No, the head szed dent was made at a SOB repair facility back in February. One of the "repairmen" crawled up on my trailer off a ladder. To this day, I am not exactly sure why he felt he needed to get up on the unit. He initially was on his knees. As he attempted to get to his feet "oops", the pressure of his foot on the unsupported end piece caused a dent to appear where there was no dent before in one of the curved end pieces. I happened to be present when this occurred and just happened to have taken pictures of this formerly dent free area only days before taking it in to this facility. Otherwise, his denial that he had dented the trailer would have probably stood up. As it was, the faqcility's insurance covered the damage.
GStephens
I can't believe he denied it! Oh well I thought it might be an interesting story...but it was just a pain in the neck for you and I hope I never end up doing business with that shop.
I'm glad it got fixed.
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ingrid
1967 24' Tradewind #19104 ~ Forums #4449
ok all, when i bought this A/S it has this dent the deal was good so i thought i could live with it. after the first year camping with it i am so tired of hearing, did that happen on take off or landing, or watching people grab there kids and go inside their SOB while i park because i must hit things while i backup. Last night we retrieved our A/S from my dad's house and this morning i decided to take on this dent. i know that it will not come out but i want to minimize it. at the point of these pictures i have already pushed 1/3 of it out this is where i have run into the snag. there is the plastic shell from the bathroom in my way. can i safely cut a large hole in this plastic to gain access to this dent? see attached pics
GStephens was successful because his dent had no creases. Yours has almost nothing but creases.
As Andy noted, you cannot (at least not without equipment and much, much experience) shrink aluminum once it is stretched - and boy is your's stretched. The only road to anything like success is to restore the original shape without any more stretching. This means hours and hours of patient work, pushing gently from behind around and around the outside of the dents (you have mulitiple dents in a single area - each has to be worked out individually), with a tool that will leave no marks. In your case I would estimate the time at something on the order of 30 - 50 hours. Somebody highly skilled and experience could cut that in 1/3.
Once this is done, you will have a pattern of marks from the creases. These can be rendered less noticable by polishing.
Cutting holes in irreplaceable plastic interior panels does not sound like the path to happiness. You can remove the panels, but I think in your case it will necessitate the removal of virtually the entire bathroom.
My first choice would be a new panel (panels? Are two involved?). So would my second and third choice. I think the '76 unit at Colaw's RV salvage is good on that side. Failing that, I think I'd start disassembling the bath.
the plastic panel that is shown in the picture can not been seen, i removed the large cabinet that hides all of this before taking the pictures. i just wanted to make sure that structurally it shouldn't hurt anything. i know that this dent will never come out perfect without panel replacement, i just want to make it better like i said tired of the attention. PO said that a small tin shed blew into it in a wind storm. wonder how long it took him to come up with that one, looks like a tree to me.
Ditto Mark's post, there is way too much damage to repair. The 1/3 you removed is easy, the creases will be nearly impossible. The lower panel looks like it will pop out once the top and trim is removed, but there is no sense in compounding the work by having to repair interior plastic.
i just wanted to make sure that structurally it shouldn't hurt anything.
There is some structural component to that panel, as there is in all interior panels. How much? ???. I personally would not cut a hole anywhere near as large as you would need.
I agree with John that the lower panel will work out nicely.
The lower panel is not dented, but it is "oil canned."
Removing the segment above the quarter panel (lower panel) would allow that quarter panel to easilt pop out.
Pushing the sheetmetal from the inside would almost be a waste of time.
The appearance would not change enough to warrant the trouble, since it is severely creased.
Get a "service manual" from Helen Davis. That manual will show you how to replace segments.
If you "do it yourself" you can cut your overall cost to about $400.00, instead of the ball park $1000.00 to $1100.00 that a dealer would charge.
Locating a "used" segment won't really work, as the rivet holes will be in different places, plus removing a segment correctly, causes more damage to it.
The lower panel is not dented, but it is "oil canned."
Andy
The lower panel is dented. Oil can is nearly always on a flat surface, it will move up and down similar to the bottom of the old oil cans often with a pop like they make.
Are replacement panels like this one avaliable? That would be the only option with that much stretching.I believe they can replace that panel without removing interior panels using olympic rivets.
I keep putting it up on various posts and have not yet got a reply.I have two of the seven segment end cap panels that should be replaced.If they were available I would certainly change them.
Try Airstream for new, but there will be a very obvious finish mismatch. Used try rv bone yards, not as much mismatch but probably still noticeable with a 40 year old trailer.
If you "do it yourself" you can cut your overall cost to about $400.00, instead of the ball park $1000.00 to $1100.00 that a dealer would charge.
Locating a "used" segment won't really work, as the rivet holes will be in different places, plus removing a segment correctly, causes more damage to it.
Andy
One irritation there for many of us is that Airstream will not drop ship segments. I happen to need one now, but my nearest dealer is a 500 mile round trip. So it will have to wait.
Replacing a segment is very interesting. I didn't say fun, but it is interesting. I personally believe the price of $1,000 installed is worth every penny when working on a single segment. I would like to see dealers cut us a little slack when replacing multiple adjacent panels, however.
I also understand exactly what Andy means about used segments, but I am not quite so negative about them. I will say that when using a used segment I absolutely want access to both sides, and I want to buck the rivets. In general, though, new is the way to go if you can.
like often i certainly can not pay to have a seqment installed for $1,000 realistically we are talking about a trailer worth $3000 this is not a good investment. i already know that we hope to upgrade next year so i don't want to be over my head.
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