[VAL] Re: Beatrice Foods years

[Rob Super <robsuper@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Being well into the process of tearing apart and rebuilding the 
interior of a "Beatrice" ('73 Safari, rear bath), I have a comment and 
a question.

The comment is that I've not seen anything in the FUNCTIONAL quality to 
give me any pause. Mind, this is not shell-off project, but not too far 
from it: many of the interior panels removed, ditto the belly pan. 
Thanks to this list I'm aware of the structural issues that have hit 
some of the longer rear-bath units of this vintage, and with that in 
mind (and while things were apart under there) I did weld in some extra 
support. That caution was largely due to converting to two group 27 
batteries back there, even though removal of the black tank (going 
Porta-Potty) and use of a more modern, lighter, 
converter/inverter/charger probably compensated for that. Point is, 
everything of importance that I've seen has looked well-designed, 
solid, and competently constructed.

That said, I've been amazed at the amount of sloppy work I've found in 
areas that were hidden and, admittedly, of no practical consequence. A 
good example would be holes cut in the skin for such things as the 
range hood vent and radio speakers: they seem to have been angrily 
hacked out by an unskilled worker with dull tin snips--rough, bent, 
dangerously  jagged edges like a shark's maw. The question is: is this 
kind of sloppy, if inconsequential, workmanship common in the other 
decades, both older and newer, or is it a symptom of the "Beatrice 
years"?

  Rob