OK, I am a new member and the new owner of a 1984 34' Limited. There are (were) two rotted areas at the front of the coach. I have gutted the front in preperation for re-upolstery and new cork floor. Thanks to this forum, I successfully patched one area of rot on the right edge of the coach just forward of the door. I tried to tackle the other area today, which was generally under the left battery box.
Unfortunately for me, I forgot about the fact that the spare tire recess under this area means I better be careful with the sawzall. Oh well, rather than remove and replace a 2x2 section of floor, I have now removed most of the first sheet of plywood which extends three feet back into the coach. I have replaced the aluminum panal I sawed through which was the roof of the spare tire well with shinny new 2024-T3. Luckily, the coach came with six new tires and no spare.
I had to remove the old plywood, at least past the width of the frame members on either side of the spare tire well so I could have a place to insert a spline underneath.
Anyway, here's the question. I removed the original flooring piece back to its original joint which spans a cross member and hapens to be the cross member which is the rearward boundery of the spare tire well. The plywood pieces were held together by what I can best describe as squigely clips nailed edge long into the joining pieces. I would like to re-fasten the new floor piece with the old using this same technicque, but I am at a loss even to know what to call these fasters, much less where to find them. The originals did not fare to well on removal, and were a little rusty, so I would prefer not to try to reuse them. I remember seeing one thread that mentioned them in my earlier reviews of sub-floor topics, but search as I may, I could not find it.
What are these mystery clips called? Where can I get them? How must I install them? Is there some other comparable alternative? I assume the clips help maintain tensial strength of the coach in the long axis and should not be omitted.
baxter,
They are called corrugated fasteners, you used to be able to buy them in lumber yards/home centers. I haven't seen them in years. I used a pocket jig to drill a hole from the surface and used screws in mine. The pocket jig is what you use to drill the holes to put cabinet rails and stiles together.
Aaron
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....so many Airstreams....so little time...
WBCCI #2449 AIR #2495
Why are we in this basket...and where are we going
And this is what they look like (well, more or less... this illustration shamelessly stolen from Ace Hardware)
Roger
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AIR 2053 “A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.” Robert Heinlein 2006 Bigfoot 25B25RQ towed by a 2001 Born Free 23RK moho
Notice I said "local lumber yard" the last time I saw any was at the old non chain lumber yard here in town. They were pretty dusty. Our Lowe's doesn't carry them...or a lot of other hardware items either
Aaron
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....so many Airstreams....so little time...
WBCCI #2449 AIR #2495
Why are we in this basket...and where are we going
Maybe someone you know would lend you a biscuit joiner?
....
The difficulty of fitting piece of plywood into the "C" channel, and the problem of the rounded floor profile in the repair area, all compounded by the tight fit required by a proper repair would probably preclude the biscuit route.
I guess you could install the biscuit vertically, but the wood (plywood or aligned chips) used by the AS factory really does not lend itself to that type of repair.
Baxter (panabax) stated that there were a couple of repair areas - I found the most secure repair was the one in the '78 Factory Service Manual. The first crossbrace (the rear of the spare tire cavity) doesn't have all that much traffic on it (the immediate area in front of this crossbrace is the front of the Gaucho), so as long as the SECOND plywood is well supported by the crossbrace the repair should be OK. He also stated that he had some battery acid damage - on the '78 I found this to be fairly isolated and easily repaired with a splice - I spliced in a 3/4" piece of plywood to completly cover the spare tire cavity from underneath - probably overkill, but I know I will never have to revisit that repair again.
Factory Service Manual Recommended Repair:
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Dennis
"Suck it up, spend the bucks, do it right the first time."
OK, the aluminum on the top of the spare tire cavity is back in place and the floor forward of the first crossbrace has been replaced with shiny new 5/8 plywood. No worries about battery acid since the coach was batteryless when I bought it and it has been fitted with a pair of gel cels.
I was actually surprised hour easy the main floor section was to install once the splines were in place. I ended up with a single sheet of plywood 65"x36". Most of the front 65" is striaght, so there was very little curvature to match. I did, however, need to slightly bevel the bottom leading edge (less that 1/4") to get it to properly walk back into the channel without getting stuck.
The corrugated fastners worked like a charm.
Thanks for all your help. I would be completely stuck without these forums. Of course, but for these forums, I wouldn't own an AS either, so there is some justice their somewhere.
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Oh well, rather than remove and replace a 2x2 section of floor, I have now removed most of the first sheet of plywood which extends three feet back into the coach. I have replaced the aluminum panal I sawed through which was the roof of the spare tire well with shinny new 2024-T3. Luckily, the coach came with six new tires and no spare.
All Done
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