'78 Safari Project

[crane422]

Well I have the beast for a few weeks now and as my wife is sick and tired of hearing about it I thought I would post some pics and hopefully get some positive feedback

[crane422]

SO I have been posting all willy nilly all over the forums and finally got some helpful advice that I could just sort of stockpile all of the reno post here and just head to the other sections when needing a specific answer. I plan to update fairly often as I have made some progress(all backwards..but hey). hope to get some good feedback from everyone.

[crane422]

Turns out you can fit almost the entire interior of a 23' Safari, minus appliances and beds in the attic of a mid 50's ranch!

[crane422]

A few leaks around the A/C unit so I decided to pull it down and send it off to HVAC land for inspection cleaning and some TLC. I think the black plastic adds a nice touch to the roof.

[crane422]

Apparently there was a bit of moisture in the rear end of my trailer. Nothing a wire brush and some putty can't fix right?

[dirigible25]

Looks like you are leaving no stone unturned with having gutted the interior and now moving out to the back bumper/storage area. Are you going to put it back together in it's original form, or are you going to customize the interior to your liking?

[crane422]

I posted this in the plumping section the other day but it is worth reposting here for hopefully more to see since it scared the crap out of me:

I am assuming that I am not the first person to be as dumb as I was yesterday. Decided to drop freshwater pan and tank to inspect since PO had said water poured out when he tried to fill. Friend and I removed all but 2 bolts....he was towards back of trailer me at front removing a bolt...BOOM down comes a A FULL Fresh water tank and pan. If not for having 3 extensions on socket which caught the tank about an inch off of ground I would be at best with a broken arm and missing fingers at worst a smashed head! Lesson learned..always assume tank is FULL. Here is the culprit after removal.

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f163...all-86354.html

[crane422]

Originally Posted by dirigible25

Looks like you are leaving no stone unturned with having gutted the interior and now moving out to the back bumper/storage area. Are you going to put it back together in it's original form, or are you going to customize the interior to your liking?

I am going to do a little of both. Same basic layout, new furniture style, updated materials. Going to silver powder coat all screen frames and hardware and use black screen I think. Still figuring all that out. Interior budget will depend on how much more stuff goes wrong by the time I get to all that.

[crane422]

Well the weather is nice in my little part of SoIL today so I played hookey and got a bit done on the stream. I am getting ready to remove the belly pan so today consisted of removing all the gas pipes (WOW a lot of fittings) and the stabilizers. The stabilizers are heading for sand blasting and powder coat and I stripped all the fitting of the copper for future use. A few observations, would it have killed them to secure the pipe clamps with screws instead of rivets, would it have killed the PO to use the SAME size screws on the stabilizers when he repaired them and again WOW alot of fittings for 4 gas appliances!

[crane422]

Also decided to ATTEMPT to repair the crack in my water tank today. From reading posts it appears that this is almost impossible and I should just order new but I find it hard to believe that in 2012 I cant successfully repair a 1" crack in a plastic water tank. Used a two part JB Weld product..pictures tell the story. We shall see if it holds water.

[tkasten]

Hope you have better luck with tank repair. I tried it on my 65 let it cure for several days and then filled tank with water. After 2 days it started to leak so I put in a new(smaller) tank.

Size of screw (self tapping bolts) used on your BAL stabilizers. I found that I had to go to the next size up when I replaced older model stabilizers. Threads got rusty etc. Keep posting pics of your progress.

[crane422]

I am hoping since my crack is above the water line at anything except 100% it will be ok.

[Eric H]

Hi crane,
nice looking trailer! I see that picture of the back end rust, which brought back bad memories! I had a lot of rust damage to my frame that has taken me some serious welding to fix. The picture you posted looks like some serious permeating rust. I would suggest you somehow get a good look at the rest of the frame, maybe take a couple wraps off. If that C channel is that rusted it could be that it's gotten the outriggers pretty bad. If I was in your position I would make sure to replace that cross member that's rusted all through in places for sure. Did one of the POs live near the ocean? My trailer came from VA Beach and I think that had a lot to do with how bad the rust was.
Here's a link to my thread, if you look at the second page you'll see that I had to basically rebuild the C channel in places because of the rust... It really deserves a good look under there to check it out. Good luck!

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f421...ybe-85368.html

[crane422]

Well another nice day in the good part of Illinois. Got the biggest part of the bottom skin removed. Looks like that piece is toast. All the rivet holes are rounded out and there is some actual tears and big holes. Found pretty much what I expected after I raised the trailer 8" to have working room, insulation, rodent nest, rust and dust. Overall I call it a successful day there is noticeable progress and no injuries. On that note I think I am going to get a tetanus shot sometime soon. Lots of rusty things in my future and no idea of the last shot.

[crane422]

Originally Posted by crane422

I am hoping since my crack is above the water line at anything except 100% it will be ok.

Well so much for that patch...stood the tank on end and filled it enough to have water pressure...started dripping in about 10 minutes!

I still think my theory of since the crack wont actually have any water pressure on it doesn't need a perfect patch put it needs to be better. I may enlarge the crack slightly, inject a 2 part epoxy, then cover with this product again.

Thoughts?

[tinman54]

Tetanus, alumititus, lots of things to catch from these trailers!! Your progress is looking good! The frame and sub-floor look pretty solid from the bottom. Good luck with your project!

[crane422]

No pictures today just a general cursing of silicone and all that in entails. Seriously if it is this hard to remove how can it possible let water in?

[crane422]

So its vacation week and the weather is perfect so I decided to attack window weather stripping and some parbond around the window frame. Its hard to believe I am this tired and sore from just removing 35 year old weather stripping. I had some time to kill so I also managed to remove the water heater. Frame guy is coming tomorrow to give me a quote on replacing the rotted parts and also going to see how much he would charge to apply the POR-15. This is the first time I really feel like I made progress. And since I got all the windows done I get to "officially" strike something from the Master List..that felt good.

[crane422]

So life has gotten in the way the last few months and the beast has been sitting idle but my welding buddy got the new steel in and she is off for a new ass end this weekend. As i removed banana skins and the last of the bottom skins I found a few oddities to take pics of...

ok so why the split in the channel for the gas line? Factory or after market mod?

Im no awning installer but somehow the 12 washers seemed a bit excessive

yup bent a drill bit without it breaking..not quite sure I have ever done or even seen that before

[crane422]

Well finally got the beast old to my friends barn and tonight the replacing of the bad rear end members began! Boy it felt good to actually do something that felt like forward motion after 9 months of demolition and problems.