[VAL] Tail Droop and Thanks to TT

["Ned P. Digh" <npdigh@xxxxxxxx>]

My AS developed some trail droop and I asked Terry Tyler for notes on  
his history of repairs.  Terry did not send his notes but gave me some  
very good common sense advice.  The gist was to read everything I could  
on the internet,  the service bulletins,  and go for it.  I followed  
that advice, it worked and was not as difficult as I feared.  The tail  
droop was beginning to be significant on the right rear and I now  
realize that resulted from backing into a sign post about three years  
ago.  I was in an auto body repair class at the local Voc Tec and the  
instructor helped me put the aluminum skin back in decent appearance.   
Fixing the tail droop, I discovered the C channel at the bottom was  
broken and I don't know if this happened at the time of the impact or  
did so over time as the AS has seen a lot of miles since then and it  
has been obvious that the frame separation was getting worse.  

Yesterday I took some courageous steps: first I sawed off the useless  
bolt holding the C channel to the frame, cut a hole in the AS and  
lifted out the old bolt.  The damage from the impact had let moisture  
in and about 12 square inches of the floor needed replacing.  My AS has  
a center bath and has an electrical cord holder compartment on the rear  
so I could reach  through the rear cross member to the bottom of the  
bolt hole, with out removing the belly pan or banana wrap.  

I put in a replacement floor section, jacked up the frame to the C  
Channel and inserted a new 3/8 inch bolt with a new reinforcing plate  
and tightened it through the hole in the skin with a pneumatic ratchet  
and the hole will get sealed properly and the attachment of an elephant  
ear or a large reflector tomorrow.   I welded a short bar to the nut so  
I did not have to hold it with a wrench when tightening.   After the  
next trip, I will do the same to the street side and I can see a bit of  
wiggle there.  Thanks Terry for your experience and pointing me in the right  
direction.   
Ned Digh, 
75 AS, 31', 
Center Bath