Got seriously started on the ceiling today.

I made my own oo square bit to get the little screws out, cut along the cabinets with a razor knife, and drilled out the few rivits they figured would hold up the ceiling panels.

Once the panelling and insul was removed,[gloves, mask and clothes used], I started looking at the serious end of the construction of this thing. I guess the same Barth kid that got a good deal on red wire must have gotten a good deal on glue around this time, because the roof is glued to the structure, and as we've found in recent years, glue tends to crystalize after 12 years or so. Check out my finger in the gap between the structure and the roof.

This is typical of the roof as far as I tore off. I didn't find any rivits holding down the roof to the structure except around the vent. The rest is just floating in the breeze. So now I guess I'll drill and rivit the roof down in the area and maybe not brag quite as much about how this thing was made.

Looks like Suzy is doing the work. Are you supervisor on this job Danny?

Seriously, I'm not sure it's a good idea to rivet the roof down. Perhaps Barth knew what they were doing. With expansion/contraction the rivets may loosen or elongate causing leaks. Why not instead spray expansion foam? This would insulate, stabilize and give flexibility for the inevitable movement of materials? You could also use Sikaflex (Lowes sells it as Sikabond) to reglue permanently.

I agree with Corey - don't rivet. There's very little lift on the roof, so no reason to spike it down.

3M 5200 on the ribs, 4X8 sheet of plywood and lounge chair on roof with one cold adult beverage. When beverage is gone it is time to climb down and move to the next area. Time the application, might take two beverages for proper set time depending on temperature, both inside and out.

Yeah, what Corey & Rusty said. Stay away from the rivets. The AirStream is riveted, but it has smaller sections. See how big each section of aluminum is. If it's over 24" in any direction, stick with glue or leave it alone. The Florida sun will make it expand like crazy. It hasn't gone anywhere in this many years so it's probably good for many more.

OK, I'm convinced about the roof. I'm only removing that panel so I'll just reseal that area. Now, what about the ceiling? The panelling seems to be attached with the bare minimum of rivits also, and you can push up quite a bit between them. I had planned on rivits or screws to get it tightened up before covering with the vinyl. Any thoughts on that?

I think I would want to use very high quality marine grade plywood or Masonite type board to keep the moisture from affecting the integrity. The design lasted what, 30 years, I'd consider that pretty robust for a ceiling bouncing down the road.

quote:

Originally posted by Moonbeam-Express:
I think I would want to use very high quality marine-grade plywood.

With the garbage plywood on the market today, I would use Baltic or Finnish birch plywood, treated with clear Woodlife or similar.

Let's talk about some .020" thick aluminum and have your buddy cover it with a nice vinyl. It will probably only last two or three hundred years, but that should be ok. You could pop rivet it like the AirStream and look at the weight loss. You could probably carry a couple more cases of brewskis in there.

Would a blind rivet nut work? That way if you even needed to get back in there you could just unscrew the ceiling panels. A little blue Locktite to keep the screws from shaking out?

The newer Airstreams have done the aluminum inside and it looks real good. The only worry I would have is dings and scrapes are then permanent.

Has anyone ever tried/thought about using the off-white pebble-textured fiberglas panels?
(Think McDonalds/7-Eleven/Exxon bathroom walls
Home Depot/Lowes carries it - about $26 per 4'x8'x.90...Vertically, it's attached via plastic
serrated drive-plugs w/ round finish head into predrilled holes....might work in overhead application...

Corey, that would just add character to it. Isn't it called patina or something like that?

quote:

Corey, that would just add character to it. Isn't it called patina or something like that? Roll Eyes

Ummmm.......I call it dings and scratches

What you do & what you want to spend depend on your final goal. If you're looking to make a museum piece, marine or aircraft plywood is a fine solution, but even Barths are not truly museum pieces.

My original ceiling was luaun plywood, 1/8" or less, probably door skins, covered with a high-grade foam-backed plush material with a beautiful nap. Unfortunately, the foam deteriorated & the fabric sagged. I tried unsuccessfully to re-glue it, & eventually removed the seam covers & pulled it tight at the edges. It left some wrinkles at the corners, but we got used to them.

In the most successful job I saw, the owner made patterns, cut new panels of luan, glued upholstery fabric to them on the workbench, & installed the new panels as the originals had been. Neat, attractive, & a whole lt of work because he had removed all the cabinets first.