Last year I bought a 1973 Pathfinder. Quite a piece of junk. I got it cheap enough and I was intending to "fix it up". However, once I got into it I realized there was no real chance of saving it.
Here is what I started with.
It was a real daisy. The former owner had done some creative repairs and interesting electrical work. It didn't tale me long to realize that it would be better off burning it to the ground or whatever.
In February I broke out the hammer, sawzall, and crowbar and set to work.
As you can see lots of rot and nasty. Mice had obviously lived in the walls. The insulation or lack of, was terrible. You can see that the former owner had replaced some of the fiberglass with new fiberglass. All the "repairs" he had done from the inside. I found the process of taking this apart to be an interesting learning appearance. I always figured they were built better. Not much to them. Of course this has held up well enough for 35 year of use. Perhaps I should give them more credit.
It took me about two weeks to strip this down to the frame. The frame was in pretty good shape for over 35 years old. Some surface rust but otherwise sound.
I spent another solid week with the grinder and wire wheel cleaning up the frame. I should have borrowed a sand blaster or took it somewhere to get blasted. What a mess in the shop. Everything is covered in rust dust and dirt.
After cleaning up the steel I narrowed the frame to 7 feet. I am not fond of the chubby campers that are wider than the wheels. The main frame rails are 5 feet apart anf there are just some dog ears welded on to support the over hang of the floor. I cut them back to bring the width inline with the outside of the wheel base. I just ended up cutting the dog ears shorter with a grinder and cutting wheel.
The coupler was in poor shape as was the a-frame jack. It took some delicate work to cut the coupler off without cutting up the frame but I got it done. Ordered a new coupler, a-frame jack, and stabilizer jacks from Etrailer.com. I want to make sure I have a good foundation to build on.
Gave the whole frame a coat of quality rusty steel primer even though I spent a good deal of time getting the rust off the frame.
I could have just left it primer but what if someone crawls under and checks to see if I painted it. Indeed I gave it a nice black coat. The frame, excluding the bumper and any overhang is 12' 4" by 7' (now) and that will be my build size.
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Dang my shop is a mess.
I better clean it up before I post any more pictures.
Now what's the build plan? Recreate the original shape & layout, or design your own?
