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A-Merry-Can · 09-03-2005, 05:35 AM

if mine had a complete belly, i would have considered saving them, too. i know the ones i have will eventually dent, but what are ya gonna do? it's a belly afterall.

are youplanning on replacing any skins? got my rivet gun ready for today's adventure! just waiting until a reasonable time to start hammering away. good thing i can't see my neighbors through the woods!

jordan

NorCal Bambi · 09-05-2005, 09:54 AM

I'm looking for drawer parts for my 63 Bambi. They around 7/16" long and 1/4" in diameter. They go into the drawer face. I would also be interested in the Knobs as well. Please see picture.

NorCal Bambi · 09-07-2005, 10:10 PM

I needed to remove the shell of my 1963 Bambi by myself. By creating a 2x4 frame work that was wired for a secure structure, I was able to lift the shell and slide the chasis out by myself. I fashioned my process similar to the technique used by house movers. A 2x4 lever with the aid of bricks was used. The process was slow but safe. If you would like to see pictures of the process with aditional information, go to my picture site. "One Man shell off"

A-Merry-Can · 09-07-2005, 11:12 PM

i did the same thing myself. put in the cross braces, then stacked 2 stacks of 2X4s on each side, lifting it one corner at a time. it's definitely the safest way. i had to lift mine a little higher, then built the saw horses, then lowered it onto them... did the opposite plan to get the shell back down. it took 2 to get it settled straight, though. it's such a tight fit, if you're off by a half inch here or there, the skin won't slide back around the outside. i'm reskinning, so i got it close enough for "gum-mit" work.

here's a pic of my sawhorses. the lower piece stiffened it from sway. the supports were just carraige bolts (2 of them per cross brace, 2 braces per sawhorse). it was probably overkill, but didn't sway at all. i wouldn't do diagonal braces, or it would have interfered with rolling the chassis in and out.

i rolled it out with no wheel wells, but rolled it in with them, so i ended up having to raise this entire deal up about 10 inches... that was a little scary.

post some pics! us peeps gotta peep. ha!

jordan

NorCal Bambi · 09-08-2005, 08:04 AM

Jordon, what tools are you using for riviting and where did you get them? I'm not there yet but hope to be soon. Today will be spent in sand plasting the frame. I plan to treat the frame with Por 15. Your process of lifting the shell looks great. One can never be to safe!! How much trouble have you had in lining up any of the old rivit holes? c channel, belly pan dubbled oner, shell. What size and type of rivits are you planning on using to reassemble the shell?

Don

A-Merry-Can · 09-09-2005, 08:19 AM

hey man,

i've learned a lot on my trailer... mostly a lot of "how NOT tos" ha! it seemed like it too me forever to get my shell back on. mostly because of the weather. i wish i had a barn to do all the work in.

on my frame, a friend of mine painted it for me with some sort of epoxy paint, after i blasted it, and had probably half the cross members replaced. he uses it to paint concrete trucks, so i think it should stand up just fine. the (obvious) important thing is to get ALL the rust out of there. be sure you get stainless elevator bolts when you do the floor, too. they were out when i got mine, so i ended up undercoating the crap out of each bolt once i got it on to help prevent the rust. i should have waited until the stainless ones were back in.

i replaced all my belly with new material, so ther ewas no way for me to find the original holes when i dropped the shell back on. secondly, i replaced all the C channel (except the curved pieces) with new. and finally, after reading through greg's skin replacement post, i decied to go full hog and replace all of the flat panels on my trailer, so there wouldn't be any holes to line up anyway on the bottom.

just gettimg ny trailer back square on the frame, thoguh took a day of wiggling, shoving, prying, etc. i ended up buckling a few pieces that got trapped between the C channel, rather than outside it. have some friends, a little beer, and a LOT of patience for that step, if you're not replacing the body panels. the good news is the bananna wrap covers any imperfections.

as for tools, i took greg's advice on everything. you'll need a 3X rivet gun (eBay, $50), a good selection of bucking bars, rivets in various sizes, a stemboat (or pancake) drill with #21 stubby bits (eBay for the drill, Yardstore for the bits), and several tubes of Vulkem (Airstream Dreams). The rivets i got at aircraft spruce, but there are cheaper sources out there. the pancake drill allows you to back drill through existing rivet holes in the ribs. if you haven't removed any of those rivets, or do not plan on replacing any of the skin panels, you probably don't need that tool (though it is cool looking!)

if you haven't already, read this link: http://www.airforums.com/forum...?threadid=9362

also, another fav thread of mine:
http://www.airforums.com/forum...t=FRAME+REPAIR

post a lot of pics as you move along. it's a great on-line journal, if nothing else!

jordan

NorCal Bambi · 09-09-2005, 10:32 PM

Jordon, Thanks for the info. When I took my Bambi apart I noticed that there was a paper like,or gasket, type material under all edges of the cabinets to floor, water tank, and under the c channels. Did you find any similar material while disassembeling your coach. If so, did you replace it with any particular material? Thanks for the links. I think you should be glad you didn't use stainless elevator bolts on your rig. My understanding is that stainless and aluminum do not mix. Electrolysis goes wild. When we had a boat in the ocean environment that was a definate no, no.

Don

A-Merry-Can · 09-10-2005, 07:33 AM

there was hardly anything left of my trailer when i started. nothing original to pattern anything by, unfortunately. so, i don't know about the gasket stuff.

i heard that too about steel and aluminum. i have a land rover, and they combat it by putting a small rubber seal between the hinges and the aluminum door panels. not on teh rear door, thoug. it's always a mess. what kind of screws were holding your bannana molding on? i was planning on using stainless there, with a plastic washer. i can get aluminum screws, but i don't know if they have the strength to tap into the aluminum channel i have.

