[VAC] Pics of total shell off floor replacement if anyone interested...

["William Henshall" <willy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.airstreamphotos.com/photos/index.pl?cat=500&user=155&thumb=1 for
a bunch of pics of the story so far. Been about 8 or 9 solid days to get to
this, although I am not that fast at this stuff. A pro I am sure would have
done this in 2 weekends :) But for me it's not about the destination, more
about the journey eh?

After much awesome advice from folk on this list, I went ahead and did it.
Yep the shell's off and over the next couple of weekends the new 5/8th" ABX
ply is gonna be cut and fitted to the chassis, after the sandblast and
rustproof is done. The tricky bits were not actually lifting the shell
itself, but were the careful drilling and removing all the rivets and bolts
holding the shell to the floor.

I would catagorically say if you have more than a small amount of bad floor
rot (we had 4 big arm through spots) do this rather than the insanely tricky
trying to fit sections of wood back into the gap under the U-channel where
the sides meet the floor.

The belly skins were totally shot so I need to replace them. Anyone have any
advice here? I know this has been discussed on the list before, I should go
search the archive really, what kind of aluminum is best to replace it with?

Oh and one question I have not heard talk of, is there a source for the
U-channel itself? All the curved sections are in good enough shape, but the
straight sections, which are formed form a thinner gauge metal, are all
shot.

Should the belly skin be put on before the shell goes back? It obviously was
at the factory, but I am wondering if there is a catch I have not
considered, like needing to tighten a carriage bolt underneath for
instance...

Lovin' it

Will Henshall