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ROOF LIFTING, NOT AS SCARY AS SOME MAKE OUT:

These areas have been treated separately as they are quite a major part of the project.

We have done a 350mm roof lift, after some frame rust repair, to allow  for more headroom inside the motorhome. We are quite lucky to have as our certifier, Authorised Modification Officer, Noel, who is a qualified coach builder and actually worked for the companies building these coaches. So, he is giving us directions which will make the process easier and no mistakes will be made from the start. It would be heart breaking to finish a conversion and be told at the rego stage “the roof is an inch too high” or something similar.

Noel has a wealth of knowledge (currently owns one) about these vehicles, what is and isn’t feasible to do, and most importantly a heap of contacts for where to find that elusive part. He used to do Quality Assurance on them when they were built. His knowledge and experience are going to save us heaps of time and frustration.

We will reskin the frame with a one piece fibreglass roof. The major problem with the way these older coaches were built is the number of possible water entry points, a one piece skin solves that one.

The sides will also be skinned with 5mm core based fibreglass, which fits under the edge of the roof skin. So, a smooth looking, but more importantly, watertight finish is achieved.

The original front header will be retained, after removal for inspection, repair if necessary, and cutting down behind the eyebrow. This will save about $2,500, or 5 x 180 watt solar modules. The original rear header will also be retained, just lifted 350mm and the pieces below it increased in size by 350mm when replaced. This saves about $2,500 as well, and I think I have just paid for my solar modules!!

We have read of various ways to physically lift the roof, as there is a fair bit of steel up there, to comply with ROPS legislation. Noel has come up with a super way to do roof lifts and frame rebuilds which we will be using. We can’t forget there is over a ton of steel up there which is physically seperated from the frame during the lift process, any movement apart from up is dangerous for all concerned. This new way saves us heaps on rust repair and we end up with a lighter stronger coach with increased headroom. And it is about 20% of the labour content of the way we were going to do it. Way to go !!!!

UPDATE:
The roof is off, we did not have to use Noels’ method at all as it turned out, as we did not just lift the roof, but took it away completely. For information on this method you may contact us by email. For our roof, we are having a custom skin fitted by Beachmere Fibreglass and they are going to do that job in their own factory. So, that is why we have cut the pillars where we have, the roof now has wheels ! You can see this in the photos. In the meantime we have removed the rest of the rusty webbing and stress plate and have started work on replacing one of the main frame members, just above the bin doors, that runs the length of the coach. This will give us a clean, straight foundation to start going up from. Result will be lighter and stronger than the original.

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The roof is back and is now sitting above the coach. It is suspended by 2 planks sitting on 4 stacks of about 100 pallets which we borrowed from our transport company. In a couple of days when a holiday and a farm QA audit are out of the way we will be positioning the roof over the marks we have left ourselves and starting to add the posts.

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We have got rid of the pallets and planks, now the roof is standing on its’ own uprights. Measurements indicate that the roof is within 1 mm of where we removed it, so that is pretty good seeing it had a holiday for awhile at the local fibreglass company. While there are more uprights to put in the roof is held in place by a couple of full height stress plates in the middle of the coach and the attachment as shown in one of the pics to the steelwork under the front header. We have started work on the doorway (see pic 1) and will complete very quickly. As well we are finallising the seat belt mounting points so Noel can issue the first modification certificate. Have to take some time off next week to pick up all the windows and of course it is only a four day week in Queensland. Starting to move very quickly now.

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