David & Diane's '68 Safari Milestone

[DFlores]

With the completion of the belly pan, the frame flips back over, the new Dexter axle goes on this week. Then the shell drop is back on schedule for June 15

[slowmover]

The DEE HOWARD Company is worth the time to read on in re fascinating and highly skilled aircraft design and such. They were building out a 747 for the Saudi Royal Family when I was in college in San Antonio. And the HOWARD 500 was the all-time coolest high-speed executive transport ever built in the radial engine era!

Thanks for the updates, congrats on saying the right prayers, and look forward to more!!

.

[DFlores]

We did put insulation under the floor, 3" of expanded polystyrene, with spray foam insulation between to fill the cracks.

Also, sprayed 1" of foam to cover the heat ducts, the job was not as neat as I had imagined, but it is effective.

[DFlores]

With all the rain we have been having, there was no more delaying the shell drop, we started early with prep work and the help arrived around 10:30 AM, and we are off to the races.

All as per schedule.

[DFlores]

After nearly 6 months the shell is finally down, nearly perfect, except......

[DFlores]

Looking at the exterior in first photo, the shell looks to need to drop about 1/2" more. The next photo is the rear most rib, which is bottomed out, then the next forward rib behind the wheel well needs to drop, and finally the rib forward of the wheel well, all on the curb side.

I looked for and found the infamous hidden rivet, removed and proceeded but still will not go further down.

[DFlores]

The holes in the door frame line up with holes in trailer frame.

The clecos at the rear all line up with floor channel, the front fits well over the the banana wraps.

Not sure what to think, so I am going to let it set over night, maybe a good nights sleep will relax the shell into place.

If not, I'm going to trim the wheel well and button it up, since there is no buckling on exterior, it looks fine otherwise.

Any ideas?

[DFlores]

Put some rivets front and back to hold it together, time to start cleaning up for the wedding, have a trailer load of old flooring, bracing and general junk ready to go to the city dump

[Lance M]

Hi David,
Just stumbled upon this thread. Glad things are going well for you. Hopefully we'll see you at a rally soon.
Keep up the good work!
Lance

[DFlores]

Thanks Lance, we will attend many rallies soon.

[DFlores]

OK, so my daughter is married and honeymooning in Paris, it took one month out of my schedule.

Now can someone look at the attached chicken scratched sketches and maybe give me the best answer for the plywood at the door threshold.

Currently is is as per sketch #1, and the shell does not sit completely bottomed as can be seen in photos within previous post.

[DFlores]

Can anybody offer assistance?

[cwf]

Has frame shifted?

[DFlores]

No, the holes in the threshold line up with the holes in the frame, you can see in the first picture of post #47.

[kevinb]

David, I don't really know but you would think there should be some wood under the threshold so I vote for #3

[DFlores]

Originally Posted by kevinb

David, I don't really know but you would think there should be some wood under the threshold so I vote for #3

Thanks for your reply, that portion of the floor was completely rotted when we started, so we don't have ant idea how it was originally.

[Lance M]

David,
The sub-floor is sandwiched between the frame and the threshold. The three holes in the threshold are what is used to attach this area together. Use 1/4"-20 countersunk bolts there. #3 would be the closest depiction of how it looks, however there are no e-bolts under the threshold. You may have to route out some of the sub-floor to match the profile of the threshold to get a good fit.

[DFlores]

Originally Posted by Top

David,
The sub-floor is sandwiched between the frame and the threshold. The three holes in the threshold are what is used to attach this area together. Use 1/4"-20 countersunk bolts there. #3 would be the closest depiction of how it looks, however there are no e-bolts under the threshold. You may have to route out some of the sub-floor to match the profile of the threshold to get a good fit.

Thank you Lance, I did some digging and found a picture before I removed shell and also took photo of what it looks like today, you are absolutely right. We will have to route, dremel, rotozip, out a notch like option three to make it set down with no gap.

I was so determined to do a good job on this that I may have gone overboard on the elevator bolts, now will have to do some fancy carving on the head of a couple to get them to slide past threshold.

[DFlores]

I was able to lift shell just enough to slide threshold over to make notch for shell to settle in.

Used an attachment for my Dremel that cuts 1/4" deep, so we cris-crossed the needed notch with cuts then, went at it with a wood chisel until I had it defined really well.

Changed to wheel in the Dremel to cut the head of elevator bolt and finally a coat of marine epoxy.

[DFlores]

Reframed loose ribs (made shapes at brother-in laws’s AC shop) had to go by when I could, carried aluminum with me a lot



worked on channels when ever I could get to shop