Sunset Empire Amateur Radio Club

Start of the project on Friday, when we get our first glimpse at just how bad the floor is under the vinyl. It was much worse than we thought.

A close-up of the nasty rotted plywood mixed with mold, mildew, and dissolved plywood glue

The further we went, the worse the problem got.

Hampered by rusted, frozen bolts & screws, and wood that would not tear up except in little pieces, plus only a thin aluminum sub-floor which
would not take pressure from heavy prying, this is several hours into the job on Friday.

One of the rusty, frozen bolts, trying to use a 3' long breaker bar to get enough leverage to get it out.

Still trying on that same bolt. Eventually, it just broke off, which was still a benefit.

Samples of the 20 or so bolts (one that actually came out and one that broke off) that we had such trouble with. These are just holding the old
stretcher brackets down - this isn't even counting the 40 or so Torx®-head screws that were holding down the plywood that were rusted or filled
with gunk to the point that we could not get the driver into them, and they had to be cut off with a grinding wheel.

Sunday, now... Almost all the brackets are now out - except that on the last one (seen way forward), they had used bolts from the top clear through
the frame with nuts and lock washers underneath where we could not get at them, instead of the allen-head bolts all the other brackets used;
and then, to make it even harder for us, they had used a bracket that required a thin-wall socket to even get at the bolts, which we didn't have.
Eventually, we chiseled the plywood out from around the bracket and used a cutoff grinder to cut the bolts and the aluminum brackets
(ruining a perfectly good cutoff wheel in the process with all the soft aluminum).

One of the larger chunks of plywood we got out after cutting all the way around the perimeter with a reciprocating saw.
Notice how rotted even this piece was.

More rotted wood removal on Sunday.

Here's Ken [WA7PIX] using a cutoff grinder to remove some of the bolts and screws that were too
rusted to remove the intended way.

More bolt & screw grinding

And yet even more grinding. Note that we have finally gotten the correct license plates onto the van!

One last grinder shot. About this time, John Patterson [KE7RKG] showed up to help us.

Using a reciprocating saw to cut around the edges to get the last pieces out.
Thank goodness those blades are tough and flexible!

After looking at this, and inspecting the bench seat and how far it overlapped the plywood part
left from the floor, we decided to go to the extra effort of actually removing the bench seat so that
we would have a full replacement of the floor, not leaving any rotted bits to restart the process.

There's John [KE7RKG] now, helping sweep up some of our mess, as we start to unload the bench seat with all its antennas and other stuff.

More help from John.

El Presidenté Bernie [KD7UDX] taking a short break after wrestling with the bench seat.

Breathe, Bernie, Breathe....

Another lovely large piece. We thought we were getting into better wood as we moved forward,
but it was just as bad underneath. Good thing we had decided up front to replace the entire floor
when we started the project, and bought enough wood to do so.

Floor gone, except for the section under the jump seat and in the passageway between cab and box (that's next week's project). Bench seat out,
and a pretty good job of cleanup on the floor.

This looks like where most of the water has been coming in, probably from badly sealed external lights. Of course, this will all be cleaned up and
the lights and floors resealed before we put everything back together permanently, so that we never have to go through this again.

A view towards the front with the bench seat removed.

Close-up of the area where the water appears to be gaining entrance.

Pulled back a little to show the extent of the problem.

Looking in the side door after most of the floor has been removed. The holes in the aluminum sub-floor were from prying up the wood without
a support member underneath, and will be patched and sealed before the floor goes back in permanently.

Looking towards the rear from the side door.

Molly, who doesn't have a callsign, and who is normally spotted driving John Patterson's [KE7RKG] pickup, got out for a while to supervise.

Bernie [KD7UDX] and John [KE7RKG] moving the first sheet of 3/4" plywood flooring from Ken's [WA7PIX] pickup.

Bernie [KD7UDX] and John [KE7RKG] wrestling the not-so-light sheet of plywood into position to go into the van.

Testing for a temporary fit (floor will be removed and the aluminum sub-blorr fixed and sealed before permanently installing this sheet. Ready to drop.

Fits like a glove - the bench seat covers about 4 inches on the right, the left edge slides about 1/2 inch under the cabinets.
Vinyl or spray-in liner will be used to seal the floor once the whole thing is in permanently.
Sunday's work day started about 1000 hrs and ended about 1530 hrs.

OK, here we are into our second weekend of working on the floor - more QSTs were put out all week, and someone special showed up -
can you guess whose back this is???? It's a mystery... Clue - he's no longer from this area...

Nope, it's NOT El Presidenté Bernie, here seen rubbing our the remaining images of the previous decals that were on the vehicle when we got it.

Here's our Mystery Guest wire-wheeling away some of the old sealant so we could put fresh, new caulking in. He kept hiding behind
his hat, or something else, every time we tried to get a picture of him, so we might as well tell you — Loren Wolghemuth [KD7ZPJ], former
SEARC Vice President, was in the area to check his For-Sale home after his move to Washington.

Don Hillgaertner [WA7TEM], ARES EC for Clatsop County, stopped by to see how work was progressing on the van on Saturday.

Don [WA7TEM] inspecting some of the cabinets while discussing future plans for equipment location.

Frank Van Winkle [KD7NNQ], Assistant ARES EC for Clatsop County was also there helping with the work party, and
he and Don Hillgaertner [WA7TEM] discuss some aspect of positioning the equipment.

Final repair of the holes in the sub-flooring before the first sheet of plywood is glued down.

Taking a little break - even though we had offered hot dogs and hamburgers to anyone who came and worked, turnout was small - El Presidentté
Bernie "A Hot Dog Is Only Something To Put Other Stuff Onto" Gildner [KD7UDX], seen here loading up a hot dog with condiments, Vice President
Ken Lucke [WA7PIX] (always behind the camera in these shots), Loren Wolghemuth [KD7ZPJ] stopped for a couple of hours early, and Frank
Van Winkle [KD7NNQ] were the only workers who showed up.

Frank [KD7NNQ] recaulking some seams while Bernie [KD7UDX] looks on.

Main floor in position, already lowered and checked and adhesive applied, now waiting for the separated adhesive to "skin" - required to make it
work properly like contact adhesive.

Looking up underneath the main section of the floor before it's lowered into its final position.

Another view from under the soon-to-be flooring sheet.

Frank [KD7NNQ] multi-tasking - taking a break AND putting some weight on the floor while the adhesive sets. Talent, sheer talent!

Sunday, 2/8/2009 now - Ken [WA7PIX] got the additional sections cut for the floor, and Bernie [KD7UDX] came to help install them and
finish the last little bit of the flooring job. Here we see the completed floor with the bench seat back in place (not attached yet). the humongous
piece of electronic equipment you see by the jump seat area was an old inverter - those "can" capacitors sticking up like a city horizon
were 17,500μƒ each, and the whole thing weighs about 50 lbs - which is why it was there, weighing the floor down while adhesive was setting.

Finished with the actual floor, bench seat now reinstalled permanently, this job is almost done except for, some screws in a couple more
areas where there was a glue-challenge some crack-puttying, and sanding. Final finish has yet to be decided - we are hoping for a spray-in
liner, but failing that, it will be a vinyl flooring.
.

Some last finished shots

From the side door in.

Looking rearward from the side door.