Monday, August 3, 2009

level headed thinking

She's level and off the ground. I'm using two tall jack stands behind the axle on the frame rail (one on each side), two shorter jack stands to help out on the A-frame in front, and a couple Airstream issued stabilizers on the frame rail just in front of the bumper to help out.
Here's a look underneath at the frame rail, crossmember, outrigger, axle plate, axle, shock, etc. From all that I've read and heard, this is a great place to put the jack stand. Stable as a mofo.


Here's my genuine one-of-a-kind story stick made from leftover hardwood. It is amazing how fast a colored pencil dulls when drawing on an old subfloor. I used a couple different colors to help sort out the confusion of lines. After I remove the section of subfloor, whatever parts of the curve don't survive can be recreated by putting the story stick back in its tracing and adding the wall thickness.


Nothing conveys satisfaction like a Vintage Trailer Supply t-shirt with rolled up sleeves! The deeper I get into my project, the more confidence I am gaining. I know I have miles to go, but I also am starting to see the distance behind me. Next step is to crawl under and remove the elevator bolts that hold down my old subfloor. My plan is to remove the back two sections first, wirebrush, Por 15, figure out a new black and gray tank, and replace the subfloor. Sounds like a hoot! Any advice is always welcome.




3 comments:

tinman54 said...

Hi Steve,Your frame looks in good shape, I got lucky also with my frame,I only had one cross member that was a little thin but not bad enough to replace. It looks like the belly pan was in pretty good shape also. The elevator bolts in mine were very rusted,all the ones I could get at I grabbed with a vice grip pliers and bent them back and forth and snapped them off. The others I ground the tops off with A angle grinder then pushed them down. It was tough getting them out of the C channel because they were covered with tar. I know what you mean about airstream time is hard to find,sounds like your kids are about the same as mine,one just married(21) and one just 16.
Good luck with project.
Doug

Frank Yensan said...

Wow Steve, wish I looked so cool in a VTS shirt. Next run of Frank's Trailer Works shirts and I will be sure to send you one.

Steve "Dancin" Hansen said...

Frank,

The sooner the better on sending me a shirt (XL, prefer lighter colors). Our 18 year old washing machine went down a couple of days ago and my shirt selection was already running very low. My wife is the only one trained on the machine, so if she hadn't alerted me to the fact that it was broken, it might have been months before me and the kids would have known.