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shower pan replacement


Dolphina

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I am in the process of renovating the bathroom on my 93 Dolphin (rear lounge). The shower pan is an odd 5 sided deal and I don't want to remove the shower pan unless I can replace it with the same thing (not likely to find). I am thinking about having a fiberglass one replicated one from the original. Any thoughts or experience with this? Thanks!

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Whats wrong with the original one?

I repaired a crack in mine by placing fiberglass over the crack. worked great.

John Mc

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

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If you can get the old pan out in one piece, it could be used as a mold to make a new one but it would be just a touch smaller than the original. Making a mold from scratch would be a better way to go since you could make it stronger than the original and add little touches like non-skid to the pan.

As John Mc said above, rebuilding the original would be much easier and you'd have a guaranteed fit. How bad is the pan? Broken up much?

John

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Whats wrong with the original one?

I repaired a crack in mine by placing fiberglass over the crack. worked great.

John Mc

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

I honestly never thought of that, "forrest for the trees" I guess. Thanks!

Sue

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If you can get the old pan out in one piece, it could be used as a mold to make a new one but it would be just a touch smaller than the original. Making a mold from scratch would be a better way to go since you could make it stronger than the original and add little touches like non-skid to the pan.

As John Mc said above, rebuilding the original would be much easier and you'd have a guaranteed fit. How bad is the pan? Broken up much?

John

The pan has some pieces broken off around the bottom edge, but not bad and no leaks-so far. I was more afraid of what might happen, I need to get it off to get to the wall behind it and it looks quite brittle. I haven't done any fiberglass work but I'll deffinitely check into building one from scratch - especially if the removal doesn't go well. Thanks so much for the help, everyone at this site is so helpful...and wise!

Sue

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Sue,

In case you haven't seen it, here's a couple links.

http://toyotamotorhome.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=3741

http://toyotamotorhome.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=3598

Fiberglass is very easy to work with, if you've ever done paper mache, same thing, only different materials.

A good source is "West Marine" they have an Epoxy that I use, "West Systems" (no relation to the company name)

If your going to make your own pan, you may need a larger quantity of glass, i.e. a couple yards of it. If I were doing this, I would use Rutan RA7725 Bi-directional S glass (I use this a lot) It conforms to curved surfaces very well, wets out nicely, and has documented engeenering structural qualities (Important in aircraft, probably not so much for shower pans :-)

Take a look at :

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cmpages/rutan.php

And if your interested in how I use fiberglass:

www.iflyez.com

John Mc

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

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Here's a thought on how I would approach doing a new pan.

1) any part that is loose and obviously broken off, remove it.

2) remove any trim that drapes over the pan edges

3) Using either the urethane spray foam OR the two part 30x foam, filling any voids and areas that plastic is missing. It will expand and overfill, that's OK.

4) When the foam cures, use a knife / sandpaper to cut/sand the foam level with the rest of the pan. When finished, the pan /faon should have the shape you want.

5) sand the entire plastic surface, use 36 grit, we need to scratch everything so the fiberglass will stick to this. Be particularly aggressive around the drain and around the edges. I would say at least 3 inches all the way around the drain, and two inches on the edges.

6) Push a piece of foam into the drain hole and cut/sand it smooth.

7)Tape over the drain hole, We want to tape where we don't want the glass to stick.

8) tape above the pans top edge, where we don't want glass to stick. (we want glass on the pan, but not on the wall. Tape the wall.

9) Lay down plastic sheet to the floor outside the pan, we don't want epoxy spilling on the floor. ALSO - tape plastic sheet about 1 ft up around the edges, keep epoxy off the walls.

10) Cut three layers of BID about 6 inches larger than the pan,

11) Cut two or three pieces of BID a couple ft long and two inches wide.

12) Mix a small batch of epoxy and paint the entire pan.

13) lay the three layers one at a time. dimple with a brush, and squeegee epoxy into each layer, one at a time make sure the layer is completely wet before laying down the next layer.

