kg4toi

Derek Up North is right. Explore carefully. Weird wire alert!?...National ran the interior lighting wires over the ceiling Styrofoam and under the aluminium roof "skin". Found bare wires due to chafing when we rebuilt the roof. Apparently the aluminium vibrated enough to wear away the insulation. Not a problem for 25 years, but disconcerting so .we fixed it.

Our 92/93 Dolphin had the same door opening problem, extensive rot, and had been infested with termites! We removed and saved interior cabinetry to reuse or use as patterns. The pull out bed was 86-ed and later a bench seat with storage replaced it. The floor was rebuilt taking care to use a similar sandwich construction but epoxy coating the exposed underneath ply. Next we removed the door skin inner lining of the walls and replaced the rotted framing with rot resistant and light white cedar. Behind the front seats, National Rv used a section of 1 inch steel tubing as a "stud". We used aluminium 1 inch thru out the repair. We used a lot of Liquid Nails and screwed the new frames from the outside then put up new interior door skin again with loads of goop. Did not have to remove all the interior door skin, but the shower was a disaster and was completely rebuild. Passenger side was better except under the fridge. Did the work outside with a Little Buddy heater on a slope...oops...if you look close you can tell. Been repairing since April 2016 but working 6 months out of the year ( semi-retired) and just finished the last job, roof rebuild, last week. Specific information can be supplied. TMI! situation. We have been camping this 2018 summer, thank God!!!!. Popped the new A/C on the roof last week and as a last mess up, Ups dropped the first one and we waited a week for the replacement. The landlord gave us a free weeks rent. Fellow R Ver. In the words of Tim Allen in the movie Galaxy Quest: "never give up, never surrender" Good luck.

Scripal, on our 93 Dolphin the floor is a plywood Styrofoam OSB sandwich. It looks like it was glued together with a Liquid Nails type adhesive. I've replaced at least 50% and as best as I can tell the bottom ply is/was 1/8 " door skin, then 1 " Styrofoam, them 3/8" OSB. Where furniture was attached there is either 1" square steel tubing or flat bar steel frame as part of the overall frame built on the Toyota chasis. There is/was fir strips along the outside of the floor to attach the sides if the house. The bottom ply was coated with a black tar like paint to protect it from road damage. Best of luck!

After 28 years living aboard sailboats, I have similar boat=RV thoughts. Moved ashore in 2004 and now have so much "stuff" I literally am wedged in a corner of my shop. What happened? As for toilets and 28 years of rebuilding them, followed by 12 years of being the " head mechanic" in a boat yard, the Kiss principle wins out over everything, except possibly a cork. Hope to finish the Dolphin rebuild this spring and start having yard sales. Currently negative 2 degrees Fahrenheit with snow flurries. Mr Buddy heater worked overtime today.

Besides the factory staples being a down and dirty cheap/fast way of building, another cheap out from the factory is the crap wood used for the framework. I replaced all the frame over the cab, left side and rear due to Termites!!! using northern white cedar. Did I mention the floor? Anyway, cedar doesn't rot and it's light. We glued and screwed the frames to the fiberglass skin, screwing from the outside, then removed the screws and filled the holes with epoxy. Used West epoxy to start while I could buy it wholesale from work and now use Basic No-Blush Epoxy from Progressive Epoxy on the web. They sell a winter epoxy that kicks down to 30 degrees Fahrenheit. The wood I get from a local guy who has a kiln and buys it green, drys it, chops it up and sells it to decoy carvers on the net. I get 2 x 8s or 3 Xs eight feet long and table saw them to what ever size we need. Another "glue" is liquid nails that we used to glue the door skin ply onto the Styrofoam. Extreme Liquid Nails works down to 22 degrees Fahrenheit. BTW, a polite Toyota owner told me Dolphins have wood frames but I didn't catch his meaning, having the "fever" real bad.

I'm just guessing but...it looks like there is a framework in the roof..haven't taken anything apart yet and the room is depressed in areas 18 inches (ish) square in several places like the bow of an old WW2 Destroyer if you ever noticed... . There is no visible A/C sag, but I don't like a flat roof with 5 or 6 holes in it! And depressions that hold water. I would toss the old roof and build a new one...I retire (again) end of June and would rather go camping. So would my wife!!!

Vrocrider good advice.I once got a solicitor to write a letter for free, he disliked insurance companies. Worked like magic. Sounds as if your vehicle is repairable and you should get the insurance company to foot the bill for a complete engine compartment inspection.

Our roof looks "crushed" in places from, I guess, people standing on it..93 Dolphin.No leaks, but something is going on... While browsing the u tube roof repair videos I noticed that people don't use epoxy and cloth over plywood but seem to prefer rubber membranes. As a life long boat builder (28 years living aboard 2 sailboats home built) and now a mechanic at a service yard, have I missed somethig? My kayak and canoe are WEST boats and take a beating. We paint the epoxy/cloth layup to protect it from the sun..Also, has anyone taken off the aluminum trim and glassed the fiberglass edges together..like a hull to deck joint? Newbie with a land yacht just asking. BTW, we are in the rig correcting ourselves when we say port, starboard, galley, etc.

Thanks again Derek... great info. Too bad I have to go to work tomorrow, lots to study. I'm the only licensed A/C-refrigeration tech left at work and work the haul out and commissioning seasons. Last day 4th of July and then off with the camper! Meanwhile, I'm reading all this stuff...wait, shouldn't I have read this first!? before buying?

Just linked to Craig'so List...Biddeford is still closer than Miami...got one, don't need two. Here's my theory: It's old, it will have issues, just go for it, you have the technology. And hopefully tools

The former owner had an oil change done, new filters and belts and normal engine maintenance when he decided to sell. The tires "looked" OK and the invoice was dated 2014. The date stamp on the tires turned out to be 47/10, my bad. The place to look for that info is not on the shoulder of I95 in Stuart, Florida. I am a semi retired boat mechanic and engine maintenance is what I do almost every working day. OK, technically it is work, but not like major problems would be. Thanks for the schedule! The owner had every manual except the Dolphin owners manual and the Toyota truck manual. I am searching for the Dolphin info..

My buddy at work showed me the advert a week after we bought a Dolphin in Miami and drove it back to Maine. We live 1 hour, 15 minutes from Old Town, where if I remember correctly, the rig is located. Also, there appeared in the lot of a used vehicle sales and salvage yard, what appears to be some kind of Toy behind a snow bank and a really old Class A RV. Couldn't see didn't want to look. Only 1.5 miles from my house.

Just bought a 1993 Dolphin, 3.0 liter, automatic transmission 63000 miles in fair condition in Miami. After 7 new tires, old ones dry rotted, we drove it to Downeast, Maine in 4 driving days averaging 14.5 to 16.3 mpg for the trip. Now the work begins... but not on the engine!?