Two things I need to do for management of normal wear and tear.

A. Interior walls, a thin board with a plasticized cover, needs repair. The plastic covering has become detached, torn and fenerally ratty ;ooking. This boards seems to be in 4 ft. width, presenting seams. I would consider wall paper over, except for the seams. How have you re-done your interior walls? Cheap is good.

B. Valences. All my windows have three sided valences on all windows, padded and cloth covered. Still functional. But I have grown to dislike them. One reason being that they cover a good deal of the window area around the edges. How have you changed the treatment of your windows? I am thinking simply bare window, or perhaps a much less obtrusive wooden three sided edge similar to many units used in the kitchen window.

C. And #3, I removed old fancy expensive never-worked-well and used-too-much-water toilet for the simpple bottom slide opening style. Now I have wood showing between the new toilet pedestal and the tile floor. The wood around the toilet is even surfaced with the tile. How is the best way to beautify the bare wood area, cheaply?

There, I squeaked in 3!

Gary,

My 97 Monarch has the same problem with the plasticized covering pulling away, especially at the windows. I am in the same mode of trying to figure out the best recover concept. After seeing a new Airstream at a Campers World where the interior is totally done in aluminum sheet, I'm thinking of that for the bedroom area. I have also thought of doing wood in the bedroom, perhaps all cedar plank (can be had in 1/8 interlocking panels).

I too hate the window surrounds. I'll at least recover and get rid of those silly looking corner decorative pieces. I'll bet yours is just like mine as they are very close in year.

My final thing is to redo the front couch area. Vintage colors are wearing on my mind.

I found it interesting that your 96 has the older style front end. My Monarch is fiberglass on the nose only. I wonder if it was an option or the Regal got a different treatment? I have seen 96 Monarchs with the glass nose like mine.

Corey,

I have seen some nice wall paper jobs in a restored GMC, where 'wall paper' means extremely heavy plasticized material. Looked really nice. I need to revisit the fellow and find out where he bought the covering.

I have also considered the cedar approach but that has a couple or more of drawbacks. More costly, much more labor, and one would have to be a great craftsman to properly dress the cedar planks around the window frames.

Would you remove the current wall panel, which is perfectly good except for appearance? I would like to leave it in place, and cover it, maybe adding a layer of i/8" insulation. But if the paneling were removed, perhaps additional insulation could be added between the metal 'studs'. I just do not know which way to turn, as I am afraid that upon removing the first panel, I will discover the reason I should not have...! Someone here has detailed pics of the cedar planks you describe, but I do not know if they added over existing panels or replaced them.

Additionally, I am not sure how well cedar would match my oak looking interior.

I did recover my jack knife sofa with a solid beige false suede - cost as much as a new sofa. I also noted that my sofa seat was too narrow yo lie on unless one arm dangled on the floor, and was to shallow for my long legs. I then noticed that the back was taller than the seat was deep. So I switched them, back to seat and seat to back. This required drilling new matching holes in the metal frame, but nI ended up with a couple inches or three extra to sit and lie on. The down side was that I did that after I recovered, so the firmer padding I added to the "seat" is now in the back, And my seat now needs to be firmed up. Also, after switching the two, I believe I can re-stake the frame about three inches closer to the wall to gain a little aisle space lost to the deeper seat, but I haven't tackled that yet.

Yes, my front end is of retro design. I am still not absolutely positive of what model name to tag it with! My front is entirely aluminum and rivets, formed Al corners. I have no fiberglass anywhere.

I think my unit was built near the factory going-out-of-business period, and maybe they were combining features that did not strictly match model names. Can you say, "hey, what kind of front end material do we have in the warehouse?" More likely it was built to custom spec, though. Unfortunately I have no historical continuity on my Barth.

And my Barth is titled as a 38' which includes the retro bumper depth. The actual length is 37 feet, and that seems to be indicated in the mfg tag number.

quote:

Originally posted by garryp:
C. And #3, I removed old fancy expensive never-worked-well and used-too-much-water toilet for the simpple bottom slide opening style. Now I have wood showing between the new toilet pedestal and the tile floor. The wood around the toilet is even surfaced with the tile. How is the best way to beautify the bare wood area, cheaply?

I would suggest a toilet bowl riser. It will lift to a better height and cover up the gap that you have.

Thetford RV Toilet Riser Parchment And at less than $26.00 it should be cheap enough.

