Frame work 71 Overlander questions.

[kitchy]

So from all the reading I’ve done on here. Which if I haven’t given love and respect yet then I will here.! What a great community and source of info for people of all shapes and sizes and colours. No hate or racism in here! Love you all. Ok enough buttering you up let’s talk about me! Lol.
I just towed my new project 500 miles no problem. Looked ok on first inspection , I had previous owner put new bearings in and such. But upon dropping it at home I noticed the mid section dropped on me.. I’m trying to figure out this app and giving more info and add pics but the app is proving difficult. ? Stand by.

[kitchy]

I see. Not so user friendly this app/site. From a iPhone. More of a home computer program. Anyways here ya go I know can’t see much without tearing in more but thought I might get some opinions first.

[Foiled Again]

Frame looks like it is gave its last getting the shell home. Probably cheaper, faster, stronger to have a new one made than try to fix it. And then.... blow the budget completely on a Coosa Board floor.

And then.... put.the.body back on, and camp in the aluminum tent while you work on the rest of the list.

Price NEW units.to keep your sanity.

Paula

[TheGreatleys]

Welcome. That's the fresh water tank dropping off the frame. If you unbolt the support from the front, it's theoretically possible to slide the plywood the tank is sitting on forward/out and drop the tank. But if it were me, I'd start by dropping the belly pan around that area to get a look at what's going on and where the failure(s) is/are.

This is a frame welding repair. If there's an issue one place, there's likely to be other issues with the frame, so you might want to drop the whole belly pan including the curved sides to get a look at the entire frame and outriggers before going ahead with a repair. Much easier to just do one trip to the welding shop.

[Lumatic]

What do you mean by "the mid section dropped". What questions do you have?

The aluminum belly pan looks brittle which would be normal for almost 50 years old if it is original.

[kitchy]

Ah. Ok good stuff . I will follow this lead. Much thanx and respect. I’m afraid to open it all up, I can see the rust up in there that I couldn’t see before. I think I got myself a much larger commitment than I thought. I bet that’s a common realization. Ha.
Now to figure out how to drop the belly pan in that area? My first YouTube look seems to tell me it’s not that easy as hidden rivits exists and the pan goes up between the shell and j-channel. Sounds real hard to get off and not so easy putting back. Is it very taboo to just cut out the area you want and do a patch replacement. ?

[kitchy]

Ah. Ok good stuff . I will follow this lead. Much thanx and respect. I’m afraid to open it all up, I can see the rust up in there that I couldn’t see before. I think I got myself a much larger commitment than I thought. I bet that’s a common realization. Ha.
Now to figure out how to drop the belly pan in that area? My first YouTube look seems to tell me it’s not that easy as hidden rivits exists and the pan goes up between the shell and j-channel. Sounds real hard to get off and not so easy putting back. Is it very taboo to just cut out the area you want and do a patch replacement. ?

[DavidsonOverlander]

I had to look up where Hillier, ON is. It's not far, but I hadn't heard of it. It's a long time since I've been to beautiful Prince Edward County. I always seem to be in too much of a hurry racing down the 401!

You could just remove the parts of the belly pan that you need to get to the obvious water tank problem, but there's a good chance there's damage in other areas too so I would remove it all, or at least enough to make sure the frame is okay. It's a big job, but there's no point in doing anything else until you've looked after the frame, and made sure there is no floor rot. On our '74 most of the outriggers had to be replaced or repaired, as well as a couple of the crossmembers in the rear. The shell is supported by the outriggers so it's important that they're sound. They also have a nasty habit of poking through the curve where the wall becomes belly pan if you ignore them.

Are you planning to tow this Overlander, or park it?

[kitchy]

Thanx for that. Ya that makes sense. I don’t have a solid plan as yet. I picked this up on a quick whim thinking I’d make it our towable travel trailer since my other ‘70 is parked. But I’m unclear if I have the time for a project of this size right now. I’m going to marinate on it for awhile I think and see how I feel next spring. I will likely sell it off if opportunity arises prior to that.