Replace, You say? Restore, I say.

Sheisse...The past 4 Years has been a hoot. Not like in hoot like funfun hoot. Ol' buddy Joe has left the building, I mean the garage, to pursue other interests. What did I say? Something about beeing able to finish up ongoing projects?

Well, lard ass started law school four years ago. This has kept him quite busy. No, he's not getting into the law racket at all. We keep him busy around here. Not that Buddy Joe wouldnt be able make a contribution to the land of law, we just think that he does a good job here with us.

What do You know about brest cancer? Thats right, not much. Neither did fatass and his lovly Wife until may 2015. Thats when The Wife, after three years of mystical pains thorughout her body, was diagnosed with cancer in her right breast.

A week after they found the tumor, it was removed at the hospital and two types of chemo was completed the next six months in addition to a treatment called Herzeptin wich was finished in august 2016. Yes, it has been quite a year. Ups and downs.

Good things about living in Norway would be free treatment, operation and medication. They even throw in Yoga, excercise and a tupe. The sickpay will be paid out 100% of Your pay for a year and then 66% of full time pay until You go back to work. Some employers also give another 3 months of full pay after the first year with full pay.

This is how taxes should be used, welfare.

The good news is that the cancer has departed her body. Life and its future, once again looks bright.

So, what do we do now? The friends, Fat Joe and the Wifey? The Prostreet needs to be completed. The 928 needs to be completed. The house needs work. What do You think Joe do?

Well, after some deep thinking, if You buy that, and (not) well thought out plans. Lard ass sold the cabin and bought himself a Winnebago. Whats a Winnebago You may ask Yourself.

A Winnebago is some of the finest the world of Motorhomes have seen. Maybe they even started the concept for all I know. Come to think about that for 39 seconds, they probably did.

What seemed like a good idea was put into action within days. Lardy found a 1997 Winnebago Brave 25RC, just perfect for him, the kid,The Wife and the buddies. Since we step up to the plate, we take it for granted that this will be our brewhouse. Lets see what the wife says about that.

A motorhome, almost 20 years old, spending its life in Norway, could be a disaster with its snow, rain, snow and more snow.

With Joe's alround (no)good skills and with the help from us, his friends, this fine piece of motorhome could actually turn into something modern, practical, tasteful and enjoyable for the three of them ..... and for us.

Lard ass himself has never been a motorhome/rv kind of a man, to be fair, he detested the thought of spending hrs on the road.I'm thinking thinking why not? Fat Joe himself after reconsidering, now claims that "those people know what its all about". Go figure.

The first thing to be done is an upgrade of the interior. 19 years wort of carpet is, well, 19 years worth of carpet. The same goes for the furniture. The 90's Winnebagos interior look like the 80's winnebagos Interior, maybe it even dates back to the 70's.

The carpet should go, the same goes for the vinyl in the kitchen area. The dinette is to be swapped out or restored. The three captain seat should be swapped out or restored also.

We are also thinking fresh paint, maybe someting in gold. 

The Wife says Joe can do whatever he wants to do with it, he can decide whatever he wants...right, Joe says he had heard that before.

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The carpet needs to go. It was quite simple to remove. After some research, Buddy Joe was afraid the carpet would be stapeled to the wooden floor by an excessive amount of staples. Not so. 

The glue used on the vinyl came off with a little effort and a good knife. The wooden floor they use in these machines are thick plywood. after almost 20 years of use, it is still like new (almost).

The carpets were not that bad considering 20 years of use. 

What did I say? 80's? We tried to get the fine folks at shop4seats to come up with a price for a complete new dinette and three new captain chairs. That was one month ago, still no reply.

Fat buddy Joe decided to get the dinette and captain chairs restored in cowhide here in Norway. Lard ass is thinking a beige and brown combo.

The solochair that supposedly goes withe the dinette was nogooddirtyashell and swapped out with a red, beatup captainchair By the previous owner.

When W made this rv, it was ok to sit sideways while on the road. A floormounted belt came installed with the soloseat.

Ol' Joe is thrashing the red chair, removing the floormounted belt and putting in a captainchair with integrated belt. Joe found a Chevy Starcraft captain chair that will be the replacement for the red seat. The floor is already strengthened for seatmounting but we're already planning additional floor strengthening for safety. 

The Starcraft seat will be redone and placed with the drivingdirection and a brand new belt is already in place, mounted to the seat.

