Daisy's been Dinged

[SilverCabin]

I just posted some pictures to my on the road thread http://www.airforums.com/forums/592287-post49.html showing the damage to our street-side rear panel. We backed into a post that we never saw. It looks like it slid off the edge of the bumper and banged the rear. It then hooked the bumper and broke it when we pulled away. I wrote about the incident in my travel blog on the site below. It's in the July 18 entry.

We're on our way to JC for warranty maintenance and now to get this fixed. We'll let you know how it comes out.

Randy

[ArtStream]

Ouch, that hurts!
Hey Randy, JC will have U fixed up in no time.
Just don't do it again

Michael

[CanoeStream]

Ouch II! That's got to be a sick feeling. I know it will be balanced by the results when done at JC -- mostly at least! It's good to have a viable production crew ready to reassemble our babies.

[SilverCabin]

Thanks Michael and Bob. We were both very sick when this happened, mostly me since I was at the wheel. I'm over it now and moving on toward JC. Insurance company as been notified, and they are awaiting JCs estimate.

Randy

[SilverCabin]

Based on Chris from Airstream call today, I have two options on the repair: Fix everything from the outside and finish with shaved rivets, or remove the inside and fix with the factory original buck rivets. I'm leaning toward the outside fix for several reasons:

1. less time
2. less cost
3. nothing is damaged inside and removal of the toilet and shower could cause problems we don't have today
4. we can stay in the trailer while the work is done

I guess the downside is that on close inspection the rivets would look different, but I'm not a purest, and I don't plan on selling Daisy anytime soon.

Randy

[SafariSS]

The shaved rivet route is not terrible. You have to look closely to tell the difference if they take thier tiime. I had a small panel replaced behind the propane bottles about a year ago and they look fine.

Just out of curiosity, how much difference in price between the two types of repairs?

[SilverCabin]

The price difference was 2x, $1,300 versus $2,600. The bigger difference was in the time and use-ability, 1.5 days with use of the trailer versus a week with no use of the trailer. That, and the fact that nothing is broke inside, and we didn't want to create any problems with removal and replacement of the shower and toilet areas, is why we're deciding to take the shaved rivet approach.

I read through Bambi_Bandit's thread on Cosmo's repair last night (http://www.airforums.com/forums/f381...ter-42332.html). Even with a relatively easy interior furniture removal (overhead cabinet and nightstands) they have some fit issues with the finished product. And, they still had to use some pop rivets.

Randy

[MsRivet]

Randy & Pat,
We feel your pain. Tim & I had a similar backing mishap the year prior to getting our A/S. But is was with my mother's motor home. We spent three days and a horrible end to a great camping trip fighting over who was going to tell her. At least you don't have to tell the mother-in-law about the ding. Love the blog. Cant wait to talk to you both on your return to Florida.