Date:         Wed, 08 May 1996 21:28:58 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Thom Fitzpatrick <thom@calweb.com>
Subject:      '54 RHD Deluxe Update

Between last night and tonight, I cut the lower portion of the old frame
rail, where it enters the wheel well.  I had to go about 3/4 of the ay up to
get around all of the rusted out areas and into solid metal.  I then fabbed
the plate which forms the wall of the contraband compartment and boxes the
frame rail.  My wire wheel for the die grinder was disintegrating, so I
couldn't clean the area and weld it in yet.

Next I will create the U shaped channel to tie the two pieces of the fram
together.

Any barndoor people on the list have the measurement from the bottom of the
"seat shelf" to the top of the frame rail, or a between a similarly relevant
set of points?  I wanted to double check the "lattitude" of this new
section.  It is different, barndoor to non-barndoor, I already tried that by
looking at the '56.  This is important because it will affect how the floor
and outer skin line up.  I took measurements from the rib to the bottom of
the rocker, and used a bottle jack to lift the cargo floor and frame rail
into what I believe is the proper position.

I got lucky/good on lining up the frame rail crossways: using a straightedge
across the existing and new frame rail sections, it appears to be aligned
perfectly, or at least to tolerances which I can not see or measure. :)

The other lucky stroke is where my gusset ends on the rear section of the
frame rail, where its welded: it ends up being perfectly in the middle of
the outrigger!

Another barndoor question:  how many outriggers does a barndoor bus have?
The simple fact that I have to ask this question should suggest how bad this
frame really was... 

I have been taking pictures as I go along.  When I get this next set
developed, I'll have some scanned and put them on my web page...

Thom Fitzpatrick
thom@calweb.com - http://www.calweb.com/~thom
Keeper of the Barndoor Bus Web Page: http://www.calweb.com/~thom/barndoor.html