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Aerowood · 04-21-2007, 03:58 PM

Hear Ye, Hear Ye, On this day I hereby decree that Zeppelinum is a certified BUCKER. After minimal instruction, Zep bucked all the rivets on the three new aft skins for me. Many thanks Zep, I am now in your debt.

Aerowood · 04-21-2007, 04:07 PM

Before

Aerowood · 05-05-2007, 05:20 PM

I removed the potable water tank and all the rest of the fiberglass insulation today. The tank was a real challenge to remove by myself but I finally won. The plywood holding the tank up is a full 1.250 thick and weighed a considerable amount. I am going to replace it with a built up aluminum structure that will weigh a lot less. I got all but five of the elevator bolts removed to replace the flooring. These five bolts are located beneath the forward C channel, so I plan on cutting a large chunk of the floorboard out in order to get a saws-all in between the fwd cross member and floorboard to cut the bolts and the 1/4" pop rivets that go through the complete stack up. Whoever the person is at Airstream that came up with this assembly sequence needs to be cut deep and bled out some. The tank does not look like a 46 gal. tank as I was lead to believe, and I found some numbers on it that make me think it's only a 33 gal. tank. I will have to measure it to find out for sure as this has a bearing on the design of the aluminum structure I plan on replacing the plywood with. I had to stop early today as the weather came in and it started to rain hard and then the hail started. I was relieved that the hail turned out to be nothing but large balls of slush.

Zeppelinium · 05-05-2007, 10:40 PM

I'm betting the tank is in the 30-35 gallon range. I think that's what all the 18-19' models were equipped with.

Yes, the weather did turn Colorado today. I think we had at least three different [small diameter] hail storms today, and the thunder was very odd--low rumbling and reverberated a long time.

Zep

Aerowood · 05-12-2007, 06:16 PM

I removed all of the forward floorboards today. All came out without to much fuss. I had to cut a fairly large hole in the most forward in order to make space for the saws-all to cut all the hidden bolts and rivets. It was a real mess.

Derek D · 05-15-2007, 07:36 AM

Aerowood -

In the picture above, what is supporting your shell once the floor is removed. I am nearly to this point on my 72 Overlander, and am trying to plan my next steps.

Aerowood · 05-15-2007, 11:39 AM

There is a vertical steel plate that is welded to the fwd crossmember and is riveted to the lower "C" channel and skin. Be advised that I had 5 elevator bolts underneath the C channel holding the floor to the frame and then it had 5ea 1/4 steel pop rivets that went thru the whole assembly. I had to cut a large hole in the floorboard in order to get a saws-all in to cut the elevater bolts off between the floorboard and crossmember and then cut the rivets again between the C channel and floorboard. Good Luck

Kip

Aerowood · 06-01-2007, 03:37 PM

I got the fwd half of the frame all cleaned up and applied POR 15. Removed the fwd "C" channel cleaned and epoxy primed. I had to insulate the floor that covers the spare tire well before I put the fwd floorboard down. I used one inch ridged foam insulation and .025 2024-T3 aluminum to cover the foam in the spare tire well. I primed the aluminum with epoxy and then used water based contact adhesive to bond the aluminum and foam together. Sealant is used to adhere the assembly to the frame and seal off the spare tire cavity. I then installed the fwd floorboard with the foam/aluminum panel captured between the A frame and floorboard.

Aerowood · 06-08-2007, 05:44 PM

Removed the step for repair, installed ..025 aluminum over the step well. Cross member over potable water tank had broken welds and bolted it back in place. Installed last two floorboards and new C channel along both sides. Went out to a travel trailer scrap yard this morning and scored a Suburban hot water heater model# SW6DE. I had to remove it from the wreck but I got it for 35.00. It looks brand new, the burner tube is not even scorched.

Zeppelinium · 06-09-2007, 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aerowood

...Went out to a travel trailer scrap yard this morning and scored a Suburban hot water heater model# SW6DE. I had to remove it from the wreck but I got it for 35.00. It looks brand new, the burner tube is not even scorched.

Kip,

Nice work. I gutted the front end of the Safari yesterday and discovered rotten flooring along the shell forward of the door--strange place for a leak, since the floor around the door itself is fine. Guess I'll tackle this problem using your excellent photos.

What scrap yard? Not Cherokee? They are great but I would think they'd know the value of the water heater a little better. I need one, too, did you see other water heaters or space heaters?

Zep

Aerowood · 06-09-2007, 09:18 AM

I never did know the name of the place as its kind of fly by night, deal only in cash. I think the address is 3575 South Clay street in Englewood. Phone # 303-815-9072. It's at the dead end of South Clay (A few blocks east of Federal) at Hampden (285). They are closing up and looks like they are almost giving everything away at rock bottom prices. The water heater I bought was the newest they had. A lady came in looking for one as I was getting ready to go and asked if I wanted to sell the one I just bought for triple the price. She ended up buying an older Atwood but I didn't catch the price, she seemed pleased though. A lot of stuff there, only one Airstream and it had been cut in half and used to store tanks. I was looking for a stove too but everything they had was a POS. Found the place on Craigslist.

Aerowood · 06-23-2007, 06:48 PM

Worked most of yesterday removing the rt fwd skins and window. Window was removed due to not fitting properly and leaking. I found that the window had already been replaced once and that the window now installed is not as wide as the original leaving the original holes outside the window frame. I will have to double flush these holes and file part of the upper and lower frames to receive the window better. I will also need to reform the window frame somewhat. I also removed the rt fwd skin and the one just in front of the door. Will start fabricating new on Sunday after I get the repairs done to the window

Zeppelinium · 06-26-2007, 11:33 AM

Hey, what if I brought you a pile of new sheet aluminum? Maybe that would be faster!

I met a guy in Salt Lake last week who replaced his side view windows and in doing so "discovered" that their frame is "flexible." When he first put it in it was obvious that the curve of the frame was not right--too large a radius. The Airstream shop people told him to sequentially "pull it in" to the shell from the edge adjacent to the front flat window. They said the glazing isn't glass, but a plastic that becomes hard after a few days of exposure to UV. I find this to be hard to believe, considering the label in the corner of the "glass."

Anyway, you work continues to amaze! I'll be up later in the week. If your window is still out, I'd like to inspect the joint with the front window. I'm still thinking of removing mine permanently.

Zep

Aerowood · 06-26-2007, 05:59 PM

I worked on the rt side window today
First pics show the extra holes.

The third and forth pics show the double counter sunk holes filled with MS20426A4-X rivets.

The fifth pic shows shaving the rivets flush.

The sixth and seventh show the before and after.

The last pic show the removel of the fwd skin. Five hidden pop rivets behind the front window frame