Visit our Popular Forums

Jim & Susan · 01-29-2006, 08:56 PM

A few pics for everybody. Well, no pics. Let me try again.

JIm

Jim & Susan · 01-29-2006, 09:04 PM

2nd try.

3Ms75Argosy · 01-29-2006, 09:44 PM

Did you guys use the old floor as a pattern and cut to match, or did you put the shell on, trace it out, lift and then cut, or....? Did you find that the shell fit fine after? So nice seeing all that new wood.
Marc

indefatigabl · 01-30-2006, 06:59 AM

Congratulations! I have to say I've been lurking on your thread for awhile now, I hope to do a similar thing to a similar trailer, though I don't have the trailer yet. Seeing your process has been both interesting and helpful.

She looks beautiful! I agree, all that new wood looks very nice. I bet it smells a lot nicer too!

Nicole

Jim & Susan · 01-30-2006, 08:12 AM

Thanks for the kind words everybody. I'll have a better report and answer a few questions when I go to lunch. I was too tired last night to post a long explanation!

Jim

Jim & Susan · 01-30-2006, 11:04 AM

Nicole, Lurk away! Things do indeed smell better. One thing that helped with that was to wash the interior walls really well. I've searched and searched the threads for a good way to that, but every chemical mentioned either couldn't be used on aluminum or were too wimpy to get anything clean. What I finally settled on was plain old carwash, some Scotch Brite pads and a lot of elbow grease and water. That combination took off most everything except the heaviest areas of glue used to hold up the old pink insulation.

Marc, believe it or not, this is a shell ON installation. I simply didn't have any way to do a shell off. The floor was very badly rotted around most the perimeter of the trailer, so I pulled up the old floor and saved as much as possible. When it came time to actually put the new floor in, I used the old pieces to make a pattern out of luan for each piece of plywood (6 pieces total), transfered the pattern to the ply and cut away. I'm having a bit of a problem getting two of the pieces to fit properly. Look at the next post for an explanation.

Thanks again for the words of encouragement.

Jim

Jim & Susan · 01-30-2006, 11:32 AM

We are doing a shell "ON" install on the floor. I mentioned above how we measured and cut stuff for the new floor. Next, we used the West epoxy 105 and slow hardner 206 to coat the outer 6 inches or so to protect from moisture damage. We also coated the entire underside of the last piece of ply (under the rear bath) with the same stuff. We then used varathane to coat the bottom of the rest of the new plywood. Planning on the varathane on the top, once the floor is completely installed. Many thanks to greg176 for that tip!

Installing the floor was no piece of cake as we were not able to fully remove the shell. There are 6 pieces (basically 4x8 sheets of 3/4 exterior grade ply) of new floor, for the sake of simplicity, they are numbered one in the front thru number six in back. We installed number 6 (the rear bath section) first by using the push down on the rear and slide it in between the shell and frame method. Next we installed number one in the front. It was smaller than the rest, so we simply slid it in at an angle and slowly rotated it into position.

Now comes the hard part. Sheets 2 & 3 don't want to cooperate. Sheet two roughly lines up with the door, sheet three roughtly with the galley area. We placed these two sheets in the curbside C-channel and then lowered the roadside end toward the frame while slowly (gently) pulling the roadside wall out at the bottom. The ply slipped into place rather nicely, but we can't seem to get it exactly centered laterally in the camper. Sheet 2 is about 3/4" too far to the streetside and sheet 3 is about 3/4" too too far to the curbside

. How the heck did that happen? A little gentle pounding with a rubber mallet helped out here, but we're still kinda stuck. Sheet 4 hasn't been installed yet, but that's ok because it simply drops in over the wheel wells, nothing to force, nothing to bend. Sheet 5 was installed just like sheet 2 & 3 with no problem. Weird.

If anybody has a suggestion as to how to get sheets 2 & 3 "true", man am I all ears! What do y'all think?

