Bending the front and rear Floor Channel for a 1992 Excella

[Re-Pete]

Good News on Sunday August 4th we successfully test fitted our shell and frame together using the new floor channels. The OSB in the pictures below is our test fit templates made from the original bow channels. Now that we know everything fits we'll use the OSB to mark our Coosa board for cutting to conform to the front and rear bows. This test fit was our fifth try.

In February all of our when major structural frame repairs were complete, and while we had several friends and family present to help, we test fitted the shell using just the original front and rear bows and some of the original side channel all loosely attached. That time with our extra helpers we successfully fitted the front and back at once. This summer we made two additional attempts (two and three) using the new channel unsuccessfully. For sure part of the problem was the increased radius of the new front and rear bow channels. (That's why this thread was started so I could get advice on fixing them.) I’m also sure another problem was trying to do it without enough help. Please do not tell Phyllis I admitted this.

This past Sunday on our forth attempt, we decided to begin by using the original bow channels with a mock OSB flooring inside the bows to stiffen everything up. We also tried a tip from a friend Dan in Texas who has, along with his wife Steph, rebuilt two vintage Airstreams. The tip was to level the frame as usual and then jack up the rear slightly higher than level, because as he reminded me the AS frames all droop a bit rear of the wheels. We did this. Once again we were faced with the shell not fitting over the channel. We could fit the rear of the shell over the rear bow channel, the sides and one corner of the front bow channel, but not the complete front. We were quite discouraged to say the least.

At this point our son-in-law, Bryan, arrived to give us a hand. At that point I thought it would be to just move the frame back out from under the shell. I decided to lower the rear end of the frame from it’s jacked up position and for some reason decided to first release any tension that might be created from the hoist and beam supporting the rear end of the shell so the shells full weight would still be on the frame when I lowered it. When I lowered the jack went back inside the rear of the shell and I noticed the shell, although fully seated, did not seem to line up well with the previous rivet holes in the original channel, the shell holes were ¼” or more above the holes in the channel. There was also a noticeable gap in the corners between the shell and the channel. ( I did not think of this at that moment, but this is most likely due to the frame droop I mentioned earlier.) The holes in the shell were higher than the holes in the channel, but I had the shell fully seated on the frame. The lifting beam was free floating. Next I began lifting the beam and putting upward tension on the rear of the shell when I noticed a strange thing happen. As the back end of the shell lifted the holes actually came together and the gap in the corners disappeared completely. It felt like I was hallucinating because the shell holes had previously been higher than the channel holes. Yet, here I was lifting the shell and watching the holes in the shell appear to lower into the holes on the channel. It took lifting and lowering the shell a half an inch or so about half a dozen times before I realized the frame was rising up as the weight of the shell was lessened causing the holes to align and the optical illusion of the shell going down when I knew damn well it had to be going up. Once I got over that and realized what was actually happening, I raised the shell enough to get the holes aligned across the rear panel and to where there were no gaps in the corners. Then we were able to slip the front skin over the front bow as well. Eureka!

Here's the thing. Because we've been installing one end and then the other on these last few attempts we were creating the binding problem. We did it this way because it's mostly just been my wife, Phyllis, and me, so we were focusing on one end at a time. Now I realize this is why it did not work, at least for us. The Lesson: Better to get more help and fit the front and rear at the same time.

So, on our fifth attempt we used the new channel and this time even though we still installed the rear first we kept the shell somewhat suspended in the rear while we fitted the front and it went much easier. We also had Bryan helping and certainly that made a big difference.

Once the shell was fully seated I tried Dan's tip again and slightly jacked up the rear. This time from the outside view the channel seemed to slip up higher into the shell so that all of the rivet holes in the shell were now over the channel and not above it. This is what we’ll do for the actual install so we can rivet the rear section properly.

I wanted to document the test fitting process because it was certainly a challenging experience what with having to reshape the new front and rear bows and then get the shell to fit back onto the frame. Now we can shape and install our Coosa board with a greater assurance that it will fit when we are able to reattach the shell. I hope this helps someone else when they work on an early nineties Airstream.

[TouringDan]

Congratulations on the successful test fit. I knew that you would figure it all out. It just took awhile.

Matney Upholstery (Dan and Steph in Texas) is where I took our Tradewind to get new soft goods. They are the best!

Dan

[Re-Pete]

Originally Posted by TouringDan

Congratulations on the successful test fit. I knew that you would figure it all out. It just took awhile.

Matney Upholstery (Dan and Steph in Texas) is where I took our Tradewind to get new soft goods. They are the best!

Dan

Thanks Dan. I agree, the Matney's are terrific people.