where to get a '67 MC 5A roof & side re-skinned

[skihor]

2 weeks ago we had tornado's and golfball sized hail here in Colorado, near Denver. Totaled both of our cars and the 6X12 Bike trailer. The bus sustained quite a bit of damage on the roof and some on the side. We can live with it but I need some answers for the adjuster next Wednesday.
Anything plastic IE: vent covers, A/C covers, the solar panels, horns, TV antenae, some small spyder cracks in the caps, turn signal/taillite/brake/reflector lenses all cracked or broken.
Anyway I doubt if the adjuster knows squat about bus conversions, (hell I don't know much and I own one), so I could use a little info for him so he can call for an estimate on re-skinning the roof and side.
We think it may be totaled and must prepare for the inevitable battle over it's worth.

Thanks, Don & Sheila

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Hi Don,

The labor portion of reskinning should be in the neighborhood of $250 per panel. Check your local metals supplier

for the cost of .080 aluminum, revits, sheering costs, and sealent. The you have to figure in repainting..

Good Luck
Nick-

[bevans6]

The roof is going to be hard.  It is ".051" high tensile aluminium prestretched on installation and (solid bucked) rivited in place".  so you are pricing out 16 Gauge aluminium, probably 6061-T4 or T6 condition.  I have no idea how they stretched it, but big loose panels like that will buckle and pop with daily heat cycles if they arent installed pre-stressed.  I have heard of heating them and installing them hot, probably 200 degrees would be enough.  You could use external rivits if you buy the aircraft standard structural ones, and in this day and age I would epoxy the panels down as well as riviting them.

Brian

[Airbag]

The roof is going to be hard.  It is ".051" high tensile aluminium prestretched on installation and (solid bucked) rivited in place".  so you are pricing out 16 Gauge aluminium, probably 6061-T4 or T6 condition.  I have no idea how they stretched it, but big loose panels like that will buckle and pop with daily heat cycles if they arent installed pre-stressed.  I have heard of heating them and installing them hot, probably 200 degrees would be enough.  You could use external rivits if you buy the aircraft standard structural ones, and in this day and age I would epoxy the panels down as well as riviting them.

Brian

Brian
The only time any oil canning will occur is if the skins are flat. The crown skins on a MC-5 are curved and will not oil can. I find it hard to believe the factory stretched those skins during installation. Besides what are they stretching them onto that will not flex? The cost of such an operation would be tremendous. I have skinned many an airliner and have never had to do such an operation and some of the skins I have installed were thirty feet long. I think we have an old wives tale.  Now to form a compound curved skin you use what is called stretch forming to fabricate the skin. This would have been done on the front and rear caps by the factory or vender that made them.

[bevans6]

I was quoting from my factory manual, about the pre-stretching.  It was probably as simple as putting them under tension when they were riviting them, which would be easy enough with an appropriate jig.

Brian

[Airbag]

I was quoting from my factory manual, about the pre-stretching.  It was probably as simple as putting them under tension when they were riviting them, which would be easy enough with an appropriate jig.

Brian

I tried to find it in my factory manual and no luck, maybe you could post it, I have heard people say that all the rivets on the MCI's are stainless. Another old wives tale. The rivet chart shows aluminum universal head rivets in most skins of my bus making the aircraft MS20470 AD solid aluminum universal head rivet a perfect rivet to install.

[bevans6]

Page 3-1 of the january 1978 MCI maintenance manual for the MC-5C Challenger.  obviously a later version of the same bus.

[skolbibp]

Check with IBP for the fluted side panels.  We do not make the roof panels.  Call 1-800-468-5287 x 232.

Steve

[Runcutter]

For insurance adjuster purposes, would it make sense to contact an MCI service Center?  http://www.mcicoach.com/Parts-Service-Support/ServiceCenters/serviceCenterDallas.htm (Full disclosure, an old friend of mine is VP of Governmental Sales, but I don't know any of the service guys.

or ABC Bus http://www.abc-companies.com/loc_tx.asp (talk with Doyle Slaughter).

I know, both are in Dallas, a healthy drive from Denver.  On the other hand, both companies would do it right, and there is good air service between Dallas & Denver, both are convenient to DFW airport, and the transportation/travel may be covered by the insurance.  At the very least, they should be able to give you rough costs over the phone. 

Arthur

[Airbag]

Any good industrial sheetmetal shop with a large roller can fabricate the crown skins. Make a template from soft copper tubing by bending it until it fits the roof contour. Make sure you look at their rollers to see if they are smooth, some shops beat them up by running diamond plate and other things through them.

After forming the skins you can lay the old skin on top of the new one and weight them down flat on a large table with a wood top and back drill the new skin using clecos to hold them together letting the clecos grab the wood. The skins must be flat when you back drill them in order for the holes to be located accurately. They will spring back to their respective contour when you remove them from the table.

It is possible that you won't be able to get the edges to lay flat and you can pick up those holes with strap duplicators / hole finders once the skins are clecoed to the bus.

There are lots of skilled aircraft sheetmetal men out of work right now that can do the job as good as the factory did. They will have all the tools necessary for the job.

Or let ABC do it like runcutter says They look competent.