Alumaholic · 01-30-2006, 06:22 PM

Hey Jim and Susan,
Did you figure out a way to remove the inner slime in your dual pane windows as mentoned in an earlier thread? I am deparately looking for a way to fix mine. Srely someone knows how these dual panes were fabricated to start with and how they can be dismantled, deslimed, and reassembled.
Ken
Albuquerque

Jim & Susan · 01-30-2006, 06:59 PM

Mine look like they can be taken apart, cleaned and reassembled. Although I read in another thread someplace that the seals are no longer available. I have a sneaking suspicion that it's doable. I just haven't gotten that far yet in my restoration.

Jim

Jim & Susan · 01-31-2006, 09:59 PM

Soooo, I went back out and looked at it again a bit ago after a couple of days to think about it. It looks like maybe the problem with the new floor is that the second (of six) piece of ply (from the front) is simply offset toward the roadside about 3/4".

I originally thought sheet 3 was 3/4" too far to the curbside, as well, but I'm now thinking sheet number 3 is in the right place. It looks like either sheet two is simply shifted a bit (causing sheet 3 to look out of place in the other direction) or, my worst fear, the roadside portion of the outer shell in this area is somehow warped outward at the bottom.

In other words, no matter the "why", if we can get sheet two to slide toward the curbside 3/4", the outer shell will move back "true" and the wall will fit properly on sheet three.

1) The first picture is of the entire curbside door area. Sheet two is under the brush, sheet 3 under the drill. Note that the two sheets meet in the door opening.

2) The second and third pics show an opening just forward of the door frame that shows how the ply has not seated all the way into the c-channel on the curbside.

3) The fourth pic shows the roadside forward edge of sheet two. CLearly extending too far outward.

4) The fifth pic shows the position of the c-channel sitting on top of one of the outriggers on the roadside.

What you all think?

malconium · 02-01-2006, 03:13 PM

Hi Jim,

I had some similar problems getting the body and the floor pieces to align with each other and to the frame. I used a racheting luggage strap to help with the problem. You need one that is at least long enough to reach from side to side of the floor and that has a reasonably sturdy - easy to use rachet mechanism. The attached photo shows what mine looks like.

You can use the strap to pull the body and/or the floor sheets from side to side until you get them aligned the way that you want them. You can put the hooks of the strap into the u-channel on oposite sides and pull the body panels toward each other for example. You could also screw a block of wood to the floor temporarily (or use some sort of strap or tie town braket that you could screw to the floor) to allow one end of the strap to attach to the floor. Also if you happen to have a hole cut in the plywood near where you need to attach the strap you can just hook into it. I found, by the way that if I hooked my luggage strap into the bottom of a vertical body frame member that things worked well. If I had to pull hard on the u-channel in the middle somwhere between vertical frame members that it was a good idea to insert something into the channel to hook to that would spread out the tension. I had a piece of 3/4"x3/4"x1/8" aluminum u-channel that worked great for this.

If, as you suggest, one of the pieces of plywood is in the right place you could bolt or screw it down to hold it in position. You could then attach your strap to it using one of the methods mentioned above and pull the body, along with the other sheet of plywood, into correct alignment.

I found that it did not take all that much of a pull to move things into position and that the technique worked very nicely. You just have to be a little creative in deciding where to attach you strap hooks for the effect you are after. I suppose that you could even do it from underneath if the belly pan is off.

I hope this helps,

Malcolm

Jim & Susan · 02-01-2006, 03:54 PM

Thank you, thank you, thank you. That looks like the perfect solution. I'll let you know how it comes out.

Jim

Jim & Susan · 02-12-2006, 05:59 PM

Well, I finally had a chance to try Malcolm's method and no luck. Bad weather, long work hours and the need for a new kitchen floor got in the way.

Something is stuck in there tighter than Aunt Hattie's hatband. What we need is MORE POWER! I have a come-along that is rated at two tons. That's going to be the next attempt. Keep you posted.

Jim & Susan · 02-12-2006, 07:00 PM

A couple of members have asked how we removed the center piece of the inner skins (the one that runs down the center of the ceiling). So here you go.

