[monocoque]

I dropped the fresh-water tank today. With the floorboard removed it was an easy task. The 1 inch plywood underlying the tank was in surprisingly good shape. The tank appears to be in good shape, no leaks, and was about half-full of water. Needs a good internal cleanse.

And I pulled the forward most flooring, the last of the floorboard to be removed. Discovered a colony of carpenter ants with mazes constructed in the fiberglass. Probably survivors from those days of sitting quietly under the mesquite trees.

The plywood had pretty much rotted around the entire curve of the front floor channel. Most of the rot wasn't visible until the floor was actually removed. I used the dremmel with cut-off discs to shear the remaining bolts securing the u-channel to the outriggers. The dremmel works great. Most of the bolts were in really bad shape, lots of rust, and some merely lifted out by hand!

BTW the floor rot, at least in this area, appears to be the result of leaks from around the windows and especially leaks around the olympic rivets. I'm still trying to guess why so many olympic rivets, around windows and exterior skin, were apparently installed at the factory instead of the more substantial solid, buck style rivets?

After I remove the wheel-wells, probably tomorrow, I'll be inches away from raising the shell. A neighbor has volunteered all the cinderblocks I need to construct four pillars to support the wooden framing. So I might be doing the levitation as early as next weekend! Yahoo...