85dolph

FRP: Fiberglass reinforced polyboard. You see it a lot in fast food kitchens and hospitals. It's lightweight, waterproof, moldproof, heat deformable (for bends and curves, like in the shower stall to fit around the pan), Strong, and flexible. Panolam and marlite are the two main us brands. they also make fire resistant paneling. It comes in the standard kitchen appliance color palate (white, ivory, almond, beige, gray, robin's egg blue, red, and black), in smooth, pebble, and simulated wood grain textures. You can also custom order colors, prints, patterns, and textures but that costs $$$. The original paneling was suffering from "dolphin rot" so out it went! I just removed the floor in the cabover today, exposing where the fiberglass outer shell mates with the metal truck cab. OMG! It looks like the wonderful people who originally built it decided that the best solution to putting a motorhome on the back of a toyota pickup involved grabbing a six pack and a sawz-all. I'll post pictures later, but once I pulled off the carpet and the headliner it was hack job city. I managed to scrape my knuckles pretty badly on the rough exposed sheetmetal edges. I think I may end up rolling them or crimping them while they're exposed.

thanks for the tip totem. so here's what I'm putting in before the first roadtrip. The flooring and the walls in the cabover are totally rotted. I'm replacing the base layer of flimsy plywood with sealed hardiback (cement board) it's fireproof, surprisingly lightweight (comparable to similar thickness plywood) easy to work with (all you need is a razor blade) and best of all, Cheap!!! the old luan floor I'm replacing with a lovely stained and sealed piece of sanded subflooring. The framework, I'm just replacing the original 1"x2" and then re skinning the walls and celing with FRP. I'm replacing the walls in the shower with frp as well. I'm going to expand the cabinets, and replace the old monitor panel. I found a smoking deal on the brains for the whole operation too. <http://www.cutedigi.com/arduino/spruce-linksprite-stm32-arduino-compatible-board-with-lcd.html> It's a microcontroller that can read digital and analog inputs. capable of decoding mpeg2 compression if i put in additional memory. I'll have the world's fanciest gauge for telling me when my tank is full of poop. I'm putting in a backup camera, a screen in the dash, a high flow air filter, an electric fan, and a 140 amp alternator. I'll seal it all up and have it good to go by May. for info on how I'm using the fancy computermajigger to read the status of my holding tanks I invite you to look up voltmeter, ammeter, and capacitive water level sensors on <www.instructables.com> specifically how to hook them up to a microcontroller with an analog to digital converter. the most popular one is the arduino. the one I chose is arduino's bigger, smarter cousin. the best part is with the advance in rapid prototyping and mass manufacture, I get something much more advanced for only $20 more. Sadly my camera was stolen out of my truck last week so no pics at present. I'll try to make sure to post most of the steps as they happen

I may be going overboard, btu not out of the range of possibility. I plan on going with a 2 din for a better viewing and input angle. with a single din, I'd smash it with the stickshift. I don't want to cover the passenger seat or glovebox, otherwise I'd go for a 10 or 15 inch screen. If I can find one on ebay for cheap enough I may add a surplussed open frame 15-19inch touch display to add in the rear. for just right now I'm getting a 7in. touchscreen with vga (and possibly hdmi) out, so I can tie it in to my laptop and existing stereo. also getting a rear view camera and usb gps. those 3 things are my starting point.

