Remove battery box, or leave it on for shell off??

[Unka Jack]

Almost ready to lift the shell off my '73 Overlander this weekend. Just wondering from those who have gone on before. Is to okay to leave the battery compartment on, or should I drill out all those rivets and remove it prior to lift off?

[Belegedhel]

You will need to drill out the rivets, for two reasons:
1) As I recall, the frame of the battery box that wraps underneath the trailer is too wide to pass through the hole in the subfloor for the battery box, so it will hang up during your lift.

2) When I had pulled the frame out from under the body, I just lowered my body down to the ground and put a wooden block under each vertical rib to help support it. If the battery box is left riveted to the shell, then the shell will have to be supported high enough to keep the battery box from getting squashed.

good luck!

[Unka Jack]

Oh joy, more rivets to drill. At least I can see these ones. Just spent the last 3 hrs chiseling out the roadside edges. For some unknown reason, there is a double outer skin with the outer one covering the bucked rivets. Doesn't look like a repair, looks like it came from the factory like this. Maybe they goofed up in assembly and had to fix it there.

[Unka Jack]

"And the survey said...."

[Belegedhel]

Originally Posted by Unka Jack

Oh joy, more rivets to drill. At least I can see these ones. Just spent the last 3 hrs chiseling out the roadside edges. For some unknown reason, there is a double outer skin with the outer one covering the bucked rivets. Doesn't look like a repair, looks like it came from the factory like this. Maybe they goofed up in assembly and had to fix it there.

Hmmm. On my '73, the shell was bucked to the c-channels, and then the banana wraps/bellypan edges were brought up and overlapped (covered) the line of bucked rivets and were popped in place. They then pop riveted a rub-rail (piece of trim) on there to cover the overlap and make it look pretty.