Rebuild "over the cab" cabinet on Lexington 210

buzzards27 · 03-06-2011, 10:27 AM

This is going to be our construction thread on our next project. I have begun to rebuild the front, over the cab, cabinets on our Lexington 210. We recently removed the existing cabinets and are in the planning stages for the new ones. I'll post picture in the next post.

Being a second generation union carpenter that has built hundreds of kitchen, I see no problems. It should be fun improving the interesting assembly (polite wording for f'ing mess) that was there. My mind is just racing with all the goodies I could incorporate into the new cabinets. Docking for smart phones, laptops, placement of DVD player, DVD shelves, and maybe even a safe.

We are going to quadruple or more the usable storage space over the cab. Forest River's standard cabinet do not fill out the space well at all. We are also going to be able to insulate the space between the fiberglass shell and the new cabinets. There was ZERO insulation up there. We already knew that was our biggest heat loss/ cold infiltration point.

We'll be pulling the flat screen TV out of the passenger side cabinet and mount it on an articulating mount on the center section of the cabinet. We double the storage with that move alone. My concern is finding a reasonably priced locking TV mount that will still give us a good range of motion.

Observations so far:

I just gotta say, I am impressed with Forest River's "creative" use of oak grained contact vinyl, LOL. Seems every joint, gap or misfit was covered by vinyl. I was surprised by how much there was. Of course the cabinet rails and stiles are all softwood covered in vinyl so the "patches" blended well. Good part was the heat from this scrap kept me warm the other day while I arranged the shop for the project.

I almost feel sorry for the poor guy that built this mess. Clearly he had no guidance and didn't have a clue what to do with the materials Forest River gave him. The workmanship and integration of cabinet bottom to the cab headliner was childish. I never liked the white padded vinyl bandaid they covered the transition with. My bandaid should be 1/10 the size and will actually fit properly on the ends.

baldy · 03-06-2011, 04:51 PM

Done yet? LOL!

buzzards27 · 03-06-2011, 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baldy

Done yet? LOL!

Not quite... gotta order enough brew for about two weeks...

Here is the photo overview, hopefully the photos work:

buzzards27 · 03-08-2011, 07:13 PM

I have the "foundation" done for the bottom of the cabinet, the existing "cabinetmaker" sorta skipped this step. Quite a bit of scribing and fitting... I have fit all this so the load is directly above the front pillars and behind the side windows.

I used the existing bottom to transfer the fiberglass curve onto the new plywood. Existing plywood was 3/8" and the new plywood is a lightweight 5/8" maple with a factory finish on one side. You get an idea how much bigger the new cabinet will be.

wish i could figure out how to insert the photos and caption each one, oh well....

buzzards27 · 03-08-2011, 07:30 PM

Oh, here is the existing opening, with the old plywood removed, before i built the "foundation. Those short white wood 1"x2"'s on top of the fiberglass backing were the only thing supporting the old plywood.

buzzards27 · 03-17-2011, 05:39 PM

I've been sidetracked on issues with my coach batteries and legwork for installing some LED clearance lights on the fiberglass shell. Here is the plywood base and the transitional pieces from the cab to the cabinet front.

The pieces are only roughly shaped in these photos, I have since fine sanded and applied oil to them. I am going to skip applying the large padded vinyl cover FR uses here, instead I'll make 3 small flat "pillows" to cover the head knockers. I have about 15 hours spread over 4 or 5 days in the base and the transition so far.

I'll work on the lights, and tie down the wires and start the interior of the cabinet friday.

buzzards27 · 03-26-2011, 02:09 PM

Here is the side and back walls of the cabinet. light weight 1/2" Maple ply with a factory finish on one side. The small angled pieces are 1/4" ply.

Figuring out the cuts and fitting pieces up was a little trying and not something for someone that isn't skilled or that cannot think in 3 dimensions, Beer might make you feel better about it but doesn't help one bit.

buzzards27 · 03-26-2011, 03:44 PM

Here is the "ceiling" of the cabinet and the beginnings of the center shelf unit that will carry the 21" TV, DVD player, laptop, phone, etc. The cleats on the ceiling are some old growth pine I found, it is about 60 years old. They have two coats of oil.

The new outlet is a just in case one for a little shelf unit planned for the right side. give the DW options for things like her electric toothbrush or whatever.

The center shelf unit is just screwed together and may stay that way so I can alter it if things need to change in the future.

I am working on the cabinet fronts and should be ready to order doors up soon. I could make them, but it isn't worth my time.

buzzards27 · 03-26-2011, 04:01 PM

I realized I never took any photos before demo. Before I toss the rest of it on the fire I took these photos of what was taken out. The center cabinet is about 8 inches deep verse my 20" deep and the side cabinet is 18" verse my 32". The right side was occupied by a 21" flat screen TV and everything behind it was wasted space.

They wasted about 70% of the available space, whereas I have left about 20% of the space unused.