[A/S] Shell off floor replacement on 1958 18ft Traveller

["William Henshall" <willy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all, thought some might be interested in seeing the story of this floor
replacement in progress.

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?

So I went ahead and did it. 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? 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...

Cheers mates

Will Henshall
1990 Motorhome 345LE
1958 Traveller 18ft
WBCCI 8048