Here is the MFG Blurb:

quote:

Raises the level of comfort and convenience for RVers by lifting the toilet 2-1/2". Fits all existing toilet flanges. (Note: additional plumbing hook-up materials may be needed.) Fits Thetford Aurora, Aqua-Magic® IV, Galaxy®, Starlite®, SeaLand® 510 and 910 models.

Toilet Riser
Raises your level of comfort and convenience 2-1/2 inches.
Fits virtually all RV toilets.
Available in parchment and white.

quote:

I need to revisit the fellow and find out where he bought the covering

Please let me know what you learn on this.

quote:

Would you remove the current wall panel, which is perfectly good except for appearance?

I would like to leave it in place, and cover it, maybe adding a layer of 1/8" insulation.

I will most definitely leave the wall board in place. I can imagine it goes behind things like walls and closets making it virtually impossible to remove correctly. Also, you may have no edge stud to reattach to!!!

If I do cedar (which would probably look darn nice with my Cherry woodwork) I would liquid nail it to the existing wood, which I have done in my house very effectively. Windows could get trimmed outwith a brown vinyl C rail or a good finish carpenter (you know, the ones from Finland!) could make a boat-like molding too. I would do the ceiling and walls to make it very boatish in there.

Sitting here wondering if anyone makes a mahogany bead board in 1/8th inch

These walls are, as you said, only 1/8" thick. In your house you were probably using standard sheathing material as the under base. Could there be a problem with the 1/8" wall carrying the added load?

Also, which direction would you run the cedar planks, vertical, horizontal, or diagonal? (I do not have a decorator's eye. I know what I like and what is attractive only after I see it, not before!)

Thx, Bill, I will check that out.

Upon your mention of beadboard, I googled to see exactly what you were thinking of. Of course that same search took me directly to wainscoting material, i.e. beeadboard. Then it occurred to me: Short = less work, cheaper. And since all my wall problems with the windows are at the bottom, what about wainscotting to the bottom of the window, with the top trim against the bottom of the window. And perhaps wall paper from wainscot to cabinets.

ON EDIT: And of course that would dictate the removal of the window surrounds which extend below the windows. What a shame! :-)

ON EDIT #2: Come to think of it, I already have wainscot in the bed area, it just doesn't reach the bottom of the windows. I guess that answers the strength question!

quote:

Picture of garryp

Perhaps there's a little decorator in you after all

I think on the question of laminating the cedar to the luan that's there, you basically end up with a 1/4 wooden plywood of sorts. I think it would be plenty strong.

I am just back from Home depot. I looked at paneling, floor planking, floor laminate. Some of the floor planking stated that it can be glued, and some of it is thin (read light weight).

One caution I need to mention. The current plastic coating cannot be glued to. I put up a simple stickem-on hook on it in the kitchen. Even a modest weight caused the plasticized surface to 'bubble' away from the luan underneath, I removed the hook, and the plastic surface slowly reverted to it's normal taught self. So I suspect this material could turn a glued-plank approach into a disaster shortly. But perhaps staple/nail might work ok.

quote:

The current plastic coating cannot be glued to.

I plan to remove all of that crap! By scoring with a razor blade at areas that go under things, I'll bet it'll peel off like sunburnt skin.

Keep the details coming. My unit has exactly the same problems with the "wallpaper" and I was going to scrap it off where loose and wallpaper over it, but if it de-laminates that easy..

I was wondering what to do with the small strips they used to cover the joints, would spackle/tape work? Standard drywall stuff? Dusty as hell however.

Or then texture paint...

Tom

I think that after cleaning any loose/wrinkled areas an appropriate wallpaper glue would work to recover. But I would not consider glue of wood or laminate without removal of the old plastic - it is weird stuff under weight.

I would use wood/laminate "T" seam pieces, or if papering, paper the original strips or new strips. I would not try to 'spackle' seams as the minor torqueing of the vehicle would be expected to crack it loose, in my opinion.

I did find hole saws at HomeD available in inch increments up to 6" diameter at HomeD. My window corner radius appears to be about 3", so maybe oone could use the 6" dia hole saw to create radii if using any sort of paneling or planking. Or one with a firm jigsaw hand could cut with jigsaw and finish sand any saw imperfections.

I do not know, just sayin...

quote:

was wondering what to do with the small strips they used to cover the joints, would spackle/tape work? Standard drywall stuff?

The problem with using any kind of drywall-plaster products is they have no elasticity. Most houses don't flex much but all motorhomes do, even Barths. I'd stick with products that are designed for motorhome, or at the least, mobile home applications.