[monocoque]

It's Fiesta! here in San Antonio and so I've had some free-time away from the office to work on the AS.

I spent the morning removing about 36 of the solid-type rivets from the metal plate that lies behind the foremost exterior skin. That metal plate is welded to the frame, and secures the 7-way connector socket, so the rivets have to be removed to accomplish a shell-off. Average time to drill-out a rivet: about 3 minutes. A little quicker with a fresh, sharp bit. Drilling out all 36 rivets required a full battery charge on the Makita.

I was lucky to borrow about 40 cinder blocks from a neighbor and I stacked those into four columns, two on each side of the trailer, to support the shell during the lift and while the frame is being removed.

I've adopted at least part of Malcolm's ideas for internal framing of the shell. Front to back along the walls I used 1x4's attached to the vertical ribs. I used 2x4's for cross-bracing placed below the 1x4's and attached with screws to the vertical ribs.

I decided against installing diagonal bracing. I figured since the upper interior skins are still in place they should provide enough support for the upper shell.