'49 Trailwind resto

[docflyboy]

Stu-your craftsmanship and your photography are exceptional. Jerry

[Disco Stu]

Hi Foiled Again ( That's a Lagwagon song ). I've done a 1970 25' shell off before, I think the difference is that the channel comes off with the body, so the body just sits right on top of the new floor. There was a lot of flex in the big 25" frame so the two parts just pulled up together.

The pipe frames are different in that in the semi-circular front and rear there was no channel, just a little bracket every 10"ish, so the body and floor / belly pan overlap until the ribs bottom out on the channel. I think that's how it going to work anyway, I'll find out next week.....

Mark, I had the junk in the pic below to refer to, as well as others' build threads like Tim's.
The seller's poorly made junk belly pan sections were helpful in that they showed me how they work but I didn't trace them, I layed a sheet over the chassis ad bent it around, it soon became obvious how it'd go together. I use a 4' guillotine for straight cuts, an air metal shear for big straight cuts and Midwest aviation snips for everything else. I curved the edges of the tabs to avoid having jagged edges everywhere, and tapered the edges of each tab to avoid any overlapping tabs.I'm not very patient at all, but I've come this far so I must keep going. I'm a bit sick of doing this 6-7 days per week actually.

[Disco Stu]

Thanks Jerry, just having a go!

Another 7 hours in the shop today, I finished both ends of the belly pan and I'm very happy with how it went. I don't know how I'm going to cover up the gap between the pipe and the belly though??

[Iansk]

I never thought I’d see a Lagwagon reference on this site...

Ian

[MrRivet]

Incredible work Stu! I am impressed by your progress on the Trailwind.

I spent quite a bit of time figuring out how to finish off the the area where the pipe emerges from the belly pan. On our Liner, I decided to leave the exposed pipe unfinished until later in the build to keep from painting those areas twice. I wanted to fabricate pieces that could be installed after the final painting process. It also keeps the mounting bracket exposed to allow for through bolting of the shell hold down brackets once they are installed. Since the pieces that I fabricated cannot be buck riveted in place, I will use Olympic rivets to fasten them in place and then shave the heads to match the adjacent bucked rivets.

From the looks of the quality of work that you have done so far, I’m sure that you will come up with something that looks spectacular!

Safe Travels!!
Tim

[Disco Stu]

Thanks Tim, I've had my eye on your solution. How did you make it? hammer the edge over a wooden form?

Another eight hour day today.....
The belly pan is done apart from two squarish sections that I'll fit later. All the hard work is done, I don't mind getting underneath just to fit those two sections. I'm not sure if I'll fit any tanks underneath or where they'll go at this point.

It'll be back on wheels in the morning.

[docflyboy]

Stu-I'm curious about what type rivets you used to secure the floor supports to the main tube. I know your trailer is featherweight, and it likely is stout enough, but did you copy the original design for engineering or do any calculations on torque distribution on the tube and flanges and their welds to the tube. I see that the floor ribs are tied together outboard where your wrap ends, so a rivet sheer wouldn't be noticed.

One point I became aware of that might be interesting to you, my belly skin was riveted on the frame in the winter in Texas and during the summers in the Midwest, the belly skin has some waves in it due to the big differences in the coefficient of expansion of aluminum vs steel. You're in your late spring headed for summer, so you might want to warm the belly skin a bit to expand it so that it is tight to the frame in all 4 seasons.

Beautiful craftsmanship. Jerry

[Disco Stu]

G'day Jerry, nah, I'm no engineer but I was told to avoid welding across a drawbar, and to weld along it where possible. I've used stitches a bit more than an inch long around the plates for this reason. There is plenty of weld around the RHS, and where the RHS meets the pipe at both ends it's welded booth sides. I think even if a crossmember came loose it'd be completely held in place by the floor and the three steel tubes that pass through it. The only weld that concerns me are the spring hangers but I can keep an eye on them from the wheel wells.
The rivets are 3/16 aluminium, there are 300 of them. I'll just hope for the best on that one.
I honestly haven't ever thought about expansion of the body? It'll be 59F and overcast here today, I think the body will go on today!
Thanks
Stu

[docflyboy]

Stu- I don't think the body changes much in dimension that would matter, but the aluminum belly skin pop riveted to the steel frame has made me take pause. I've got about 5 sheared rivets on my belly skin, and when I get under it to tie in my shower drain and place my tank sensors, I'm going to over drill them a bit on the aluminum and use a wallpaper steamer to expand them before squeezing the new rivets. My question about the rivets was both structural as well as related to dissimilar metal corrosion. Aluminum to steel isn't perfect but not bad. If it stays dry there shouldn't be a problem, and your continent is pretty dry, except your rain forest. all the best, Jerry

[Disco Stu]

Thanks Jerry, I'll keep an eye on that. I used 1/8" rivets, if that happened to mine ill drill them out and smash some bigger ones in.

We dropped the shell on, it fits almost perfectly. The chassis is dead flat and level but the body needs a little lift in one corner, only about 3/8"
I thought it looked silly sitting up that high until the belly pan was fitted, now it looks ok but It bothers me a little that it wasn't meant to look like that. I'll leave it as is for now and if I can't deal with it I'll change the axle to a 2" drop axle.