Most of the carpet is gone. We have enough sand from the underside of the carpet to make a nice beach here in front of the shop.

The plywood is in great shape with little or no signs of damage due to waterleaks. The fine craftsmen and women at Winnebago can take pride in their work. This particular RV has spent its life outside during both seasons here in Norway. Seasons here beeing skiing is good and skiing not so good.

How about the 6.5 diesel?

Sheisse...diesel is diesel, we try as hard as we can to avoid it. For some reason, lardass and company thinks those engines are better suited for boats.

The GM 6.5 td is not a major powerhouse. There are some improvments that could beneficial from what we have been told. The ATT turbo beeing on of them, a new fan beeing another. They get hot.

There are some known issues with this engine.

- Overheating..could be avoided by swapping out the radiatorfan With a new and improved.

- pmd...what?? It's a thingy thats tells the engine how much fuel it needs. The sucker it mounted in the middle of the engine. It gets hot and then dies. this already happended to to this one. A new pmd was bought from HR Services. The new pmd came with a relocation kit, meaning mount it away from the engine. The new one lasted excactely 7 hrs before it died. 

Joe then ordered a new and "improved" pmd from Standyne this time. Twice the price compared to HR and hopefully way better. Standyne is the suplier of the original pmd to these engines. Come to think about it, we might get one or two spares.

Imagine having a few brews with Your buddies out in the boondocks somewhere. Everyone is drinking beer except Knut, he drinks Shirley Temples. 

You feel like going out to relive Yourself except its raing buckets of water. Yes, You go to the onboard craphouse that W was gracious enough to make large enough to fit fellas like Fat Joe and his buddies.

The question would be if the fellas could aim straight enough through their beergoggles. I have my doubts since I have seen the boys drinking both beer and Shirley Temples.

Why on earth would W put carpet on the floor in the craphose? Imagine the hefferbuddies trying to aim.

Tha carpet is gone and new flooring is on its way.

We all decided that carpet would be no good when replacing the flooring. Many factors was considered, The Dog, The Kid, The Fat Joe, The Buddies and The so on and on.

Joe's ol' woman had to interfere even though she said she would stay away. Tha Wifey demanded som kind of floor that woul be easy for Joe and Buddies to keep clean. She has no intent of lifting a rag or a vaccumcleaner as usual.

What to get then? 

It could not be hdf laminate or wood due to the above mentioned factors in addition to temperature changes ranging from -30 c to + 40 c.

The solution was Berryalloc Dreamclick Pro. This is pure vinylplank, dead as a doornail with no movement whatsoever, at least thats what we hope for.  The vinylplanks  are only 5.5mm thick and they look good to. We are putting a underfloor over the woodfloor before fitting the Berryalloc vinyl planks.

The Wife decided on the Greige color, a mix between gray and beige. Therefore the funky name.

The underflooring iz German, Kärhs Spezial, 2mm with zome rubberztuff for zounddeadening. Way overprized offcourze.

We also considered Wickanders hydrocork for about 2 minutes. Super nice vinylplanks with corck in the middle. The problem as we saw it was the clicksystem. We are not sure if the floor would stay together when used in a moving vehicle. The price was also too high...I tried to tell them that the price they operated with should be for the whole pack(1.8sqm), not pr.square meter. That would make more sense since it was half price for the same floor in Denmark.

I already mentioned the 80's. Have a look at the stuff around the windows in the bedroom. Yes, your grandmother might be comfy with this stuff. We are not. Come to think about it, Your grandma would probably not like it either

The seats, dinette, stuff around windows and dinetteframing was delivered to the interiorshop today. When We get it back it will be in matching Beige and Brown high quality leather.

The walls also look somewhat funky with a cool 70/80 look wallpaper. Are we to paint or redo with wallpaper? Decisions decisions.

I'm sure the little Wife has something to say, even though she said she would not.

The carpet and the assosiated beaches are gone.

Under the carpet up front, it's all metal. Winnebago put a thin (1mm) rubbersheeton top of the metal. We dont think the rubbersheet is enough to block out the engine and noise from the road.

We are going to improve the flight deck with aluminumcovered butyl, not the overexpensive Dynamat stuff but similar, over the standard rubbersheet. On top of that again we are using zee German ztuff before the vinylplanks are fitted.

Fat Joe is cheap.

instead of getting the Dynamat, he got the Biltema stuff. According to him, an extensive research was done prior to the purchase. Not that the Biltema stuff is cheap, it's not.

