Hi there, remember me ? I know its been a LONG time but after a winter of no progress, things on the 53FC are moving again... AT LAST !
The Flying Cloud has emerged from cold storage and been gingerly towed to George's workshop for some remedial welding and strengthening
First job was to fit a new steel front plate
We used coated steel 12" x 15"
There will be a couple of lines of hard bucked rivets to stop the front panels pulling rivets loose from the bucking (horse, not rivet !) action of the trailer motion. Rather than remove the entire front inner skin panel, I cheated and cut a section out as it'll be hidden by the dinette
Next to sort the completely inadequate EU hitch conversion that VATCO fitted
Unfortunately that meant removing large sections of the bellypan and insulation
to get access to the frame & chassis. Luckily the shambolic work that Pete Ritchie had done can all be fixed. I'm only sorry if this blog encouraged others to trust him - he pulled the wool over my eyes too.
Its pretty soul-destroying to have to remove your own work but it has to be done
It was certainly a lot easier working on the bellypan with the chassis upside-down
George's shop's door is pretty tight
... some would say a perfect fit.
Hopefully in a week or so we should be rolling safely & legally down the road.
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