14) You may wish to use the 2 inch wide pieces to reinforce the edges or around the drain, or just do a diagonal cross from corner to corner across the pan to add just a little more stiffness.

15) Use Peel Ply, (dacron sheet) lay this across the pan and up onto the edges, dimple/squeegee it in until its completely wetted. If you do this with pieces, make sure they overlap an inch. (NOTE If you do the glass in pieces, make sure you overlap it a minimum of one inch.

16) OK, you'll have the glass in the pan, it will be extending over the top edge all the way around and onto the taped wall. it should be completely wetted out, up and extended just a little onto the taped wall, we're going to be cutting this in the next step.

17) We call this knife trim - Not mandatory, but will make life a lot easier. Depending on the epoxy used and the temperature, you want to do this when the epoxy has started to cure and is about the consistency of a warm stick of chewing gum. it won't be wet like paint and it won't stick to your fingers, but it will feel tacky.

18) Use a very sharp razor knife, clean the blade with acetone, keep the blade clean. Carefully cut the glass all the way around at the edges of the pan where they meet the wall. Carefully cut out the hole in the drain, remove the foam that you put in earlier. If the glass pulls a little, press it back into place. clean the blade with Acetone. If you take your time, keep the blade clean and sharp, you shouldn't have any pulling. If you get a lot of pulling, wait a little longer for the glass to cure a little more.

19) Let the glass cure for a day or two (depend on epoxy and temp) When its cured hard, you should be able to grab the edge of the peel ply (may need to use a knife to get it started) and pull it off. Make sure that you got it all.

20) Use 120 - 200 paper and sand the edges, also sand the transition for the drain. Sand the entire pan surface just to knock off any small edges (there shouldn't be many, the peel ply keeps this from happening).

21) Vacuum clean, do a fast wipe with acetone. Paint with primer, and then with whatever color you want.

22) Stand back and say to yourself ; " WOW, THATS COOL, I DID THAT." :-)

If you (or anyone else) decide to do this, I'd be more than happy to talk to you and help walk you through the entire process. If I can do it, Anyone can do it.

JOhn Mc

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

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John,

Thanks for the links, and for your other very detailed post. I'm much more comfortable with the project now.

Sue

Sue,

In case you haven't seen it, here's a couple links.

http://toyotamotorho...?showtopic=3741

http://toyotamotorho...?showtopic=3598

Fiberglass is very easy to work with, if you've ever done paper mache, same thing, only different materials.

A good source is "West Marine" they have an Epoxy that I use, "West Systems" (no relation to the company name)

If your going to make your own pan, you may need a larger quantity of glass, i.e. a couple yards of it. If I were doing this, I would use Rutan RA7725 Bi-directional S glass (I use this a lot) It conforms to curved surfaces very well, wets out nicely, and has documented engeenering structural qualities (Important in aircraft, probably not so much for shower pans :-)

Take a look at :

http://www.aircrafts...pages/rutan.php

And if your interested in how I use fiberglass:

www.iflyez.com

John Mc

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

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I had one with the black water tank raised up inside it. taking up half the bathroom, and my tank had been cracked, so I cut the box out and re-fiberglassed the unit into a flat pan. Puttied it, sanded and painted it. Turned out beautiful. I thought of a new one, but the original fit too perfectly to mess with!

Good luck!

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  • 4 months later...

I just went to Camping World today looking for a new pan. No luck. They've got them for Dolphins and Winnies, but not my model. Now I'm looking at using John's method, but I'm kind of stuck.

I've got a crack in the bottom of the pan, and an old "repair" that needs to be cut out and re-done.

I could just lay a new layer of cloth and resin or cloth and epoxy over the existing pan, right where it sits in the RV. I would glass up to the edge of the drain, but probably not mess with the existing drain connection. I'd also add spray-foam under the pan to give more support than the blocks holding it up currently provide.

