Month: December 2010

Well the belly pan is basically off of the ’67 now, but still needs to be dragged out from under the trailer! It went fairly smoothly, but unfortunately will need to be completely replaced as there were a lot of severely damaged spots that go way beyond simple patch jobs. The entire process took probably 2-3 hours from start to finish including the banana wraps, but just spread over many days since I typically have an hour here and there to work on it and some of that time is always taken up with setup and cleanup. It was so nice to do this on a concrete floor where I could use a floor creeper/roller to easily move around.

I actually didn’t find as many surprises in the belly pan as I had expected. As you can see from the picture above the pan is down and simply resting on the axels. There is some type of nest constructed out of some very comfortable insulation towards the front of the pan and I imagine some huge rat use to call that home.

The cleanup filled up 20 gallons worth of trash, but now is ready to be removed without spreading all of that wonderful fiberglass all over the place. I am planning on cutting the pan in quarters and then storing until I get to the point of needing to create a new pan our of some new type of product. I think I will go back with the same type of aluminum, but will do a little research to see if anyone is using vinyl or anything else that might make a better belly pan material. I also spent some time moving all of my various pieces that I am keeping as templates from the ’67 into my ’77 which makes a good storage place for those various items.

I am planning on cutting the pan into quarters during my next work session and then will either begin on stripping the inner skin or removing the inner skin. I would like to remove the old zolatone, but need to talk with some people to see if it is easier to do that project while they are on the ribs or on the floor.

I took a little break today from the belly pan to finally remove all of the bathroom panels and aftermath left inside of the trailer from when we tore the bathroom apart. I know that the belly pan will be off shortly and that I need to make sure the inside of the trailer are empty and ready. I will be removing the inner skins, but have not yet decided if I am going to strip them first or just paint over them. I am leaning towards stripping them first and then removing them, even if painted in the future they will be prepped and in great shape for any type of treatment. Again I forgot to bring my camera along, but we are quickly nearing the completion of the destruction phase! It is very exciting to see the frame starting to be exposed and I can’t wait to get all of the old insulation and wiring removed from inside the walls.

No pictures today as I forgot to bring my camera to the shop, but I think I will have the belly pan off within another hours worth of work. Today I removed all of the curb side rivets along the belly pan and also began removing the rivets along the underside of the trailer. I do have to say that I am disappointed as I have found enough damage to the belly pan in the front half of the trailer that I will need to replace that with new material. There are several holes, which could be patched, but where the belly pan is riveted to the underside of the frame there has been extensive corrosion and most of riveted areas have been eaten away leaving the belly pan separating from the frame. Hopefully in the next few days I can find some additional time and get this thing off once and for all!

This was another productive day as I removed the street side banana wrap, removed all of the rivets for the belly pan along the street side, removed what I am currently calling the propane regulator, and removed the remaining gas lines.

You can see here the street side banana wrap and the gas regulator mounted to the hitch. This banana wrap contained the worst damage of any single panel on this trailer and after getting it completely removed I am now thinking I will have to fabricate an entirely new wrap instead of just creating a simple patch. The gas regulator box came off without much of a fight and the remaining gas lines are now a thing of the past. I am really still surprised how this trailer had exposed copper gas lines that were just run right under the bottom of the trailer. I haven’t exactly figured out what I am going to do, but I will not be having exposed lines.

Here you can see what it looks like with the banana wrap removed. This area was especially dirty since it had an huge hole and probably a good 3-5lbs of dirt. I vacuumed out both of these corner pockets, but I am still curious what I will find once I get the entire belly pan removed. Removing the rivets along the street side went very smoothly and went even smoother once my drill bit broke in half leaving what I now prefer for drilling out the pop rivets as it does a much better job than a new bit with a pointy tip oddly enough! I will tackle removing the rivets from the curb side next and then start on the underside and get this belly pan removed completely!

Well after a three month break due to lack of available time to devote to the ’67 project, the project is now moving forward again. The other news is that I have decided to keep the ’77 and have it waiting it in the wings for a future restoration project.

This morning I began the work of removing the belly pan and plan on having it completely removed this week. I started with the curb side banana wrap and had fun getting use to some of the larger sized rivets. I was able to get the wrap completely removed and also removed all of the gas lines that ran under the trailer outside of the belly pan. I plan on running the gas lines in a way that keeps them from being as exposed from the elements, but still easily accessible for repairs.

The plan for next week will be to start the arduous task of stripping the interior panels. Then that will pave the way to remove the inner panels and floor so that the restoration of the frame can begin.