Both Dynamat and Biltema are auminum covered and 2mm thick, close enough. I'm sure we will hear less noise. There are numerous produsers of this type of sounddeadening material. I could not tell You wich one to get except to advice You on the Butyl instead of asfalt or bitumen products. Those other two could give off some odour when it gets hot. The Butyl is also easy to work with.

I told You about Kärhs, didnt I?

Well, we figured we'll give it a try before we called it a day. Lard Ass got down on his knees and maneuvered around with a knife in hand. We all agreed upon that we start laying the floor at the rear and work our way up front. 

The good thing about the Dreamclick is that You can go either way when laying the floor. You dont have to start at on end and go back once You reach the end of the room.

Zee Kärhs Spezial is way expensive and is made of rubber and some other unknown stuff. The thinking is that it will reduse noise while on the road.

Ol' Buddy Joe had no major issues while laying the stuff, except getting his not so lean body around the bends. Not to speak about getting up from the floor.

The vinyl floor...hmmmm...could it be easier? We dont think so.

We started laying the floor today...thats until The Wife had us do something else which was more important (not).

On the instructional movie from BerryAlloc, they use a knife to cut the planks and then break off the cutaway..right...if Your name is Shwarzenegger..maybe. We used an electrical saw because the knifetrick from the movie was just that, a trick. 

The clicksystem is clever. Nice and tight fit and easy to put together. The whole prosess took some time around the bends from the crapper to the kitchen. 

Moving along swiftly. The main floor is in place. The "main room" floor was easy and fast to put in. No tricky curces or funky angles to consider in this area. 

The Wife is happy with the color of the floor.

The Butylstuff is in place at the flightdeck. Zee GermanZtuff is in place and the Berryalloc is fitted with enogh room for the doghouse snug fit.

The curve...

Ol' Heffer made temlates and we did the cutting. The DeWalt laminate blades have the same effect as a hot knife through butter. The doghouse will not be resting on the Vinylplanks. Reason beeing the rubbergasket around the openingto the engine. 

I told You about the pmd from HR Services, didnt I?

Well, today the new and improved Stanadyne PMD arrived in the mail From Southeast Power Systems. We are not sure what to with the pmd from HR. It is under warranty but after complete engine stalls on crappy mountain roads, we are not so sure if we are brave enough to put the same or similar pmd back into the W. We might just throw it away and cut our losses. The Stanadyne is the original supplier of the pmd to these engines.

So, a 19 year old RV and no damage due to waterintrusion? Wishful thinking?

After the boyz had removed the old vinyl and carpet, the only place where we could see traces of water was around the fridge area. This was probably due to a faulty fride some time ago. The fridge was replaced. The thick plywood floor is nice and dry with no signs of damage.

While putting the cover for the airduct on the fron passenger side, Buddy Joe's friend Joe, noticed bubbely vinyl wallpaper under dashboard. We had to investigate.

We removed the loose wallpaper and it turns out that water had entered the vehicle and caused some damage to the plywood under the wallpaper. The source for the leak was the mounting and boltholes for the side view mirror. We could see a crack on the mirrorbase where the water had a way of entering the W.

We pulled away the rotted plywood and put in a heater to dry up the rest. This should be sufficient. Lard Ass himself found a tube of silicone wich he used fill up around the outside mirror. It goes to say that the right side mirror is not the original one. We suspect that somehow the RV was too wide at some stage and the mirror had to pay.

Do we consider this as a setback? Not at all. This is just a minor hickup that is easy to fix and get right once is dry and nice. 

The Wife, Fat Joe and friends are having a glass of Sancerre together with baked cod and veggies. It turns out that The Wife is so happy with the progress and improvments, that she decided on making us dinner. She even cracked open a bottle of wine.

The above was due to the work we did on the entrance. The old carpet was removed, the nogood ventilation was blocked, new carpet, vinylplanks and trimming to go with it all. This made a huge improvment compared to the 80's look that came with the W.

The cables are connected to the solarpanel on the roof. We are working on some kind of solution to cover up the cables to make it nice and tidy.

So, here we are. The floor is almost done and the trimmings around the corners and along the walls are moving along.

The dinette seatbase is, well, 19 Years old, worn and outdated. What to do? After consulting The Wife, we all decided on redoing the base with the same carpet beeing used upfront. Ol' Joe did the cutting while we watched.

