kempy

won't  be there this time so pls accept my apologies.

Kempy

Still pulling panels off, hope to stop doing that tomorrow. Anyone in Matakana /warkworth area that is handy with this type of stuff is more than welcome over the next few days, ill shout the steak, beers and some koha.

Stage 1 which is outside done and new interior walls hopefully 3-4 weeks,  I'll take a break and do the rest over winter which is the furniture refresh etc..

I reckon house renovations are much easier than this.

Here's my check list which is a reminder for me but also someone might read it and have some good ideas.

Things still to get:

New window rubber seals

Outside shower

Solar Panels x2

Solar Panel mounting hardware

MMPT charge controller

LED Lighting

Wind down stabilisers

New Draw Bar

Carpet (squares I think?)

Cabling

replacement roof vent

New Bedding squabs

Curtains

a freaking miracle

Things I already have:

Gas heater for hot water (need a flu kit)

12v Water pump

200AH Batteries

2000w invertor

12v Fridge/freezer

Paint and stuff

New Wheel Bearings

New polystyrene insulation

New Caravan interior ply

Found this on trademe tonight as I was browsing http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-parts-accessories/batteries-chargers/auction-846384743.htm

Actually I do have the odd question, for a start what would you spray the galv steel and the back of the aluminium with prior to sticking them back together?  I wanted to create some kind of barrier.

Would etch primer on it's own be enough?

I've been treating the rust with brunox epoxy anti corrosion spray, seems to be good stuff.( sand blasting any flaky stuff off first )

http://www.brunox.com/website/productpages/Epoxy-Spray-en.html

Progress, apparently....

Kept finding lots of corrosion between the Aluminum and steel leaving lots of heavy pitting on the Aluminum surfaces, my choices were to bog it up with epoxies or to do it properly.

After finding a friendly sheet metal company in Warkworth I decided that I'm to to entirely remove the side facing in the photo and put new Aluminum on the entire surface, the opposite side has only 1 tiny issue to deal with and I'll deal with that at the same time.

Cheers!, looking even more schmick with an etch primer and couple of coats of paint now.

Photos to come of a disastrous effort on the caravan.... this thing is sucking my will to live right now.

Thanks for the pics, 6l6's are a good little output tube which I have quite a few myself, perhaps there's another OSer that could put them to use?

I guess the question here is what amp are you going to use?

This is important because if it's too big and if you use it without the alternator charging then you're going to screw a battery.

Another point that hasn't been mentioned yet is that with the head unit already on a reducer and the amp on the battery you will have the potential for noise in the outputs with them running from sources with different potentials, so it may be best to bite the bullet and buy that DC/DC invertor you saw on ebay, certainly a lot cheaper than a possibly cooked battery.

True, nice spotting. edited and corrected.

Shocks ready for painting

Don't know if it's just me, but i find the results from bead blasting hugely satisfying!

Rate the output of the convertor to the fuse rating of the amp, not the amp power output.

Stick a moderate size capacitor in there to get rid of noise and deal with instantaneous peaks.

ie: on the amp 12v terminals.

Seriously though, unless you're looking at something high powered OR you want to run the amp with the vehicle turned off for a long time I wouldn't bother and stick it on 1 battery.

Shocks out.

Old Monroe's and look pretty stuffed but seem to work, I'll give them a clean up and see how they come out.

Otherwise I seem to be looking around $250 to replace them.

on aluminium boats (the one i have atleast) every interface and fastener is gooped in "tefgel" which is ptfe paste to slow this down.

we named it harry monk as its fucking discusting, corrosion probibly just doesnt want to touch it as its 10/10 gross. its been there 5 years now and hasnt changed or harderned or anything.

I think I may have come across that stuff when cleaning the caravan in the weekend, there was a pile of white soft goop in each corner of the floor the size of a tennis ball to seal the holes. it would have been in there for at least 30 years.

I'm not quite sure why they did that as it blocked off any possibility of drainage. poor design? have ripped it out and going to make a small drain channel.

Hard to say without seeing them, certainly interested.

This will be a bit of a long burn project.

This amp was an 845 SET ( Single Ended Triode) amp in working order, it belonged to a mate died a couple of years ago and was passed on to another mate.

He decided that he wanted a well known local Tube amp builder to give it a bit of a tickle up and make it sound nicer, unfortunately he (the tube amp builder, who was another mate) died as well and my mate got it back in it's current state, mate.

So as part of another purchase it was bundled in as part of the deal and here it sits and now as I review this I'm starting to think the amp is cursed.

it's a fairly simple design but the tube amp builder (whom I think was a bit of a genius) added a bunch of new valve sockets and components and unfortunately all the plans went with him to the grave.

I have a few ideas of my own though, firstly I want to increase the plate voltage from 700v to 1KV for a slightly higher output as I have read that 845's like to be driven at 1-1.2KV as well as sounding better.

New Case, design to be decided.

Review and possibly implement new driver stage.

The 845 is a transmitter tube which looks fairly impressive when working, there are replacement chines tubes being manufactured now but I'd love to get my hands on some old stock RCA, General electric or other old varieties.

RCA 845 Tubes I'm hunting for...

The amp as it stands now

Underneath

Think I have a solution for that hole.

Neutralise the rust on the steel.

Clean off the corrosion on the Ali and neutralise.

Use an Aluminium metal epoxy to fill holes, machine /sand to shape.

Rubber coat entire roof.

Paint/seal.

Depending on the size of the amp, but unless it's anything significant and assuming it's a 2x12v battery system then just run it off 1 of the batteries.

But as Ned pointed out you need to be careful, connect the amp ONLY to the battery that ties it's negative terminal to the vehicle chassis, otherwise you'll have a 12v potential on the ground of the amp, ie. plug in an Ipod and watch it melt when it touches the chassis by accident, along with a bunch of other complications.

Thanks for the heads up,  I had a roll of copper pipe that I was going to install.

Any reason for not using straight copper? I'm curious as I will need to do the caravan lines soon.

Bag it!

Would be tempted if I wasn't over 6ft tall

Auckland, but the caravan's in Warkworth.

Happy to transport people and offer bribes

I have a bunch of old car lights in boxes somewhere.

Stuff like this