Not a Rally

It was supposed to be a mid-September  TCT rally, but all rally activities were cancelled so it became the "Not a Rally". Sampson State Park had recently opened to limited camping, and those that were registered for the rally were given the option of keeping their site registration - after being cooped up for months we decided to go! Camping by nature is outdoors and the distance between sites helps with distancing.  We are really glad that we went, we got to spend time sitting around a few campfires with our vintage camper friends and used the time differently than we would typically when camping in part of New York's Finger Lakes region. We did some hiking along Seneca lake, made a quick visit to a winery, and did a tasting at Muranda cheese company. The cheese tasting was a very cool experience, and their cheese is amazing! Back at the campground there was no open house or viewing of interiors of most the vintage trailers, but it was good to just walk the campground loop and check out the campers from a distance. There were a couple of rigs there that we had not seen before, including a great looking Avion trailer that was painted light yellow with a automotive quality finish, and a recently painted Shasta Airflyte that was very similar to our trailer. Also, some friends from home who are into vintage cars rented a cabin in the park for a few days and are now starting to catch vintage camper bug as well. We are hoping that things get back to normal next year, but this was a welcome break for us during the pandemic. 

Avion water and power upgrades

 

I've been spending a lot of time on power and water utilities... We decided to go with a new plastic fresh water tank instead of repairing the old aluminum one (even though it is super cool), the new tank is a perfect fit and off-the-shelf from VTS. A new water pump and about half of the new PEX water lines are now roughed in. I bought a new Atwood water heater, not plumbed in yet but a perfect fit sitting in the hole that’s been in the side of the camper since we bought it. I replaced the 30Amp 120v electrical inlet with a up-to-date one made by Furrion. I found that the old 120v inlet was an odd configuration made by Hubbell that looks like a common one but has one tab that is reversed, you can buy an adaptor (HBL3333C) but it costs as much as a new standard 30Amp inlet and I wanted to run new wire to the box anyway. I replaced 120v wiring to 3 outlets that I could do without removing any interior skin. I added a 2nd circuit breaker to to the box as we learned by surprise one day that only half the outlets were on the one breaker that was there, the other half were just hot all the time. I added an access panel on the inside wall where the truck umbilical comes in, crazy that you had to remove rivets to get the wire connections in there. I replaced the old glass screw-in 12 volt use box with a modern 12v one and installed a new Progressive Dynamics Converter/Charger to replace the old-school battery charger. I also ran lots of new 12v wiring for the appliance locations and some for lighting. I installed a small 12v to 120v Inverter so that we can run a laptop and other small 120v appliances off the 12v batteries if needed when boondocking. The fuse box, new electrical components, and water pump are all located in the cabinet under the front edge of one of the dinette seats, I spent a lot of time working out an arrangement so they would to be fairly compact so the 12v utilities only take up half of that cabinet.

refinished woodwork and interior wall paint

 

Here's some photos of the refinished cabinet frames and some paint on the interior walls. In the first photo above you can see the original finish on that was under the laminate next to the stove compared to the new darker stain and stripped wood on the fridge cabinet.  The original finish was very opaque, and while in good condition in some areas there were other places that needed a lot of attention. We decided to go with a darker but more transparent stain after looking at a lot of vintage interiors at a vintage camper rally last year. Our Shasta has amber shellac interior and while I like that, I also like that the Avion will feel different yet it still has a lot of wood inside. The light wall color has a great warm tone to it that really works well with the dark wood. 

Avion interior stripped

We've made a lot of progress on them Avion over the last few months with my wife and I continuously working on various tasks.  I'll try do a few posts with different stages of progress. Here's some photos of the interior with the original finishes stripped off the woodwork, everything cleaned up, and the walls in primer.