A patch, new bottom rubrail and deleting clutch heads...

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RISK
Posts: 346
Joined: Wed Aug 02, 2017 10:50 am
Location: Sunset Valley, TX

A patch, new bottom rubrail and deleting clutch heads...

Post by RISK »

When I purchased our Avion (1978/79 28M) one thing that was an obvious issue was that there was a strange gap behind the battery box and above the lowest belt line. It looked like there was no solid connection between the shell and the frame in just that one 4' long span. Obvious hack job attempts to fix it (gobs and gobs of sealant) were failing, pointing this out knocked a good chunk of the sale price off so I slapped some gorilla tape on it and brought it home. Nothing seemed to change there through a few thousand miles of towing, but after this last trip I finally found the time to fix it. I removed the belt line trim and created a 2 1/2" x 55" patch out of .040 anodized aluminum. The hardest part was the silicone removal and clutch head screw removal. Not hard really, just annoying. After I got everything sealed up (trempro) and riveted on, I busted out my favorite caulking tool, an oral syringe (free at Walgreens) and shot dollops of trempro into each screw hole and replaced the hateful clutchheads with 1" #8 SS screws. Caulked the top of the belt trim all around (after removal, cleaning and same screw procedure as above) with the syringe. If you get it right, you don't even have to smooth it over, it lays a real nice 1/8" bead. Replaced all the old trim insert with stuff I found at Camping World of all places. Order the wider stuff from Chuck for the middle trim, so when that gets here that'll be next.

Pics to come

Ian
1978 26M
1964 SilverStreak Sabre
1977 Airstream Sovereign (in a million pieces)
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KYAvion
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Joined: Sun Sep 18, 2016 1:04 am

Re: A patch, new bottom rubrail and deleting clutch heads...

Post by KYAvion »

Sounds like you did a nice clean job. Glad there was no frame/shell separation. I have a horizontal piece larger than yours that was installed by Cayo under the previous owner. Probably a similar issue, although given the size of the piece on mine I suspect a bracket may have been installed due to separation.
KYAvion
1984 Avion 30R
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