[Richard and Rhonda]

So the first thing I did was take out the old TV and start on the mount. Well, whoever put it in must have been afraid it would fall. There were large pieces of 3/4 plywood screwed to the ceiling, with 1 1/2 angle iron lag screwed to that. The frame of the mount was secure to the angle iron with 3/4 bolts. And oh yeah, some more lag screws through various and sundry parts of the frame. I was about to find out why. I removed all but two of the 3/4 bolts and called my bride and 17 yr old son to help. Rhonda took out the last two screws and the mount drove my son and I through the floor. Gee whiz, the mount alone weighed almost two hundred pounds. We wrestled it out, and I started taking the rest of the bracing out. That was a half day of work.

Then I started on the bunk bracing. I had no idea what was lurking under the ceiling there. Like most things Newell, they didn't want those kids to fall. More plywood and steel bracing. Another half day to get that out and remove the ceiling vinyl. On our coach the vinyl is divided in the middle by a wide aluminum trim piece that holds the lights. Front to the back of the galley is one uninterrupted spanse of ceiling. I bought 60 feet of matching vinyl at the upholstery wholesaler to match.

Before I could rip the old vinyl down I had to remove the side pieces and all the trim. The side pieces are held by screws but many of them well jammed against the light valences, so the valences had to be loosened to get the side pieces out.

The trim is a whole nother story. Here is what Newell does so no screws or nails show on the trim. They first nail 1/4 luan where all the trim pieces are. The trim itself is really thin aluminum. They glue that aluminum to 1/8 masonite. Then they glue the masonite to the luan. Of course trying to remove all that without destroying the aluminum was painstaking. Forget about the luan, it had ten gazillion crown staples in it. It came out in pieces.

Here's pics of the stuff removed.