Our Salon slide has been leaking inside for years when the slide room was out. This was due to a number of factors including the windows leaking and the slide seal not fully sealing correctly. The slide room ceiling was starting to sag and for some crazy reason I decided to pull the ceiling down and rebuild it. I am going to include some pictures here and there (eventually will be a full video showing the full rebuild. My beautiful wife assisted me this morning to remove the big windows from the coach in order to remove the side wall plywood (3/4” btw) in the salon slide. I will attach some pictures although I have more in-depth videos to come for any that are interested. This is NOT difficult work but it is definitely tedious and you need to be sure to pull the pieces off slowly and mark the pieces carefully. Taking LOTS of pictures will also help with the assembly process - I am about 1/2 way done with the process and still have not pulled all the side panels off the walls of the salon (more difficult than it appears). There are lots of hidden screws but with patience you will find them all.
More pictures
Wow, I am so impressed at the magnitude of work and your ability to do it! That's great! I would be overwhelmed and probably just farm the work out to my wallets demise. Your work looks amazing. Looking at those pictures, it's crazy the amount of damage. You'll be happy when it is completed and done right.
I appreciate all the nice comments and compliments! I learned woodworking about 2 years ago when I took on my kitchen remodel and built all our cabinets including 44 drawers! My wife wanted all Euro-style cabinets with very few doors - she designed everything in Chief Architect and I built it! It was a LOT of work but we love our kitchen - that is why it is taking so long to get the coach finished: she keeps adding to my honey-do list! Next for the house is the patio deck, fireplace and outdoor entertainment areas and furniture, then the master bath, then the laundry room… it never ends! Lol
In case you are wondering where my woodworking came from - I knew NOTHING about cabinet building two years ago. When we stayed with Tom and Darlene we had some drawers added in the coach and paid a lot of $ for them (they are very well done) but now I could easily build them! We had bids up to $35k to build our kitchen (plus 6 months delivery) so I decided ‘I can build boxes!’, bought a lot of high-quality tools (always fun) and started watching tons of YouTube videos!
The Oak cabinets in the 2nd picture are the ‘before’ pictures.
Wow, I am really proud of you for trying it!! Looks F$*&ing amazing!! Beautiful home too! Care to adopt an older son? LOL Love that style. I too am learning some woodworking skills and acquiring the tools. Just having an orbital sander is a game changer. Bought a small off the shelf cabinet my wife liked and have to modify it to act as an air plenum, reinforced for a tabletop and of course the rigors of a moving vehicle. Let's just say I've pretty much cut up the whole thing and put it back together with "real" wood. I believe I inhaled enough Vietnamese lead paint to last a lifetime...
I had a similar problem with my DS slide. I just had Newell rebuild it 2 weeks ago. I'm telling you, your saving a bunch of money.
The root problem of water coming in, for me, was a misaligned seal at the back 1/4 of the slide on the top. The slide seal was inflating against the rubber inside lip, so about 50% hitting the slide and 50% hitting the rubber blade. The water found its way under the seal and in between the rubber lip. The fix, was to cut the lip down to level with the top of the slide, add a new rubber lip and aluminum backer plate and seal the top of this area with a sealant. This allowed the slide seal to land 100% on the slide with the rubber lip as a backing support as was originally designed.
We also had found the black steel braces that keep the valid slide up and locks in 2x's into the Coaches frame, was loose and not allowing the slide to stay up as high as it needed to be and get locked in.
I can't imagine my slide ever sealed correctly. Its not like the slide was going out farther, now, in the back and changed its position over time and miles.
Beautiful work. Keep pictures coming
Dave, Karen, w/Buddy and Moose.
06' Newell #784
towing a 06' Featherlite enclosed trailer or
05' Featherlite stacker for toys and tools,
or a 21' F350 w KTM 300, & MTB
35' Packard 4 dr convertible
59' Nash Metropolitan
I like engines and wheels
If I were to build a new Newell, could they still build one with no slides? Wife and I feel we don’t need the width space but prefer the length. Really do not want to deal with issues like this.
Simon, every coach is custom built. The answer is yes. It may suffer at resale, but they will build anything you want
Dave, Karen, w/Buddy and Moose.
06' Newell #784
towing a 06' Featherlite enclosed trailer or
05' Featherlite stacker for toys and tools,
or a 21' F350 w KTM 300, & MTB
35' Packard 4 dr convertible
59' Nash Metropolitan
I like engines and wheels
w KTM 300, & MTB