Ok, I've got a handle on what I'm going to have to do to fix the electrical systems, and a fair estimate of the infamous dolphin rot. I'm going to have to replace the floor in the cabover as well as the framing on the driver's side at the seam. While I'm tearing things out, I plan on installing some wiring. There are a few devices I have in mind, and I plan on leaving at least one or two open terminals tucked away somewhere in case I find anything else worth adding. So I'm gonna level with you guys, I'm a bit of a nerd. I love technology, car audio, pc mod, and making small electronic projects. And, Since I now have a much larger power source, and some space, and (thank god) some income at the moment I figured it would be cool to trick out the toyhome. I've had most of my inspiration from another forum, mp3car. I thought about putting in a 2 din in dash dvd with navigation and rear view cam in the beginning, and then I thought about it. Why limit myself? For the same cost as a high end unit ($900), or substantially less, I can make my own! What's more, with the amount of space I have, I can fit a bunch of nifty little gadgets around. like this perhaps: Morse code flasher. The plan as it stands: 1) remove stereo head unit in dash, replace with a 7" monitor on 2 din mounting rail. Lilliput makes a fairly nice monitor with touch that supports both rca and vga in. so I can have my back up camera, and a laptop (for the time being) or pc plugged in without adapters. I might put a drop down in the rear later for use as tv, but navigation is my main concern. 2) get a rear view camera!!!! I don't like not seeing what's behind me. 3) mount the head unit somewhere else! Maybe the glovebox?? It's a nice stereo and I still want something to power my speakers and process my audio (pc soundcards aren't the greatest for car audio). It supports rca in, so I can use headphone out with a y splitter to send audio from the "brain" to the stereo. 4) Put 2 more speakers in the cab, either overhead or behind the seats.2x 4by10in. in custom enclosures. powered by the head unit along with the under dash speakers already installed. I bet you're wondering "why that size?" well, i had an s-10 a while back and i put nice speakers in it, so when it stopped moving, i took them out. thus i have a pair sitting around collecting dust. 5) install 2x 4.25in speakers in cabinets in rear dinette/passenger area. Again, I have them sitting around, and no place to put them in my hilux, so woohoo more power! 6) instal my 10 in. dual voice coil sub with ported enclosure and 230w amp. Make flipper bump something fierce. 7) while I'm playing with the dc stuff, replace the old monitor panel with a custom jobbie of my own making. I want a volt meter and consumption gauge. I want to have a readout for my propane tank, I want brass paneling and accurate readouts for my holding tanks. maybe put in 2 more dc appliance outlets. see if i can send readings from all sensors to a pc via usb (maybe use an arduino board) so i can get a reading in dash 8) build a pc to run gps, play my music, play dvd's, watch tv, find me free wifi, tie in to diagnostic port or ecm, to give real time info in coolant temp, air flow, rpm's, etc..., plug in proximity sensors, temperature probes, display boards, whatever I feel like there's so much stuff out there and so many tutorials on how to build it all! much later: put a second lcd display in the main cabin put in trackball and keyboard. Blu-ray? probably, dd-wrt 802.11bgn router with repeater ability. and a really big antenna! webcam for the front, make time lapse recordings for youtube. That's the short list, you should see the long one. all suggestions are welcome.:hyper:I think I might be getting a bit ahead of myself, but I'm excited! as I put things together I'll post them.

Thanks guys for the advice. It turns out I'm just a moron.. I looked up the battery number. Totally 6v. I'm still looking for the fuse for the 12v coach power outlet to see if I can get it to work, but otherwise everything looks pretty good for the electrical. I plugged it in to shore power for the first time today and everything runs wonderfully. I might end up replacing the tank monitor just because it's as old as I am, if not older by a few months . Mulwyk posted the most awesome looking one I've ever seen in the galleries a while back. I think a brass panel would be nice. Again, I'm a dumbass, sorry for wasting your time.

As far as the front end for an in car computer, I was thinking of using Centrafuse. I Found an older version out in the land of torrents and it seems to run well.

Ill post a pic as soon as I get a chance. but here's the deal.. 1985 dolphin, the appliances work on propane. I have yet to test on shore power And I'm hesitant to try them on coach power. It looks as though the previous owner wired up two 12v deep cycle batteries in series for the coach power. The 12v appliance outlet is dead so I at least need to rewire that. I have no idea why that would be, and any advice would be appreciated. It has a progressive dynamics pd 4600 3 stage converter recently installed. The wires run from positive on one to negative on the other. What is going on?

1985 dolphin, not sure but I think it's a 500, 22re w/ac. Dinette in back, Can/shower behind driver. Pretty basic but the appliances work on propane. I have yet to test on shore power And I'm hesitant to try them on coach power. It looks as though the previous owner wired up two 12v deep cycle batteries in series for the coach power. The 12v appliance outlet is dead so I at least need to rewire that. I have no idea why that would be, and any advice would be appreciated. It has a progressive dynamics pd 4600 3 stage converter recently installed. There's some minor water damage in a couple of places. and a small crack in the roof seal, but otherwise it looks sound. My plan is to replace the rotted stuff and insulation in the over cab sleeping berth, replace the bathroom walls with greenboard and hdpe, Replace the cabin headliner in a few spots if not entirely, replace the cabin lights (1141) with l.e.d. lights. Most likely I'll remove the upper cabinetry and replace it with something large enough to accommodate a small tv and a small microwave. Also plan on installing a power capacitor, 230w mono amp, and a 10in. dual voice coil mtx sub with ported enclosure. If I have the cash possibly a second multi channel amp for a set of 4.25in. and 4x10in. 8ohm speakers I have sitting around. I'm guessing that's about all I'll have time to do before my first major trip in May. Beyond that, I have thoughts of building a "carputer" for it Either in a standard atx case or a custom enclosure depending on space needs. Use it for a wifi hub, entertainment center, gps, possibly integrate it into power management and tank monitors, as well as live engine diagnostics. Oh yeah, rear view camera system is kind of a must I think, so I'll tie it in to the computer when I build that, and just go lower tech for the moment. It would be really awesome to mount a time lapse camera to the front to document the journey. I've only had it for a few weeks but I'm already in love. My goals might be a bit much, and depending on what I find as I go along, I may need to dial it back. Or if things are easy I'm going all out. I love camping and I hate spending money on gas so me and a toyhome seems like a match made in heaven. I just posted pics of it in the gallery.