And so it begins.....

till · 03-25-2004, 05:42 PM

Got my first shiny part for "The Wreck" to day. Off to pick up the windows in a week.

till · 02-23-2005, 07:19 PM

OK, ok so this is an old thread, but I figure I would start a serial thread about my progress.
Todays big event was....
I am compliant with village code!!! Yea!!!

I now have an Aluminum canyon in my driveway. I will post pictures of this tomorrow.
I will be covering the dismantling of the Overlander as well in the thread.
I was suprised at how easy it is to tow an empty trailer.

The Ambassador came right out from the side of the house and down to the drive very smoothly.

I think taking out that tree in the front yard was worth it to extract the trailer/coach with out harm coming to it. FWIW the tree was infested with carpenter ants and dying anyway.

**Stefrobrts** · 02-23-2005, 08:09 PM

Good job! Being legal makes it a lot easier to tell neighbors to go take a hike when they come get on your case! Congrats!

eljay · 02-23-2005, 09:23 PM

Whooohooo! That's progress. (and what did you do with the pink granite boulder???)

till · 02-24-2005, 07:04 AM

I just skirted right by it in it's current position. It will have to be moved for smother in and out, but I can now budget that a little later

till · 02-24-2005, 06:03 PM

Yea that I walk through the valley of aluminum I shall not be afraid.

eljay · 02-24-2005, 06:34 PM

Love it!!!! What a great driveway!

till · 03-16-2005, 08:51 PM

Well today I did a little putzing around. WIth it getting to a scorching 40 out I could not help myself.
I traded a access door for the peice of sheet metal that was for the fridge. Jacked and leveled the frame out and pined up a couple of spots on the under belly. The Wreck looks much better.

The only thing that I realized

today is that some of the parts I am using off the exterior have been some what polished!!!

I really do not want to polish the whole trailer. I wonder if I coat the replacment parts if they will dull down to match the rest of the trailer???

till · 03-19-2005, 02:56 PM

I spent some quality time with The Wreck today. I pulled the front interior skin out. Man is there a lot of rivets to drill out!!! I popped out the dent on the front street side segment (segment number 5) and did The Wreck's looks improve

. I have now found out that my trailer has had some other "issues" in the past, the curb side segment (segment number 1) has been replaced at some point. Also noted is that there is wiring for the three marker lights across the front thought they are not installed on my trailer. I think that this repair is the source of my front floor water damage. I have also found that there are other wires that are not used at this time.

I also discovered that there was a mouse habitrail in the insulation. Yucky!!!

I will add the pictures of todays work to my album under interior. But thanks to me taking so many I will have to recharge my camera and sort which ones to up load.

TomW · 03-19-2005, 04:26 PM

You're kickin' butt Tedd!

Glad to hear about the marker light wiring. The first time my wife saw my marker lights was the dark & stormy morning (0'dark thirty) when we left for Disney World. I had left the 'Burb & Overlander out on the neighborhood street after taking a brief spin around the block to check everything. Although there was zero traffic, I left all the tail & marker lights lit.

After getting the Boyz strapped in, she slid into the passenger's seat, and told me how totally cool the whole setup looked at night.

Its the small things in life...

Tom

till · 03-20-2005, 09:23 AM

I added a few pictures to the "interior" section. I'm hoping to get some more work done today......

Well I did some more.
Question for those that have pulled the interior skin off. How many drill bits did you go through??

I have almost all of the window trim pieces off and a good portion of the skin off. I am finding a lot of wet insulation in the rear sections of the shell but no more mouse habitrail. I will have to run out and pick up a few more drill bits tomorrow so I can push on. The dang rivets that the stud did not pull out on are killing me.

till · 03-21-2005, 06:35 PM

I got in another couple of hours today!!!

I have removed just about all the side and lower interior skin now. I have run out of room to store them in the trailer, so I will have to clean out the shed this week to get all the panels out of my way. I have been finding a lot of marking on the inside of the outer shell. The one that puzzles me is "Furnace 123" right over the furnace location. What is the significance of "123" ?? Plus the location for the sink vent is marked on the wall.
I have found about 5-6 popped rivets on the bracing for the outer skin. This would explain the strange "warping" down the street side. The one thing the really has P'ed me off is that the poor patch just under the street side forward windows is over a crease!!! No hole of any kind to be found. So there are now a bunch of rivet holes that really do not need to be there. I am planning on making a Stainless Steel plaque to go over this whole mess.
I will be calling on my neighbor the HVAC guy to remove the old Armstrong AC unit and then store it to re-install later. I am hoping that I will be able to build one out of the two I have.

TomW · 03-21-2005, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by till

... I am planning on making a Stainless Steel plaque to go over this whole mess...

Umm, be careful with that idea - Dissimilar metal corrosion. The aluminum skin and/or rivets may not like the idea.

Discussion is welcome - I recall there is at least one ChemE in Michigan who checks the forums on occasion.

Tom

87MH · 03-21-2005, 07:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TomW

Umm, be careful with that idea - Dissimilar metal corrosion. The aluminum skin and/or rivets may not like the idea.
Discussion is welcome - I recall there is at least one ChemE in Michigan who checks the forums on occasion.

Tom:

I agree with what you are saying about dissimilar metals...but....

Practically all AS's have a "Steel Plate" in the nose...usually no corrosion around it - appears to be regular mild steel.

Not proposing or disuading use of dissimilar metals - I would suppose the presence (or lack) of moisture would have a lot to do with the rate of corrosion - I was surprised to find out that the factory used a steel plate as a strengthening gusset in this location.