Getting It Clean

Phew! The nasty, dirty work is done!  Today I removed pounds of feces. Pounds. I used my 16 gallon shop vac and filled it about halfway. Granted, some of that was road debris and powdered fiberglass, but there was a ton of shit. 

Knowing it was going to be gross, I went and got a tyvek white suit to keep some of that away from my clothes. It was as dirty as I suspected it would be and I was glad for the extra protection.

I also used a crappy (puns!) saw from harbor freight to cut out the bolt heads under the c-channel. It took forever, but it was what I had. I've decided I'm never buying knock-off tools again. It is not worth it. Anyway, those bolts held the last bit of old subfloor. When they were cut off, I was able to remove the last bits of rot and poo.

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At the start of the day.

All cleaned up!

I'm not totally sure, but I think the frame is in pretty good condition. It is at least as good as the rear was, with no holes on this side. I'm going to ask Cory to check it. The aluminum underbelly is in good condition, too, with very few holes. The few holes that are there can be plugged with rivets and Trempro. So as I worked, my plans changed. I think that I'm going to treat the frame the same way I did on the other side with rust inhibitor and paint, but I'm not going to totally remove the belly skin. Keeping the belly skin on this side will save me at least a couple hundred dollars -- and no one looks at the belly skin. It just needs to be watertight. That seems possible here.

I'll remove enough rivets to hopefully let it sag out of the way for painting. Before painting, I'll need to remove all the bolt heads in the center with a grinder and then wire brush the bad spots. Then I can remove rivets and prep for paint. 

I'm glad that this work is done.