Let the fun begin....

[augier]

Hi there folks,
So i started tearing into it, so far so good. I had a friend that welds come over to look at the bad spots and it should be easy to fix.....I have attatched a few photos of what I have opened up. One thing I did notice is that I looked up some post on floor replacement and the floor channel that I saw on other AS was not what I have ? Can I just use the simple Channel that is on there? Or do I need the fancy one that locks the wood floor in and ties the skin in as well.I hope I make sense Oh one more thing... I want to take the belly pan off but I noticed that if I take the rivets out then how do I replace those cool looking Mushroom head rivets? would it be bad (or just not cool looking) to use regular looking rivets? to seal up the belly pan to the upper outside skin. Well I hope I haven't overloaded you guys with the questions......Thanks for taking the time....

[Frank's Trailer Works]

my advise is rebuild it exactly as it was. The channel you have is the channel you should have, not the later type that wraps over the edges. That style is much later. You need to look at floor replacements closer to your year. I have a lot of detailed photos on my blog. The belly is buck riveted on. It is a solid rivet and can easily be replaced and no one will know the difference. Well, they will because modern rivets have a small number stamped into the head so if the plane crashes they know who made the rivet, but it is virtually the same look. I also have pictures of that on my blog. Bucking requires two people one inside and one outside. Someone will tell you it can all be done using Olympics rivets, but do not believe them. Olympics work great for patches, hatches, and minor repairs, but are not the right thing for structural repairs. Good luck and read as many threads dealing with 58- 63 as possible. I also recommend reading a lot of blogs. On mine you will find an extensive list of blogs and many are for your era.

[crestonrv]

interesting comment, don't know how you will buck rivets when you still have flooring,maybe i didn't understand whats going on.
i had local shop bend me new floor joists to match was not free but not to bad.
call andy at inland rv they have some 1/2" head pop rivets that are self sealing and work good on old belly pan. I generally pull the body to do the job you are at as belly wrap rivets to wall brackets which are on top of flooring, those rivets are cocealed under skin when shell drops back on.