Doin' the Full Monte - Page 9

Jim & Susan · 08-13-2006, 05:37 PM

Now to those smaller, wimpy looking pieces in pic one. When you bolt up the big, beefy pieces, they obviously fit BETWEEN the lateral frame members on the INSIDE of the main rail. Therefore, you must tie them together on the OUTSIDE of the main rail in some way. This is so that you have a single, “secondary” frame bolted to the main frame rails from the axle assembly to the rear of the camper. See the pic. Does this make sense?

ankornuta · 08-14-2006, 03:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim & Susan

See the pic. Does this make sense?

I don't totally follow what you did from the pics and description. However, the big question; did it fix the problem? If so, congrats!

P.S. I like your signature.

ankornuta · 08-14-2006, 06:14 PM

Ohhhh... I understand what you've done now. Yes, that does make sense. I like how often "ASRT #2s" appear in all the photos throughout this thread.

Jim & Susan · 08-14-2006, 06:20 PM

ASRT #2 is an absolute necessity for this project. ‘Course, it could also explain why it’s taking so dang long to complete, now that I think about it.

Jim & Susan · 09-03-2006, 08:40 PM

Well, after three weeks I finally got back at it. These two pics are of the last two pieces if the bracing for the tail. In this case, they tie together new piece # 1 & #2. There is an outrigger in the way on the outside of the main rail and a lateral frame member in the way on the inside. The result is to build a couple of brackets to fit in front of and behind the lateral member, then bolt thru the member to attach the new brackets to one another. These are in temporarily, got to take them back out and POR-15 ‘em.

Also spent time today drilling out the last of the rivets in the outriggers/lateral members that I missed or forgot to take out before the POR went on. Do yourself a BIG favor, takes these out BEFORE the POR goes on. Man, what a pain.

Jim & Susan · 09-03-2006, 09:25 PM

Safari Tim, I love ya man, but you gave me a whole new thing to worry about in your latest issue of The Vap (WWW.THEVAP.COM). Actually, Rob and Collin gave me something new to worry about. I heard the story about the A-frame on a Trailer they were towing into the steep Walmart parking lot entrance breaking. I knew I needed to do some work on the A frame, but that story really got me thinking.

The A-frame is welded to the inside of the main rails on my ’73. In that area of the trailer, both are “box” frame arrangements. I had seen rust down in there before, and the bottom of the boxed area have some pitting. Naturally, I got worried about the dang thing failing.

The pitting on the underside isn’t “too bad” (fingers crossed here). Just kidding, there are a couple of places on the main rail that are rusted thru, BUT, they are associated with the previously drilled rivet holes that hold the belly pan on. The top and sides of the main rail are in perfect shape. I think POR-15 can be applied here fairly easily (on the inside of the box steel on the main rail). I have a new Barbeque mop that can be fitted to a make-shift handle and pushed thru the opening. It’s not the best idea, but should work fairly well.

Now to the A-frame itself. I had noticed some flaking rust at the back of the A-frame. Enough that you could pull in out of the A-frame box with your finger. Got to get that outta there. How to do it? Coat hanger? Broom handle? Air compressor. What I did was to crank up the air compressor, rubber band the air nozzle in the open position and start shoving it in and out, back and forth from front to back, back to front, etc. Look at the pile of stuff that came out. That’s a bunch of rust! Luckily, the A-frame has only a very small area of pitting, and it is not rusted thru anywhere. Soooo, the questions for everybody are as follows:

How the heck do I get the POR-15 down inside the A-Frame? The shape is such that I can’t get my home-brewed-BBQ-Mop-Paint-Brush-thing in there, at least not more a few inches in the hitch end, and about a foot on the back end. Any professional auto painters out there?

Any reason I should genuinely be worried about the frame failing here?

What else am I missing?

Jim

NorCal Bambi · 09-04-2006, 12:19 AM

Jim & Susan, you raise a good question. How to coat the inside of the box type frame channel. I plan on pulling my frame out tomorrow and starting the restoration process. I hope someone comes up with an easy fix. I'll be watching for answers also. On my system of bracing for the shell. What doesn't show up in the pictures is that I have use lag type bolts to hold together all the places where bracing crosses each other. The bolts are counter sunk in the 3 1/2" dimension of the 2x4s. I'll take another set of pictures tomorrow and put them in my thread.
Don

Safari Tim · 09-04-2006, 12:44 AM

Thanks for listening to the show. Sorry it got you all worked up :-)

It got me too. I went back to the welder while the trailer was still there and cut my belly skin back just as it entered the front and found a small amount of pitting as well. I had the welder add some support to both sides in the form of angle iron welded to the bottom of the box channel and to the out side extended under the trailer about a foot and out from the trailer about 10 inches or so.

