BigRabbitMan
Cottage Grove, OR
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Joined: 07/02/2005
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I like my impact driver as well!
BigRabbitMan
Gas to Diesel Conversion project
76 FMC #1046, Gas Pusher became a Diesel Pusher
Discussion thread on this site
"You're never too old to learn something stupid."
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fulltimin
Home is where we Park It.
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Joined: 12/14/2003
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BigRabbitMan wrote:I like my impact driver as well!
Aren't they great? Cuts down on time by up to 90%. In addition, they will loosen nuts, bolts, and screws that are very difficult to nearly impossible to loosen with a wrench.
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.
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fulltimin
Home is where we Park It.
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Joined: 12/14/2003
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I want to finish up with the description of the steps, ( I think), and then move on to other areas in this rebuild.
This is a pic from earlier. You notice the wooden frame that used to hold up the steps. There are 4 yellow round circles, which is where the bolts were that held up the steps.
Underneath the wooden frame was a piece of galvanized steel sheet.
The wood was supported by 3 bolts (yellow "sticks"), which were screwed into the frame, which were broken. On each side, left and right, was a piece of 1/2" plywood, stapled to the sides of the wood frame, which was 1.5" x 1.5" and stapled together.
The plywood ran to the top of the sides of the steps, and was stapled through the plywood into the steel frame. Yup, they ran a staple through the wood into steel.
So, over time, the wood started to separate, and the step would "sink" every time someone stepped on it.
![[image]](http://paddleupstream.com/mohorebuild/step.jpg)
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fulltimin
Home is where we Park It.
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Joined: 12/14/2003
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So, I rebuilt the step frame like this.
I used 1.5" x 1.5" steel tubing, 0.083" thick.
As you can see in this photo, the 4 top yellow circles, indicate where that tubing is welded to the steel floor frame of the coach.
The 2 circles at the bottom, front, are welds to the wall frame. You can see how close the 2 front carriage bolts are to the pieces of steel welded to the wall frame and the front 2 at the top of the step.
That is where most of the stress is going to be when some one puts weight on the step.
So, as I said earlier, it is very sturdy, and the step doesn't move. Been looking forward to that for quite a while.
A little insulation around there, and some plywood, and we are good to go. Probably won't finish that portion for a while. It's just great to get in and out without the use of a wooden stool to get in and out.
Yay...!!!
![[image]](http://paddleupstream.com/mohorebuild/stepframework.jpg)
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fulltimin
Home is where we Park It.
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Joined: 12/14/2003
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Here is a version that I digitally "enhanced" so that you can see the steel tubing a little better.
![[image]](http://paddleupstream.com/mohorebuild/stepframework2.jpg)
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fulltimin
Home is where we Park It.
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Joined: 12/14/2003
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Moving on to something that had me scratching my head when I first removed the plywood flooring from inside the motor home.
There were a number of areas that had wooden 2 x 3's laying flat on the floor. They were directly on top of the aluminum, and not on top of the steel angle frame, that was welded directly on top of the chassis frame.
Before I had gotten to tear the underside of this apart, I just kept asking myself, why would they do that? It just made no sense to me.
Here is a picture of it, on the passenger side of the coach, and is directly underneath the window on that side.
You can see (barely) that the piece of angle steel underneath is in between where the 2 yellow lines are. You can also see one of the bolt heads, that holds the floor frame to the steel angle underneath. You can see that the wooden 2 x 3's are not over top of the angle steel underneath. They are only on top of the aluminum.
![[image]](http://paddleupstream.com/mohorebuild/storage2.jpg)
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fulltimin
Home is where we Park It.
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Joined: 12/14/2003
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Here is another shot, same as the above, but labeled differently.
You will notice that the 2 x 3's are labeled with a red line. As I said, they are just sitting on top of the aluminum.
On the right side, you can see a green line, which is the base plate, or the bottom 1" x 1.5" piece of steel at the bottom of the wall.
The blue line, is the one about 3" above the bottom one.
More explanation coming up.
![[image]](http://paddleupstream.com/mohorebuild/storage3.jpg)
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fulltimin
Home is where we Park It.
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Joined: 12/14/2003
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Now we move from the inside to the outside of the same wall.
The blue line, is the piece of trim that runs the length of the motor home. This covers the joint between the wall fiberglass, and the bottom fiberglass, which was put on after the wall was fastened to the floor. You can see the pop rivets holding the trim on.
The green line is at the top of the storage compartment, and the screws go through the wall directly into the base plate of the wall, indicated by the green line in the previous picture. So, it those screws leak, the water would go directly into the lower frame of the wall.
The yellow arrows indicate screws holding the door frame on. The doors on this motor home are hinged at the top, where as some of the later years are hinged at the bottom.
![[image]](http://paddleupstream.com/mohorebuild/storage4.jpg)
So, lets move back to the other side of the wall, but underneath, instead of inside the coach.
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fulltimin
Home is where we Park It.
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Joined: 12/14/2003
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In this next pic, I am laying on the ground looking towards the outside of the coach. This is below the floor.
The area with the blue circle is the bottom of the floor, and is the aluminum sheeting, that is glued to the bottom of the floor joists.
The green circle is the inside of the fiberglass. The green line, is the bottom of the base plate of the wall.
As you can see, the yellow vertical line is a 1" x 1.5" piece of steel, that is welded to the bottom of the base plate. At the bottom of that is another piece welded horizontally, towards the front of the coach.
Those pieces of steel are what the screws from the outside are attached to, that hold the door jam in place for the storage bin.
The red circles are screws that are holding the storage compartment to the outside wall. The red line is also a part of the storage compartment and has screws going up into the floor above.
![[image]](http://paddleupstream.com/mohorebuild/storage5.jpg)
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fulltimin
Home is where we Park It.
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Joined: 12/14/2003
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I am still laying on the ground looking up.
The yellow circle is the inside of the storage bin.
The red circle is the bottom of the storage bin.
You can see the bright stainless steel bolt and nut towards the center, and goes through the floor joist, and the angle steel, which is welded to the frame.
The yellow line shows the end of the steel angle.
The yellow arrow points to the end of the little angle on top of the storage bin. As you can see, it is NOT over the steel angle.
It's difficult to see, but the yellow circles are screws that go up through the floor to hold the back of the storage compartment up.
So, since we can see that the storage bin is NOT screwed into the angle steel, where do the screws go? Yup, you guessed it. That bin is screwed into the wooden 2" x 3" boards on top of the aluminum sheeting.
![[image]](http://paddleupstream.com/mohorebuild/storage6.jpg)
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