[Retro]

Did you try your local rv places for dump valves and related parts? If you have no luck there you could try Newell for original ones or Stephen at http://www.dupreeproducts.com
For your side wood pieces your local plywood store should have something. I have used fir then primer with a good quality floor or deck paint to seal it.

[Flick]

Ok I was able to use a heat gun and separate the pieces from the waste tank I needed to. I bought two new valves that matched and found all if the rest of the exact parts at Menards. Painted the tank and now just cleaning up the other parts. Between the flooring that was there previously and the other wood the tanks sat on they were about 1 inch off of the metal floor. Once I have that replaced (hopefully this week) I will use 1 inch square aluminum tubing underneath each tank to get them back to their proper pre-removal height so all of my plumbing will work.

For the walls I found some 1/4 inch black poly sheets. I saved the plywood I pulled out off of the walls to use as templates.

So if I can get the rusty floor cut out by someone and a new one in this week then I should be ready for re-assembly next weekend and we have a bright and shiny bay.

Now one question I have is that I just connected the two radiator hoses together that ran thru the water heater. I assume that this is ok and that they are under now great pressure. I put a copper piece between the two and clamped the together.

[folivier]

It should be ok to connect the two rubber hoses but it would be better to use a brass hose barb since with the ridges it will seal better. There should be 4 shutoff valves at the engine, 2 for the dash heater and 2 for the water heater you connected together. If you can figure which ones you can shut these off.

[Flick]

Started it up and no issues. Drove it to the body shop and lucked as out as one of the guys was working there. He took a look at it and seems to think they could do it this week. He said he would like to cut the rust out and treat everything else with 415. He Said they would rivet in one big sheet of aluminum and do the same on the walls. They will seal them where they meet so water cannot get out to another bay. Think that will look very nice so hope they can get it in.

My wife jokes that the bay will look so nice that I will make everyone look at our waste tanks area....and I might.

[Retro]

Todd, if you can get the body shop to paint that sheet before they install it you will be much happpier with the finished results. They probably would have some paint on hand. Endura is plastic and very durable, bare aluminum tends to bleed black and painted is easier to keep clean.

[77newell]

Since I redid the water compartment on the 77 coach (no longer ours) I was so proud of how it came out that I used to leave the compartment doors open for everyone to see. All that varnished wood I put in looked pretty cool.

If there is a plan to put the aluminum over the steel there needs to be assurance that there will never ever be metal to metal contact or the aluminum will disappear amazingly quickly. Since no one can see under the floor without groveling in the dirt, which no one did, I treated the old rusty sheet metal floor with used engine oil on both sides and then laid a now sheet of galvanized over it and then epoxy coated fine grain (for appearance) plywood on top of that. I also used W.E.S.T. epoxy and plywood to manufacture a new waste tank to replace the 1/4" plain steel original tank which developed a leak. The new tank looked real nice. One more think. Under the water compartment and adjacent storage compartment I put foam insulation in the spaces between the frame grid to slow down heat loss. I don't know how much that helped but the night it was so cold the quilt on my wife's bed froze to the window we had no water compartment problems.

[Flick]

So are you saying that aluminum is a lesser metal and steel like anode and a water tank and it will just erode do to that? I saw some of the cars these guys are restoring and they're fully first class vehicles I would think they would notice if it was an issue.

[Ozarkguy]

Dissimilar metals = corrosion through electrolysis , just something like 3M 471 vinyl tape will help..I went back w wood n sealed the h..ll out of it.. Covered the area around the dump with plastic coating ( like rhino liner paint) from NAPA. Lots of examples out there in many colors. Worked well. I coated the bottom side of the bays with a asphalt based sealer (undercoat) I'm sure what ever you choose will work out just fine!

[Retro]

If you use por15 on the steel then paint the aluminum before install. Use sikaflex between the coated steel and the painted aluminum you wont have a problem, use stainless rivets. Like you said Todd the body shop will know what to do. Newells are a steel frame sheeted with aluminum, they do put a rubber insulator between the two.
Your basically doing the same thing to the basement.

[Flick]

Update on the progress. As you can see they have cut out all of the floor by noon today. His plan was then to sandblast it all and then PO15 it. He is going to use a heavy gauge aluminum for the floor then cover that with a commercial insulation then cover that with another piece of aluminum. He will also cover the walls with the same and then seal it all up. He said he also wants to undercoat the bottom as well.