1976 Palm Beach
TZE166V100710
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Before I took this picture I had stuff wedged in all the spaces. I used to have campfire wood and kindling, a shovel, hatchet, spare sewer line, extensions etc. for the sewage hookup and a bunch of dirt.
I really had no idea how sorry my LP tank looked until after I got it out of the LP compartment. It really looked pretty bad all exposed and sitting there on my driveway. To prepare it for paint I first give it a cleaning with my pressure washer. After that I attached a wire brush to my drill and was able to remove all of the loose rust. This was followed by a hand sanding with various grits of sandpaper. To get rid of the sandpaper dirt I washed the tank down with mineral spirits. As a final pre paint treatment and to hopefully keep the tank from rusting again I bought a bottle of Rust-oleum Rust Reformer which according to the label on the bottle "converts rusty metal to a protected, paintable surface". I applied as directed and waited the specified three days to allow it to dry before painting. I then sprayed a Rust-oleum spray that is supposed to be a light gray for machine tools. That color I think comes close to being the desired propane tank gray.
There used to be installation in this compartment. When I bought the coach there was not much left. I used my pressure washer to blast the rest out. The left picture shows a hole punch in place that I used to cut a hole in the compartment. The center picture shows the hole and the picture on the right shows where I inserted a 5/8 OD heater hose. I fished the hose all the way through to the reefer compartment. Then using the hose as a conduit I pushed a 3/8" copper gas supply line through the hose all the way under the bath module and into the reefer compartment. I think this made is a much easier job getting the gas supply from the LP compartment to the reefer compartment.
I lined the compartment with Celotex which is a foil on foam material used under the siding of new homes. I had some left over from an addition that I built on my house. I had previously used it the installation of my new refrigerator. I covered the cut edges with aluminum tape which left a nice neat finish.
The finished product. Before the paint job the float and sender unit didn't work. Apparently with all the moving around of the tank during the refurbishment the works were freed up because the gage works now! I also added a quick disconnect so that I can connect my gas barbecue grill to the LP tank. So far that has worked out great. I had been using the small cylinders and that got to be a pain to have to buy and store them. I could even hook up a deep fryer and cook turkeys.
Page was last modified: 10/10/2004 11:55:01 AM