We have an ugly front panel.
Very ugly.
Notice the line of corrosion in the middle of the panel. Apparently battery leaks do bad things to aluminum.
As bad as this panel looks, it used to look worse. In order to get it lookin' this perty we polished
and polished and polished. We patched
holes...
We considered making an extra large battery box to cover most of the panel.
We banged
out dents.
We still weren't satisfied.
On Monday, we decided that this panel "just won't do." Fortunately, there's a company just south of Atlanta that stocks 2024 aluminum. The kids and I drove an hour to Peachtree City, Ga to pick up some aluminum for the panel.
Time to take out the panel
This panel wasn't doing such a great job of protecting the aluminum under it.
Brian used the removed panel as a pattern for the new one.
It was dark by the time we finished bucking the rivets.
Much better!
We had talked about changing this panel lots of times... if only we had known how simple and inexpensive this project was, we would have done it earlier.
That has to feel good to get that done, you would have been looking at that for years to come wishing you would have changed it.
ReplyDeleteLooks great
Doug
Nice job. Both the front corner panels seem to wrap around underneath more than you would think they need to. My '55 is constructed the same way, I wonder if there is a reason for it? I'm enjoying your posts.
ReplyDeleteSpike
Looks beautiful! You guys are such great parents to that Airstream!! :-)
ReplyDeleteWow, the amount of corrosion on that old panel is amazing. I've never seen anything like it. You guys made the right decision to replace it.
ReplyDeleteSo you're going to make a new and bigger battery box to mount on your front? I was going to go that route but decided instead to mount a large battery box on the A-Frame.
Very nice work guys. That looks great. Are you going to relocate the city water connection closer to the rear streetside now that you don't have to cover the hole from the old inlet?
ReplyDeleteNorm
Norm,
ReplyDeleteOur water tank is still going to be under the front gaucho so the inlet will be in that front panel. (We just haven't cut the hole yet.)
~L