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 > Anyone interested in 83 Pace Arrow Tear down and Rebuild?

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fulltimin

Home is where we Park It.

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Posted: 07/09/17 02:01pm Link  |  Quote  |  Print  |  Notify Moderator

Hey, everybody! We have a Sunday special for ya...

In case you are getting ready for your own rebuild project, I have some free plywood for you. I have 4 bags for you to pick up. First come, first served. May require some assembly. Will include a bottle of glue, absolutely free!!! May include some blue board insulation!


[image]


If you want to do something, you will find a way.
If you don't, you will find an excuse.

-------------------------------------------------

Good judgement comes from experience.
A lot of experience, comes from bad judgement.

fulltimin

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Posted: 07/09/17 02:16pm Link  |  Quote  |  Print  |  Notify Moderator

A while back I posted a pic of how Fleetwood ran wires through the roof. Here is a much better picture of it.

The Green box is 1" thick steel tubing in the ceiling.

The red box on top of the steel tubing, is a 1/2" thick piece of plywood, 1 1/2" wide, glued to the steel and glued to the roof plywood above it. You will notice they cut a channel in the plywood with room to run the wires. Also note, the plywood was not cut completely through. They left a little plywood above the steel tubing, so as not to rub through the wire insulation.

The blue box is the roof plywood, glued to the top of the plywood strips and also glued to 1 1/2" thick blue board insulation.

The insulation also had the channels cut into it for the wires, as well.

Also, the pinkish stuff you see is glue, sprayed on during manufacturing.

[image]

SCVJeff

Santa Clarita, CA.

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Posted: 07/09/17 02:29pm Link  |  Quote  |  Print  |  Notify Moderator

RLS7201 wrote:

You really need to get a hobby, so you'll have something to do in your spare time. GRIN

Richard
ummmmm... I think he has one.. [emoticon]


Jeff - WA6EQU
'06 Itasca Meridian 34H, CAT C7/350


fulltimin

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Posted: 07/10/17 07:04am Link  |  Quote  |  Print  |  Notify Moderator

I asked my wife if I could replace the large passenger side windows in the living room with a couple of round port hole windows, and use a little black paint on the outside, and she said NO.......


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Jim@HiTek

Gresham, OR, USA

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Posted: 07/10/17 07:40am Link  |  Quote  |  Print  |  Notify Moderator

Very interesting restoration. More work than I'd want to tackle.

One thing you might consider is treating that steel with a rust converter. It's an acid and chemically converts the rust back into metal. Brush or spray it on, and the rust disappears. It prevents future rust (not completely, but really helps), makes a hard paintable surface.

I used it on my Bounder, and Journey, to both stabilize the rust and prevent it from growing.

Home Depot carries it in the paint department...Jasco Primer and Rust Preventative is one brand. Amazon carries a brand named Rust Converter Ultra

And thanks for publishing your restoration. Extremely interesting...and well done too!


Jim@HiTek
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Winnebago Journey, '02
Cat 330HP Diesel, 36.5', two slides.

fulltimin

Home is where we Park It.

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Posted: 07/10/17 07:54am Link  |  Quote  |  Print  |  Notify Moderator

Jim@HiTek wrote:

Very interesting restoration. More work than I'd want to tackle.

One thing you might consider is treating that steel with a rust converter. It's an acid and chemically converts the rust back into metal. Brush or spray it on, and the rust disappears. It prevents future rust (not completely, but really helps), makes a hard paintable surface.

I used it on my Bounder, and Journey, to both stabilize the rust and prevent it from growing.

Home Depot carries it in the paint department...Jasco Primer and Rust Preventative is one brand. Amazon carries a brand named Rust Converter Ultra

And thanks for publishing your restoration. Extremely interesting...and well done too!



Thanks for the kind words. I was thinking about using Por-15. That stuff gets hard as a rock, and can be used on surfaces other than steel.

It works great on wood - they claim it will completely seal wood. I have a piece that I want to boil and freeze and repeat. We'll see what happens.

In areas where there was no water leakage, the steel framing still looks great.

Por-15 is not cheap, but reviews of it have been positive, when the steel is properly prepared.

fulltimin

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Posted: 07/10/17 07:41pm Link  |  Quote  |  Print  |  Notify Moderator

Here is another interesting fact on this motor home. These next 3 pictures are of the welds that are on the frame. This was taken at the top of one of the side wall "studs".

This stud is 1" x 1 1/2". It is standing the "flat" way, so they have 1 1/2" wide to attach the plywood to, which means that the wall framing is only 1" thick.

The interesting item on this is, the framing is welded only on 2 sides. The 1" side. The facing which is where the plywood was glued to, was not welded.

I can understand that. If the face was welded, it would have to be ground to provide an even surface to glue the plywood and paneling to. I said I understand it. I didn't say I thought it was a good idea for strength.

The way it was done, definitely saved the factory a bunch of time during construction.


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fulltimin

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Posted: 07/10/17 07:50pm Link  |  Quote  |  Print  |  Notify Moderator

Proof that Fleetwood did not run down to the local box store and buy plywood for this thing.

Here are 2 pics that show a piece of string inside of the plywood. I am not sure if it is nylon or some type of fiberglass, but it is very strong and runs from the top to the bottom of the plywood. There are a couple of these in every sheet.


[image]


[image]

Jim@HiTek

Gresham, OR, USA

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Posted: 07/10/17 07:56pm Link  |  Quote  |  Print  |  Notify Moderator

Having worked in heavy industry (Hyster Corp), I know we did strain gage testing of framework all the time. Tens of thousands of man hours proving what type, how long, which side, and where a weld should be before committing to production.

I really wonder if Fleetwood did that kind of testing? And if they did, did they prove that setup was within tolerances for strength?

Interesting...

fulltimin

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Posted: 07/10/17 07:58pm Link  |  Quote  |  Print  |  Notify Moderator

Sorry for the quality of the picture on this one. I didn't know it when I took it.

This is a picture of what the corner of the windows look like. The gray material is nylon type "filler" and is at all the corners of the windows. There is no insulation in any of these corners.

Combine that with aluminum frames, heat or cold, and it's no wonder it's either warm or cold around the windows.


Also, notice the lack of a weld on the face of the steel framing where the vertical meets the horizontal. That is pretty much the way the entire coach is put together.


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