My other option is to remove the pan, make the repair, or have the pan restored for many dollars, then install it with proper support across the whole base.

If option #1 is best, there is no problem.

If option #2 is best, how the heck do you disconnect the drain? There's only about an inch of space under this thing where the PVC screws onto the metal drain. I can disconnect it, but have no idea how I would ever get it put back together. Below the floor the joints are all glued up until the tank side of the trap. Do these things get installed from the underside? Is the gooped-in drain supposed to spin or something? I'm at a loss here.

So, toyhouse aficionados; which option is best? Got any more tips and tricks to shower pan sourcing, re-furbishing, and installation?

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Camping World is not the best place to look. They only carry a small selection. Try here. They are not cheap but it would be all new and easier

http://www.pellandent.com/RV_Products_List.aspx?CategoryID=164

They also have surrounds for most of the pans they carry

LS

I just went to Camping World today looking for a new pan. No luck. They've got them for Dolphins and Winnies, but not my model. Now I'm looking at using John's method, but I'm kind of stuck.

I've got a crack in the bottom of the pan, and an old "repair" that needs to be cut out and re-done.

I could just lay a new layer of cloth and resin or cloth and epoxy over the existing pan, right where it sits in the RV. I would glass up to the edge of the drain, but probably not mess with the existing drain connection. I'd also add spray-foam under the pan to give more support than the blocks holding it up currently provide.

My other option is to remove the pan, make the repair, or have the pan restored for many dollars, then install it with proper support across the whole base.

If option #1 is best, there is no problem.

If option #2 is best, how the heck do you disconnect the drain? There's only about an inch of space under this thing where the PVC screws onto the metal drain. I can disconnect it, but have no idea how I would ever get it put back together. Below the floor the joints are all glued up until the tank side of the trap. Do these things get installed from the underside? Is the gooped-in drain supposed to spin or something? I'm at a loss here.

So, toyhouse aficionados; which option is best? Got any more tips and tricks to shower pan sourcing, re-furbishing, and installation?

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Thanks for the link, Linda. Sadly, that's the same catalog that CW had. There's nothing in there that fits. My pan is odd shaped, with a notch cut out of the corner for the sink plumbing to come up through a little walled-in box.

It looks like this:

QCBTn.png

I'm thinking repairing the existing pan is probably my only option.

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Hello all, I thought I'd jump back in the discussion and let you know what I ended up doing. I had the same problem trying to get the drain disconnected - no room. So, I took out my Dremel and made an access port an the front side of the pan near the drain connection, big enough to get my hand in to disconnect the drain. After I got the pan out I saw that I have an 8"x8" hole in the floor just to the left of the connection that has a piece of tarp glued over it I could have removed and worked up through. I think this was someone else's earlier fix. Unfortunately I found that the back of the spot I cut out had a reinforcing piece of hard plastic about 1/4" thick on it. With that gone I try not to step to close to that edge of the pan, not a big problem. So, I took out the pan and bought a fiberglas repair kit at Wally world and made my first stab at fiberglas repair. It wasn't bad but I'm glad I didn't have much to do. I had some minor cracks around the screw holes and one up the side near the drain. By the way, when I tried to unscrew the drain it crumbled so I ended up having to replace it. Not a big deal, just bought another one at my local RV shop and installed it. I did the fiberglas repair from the back side and then reinforced the screw holes and replaced the bottom edge that had broken off earlier. After that I sanded the entire thing with 200 then 400 grit paper and painted with Krylon paint for plastic - works great!! I've used it a few times so far and it still looks good. I replaced the access panel by using FRP molding around the edge to slide the panel into. Thanks! Sue

Thanks for the link, Linda. Sadly, that's the same catalog that CW had. There's nothing in there that fits. My pan is odd shaped, with a notch cut out of the corner for the sink plumbing to come up through a little walled-in box.

It looks like this:

QCBTn.png

I'm thinking repairing the existing pan is probably my only option.

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