Re: Happy 80th Goose #3.

As I recall, way back in 2000ish, myself and the other shop guys at Knotts removed the 3 from service to rebuild the box. Aside from splitting it in two, we also completely took the rear box apart down to the frame and I can say with 100% certainty that it was the RGS body. Most of the roof sagging and deteriation issues were because of the shotty construction of the windows and filling in of the side door. The RGS took no time or care in the conversion of it to passenger service.
We braced the sides, pulled the roof, pulled the rear wall in one piece by just lifting it off with a forklift and then cut the sides off the front wall and just pushed them over. Just like tearing apart a junky travel trailer. I know it sounds crude but the thing really was not built to last 20 years let alone 70.
So as of today, the front and rear walls of the box are the original walls and mostly orignial skin, the side walls are 100% new including tin. We constructed them slightly different and larger for better viewing at Knotts. The roof is also new, but constructed in the same manner as the original. All of the pictures in the goose are framed with remnants of the original box.
So sand all you want Jeff but sorry, you wont find anything original.