As far as painting the inside of a box channel, if you can figure it out let me know! If you look under your coupler where the ends of the box frame are shaped to fit under the coupler for welding you may find they are open. Just for fun you may be able to dilute the por as directed on the can and spray it in there with an air compressor paint sprayer. No way to know what kind of converage you'd get. In any case when your done, seal that entrance up with a good deal of vulkem to keep the water out of the frame. If you have the occasion to remove the coupler or somehow get in there, seam weld it closed!

pinkflamingoes · 09-04-2006, 01:48 AM

I have my belly pan off and I'd like to check this out too. Can someone sketch up a picture and let me know where I should be looking for this problem, if I have one? I'm guessing it's where the hitch part goes back into the frame in the shape of an A...? I have a '67 frame and I want to check this out while I can.

Any help or pictures or both, would make me feel a lot better. We went through a lot of trouble to POR15 our otherwise sturdy looking frame and I'd kick myself if I missed something that we could just weld on or bolt on for safety at this point, when we can do it.

Thanks, love the VAP. I'm going to download the mot recent eps now and listen during my latest insomnia attack.

i.

Jim & Susan · 09-04-2006, 07:48 PM

Hey Tim, that was my obtuse way of saying thanks for the heads up! If I hadn’t heard the show, I probably would have pretty much let it go (i.e. done NOTHING). Now I know I need to do something. Your description of the A-Frame area is pretty much like the ’73. The box channel is open at the front just behind the hitch and at the rear, inside the belly pan. So, in other words, there is open access from both ends of the channel. The problem is that the front opening is restricted because of the way the hitch/coupler is attached. On the inside (or other end), there is also an opening, but about a foot into the channel, the bend is made in such a way you can't get past it.

Ingrid, I’ll make some pictures tomorrow. You have the general idea of the shape/design.

So, how do we fix it? We went to our annual Labor Day BBQ over at my buddy Louis’ house today. If you’ll recall, he’s my A&P mechanic buddy and also my “GO TO guy” when I get stuck on a problem like this.

Solution number one. Buy a new garden sprayer, you know, the pump up kind that you use to spray insecticide on your petunias and begonias. Mix up the POR-15 (diluted/thinned according to the directions on the can), pour it in the sprayer, shove it as far as you can down the channel and spray away. He also suggested drilling holes in the side of the channel so that the sprayer could be pushed in there. I don’t really want to do that; I don’t want to weaken the channel any. There are a couple of problems here. I only have about a pint of POR left. That small amount is going to be lost in a large sprayer like that. The other problem is that the channel is about 7 feet long. The sprayer won’t reach that far. This could POSSIBLY work, IF I can get it far enough down the channel. This is probably the best idea so far.

Solution number two. Linseed oil. Use the same sprayer method above, but use linseed oil instead. The linseed oil will simply coat the area, not paint it. The problem here is that the oil isn’t nearly as long lasting as paint or POR. Additionally, it could smell badly as time goes by. I’ve spent months getting all of the weird smells out of this camper. I don’t think this is a real option.

So, anybody else got any ideas? At this point, I’m leaning towards solution number one (in some form) and just do the best I can with it (knowing that I won’t be able to cover everything.

Jim

pinkflamingoes · 09-04-2006, 09:53 PM

Thanks for the pictures, I'll be looking for them.

I think you could make a lot of difference with the sprayer and POR15, even if you don't cover everything. You could even tie the handle down with a rubber band, stick that nozzle all the way in, and start pumping away while you pull the nozzle back towards you. If you make a mess and waste a lot of paint, that's still a lot less money and heartache than the potential damage to your trailer should something break.

Here's another crazy idea; you know those foam brushes that are shaped like toilet scrubbers, only they are out of sponge pieces? You could soak one of those in POR15 and stick it in there and scrub it in and out, kind of like the old days when the soldiers had to push whatever-it-was down the barrel of their rifles. Again; wasteful of paint and likely very messy, but probably worth the peace of mind.

I'll read over the posts again to try to get a mental picture in the meantime.

Jim & Susan · 09-05-2006, 05:41 AM

Ingrid, I like the sponge idea, I'll look around and see what I can find. Also, having too much POR in there is not necessarily a bad thing, I suppose. Better safe than sorry, and so on.

Jim

59toaster · 09-06-2006, 08:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim & Susan

So, anybody else got any ideas? At this point, I’m leaning towards solution number one (in some form) and just do the best I can with it (knowing that I won’t be able to cover everything.

Jim

http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/P...001271/c-10101

and

http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/P...Group?Ntt=rust

**Chuck** · 09-06-2006, 09:36 AM

Well, there ya go, someone's already made a sprayer for the job.

Quote:

Originally Posted by norcal bambi

Nice to know it's been done before.

I haven't done it before. It was just a suggestion.

I've adapted plenty of spray equipment before...but not with the intention of rust proofing the inside of a trailer frame.

no expert on POR-15, either, but my understanding is that those initials are an acronym for Paint OVER Rust. If there isn't any rust, you need a special prep chemical. I think they just want you to scrape off the loose stuff with a wire brush. Maybe one of those furnace repair wire brushes with a long bendy handle that they use for cleaning out furnace pipes and the like would work well, followed by a shot of compressed air.