Grumman - Load bearing walls or support needed?

[Paul]

Hi all.

These 2 images show, more or less, the shape the interior is in, in my Grumman.

I know a few of you have done fairly extensive restorations and I was hoping to get some input.

As you can see the roof is not supported except by the walls forward of the bathroom.

In fact the bathroom wall is just attached to wood strips screwed to the side of the fiberglassed wood (?) ribs that run across the roof. These panels or walls do not appear to support the roof at all.

So the big question is....

Are the walls load bearing or do I need to add some support? The roof is clearly very very heavy.

I am eventually trying to make the layout as open plan as possible.

The other thing is it would appear that the channels at the wall bottom where it meets the floor was designed to take a 2 by and be used to frame the wall up.

The previous owner told me he removed no framing and that's just how it was made. Yikes!

Under the window you see there were two vertical pieces of wood joining the two horizontal ones that I replaced due to rot BUT there was no wood that reached either the floor of the ceiling.

I am planning on framing these walls but the big question is whether the roof needs support or if the walls are designed as is to do that?

Thanks in advance for the help!!

PS the window in the 2nd picture is covered and has a small fridge under it and a blue tote lid.

[Paul]

[Paul]

Ooh. Look at this. I guess ( although I didnt see one ) theres a vapor storage canister. If that's given up the ghost it may be the issue. Too late to look tonight. I'll get under her tomorrow and report back.

[Kirk C Hoffman]

Hi Paul,

    Maybe that gas cap is part of the problem, it should be a vented cap, so it can let air in and out with temperature changed and such, that is a big tank and there is a lot of air in there to expand and contract. Another way to check the gas line might be to disconnect it at the fuel pump out a bucket under it, tighten up the gas cap and wait for the sun to come up! The temp increase should make gas run into the bucket!  Probably not a recommended procedure, but it might work. If you get gas from the lines that way you need to find a vented cap somewhere, or if nothing else drill a tiny hole in the cap you have. At the same time if you put the cap on tight when the tank is warm, by morning when it cools down there would be a vacuum in there if it can't get air somewhere. Is that cap a brass casting with 2" threads on the inside? if so there should be an area that looks like there was a hole in the cap that is plugged up with a porous bronze screen thing that may be plugged up with grease and dirt. If that's the case you might be able to wash it in gas and blow out the bronze screen with air. I'm sort of guessing here too, but that's another possibility. Can you sent me a picture of your cap?  Then I could see what we're dealing with. This is making me wish I could come down there and help figure this out! Keep me posted, get some sleep, and it will look better in the morning! Take care.      Kirk 

[Paul]

I had go take a couple of days off.
Right now the gas tank is on jacks.
You were right about the bolts. Nice stainless ones! The ones in the channels that you cant get a wrench behind are fixed so the nuts come off easily.
Anyway that's where I've left if. Decided to buy a new mechanical pump just incase that turns out to be the problem. It's probably not. I get pressure from it. I also hooked up an air line and couldnt any air backwards down the fuel line. There could be a non return valve that would do that. I just dont know.
So I'm waiting on a new fuel pump and I think I'm going to get one of those endoscopes so I can see in the tank also.
Just need to make sure the light in the end is safe around gas.
Who knows maybe there a critter in my tank too. When I got it there was no gas cap just a surgical glove held on with a rubber band. Lol
That probably means it sat for a while with nothing over it. I would love to see what your gas cap looks like on the inside so I can get the right one.
Talk you you soon!

[Kirk C Hoffman]

[Kirk C Hoffman]

Hi Paul,

   I hope these pics come through. This is a standard 2" pipe thread cap. On the inside you can see the hole in the center of the cap, it is drilled through to the outside of the rim of the cap where it is open to  to atmosphere on the bottom of the rim. It's made by Snyder. These were a standard cap on lots of trucks back in the day, you shouldn't have too much trouble finding one. On my tank the gas lines connect to an angle fitting on the top that is screwed into a pipe that reaches to the bottom. I have one for the engine and another for the Generator. I'm kind of surprised yours has a split line setup, I would think that might cause problems with fuel starvation on both units. I don't think there is any kind of anti return valve in there, but there might be. Yours seems to be a little different than mine. Send me a pic of your tank so we3 can be sure. Talk to you soon. Kirk 

[Paul]

Hey Kirk.
Just one picture came through. The top of the cap. I should be able to find on based on that. Thanks for taking the time to help.My tank is probably setup the same way as yours. Sorry for the enormous picture. I Cant resize on my phone.

Also the tanks still up so it's really hard to get a picture of the top.

Paul

[Kirk C Hoffman]

Hi Paul, 

       I just looked online for a replacement cap, I found one on Amazon tried to add it to this post but it didn't recognize the format. It was $23 dollars and some cents. I'll have to dig through my stuff and see if I can find one that survived going to the scrap yard. I should have one. 

   I take it that is the top of your tank? Looks to have the same angle fitting as mine does. I removed the steel line fitting and put in a brass hose barb on mine, then just ran rubber lines where they had to go.  I'll check on the cap I might have this morning and let you know.  Kirk

[Paul]

Hi Kirk
If you can find that cap on amazon again and can tell me what the description said I'm sure I'll be able to find it. No need to copy the link. Just the main title - like brand and basic description should do it.
Dont go digging thru stuff!
Rain here solid for this coming week. So no rush to get it finished.
Thanks!
Paul

[Kirk C Hoffman]

  Hi Paul,

I dug through my bucket of gas caps and the only one I found had the threads on the outside  of the cap, so it would screw into a filler neck instead of over it. The Amazon one is called a  Stant Saddle Tank Fuel cap black, it says there are only 2 left! Walmart shows one too, Under Shop Eddies, it says the number is 2335997 made by Ontario Inc. I hope one of these will work for you! Good luck with the hunt! Kirk

[Paul]

Hey Kirk.

So I have a filler neck without a thread. The cap I did buy a while back has the tabs that twist onto the neck. I dont know if the steel filler neck was also changed at some point before I got it.

The amazon search did show a bunch of caps with that exact search term.
"Stant Saddle Tank Fuel cap black"
Mostly they were big brass caps with internal threads and unvented. Not sure which one you meant because there were so many ( and non of them black even though it was in the title) lol.

Then I went to Shop Eddies. It wouldnt let me search for the number you gave me.
( no results) So I went thru the 16 pages of gas caps and none of them was made by Ontario Inc. according to the website.
But then I'm doing this on my phone.
I'll hop on the PC at work tomorrow and search again.

I think the Vintage RV Gods just dont like me! Lol

Paul

[Kirk C Hoffman]

Hi Paul,

     It would be nice if these so called "parts sellers" would post dimensions of the stuff they sell! But that would make life too easy!  My tank just has a steel pipe welded to the top corner of the tank. It's about 4 inches long and the cap screws right on to it! Someone must have either changed my tank or yours, Makes me wonder. My entire tank is built from heavy steel, not the thin tin standard gas tank stuff they make car tanks from. More like a big truck tank. I wonder if it has been swapped out? No way to know I guess! I do know that when that thing is full of water when I was doing the electrolysis thing I couldn't even move it! I guess it was around 500 LBS between the liquid and the tank weight itself!

       Can you get me a pic of your filler neck? Maybe I can recognize it.   See what you can find online and maybe you'll get lucky!  Good luck, talk to you soon, Kirk