first article will be about painting the popup. If you would like to be notified about that series, please click here.

Here is the photo album for you to enjoy. If you have any questions or comments, post them here!