Uwe, thanks for the pictures you sent and the support!!! I here ya on breaking up the project into small jobs instead of looking at the whole thing... i felt like i was getting in over my head for awhile and i had to step back and catch my breath, regroup and move forward...
this afternoon i shut the shop down early and jumped on the trailer.. (dont know how many more 70 degree days we are going to get) i now have all of the interior decor removed and tomorrow i will start on removing the lower inner skin...
i am going to farm out the welding and before i do i'm going to have to pick your brain some more on the tanks, would it be possible after i study the photos for a few days, if i gave you a toll free number you could give me a call to discuss the whole process.... a friend of mine is going to do my welding and i would like to make sure we are still friends after this is all over...
Well I am starting my own project, a 63 Overlander.
As far as your questions go, I'll let you know when I get there.
I'll have new ones for you by the time you get there..... sometimes you need someone to light a match when you smell gas to see where its coming from.....
Uwe, thanks for the pictures you sent and the support!!! I here ya on breaking up the project into small jobs instead of looking at the whole thing... i felt like i was getting in over my head for awhile and i had to step back and catch my breath, regroup and move forward...
this afternoon i shut the shop down early and jumped on the trailer.. (dont know how many more 70 degree days we are going to get) i now have all of the interior decor removed and tomorrow i will start on removing the lower inner skin...
i am going to farm out the welding and before i do i'm going to have to pick your brain some more on the tanks, would it be possible after i study the photos for a few days, if i gave you a toll free number you could give me a call to discuss the whole process.... a friend of mine is going to do my welding and i would like to make sure we are still friends after this is all over...
Please do ask, I'd be happy to share how I did my installations, and how it could be improved upon.
i'm moving along, everything is out and i have removed the lower inner skin panels (i feel the water rising to my chin). I'm getting close to having to make up my mind on how to support the shell when it is off of the frame... i have searched the forum and i cant find any good pictures on how its been done on the bigger models lots of bambis and flying clouds... it will be stored outside so if anybody has pictures of what they did, i would like to check them out.
biggest thing i dont know if the side walls can sit down on saw horses or do you need to build a rig to support the shell from the ceiling so there is no weight on the sides...
I think you need to box in the bottom to keep the thing square, and give you something to anchor to the ground. You support the weight from low on the frames, directly to the wood crossmembers. Brace the inside to keep it from rolling side to side, but you only need to go about halfway up.
Nothing is worse than having the whole shell go rolling down the street in a windstorm.
I used 2×4s in the picture below. If doing it again I would use 2×6s. Make sure the ends of the structure stick out far enough that you can get a barn jack, or something similar, under them to do the lifting.
I think you need to box in the bottom to keep the thing square, and give you something to anchor to the ground. You support the weight from low on the frames, directly to the wood crossmembers. Brace the inside to keep it from rolling side to side, but you only need to go about halfway up.
Nothing is worse than having the whole shell go rolling down the street in a windstorm.
I used 2×4s in the picture below. If doing it again I would use 2×6s. Make sure the ends of the structure stick out far enough that you can get a barn jack, or something similar, under them to do the lifting.
thanks for the photos!! do by chance have any of the inside of the trailer showing the support crossmembers you added?
I have decided to set four 8' 4x4 posts in my back (easy digging here in NC) instead of using saw horses.. i can then screw 2x6's from side to side to support the shell. this should make it easy to tie the shell down as well so it doesnt end up next door...
Your floor looks in a lot better shape than mine was when I decided to go for the full floor replacement. Are you sure it all needs to be replaced rather than fixing some places? How is the condition of the frame/
At any rate the attached photo gives you an idea of what I did to support my body while replacing the floor (with the body still in place). If you do want to take the whole body off you could use a variation of this approach.
The main features of what I did are as follows:
1.) I used 2 x 4 cross members at convenient locations. The max space between them was probably 6'. Notice that I placed mine above the height of the wheel wells. I attached the body frame to the 2 x 4 using two self-drillining screws at each attachement.
2.) The photo shows part of the lengthwise plywood strips I put in place to help keep the body from flexing with the inner skin off. I used 5/8" plywood in 6" strips. This turned out to be a good thickness to use later under the plywood joints where the cross-members are intentionally lower on my age unit (1973 - 31').
3.) The vertical pieces were removable if they were in the way at a particular point. I also put them in place when the plywood floor was still in place. That way I could put small pieces of plywood under them as I removed the plywood.
4.) The luggage tie down strap that you see in the photo was used from time to time to get the body to pull together or sometimes to help pull a piece of the new floor into place.
I did not use any diagonal braces because with the body sitting ontop of the frame I didn't think it would be moving around too much in that direction. If you were going to use something similar you might want a strip of plywood or two on the diagonal.
In general the body can be supported just fine near the bottom. After all that is the way it is supported when it is installed. The key thing I was after accomplishing in my case was to keep the body from spreading outward and keeping it a controlled distance above the frame.
While this may not meet your needs exactly it might give you some food for thought.
The method Malcolm shows works fine. I used a similar method, but the cross members that screw to the frame members were lighter and lower down.
I would recommend putting in crossmembers like above, then you jack the body up with a bottle jack or floor jack until it is high enough to to slide the box framing in underneath. Then you can support and jack from the outside while you pull the frame out.
Next, lower the body and attach it to the 4x4 posts you are putting in. You may want to put a skirt around the bottom to keep any wind gusts from getting underneath and flipping it over.
Here is a picture of the crossbracing I did, and the method for attaching the crossmembers to the subframe. Most of the wood is 1x2 or 1x4. The 1x2 was too light, go with 1x4 at least.
One more thing. Take careful measurements of all four of the corner frame locations. You'll be glad you did when you put it back together.
Your floor looks in a lot better shape than mine was when I decided to go for the full floor replacement. Are you sure it all needs to be replaced rather than fixing some places? How is the condition of the frame/
the floor looks better in the photos than it is i have very soft spots where the fresh water tank was, heater location, front door back to the wheel well, and below the J window by the front door, also in the front couple of inches is rotted out from the front window leaking, not to metion the water damage at the rear ...
and since looking at Uwes thread, i want to add a fresh and grey water tank under the floor...
here are some photos of the rear and in front of the wheel weel curb side..
I used steel framing studs to brace the lower part of the shell, and then after loosening it from the frame, I hung it on the ceiling of my shop, suspended 12in above the frame.
It allowed me to pull out the frame from under it, if necessary, and saved a lot of shop space. I drilled a hole large enough for chain to fit through a 2ft section of 2x4, hung the chain from 3 roof rafters, through the 2x4's, then stuck a bolt through a chain link to hold things up.It was easy to adjust theheight of tehshell this way, and 3 supports through the 3 vent openings were plenty.
Of course, this requires having a structure to hang it from.
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