First and foremost, all of the DC and AC wiring runs the length of the trailer underneath this skin. Be careful here when dilling out the rivets. The process is pretty simple, drill out the rivets, remove them. Once the skin section is free of the all the fasteners, you'll need a couple extra people to help pull it out, not because it's heavy or something, but because its long and flexible. All you have to do, once the fasteners are removed, is start at one end of the panel, grab the panel in the middle and "bow" it down toward the floor. The panel will simply drop down into your hands.

There is a lot of stuff up there that will drop into your eyes, so be careful.

Good luck with it.

Jim

malconium · 02-16-2006, 11:02 AM

I had a much harder time getting my middle panel out. For some reason it was jammed in the channels on the sides more tightly than it should have been. If I recall correctly there were a few places where some extra aluminum had been wedged in by some previous owner to help hold it tight. One thing I found that helped was to spray some silicon lubricant along the channel to help slick things up.

Malcolm

malconium · 02-16-2006, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim & Susan

Well, I finally had a chance to try Malcolm's method and no luck. Bad weather, long work hours and the need for a new kitchen floor got in the way.

Something is stuck in there tighter than Aunt Hattie's hatband. What we need is MORE POWER! I have a come-along that is rated at two tons. That's going to be the next attempt. Keep you posted.

It shouldn't be so tight that the tie down strap wouldn't work. Is it possible that the bottom of the c_channel is caught on the end of an outrigger? I know in one place my body had spread out far enough that it was in danger of falling off the end of the outriggers. I had to jack the body up a litttle in that area to get the plywood to slip into place. If you pull too hard something might break.

Malcolm

Jim & Susan · 02-16-2006, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by malconium

It shouldn't be so tight that the tie down strap wouldn't work. Is it possible that the bottom of the c_channel is caught on the end of an outrigger? I know in one place my body had spread out far enough that it was in danger of falling off the end of the outriggers. I had to jack the body up a litttle in that area to get the plywood to slip into place. If you pull too hard something might break.

Malcolm

I think I MAYBE found the problem. I rooted around under the trailer last night and found that board number 2 (the problem board) may be stuck/jammed up on the aluminum sheet that covers the steps. You know the one I'm talking about, it is directly under the floor in front of the door, it covers the steps when they are folded up under the trailer. When we re-installed this piece of aluminum, we used Sikaflex 221 as a caulk between the frame and the sheet. What I'm thinking is that some of the Sika may have "oozed" out and is creating a friction seal that we need to break to get the board to move. It's gonna take several sets of hands to do all of this. Dad and Eric will be at the house early Saturday morning help give it a shove.

Thanks again for the ideas, Mal. We used the jack method in a couple of spots earlier. I'll keep you posted.

Jim

Jim & Susan · 02-20-2006, 10:27 AM

Well, we finally got the floor in this weekend. Turns out the #2 board was indeed jammed up on the Sika that I used to seal the aluminum sheet above the steps. We wound up using the come-along as described above, along with a few gentle blows from the rubber mallet and things slid into place. A little pushing and prodding and everthing lined up. In fact we were surprised how well everything lined up.

Once we got the shell situated properly on the floor, we decided to screw the floor down from the "inside out". The self tapping screws that go out in the center of the floor, then into the lateral frame members went in first. These were supplemented with quite a few wood screws. Once that was completed, we put the main bolts in the outriggers/U-channels.

The entire assembly is very "stiff" now, again, surprisingly so.

When we went to tie down those outrigger bolts, we used exact duplicates of the bolts used 33 years when it was built. One problem there was that we couldn't use the lock nuts I bought for the task of securing the bolt in place. The bolts would turn along with the lock nuts when we tried to tighten them. We eventually decided to use a regular nut on top of the bolt to tighten it in place, then placed the lock nut over the top of all of that. Looks kinda strange, but it works nicely.

I'll post a few pictures and a few more comments tonight.

Jim

ankornuta · 02-20-2006, 12:20 PM

Awesome work, it's always nice to hear about someone getting their body back into place without too much of an ordeal!

Jim & Susan · 03-03-2006, 09:47 PM

Well, It took a few days, but all the stars aligned and the floor is about finished. First, 2 pics of the new floor in place. Over the aft end (bathroom area) there is a spare piece of plywood to cover all of the holes cut for the bathroom fixtures.