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Originally Posted by groovzilla
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On the inside of the trailer where the dent is located, the rear bath plastic molding is mounted in this area - it looks as though there is a horizontal seam which seperates this bath panel in 1/2 - is this so?
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Or is it easier/best to de-rivet the outer skin so that the skin can be removed for an easier job instead of tearing out from inside?
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If I understand your question about the rear dome, it's not really a upper and lower half molding. The upper dome is plastic (maybe fiberglass in your year) and the lower "half" is aluminum skin. At least that's the way it is in my '72 Safari. Yes, you can take out the pop rivets and move it out of the way, sorta. I don't know how you will get it through the bath door. You might be able to just rotate it down onto the toilet and sink while you fix the dent.
DO NOT de-rivet the outer skin, except as a last resort or if you are an expert aircraft mechanic. You'll need to jack the frame at several points to make sure the shell isn't twisted or stressed, or you'll never get the panel back in. Just my opinion, of course.
For your info, there is no attachment between the plastic dome and the shell, except at its edges. You'd think there would be some kind of bracing between the inner plastic dome and the outer shell, but there isn't.
Taking out the dome will appear to you to be a bigger job than it really is (not that it's not a big job). Taking out the closet wall, for example, only takes a few minutes of drilling out the pop rivets--the problem is that Airstream almost always cleverly hides a few rivets under other skin/partitions and it takes some time to figure out that you haven't really got all the rivets out.
I'm up in Seattle every year with one or another of my Airstreams. If you make good progress, I'd like to come by and take a look. These are the recently active AirForums members in WA:
Zep