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Re: [GMCnet] New Ownership, New member, Long road ahead. [message #357571 is a reply to message #357568] Sat, 08 August 2020 06:54 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
Ken Henderson is currently offline  Ken Henderson   United States
Messages: 8726
Registered: March 2004
Location: Americus, GA
Karma:
Senior Member
Alex,

Congratulations on getting your coach back into your possession -- even if
it is a "little the worse for wear".

Just want to make a suggestion about the radiator damage: The radiator
support you're probably talking about is a 3" wide channel shaped into a
rectangular "U". Across the top is a straight, bolted-on section to
completely surround the radiator. After removing the fan shrouds on the
back side of the radiator, and disconnecting all the plumbing from it, it's
fairly easy to remove the radiator (see the service manual for
instructions).

This note is to suggest a modification many of us have done for
convenience: Make the bottom of the surround quickly removable. Use a
pair of 3" door butts (hinges) with removable pins. The radiator
surround extends "working space" below everything else under the coach. A
couple of inches up the vertical sides of the frame from the 90* bends,
position a butt on each side. Mark the mounting holes and drill 2-4 of
them to accept 5/16" x 3/4" bolts. Be careful not to drill too deeply --
into the side of the radiator -- I protect it with a steel plate. Mark the
frame where the butts halves meet. Put a support under the center of the
radiator frame, because the support is the only thing holding the radiator
up.

Cut the frame at the marks you made in line with the pins, preferably using
a hand grinder with a cutting wheel. Since your frame is bent at the
bottom, you should now be able to straighten it more easily. Bolt the butt
halves in place using the holes you drilled earlier (those with welding
skills tend to use those). After re-installing the radiator and the
now-removeable support bottom, install bolts with self-locking nuts in
place of the pins. The next time you need to R&R the radiator, you'll be
really glad you did the mod -- just remove those pins and drop the radiator
out the bottom.

Regarding the radiator: If it's damaged, I personally wouldn't even
consider repair -- I'd replace it with one of the now available aluminum
replacements. While aluminum's not really as good a material as the brass,
the current designs and cleanliness of new provide MUCH better cooling.

JMHO,

Ken "GMCWiperman" H.
Americus, GA
'76 X-Birchaven
www.gmcwipersetc.com



On Sat, Aug 8, 2020 at 2:06 AM Alex Gurr via Gmclist <
gmclist@list.gmcnet.org> wrote:

> Well, if you haven't heard, it has been found. Looks like I only responded
> to all of the facebook posts! We got it back on 6/17 after it was recovered
> from being stolen. It was quite a fiasco to get it to a storage lot, but I
> got it all figured out with the help of Dean Hanson. My partner and I also
> decided to move right after that, so I haven't had much time to go work on
> it. Tomorrow is the first day we're going back to start once again.
>
> If the certain individual just painted over the paint, it would have been
> easy to remove that outer layer and possibly restore the beauty underneath.
> Unfortunately, they did quite a hack job of scraping off the stripe on the
> front. Sad days, not sure what our plans will be for that, but it's more of
> an aesthetic and can be figured out down the road.
>
> Another unfortunate mishap is that it got a little damaged while coming
> out of the impound yard after the recovery...Long story short the radiator
> support got damaged a bit and may have crunched the radiator a little bit.
> Not sure what's recommended for this. I'll probably drain the system, pull
> it all out and see if it could be bent back to usable shape. Maybe the
> radiator can be salvaged, maybe this is an upgrade opportunity.
>
> Those are more or less the new items added to the "Needed Now" and
> "Waiting" list. We're still going to be doing all the other things mentioned
> previously, I'll give another update tomorrow and beg for advice.
>
> Glad to be back!
>
> Also, I've been naughty. I haven't joined the registry yet! Mainly because
> I haven't seen the model name yet. I'll figure that out tomorrow as well.
>
> Best,
> Alex
>
>
> --
> 1973 GMC Motorhome. Obtained from the brink of destruction 05/15/2020 in
> the middle of the night.
>
> Berkeley, CA
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
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Ken Henderson
Americus, GA
www.gmcwipersetc.com
Large Wiring Diagrams
76 X-Birchaven
76 X-Palm Beach

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