After the cutting, gluing and remounting of the ducts airinlet and so on, the only thing left on the bases are the top coverlist to make it all look nice and tidy. 

The cheapo FatBoy make us run to the store at least once a day to get additional stuff because in his mind, he got enough the at the first visit to the store while he didnt. This will be our third stop at the liststore.

Anyway, it looks good. The Wife was so happy about the improvment that she even brought us a few cans of primer and paint. 

"Guess what?" she said as she was pointing at the walls.

While waiting for the boyz to come back from the store, we had a look at the front captain seats floormounted bases. Both of them was out due to the new floor. 

We decided to give them a makeover with some sandpaper and paint. This is before paint, left one is sanded.

Guess what.  Lard Ass got himself a place to park the W for the winter. Inside? You may ask Yourself. Dream on.

Winter is heaven, even though a nice beach and a Pina Colada also can bring out the same fuzzy feelingS. There is (almost) nothing like spending some time in the mountain skiing.

Ol' Joe manged to get a space for the W 100 meters from the lift in one of the best skiresorts here in Norway. Can You belive they have a campground in the middle of the slopes? The W will be attached to a  insulated "shed/small cabin". Imagine that...

First thing Buddy Joe did was to get himself a pair of new skis to celebrate a perfect spot for the W. 

Fischer make some of the best skis You ever run into. Once You get used to these skis, it's hard to get something else. Joe has a pair of RC4 SC wich have done their duty. It was time to try something new, RC 4 Superior Pro is this years choice for winterheaven.  

Thinking it would be an easy job to rip the old carpet off the doghouse, we put our newest guy on the job. He quickly ran into trouble. 

If we were into the glue business, we would call W. That glue is some of the toughest we ever have seen.

Shit...Joe and The Wife took the doghouse home and did the removing-the-carpet-job themself together. According to Lard Ass, The Wife and him had a great 3hr removing the carpet session. Talking, laughing and spending time together just the two of them. 

Thats a new setting.

Caffe Latte? Forget about it. The Latte is out. The only color that makes sense in 2016 is Macchiato. True, at least according to our interiorguy. We got to admit that its hard to tell the difference between the two. The Wife said Macchiato and Macchiato it is.

Just to be safe, we were instructed to only do the two walls in the "livng/dinig area". 

The vinyl was first of all cleaned with Salmiac/Ammonium Chloride to degrease and clean. The Salmiac does not leave any grease as normal soap could leave. 

After the cleaning of the walls, we used masking tape before we put one layer of primer on top of the vinyl wallpaper. Primer was used because the vinyl wallpaper is quite slippery and a good grip is needed for the paint.

The Macchiato was then put on with a roller in two layers. The paint had a good coverage and two layers were enough.

We got to admit, event though the workload increases every time we step into the W, the Macchiato looks good.

Alright, we have been had. The carpet that we put in was also supposed to go on The Doghouse. Guess What? Too stiff and unable to get it to follow the twisting and turning of The Doghouse You say? You are correct.

We called the guy at the carpetshop, Teppeabo, to get it clearified if its bendable or not. When we got it, it was just because of those nice and bendable properties.

The guy said "what carpet did You get?". The Basic I replied. "shit, You cant bend that carpet, You should have bought somethig else" ....Right, I said.

So, what to do? No worries. We have covered The Doghouse in that cheap not so cheap Butyl Stuff from Biltema. After that was done, Ol' Heffer and myself took a trip to the closest textil shop and got some of that fake leather wich looks like the real thing.

The Faux will (hopefully) be easy to form around The Doghouse. We even got some cushy stuff to put between the fiberglass and the Faux.

Stay Tuned.

Lard ass got the Faux leather idea from Youtube. The guy in the video made it look oh so easy. How could we resist?

First of all, the glue. the carpet sticky glue is supposed to be the best. You put it on both parts that You glue together and wait..and wait...before You put it all together.

We added the cushy stuff on top of the glue, big mistake. The cushy stuff was not easy to get even and it fell apart. We took it off and started from the beginning without the cushy stuff.

The guy on Youtube should have been given the job. This Faux was not easy to form around all the bends on the doghouse. It probably would have been easier if we got the thinner Faux without the  soft stuff on the back.

Ol' Joe used the heatgun to help stretch the Faux around the doublebends. As You can see, we had to make a cut to remove the excess material. This will be covered by the cupholder wich You can see in the background.

The saga continues in Winnebago Part 2.