Shell's Back On!

[59toaster]

Originally Posted by psychpw

When you say through the belly pan but not the outer skin what besides the belly pan are they attached to, the rib?

U-channel and ribs. The pan is on before the body.

[funchucky1]

OK.
The rear and the middle are up....
But the front's stuck.
I suspect it has to do with that reinforcing plate.
Do I need to drill out all the rivets that hold it from the front???
Other ideas?
(What does the plate attch to, beside the outer skin?)

Help!
-Chuck H

[Inland RV Center, In]

The front plate holds the shell to the A-frame and chassis.

All of those rivets must be removed.

Andy

[funchucky1]

Thanks, Andy.

It'll be done in 20 minutes.
I should probably drop my jacks a little first, and take the stress off.

Anyone wnat to tell me - again - when to use Vulkem, and when to use Sikaflex?

My local A/S dealer carries Sikaflex....but not Vulkem.

[59toaster]

Ohh yeah...got to drill all those out. Thanks Andy!

[funchucky1]

It's off!!!!!!!!!!

[Inland RV Center, In]

Whoooooopeeeeeeeeeeee.

Now your fun really starts.

"Don't" lose the reference points, or change the dimensions of the floor, or it's thickness.

Andy

[upallnight]

Andy

When I removed the floor in my 63 Soverign it was 5/8" plywood, I ordered Service Bulletin#1 and #29 from A/S, in the cutaway drawing on #1 it shows 3/4" plywood, What do you recommend for replacement?
Leonard

[Inland RV Center, In]

Changing the plywood to a greater thickness is OK, provided you are willing to refit the entire shell to the floor again.

If you expect to use the same rivet holes with an increase in floor thickness, it cannot be done.

New holes will have to be made.

Andy

[funchucky1]

Andy, your sarcasm hurts. Owww.

Well, I know the floor is 5/8". And I can get good 5/8" ply here, so I'm good with that.

I can imagine what the dimensions should be.....but the floor is nonexistent in the front and the back (where it counts). Thank the P.O. for that. I did make decent cardboard templates of the floor (to the U-channel) before I took out all the rivets. Hopefully it will work out.
I do sincerely dread attempting to reassemble it.
I plan to count my fingers every few minutes.

Andy, do you refer to the imaginary reference points that you're imagining I'm making?
Or do you mean to suggest that it's good that I didn't remove the little steel angles, for instance, and that I'll measure where they are and replace them on the new floor?

[Tripp]

Andy,

I'm going to be doing this on my 56 this fall. When you refer to making new holes, are you referring to holes in the "c" channel or in the body itself? I assume its the "c" or "U" channel.

Tripp

[Inland RV Center, In]

Tripp.

And the shell.

Andy

[59toaster]

Originally Posted by Inland RV Center, In

Tripp.

And the shell.

Andy

Guess I did it all wrong.

I did not drill a single new hole in our exterior shell when I went to 3/4 ply. The U-channel also moves up when the deck gets thicker. Only thing that doesn't move up is the belly pan.

I enlarged the existing holes to 5/32 to accept the Olympic Rivets. I then drilled through the new belly/bannana and into the U-Channel. I ended up having to pay a machine shop to make 8ft of new to replace some that was beyond salvage. Much of it was relocated because hte new material U-Channel was made of a thicker material so I use to old in the corners since I needed to notch it for the curves.
The front plate needs to be redrill because it sits on the frame

Where in the shell was I supose to drill new holes and why?

[Inland RV Center, In]

If a person wanted to use "all" the original underbelly material, then increasing the thickness of the floor will not allow the original holes to match.

Different story if new metal is being used. In that case, is doesn't matter.

Andy