NorCal Bambi · 09-28-2005, 07:10 PM

I was working out back on my 1963 Bambi in the hot sun when I made the sighting. I ran and got my camera and snaped this image of the UFO. I have included the picture so you can see what hard work will get you.

59toaster · 09-28-2005, 08:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NorCal Bambi

Thaught some might be interested in what I found under the floor.

At last thing will start going together!

I only found one Bee's nest. Course it was almost 2x2ft

NorCal Bambi · 09-29-2005, 02:51 PM

I am working on refinishing the wood work on the inside of my Bambi. My goal is to match the original finish. I have included 3 photo samples of the finish. This area was found under the mirror near the door. So I believe this is as close to the original finish that I can find. The large grain of the wood is still open in these examples. It appears that a greenish gray stain was applies first then a semi-gloss clear was sprayed over the stain. I don't think any wood grain filler was used in the original process. However I am not sure. Any information you can add would be appreciated.

uwe · 09-29-2005, 10:58 PM

The large grain strands of the panels reminds me of swamp ash or oak plywood. However, it is hard to tell from a photo. My 1963 Overlander's interior wood was so terribly decomposed, that it was impossible to identify what it actually was. Other than toothpicks...
Swamp Ash used to be easily available in the 60's, was light weight, durable and inexpensive. Oak is heavier, but was also widely used.
A finish this old is difficult to diagnose. It might be just a natural oil finish, than has aged to a certain patina. They had many finishes back then that are now illegal to use due to environmental concerns. Mostly the nitrocellulose lacquer finishes are the ones that got outlawed.

NorCal Bambi · 09-30-2005, 12:12 AM

Uwe, thanks for the reply on my refinish question. I have done some resurch on line with your suggestions. I believe my wood is Oak for two reasons. 1. There are small grain lines inside the larger growth ring patterns. I did not see these grain lines in the Swamp Ash. Also after sanding the existing paint layer off I found the wood to be a warm yellowish gold color. I believe this to be an Oak color. See the Oak sample attached.

NorCal Bambi · 09-30-2005, 12:19 AM

There were black wood stains in the bottom edges of the inside wood where water had come in contact with the wood when water lines had broken sometime in the past. Also black stains were around nail holes. In reading about stain removal from wood. I found the following suggestions. In Oak and Redwood black stains are caused by the combination of Tannin in the wood (sp) and Iron in water. Oxalic Acid will remove these stains. Here are some before and after pictures to demonstrate this cleaning practice.

uwe · 09-30-2005, 12:38 AM

I wish I could get pics posted without tearing my hair out....
Anyways, Looks like you got a handle on things. Great.
I am amidst applying finish to my new interior parts for the 1963, and found that polymerized tung oil does a wonderful job of giving good protection, but without killing the character of the wood, like many other products will do. It still looks like wood, not plastic..
It is also very easy to apply, but does require the wood to be stripped and sanded thoroughly.
I plan on applying a coat of Carnauba wax over the oil finish.

NorCal Bambi · 09-30-2005, 08:56 AM

Uwe, Do you have a section with photos of your work and progress? I would like to see what you have done. Others ideas have been a great help in my project. I use Adobe Photoshop CS and Adobe ImageReady to reduce and edit the pictures from my Kodak digital camera. I could send you more details if you have the programs and would like to give it a try. It has taken me several tries and experiments to come up with a combination where I like the results. Thanks for the complement on the photos.
Don

NorCal Bambi · 09-30-2005, 09:09 PM

Sand Blasting is not the most exciting job in restoration. However, I thaught I'd share the progress with youall. I'm going to need some reinforcement in places. I'll send some pictures later is someone is interested.

urbanfood · 09-30-2005, 09:20 PM

norcal, i'd say that i'm 99% sure that is oak, as you have figured. is it 1/2" or 3/4"?

i like the pix of the sandblasting process. did you rent that machine? i'm in the process of looking for a 60's caravel and plan on doing a complete restoration so sandblasting will be a must do.

thanks again for the pix!

david

uwe · 09-30-2005, 10:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NorCal Bambi

Uwe, Do you have a section with photos of your work and progress? I would like to see what you have done. Others ideas have been a great help in my project. I use Adobe Photoshop CS and Adobe ImageReady to reduce and edit the pictures from my Kodak digital camera. I could send you more details if you have the programs and would like to give it a try. It has taken me several tries and experiments to come up with a combination where I like the results. Thanks for the complement on the photos.
Don

Don,

I started a thread when I first bought the project trailer. It is called "A 63 for me" and has become huge by now. Grab a beverage of choice and peruse it, it has all the steps that I have done in it, more or less complete.

My issue with posting the photos is not the processing, I do have photoshop etc. It is the forum software, or my ISP, or maybe even my computer. For some reason I have a hard time posting photos, getting error messages and inconsistent results. It's the same at home or when I try and do it from the office computer.

A-Merry-Can · 10-02-2005, 06:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NorCal Bambi

Sand Blasting is not the most exciting job in restoration. However, I thaught I'd share the progress with youall. I'm going to need some reinforcement in places. I'll send some pictures later is someone is interested.

i used a similar machine on my frame. it's amazing how quickly that thing cut through rust... and blew out metal i THOUGHT was solid. quite noisy, too. when i got home, i had a couple of ounces of sand in each shoe, pockets, hair, etc. my friend had one of those hooded breathers, and i STILL got covered. i painted mine with black epoxy. i'm leaving the chassis black. the contrast is nice, next to the aluminum.

jordan