Marquis replacement ceiling panels

[Dave Cunningham]

Hey, started this project a couple of weeks ago, finally got around to finishing it, pulled apart my cracked Makori ceiling panels and replaced them with cherry plywood. Pretty easy really, the five coats of Varathane it took to match the Marquis finish , are a bit time consuming, but other than that, pretty straight forward, here's a couple of pix.

[Edward Buker]

Dave,

They look very well done. How are you doing the Varathane. Foam brush, bristle, or spray? Did you bother with a grain sealer first? The cherry will also darken with age and blend right in.

later Ed

[Dave Cunningham]

Hi Ed, I wrote out a huge description of how I did it, and then accidentally deleted it when I went searching for the pictures , ( curse words, swearing ect.) so I thought I would see if any body was interested before I retyped.
As you can see it is quite easy to remove the panels, just the four screws and unplugs the lights, the panels come out really easy, just unscrew the blocks around the edge, cut new panels from the 1/4" cherry plywood ( $70.00  per sheet here in Canada ) stained them with Varathane's traditional cherry stain, then sprayed five coats of Varathane high gloss ,oil based clear, sand ing with 400 between coats until the last which I used 600 wet , they turned out awesome, and are almost a bit shinier than the original finish.
I have been in the illuminated sign business for years and have done lots of painting, and I think that if you did not have any spray equipment, that you could get just as good results from a foam roller.
A strange thing happened when I plugged the 12 volt rope lights back in, they all worked perfectly when I unplugged them, but when reinstalled, only a few of the little bulbs illuminate, changed the wires around, same thing, what could have possibly happened, you don't even touch the lights while installing the panels ( more swearing , curse words ect.)

[John Hennessey]

Beautiful. We had Beaver coaches replace ours with maple since we have the light cabinets because ours were all cracked too

[Edward Buker]

My guess on the lights is that a wire is disconnected somewhere in the chain. Maybe a poor contact where you put the plug back in. Obviously they are filament and the handling could not have caused that many bulbs to be out one would think...a close look with a magnifying glass is in order. You could check out the filament in a bulb that is not lit and see if it is in tact. If so you know it is a connection.

My coach has cherry wood with light burl inserts. I think in my case i would have to go with something light in the panels or as a possibility that cherry and holly marine plywood flooring. Not sure if the holly striping would look good on the ceiling. The teak and holly always looked great as a marine floor. I have several HVLP guns that I use to paint automotive finishes with, they should work well for the Varathane. Maybe a next winter project. Good luck with those lights.

Later Ed

[Dave Cunningham]

Hi Ed, good tip on the filament check but how could just a few of the bulbs be lighting and not all, this one really has me baffled, as it has happened to every single ceiling panel.

Dave

[Edward Buker]

Dave,

I do not know how these light chains are wired. The folks at BCS in Bend I'm sure have run into this before given they have redone these panels for customers. It would be worth calling them and see how this is resolved. The fact that all the panels are doing the same thing would mean that it is a systematic problem with disconnecting and reconnecting them. It may be one of those things that is obvious in the end when you get it sorted out...

Later Ed

[Dave Cunningham]

Hey, Ed,

That is the first thing I did this morning, called Ken , and he said he had never heard of that problem, the lights are wired in parallel , so one bulb should not effect the others . If I can' t figure it out, I am just going to buy some 12 volt led rope lights, and switch them out. ( yay, another project ) oh well, it's raining again here so I can't work on the generator .

[Edward Buker]

It may be that with age, due to corrosion, poor solder technique, etc. that the connections were very fragile and any movement broke the systematicly weak links.....only thing I can come up with. Keep plugging away, you will get there. If you go the led rope light direction they should be very reliable.

What did you thin the Varathane with and how much do you add for spraying? I have read Naptha at 20% and mineral spirits at 15% from some folks who have sprayed it. Not sure what the manufacturer says...

Later Ed

[Dave Cunningham]

Ed, I sprayed the Varathane straight out of the can, and it worked perfectly, the thicker you can get it on there the better as it takes awhile to fill in the grain, I refinished some stuff in my 2000 marquis , the table top in-particular, and used automotive clear, which worked really well, this time I thought I would try the Varathane, because it has that sort of golden look to it , when you build up a few layers. I'm not sure how you guys have been effected by the new government regs on paint, most of our solvent based paints , here in Canada has been phased out and replaced by waterborne , we can still buy oil based Varathane buy the quart, though, the gallon does not meet the voc regulations.  

[Dave Cunningham]

all finished , replaced all of them except the large one in the bedroom

[Jeremy Parrett]

FYI......check the DC voltage draw when your "rope Lights" are switched on.      If I am going to do this job I will switch to LED "rope lights" for sure !!!

[Dave Cunningham]

thanks Jeremy, I'll check that, I haven't looked into the problem since it arose, as I moved on to other projects, and it has not fixed itself like I hoped it might, strangest thing I have ever seen, I could see if it happened to one of the panels, but all six?
On a good note the new ice maker arrived the other day, I installed it , turned it on , came back the next day and it was making ice. It didn't short out and catch the fridge on fire or anything, it just worked, I love it when that happens.

Dave

[Jeremy Parrett]

  Well that is great.  If only our coaches could talk ..........I have spent three years trying to get into the heads of the guys who designed my coach trying to figure out why they installed things they way they did !!!
 I read somewhere that NOT ONE Monaco designer/engineer had ever driven or spent a night in one of their products !!!  Things might be a little different if they had me thinks !!!

[Gerald Farris]

Jeremy,
I think that traditionally qualified engineers in the RV business have been very few and far between. In a conversation with Bill Osborne, the President of Navistar RV and an engineer himself, at the Las Vegas rally last year, he stated that when he took control of Monaco, that there was only one engineer in the whole company (Monaco). In his words, the coaches were being designed and built with "Tribal Knowledge". They designed and built coaches the way that they did because that is the way that they had always done it.

Gerald