Re: [VAL] holes in belly pan

["Tom" <thomm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

If good teaching is "geared to the person asking the question" - it helps to 
have some background material given to them to work with showing or 
instructing them how it "is" done correctly.  You can always go backwards or 
"gear down" as you might say if they find the going too tough at first.  Bad 
habits learned early on are hard to break later on down the road - ask any 
parent.

So I'd still say that given the proper instructions from the beginning lets 
the one asking the question decide for themselves if what they want to do is 
a quick and easy *temporary repair* or if they want to make a permanent 
repair done the correct way.  After getting advice from both sides of the 
aisle they will make up their own mind and do what they feel is acceptable - 
to them.

Looking at lots of vintage trailers will show you how others have attempted 
a fix or a repair only to have it fail at the worst possible time if they 
are even around when it does fail.  A belly skin repair is easily forgotten 
as you don't see it unless you look under the trailer.  How would they even 
know if the repair as explained by you worked or not after the fact if they 
didn't constantly check this area out on somewhat of a regular basis?  Most 
likely if they had some fasteners let go or work loose in one way or another 
there will be others in the same area at some time later if not now.  I'm 
hopeful that you'd tell them that your way of doing this *was* for a quick 
emergency type of repair otherwise the entire underbelly of their trailer 
would end up looking like patchwork from some hobo's bib-overalls.

I have no problem with others saying how they'd go about fixing a problem 
temporary or otherwise but it would be nice to know if they are saying - 
temporary, emergency, permanent, etc. to those that ask "how is this type of 
problem fixed?"  I think the key word here is "fix" and fix usually implies 
a permanent fix otherwise they would have said "temporary" or "emergency" 
with their use of that word.

You say "instructing at that level"?  Those with education and knowledge in 
this field have been "instructing at that level" for a very long time on 
this list already.  Or, did you have something else in mind - like coming 
out of retirement for money for example?  Teaching is wonderful and having 
willing students that are hungry for knowledge makes it worthwhile as you 
must know already.  Qualifying that teaching with examples of the easy, 
quick temporary way to do something in the beginning might have kept us from 
heading down this path we now find ourselves on.  I know you meant no harm 
in posting what you did - neither did I when I critiqued your post.  But, I 
did feel it was necessary to say what is correct to effect a permanent "fix" 
and what isn't.

Tom
WBCCI 5303