[MrRivet]

It’s great to see the shell on the new chassis! It was a big milestone for us. We found that with our Liner, things didn’t quite line up. We found that with the ribs in place in the C - Channel, the skins didn’t measure consistently from side to side. The end segment horizontal edge lines didn’t measure the same height from the floor. With me being a “Level and Plumb” kind of guy, I struggled with this for a couple of weeks before MsRivet beat it into my head that if it looks right visually that is the way that it is. I found that even the individual end segment dimensions were different sizes from side to side and it appears that most of them were cut by hand. With these earlier Airstreams being mostly hand crafted, that is what you will find. Our serial plate by the entry door is even installed at a tilt in relation to the horizontal seam above it that could have been used for alignment. Our trailer was built about the time the production moved to the new North Main Street address so I imagine there was some assembly line pressures from Wally to push these through to completion and out the door.

I would guess that you will see some drop in the rolling height once you start installing the interior components. The weight will start adding up once you add in the interior. I believe that a little extra height may not be a bad thing depending how the trailer will be used.

I fabricated the trim components to finish out the pipe to belly pan transition by creating a template from heavy paper and then transferring the outline to the sheet aluminum. I then formed the curved portion over a section of pipe till I had a tight fit around the main pipe. I then used a hand seamer to form the 1” flange around the edges. I did place a relief cut about 2/3s way from the outer edge of the piece to aid with the transition over the curvature of the belly pan. I think a Shrinker would have produced a better result than the relief cut but that tool is on my “Tools to Buy “ list. I then finished out the pointed end with a block of wood and a mallet to get a tight fit where the pipe emerges through the belly pan. The outer pieces were easer. I used the metal brake to form the piece that will be visible and the bottom was hand formed. Both pieces were then buck riveted together. The final installation of both components will be completed using Olympic rivets that will be shaved to match the adjacent bucked rivets.
Tim

[dbj216]

Getting the ride height where you want it is a challenge with new axles and a new frame. Dexter talks about it at length in their catalog. Many folks over here are going to increasing the ride height to avoid rear end dragging up and down inclines. And some of the campgrounds here in Colorado have very rough roads to them. Your Trailwind is right in style in our neighborhood.

I think your "wedding day" with body to frame went extremely well. Great job.
Heck, you are 2/3rds done with your renovation project seems to me.

David

[Disco Stu]

Thanks for all the tips Tim, we got the body riveted down and yeah we had to shuffle things around a little bit. Solid rivets down the side and 5/32 pops around the ends.
I made the little pipe covers this morning, they are neat enough. I used the little jenny with some rollers that i'd never tried before and squared them up with a mallet and anvil.
Also I went to my friend's shop for help with folding up the wheel wells, they'll be fitted tomorrow.
The cover strip on the ends is something that I'm looking forward to getting out of the way. They are 3650mm long but I only have access to a 3200mm brake press. So! I bought some aluminium 2" square tube with a nice radius, I'll cut about a 1/2" slice off each side. Why I bought twice as much as I needed given that I'll get a channel out of each side? No idea...

Can anyone tell me the depth of the curved strip that I'm talking about? It's 2" high, looks in photos to be about 1/2" deep?

[Disco Stu]

Thanks David, yes all the challenging work is done I think. I might take my time a bit more with the rest, we'll see.

We committed to our ride height today when we chose the wheel well height. The wheels are the height of the tyres above the floor + the axle to bottom out on the frame + 2" just to be sure room, that doesn't leave room for a 4" drop axle. The boss and I are happy with how it looks as is.

[MrRivet]

The pipe covers turned out very nice! It motivates me to break out the bead roller and give it another try. On our Liner the depth of the end pieces are about 6-8 mm. I emailed you a couple of pictures for reference. We will need to replace ours as well since they are in such poor condition. I have not found a source for a replacement that is close to the right dimensions and I do like your solution and utilizing the 2” tubing.
Tim

[PLVMB]

looks great stu

[Disco Stu]

Thanks John.

The end trim thingos went well, they're a little smaller than the factory jobs but near enough for me. I just cut the edges off the 2" square tube.

No time for the wheel tubs, that can be tomorrow's job.

[Disco Stu]

Can anyone help with what that aluminium casting is on the front right? It can't be part of a water fill cap because there were no tanks, surely not a socket for the cable to the TV up that high? I've no idea.

[Ultraclassic]

Originally Posted by Disco Stu

Thanks Jerry, I'll keep an eye on that. I used 1/8" rivets, if that happened to mine ill drill them out and smash some bigger ones in.

We dropped the shell on, it fits almost perfectly. The chassis is dead flat and level but the body needs a little lift in one corner, only about 3/8"
I thought it looked silly sitting up that high until the belly pan was fitted, now it looks ok but It bothers me a little that it wasn't meant to look like that. I'll leave it as is for now and if I can't deal with it I'll change the axle to a 2" drop axle.

High looks good in the pictures Jerry.

Cheers Mark

[Ultraclassic]

Hight not high...