rear end body sag

[UK-Winnie]

Oh dear, do I apprehend that "having a go" means the same as "having to go" over there ?!

Anyway, I had a spare hour or so and I did "have a go" at opening up the rear driver's side, and it was not what I expected - the skin below the trim strip is not connected to the skin above:




I could see the wood and it looked pretty well rotted + someone had injected expanding foam at one end.












The lower skin turns out to be stainless steel - and easy to remove revealing some foam looking like it has been partly burned or dissolved:










The foam was siting on another strip of wood along the bottom edge:






Took off bottom trim, cleaned up and dug out the worst of the rotted wood along with several of the floor screws that had rusted right through:









After some prodding, measuring and marking up I found this - the floor is all sound and straight.  The garden cane in the photo is resting on the top surface of the floor and the upper edge of the lower tape marks the underside of the floor.  The lower edge of the upper tape marks where the wood strip ends and the styrofoam begins.





As far as I can tell its all the same right along to the wheel arch.  So it looks like the outer wall is actually in the correct position, and it's straight ??

So you're probably thinking why did I think it was sagging in the first place ? 

It's because of what I can see inside which is what I still don't understand.  This is the kitchen surface inside above this area - the window frame dissapears below the drainer as it goes toward the back:





And on the passenger side - this is the cabinet above the same area with sloping shelves and (not visible in the picture) the screws into the outer wall are all bent upwards:




I guess maybe there is sag on the pass. side only - but why the sloping drainer ?  Maybe the floor edge has sagged a bit and I just can't see it?  But in at least one place it's resting on a steel chassis extension, so I don't see how that can have moved.

Anyway I'm glad I "had a go" because that wood definitely needs replacing.  I'll ditch the foam and go all the way down in marine plywood.  I may have to double it up if I can't get a single sheet thick enough.  Maybe get stainless steel screws as well.

Steve

[DaveVA78Chieftain]

Obviously someone has been in there before.  Even the stainless steel lower skin is not original.  They did not use that sort of fancy stuff in 1973.

The closet picture leads me to believe that the left closet wall is resting on the dodge chassis beam (remained in original position) and the outer wall has dropped down.  Looks like the floor may have compressed from rot allowing the side wall to drop down a bit.

Oh dear, do I apprehend that "having a go" means the same as "having to go" over there ?!

We have a few pranksters in the group  W%

Dave

[M & J]

Just a few?.

[Oz]

the skin below the trim strip is not connected to the skin above:

You're not alone in feeling the chagrin of this discovery.  Unfortunately, it's very, very common.  The upper halves of the body panels were created to interlock.  The ones below the "belt-line", or side molding, are just butt-to-butt (now there's some food for the nefarious), leaving an Achille's heel.  Unless this seam is well sealed (after repairing, I strongly suggest running Eternabond tape over the entire seam before replacing the molding), well... you see the results.  Years of rot.

We have a few topics and photos of members who have had to replace poritions, if not all of the lower wood structure due to this flaw.  Once into it, more than fewer have also ended up replacing the panels below the sides of the driver's cab (class A tyes).  Fortunately, with your class C, you won't have to deal with that as well.

Just looking at the photos, IMO, it looks like all that rot and compression of the rotted would could well be the root of your sag problem.  It's quite doable, though, even for one person.  Common tools and the most basic of skills is all it takes.  Put it this way... I could do it so... you certainly can!

[Froggy1936]

Hi UK Prankster here, I think you should dissessemble the rear wall same as you have the sides to see where the biggest problem lies I have a feeling the floor is a lot wose there Possibly even haveing broken or rotted off a ways forward . Do this before makeing any repairs to the sides . Its obvious that someone has been there before and either tried to just cover up the problem or did nothing to stop the ingress of the water .  The stainless steel replacement was a very good idea though . Its a lot easier to understand with the pictures How about a full side shot to show the droop ? You do have a project ! This would be a very good use of a few sky hooks .    Frank

[Stripe]

We have a few pranksters in the group  W%

I resemble that remark...  N:(

Looks like you def have your work cut out for you.

[UK-Winnie]

Thanks for your thoughts and ideas.

I removed the rear trim on the other side - the wood is good on that side though it has obviously been replaced.  The foam is completely missing with just a wooden frame built around with a space in the middle - perhaps that has allowed the air to circulate ?  Anyway I'll leave that area alone for now.

Someone must have been right round the whole rig because it's all done with stainless below the trim line, it actually looks quite nice and as Frank says stainless is going to be better than ali. in the long run.

The sagging is not visible at all from the outside, the panels all look straight as does the trim line.  If the outer skin had sagged in some places and not others I think it would show.  This is why I thought there must be a progressive sag toward the rear, but now I'm thinking that's just the raer leaf springs being old and I'm wondering if the inner part of the "sandwich" can sag on its own, or maybe some of the vertical frame members attached to the internal cabinets could have dropped down without anything else moving ??  But why would they ?

I guess it's possible there has been some sagging for a long time and whoever replaced the wood and fitted the stainless didn't cure the sagging first.

I will open up the back and see how that area is but first I'm going to have a change and strip the glue off the insides where we removed all that Fablon.

[Froggy1936]

How goes it on the droop ? What did you find at the rear panel ? Have you finished repairs to the body ? Inquireing minds want to know !  Frank

[UK-Winnie]

Hi Frank,  the droop has turned out to be something different from what I feared and as such not nearly as bad a problem.

The wooden support strips that are screwed into the floor have deteriorated in places so I'm going to replace a lot of that, but overall it seems there is enough good material left that it has held together.  Measuring up from the outside everything lines up both with itself and with the floor level.  This includes the rear panel.

What I haven't yet figured out is why there are two areas showing droop on the inside.  These are one at each side starting at about where the axle is and running back a couple of feet from there.  One seems to stop where it meets the door and the other stops where it meets the bathroom partition.  All I can think is there is maybe something in the inner frame at these locations that has slipped down without anything else moving  i??

Anyway I'm not worrying about it for now.

I'm taking pictures and I'll do an update in due course.

[UK-Winnie]

Bit of an update, along the rear panel everything is good and solid so I just lathered it over a few times with some wood preserver and put the trim cover back over it.  Obviously it has been re-done at some time - notice how they secured the ali. skin with roofing nails !

[UK-Winnie]

Along the left-hand rear panel (area pictured in previous posts above) I cleaned out the remains of the crud, trimmed off various ends of staples etc. and refixed with 43mm marine grade ply:

[UK-Winnie]

So all looking good and solid now.  I still have a couple of other areas I'd like to do at some stage but they're not half as bad.

[Stripe]

OHHHH!  It's the RV that has rear body sag.....  I guess I'll just bin my Bally's idea..   

Looks good.  Got my vote!