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So, it has been much much too long to make a post. No, I have not burned out on the project. I have not moved on to easier things like stamp collecting, etc. I have been shoulder to grindstone on the flying cloud. While waiting so long to post, I would like to say the project is finished -- it is not. It is close, maybe only a page full of boxes to check on the punch list. But when we started this six and a half months ago, there was a book full of check boxes. First photo to share is of our most recent trip to friends property in North Idaho:
And next, one picture from the maiden trip to the beautiful Washington coast:
These two photos make all of the hard work worth it up to today. So now, I'll back up to share some of the grind. I pulled a few all nighters getting the trailer ready. Not too proud of that, I like to think I'm better at time management. But sometimes you do what you have to do in order to make the deadline. We've had several mini deadlines with this project -- all leading up to one big deadline.
A few weeks before the 18 footer was stolen from our home, we had booked the first trip of the season. A late July trip to Grayland Beach State Park. When the 18 footer was stolen, we vowed to get another Airstream ready to camp by that trip. Since then, we've pushed hard to make that happen.
Backing up to the end of June, just after my last blog entry. The shell needs closing up, and I took an evening after work to glue and screw on two new Fantastic Fans.
First, I set a thick bead of Vulkem and laid the first vent down. The screws provided by Fantastic Fan were a little disappointing, so I used my own stainless steel screws to attach the vents
I do like the look of the fans from outside especially, and the inside look good to.
Next day, I mounted the plug that connects to the tow vehicle.
Next, I wired the running lights.
Also got the breakaway switch mounted and wired. Most of this stuff came from Vintage Trailer Supply.
Finally got to get the trailer out of the shop at this point. I towed it for the first time, brought it home so Katie and I could rough in the wiring.
New outlet for the original placement.
Looks better out of the shop:
Finally ran out of wire, so we got to go to bed.
Took it back to the shop to finish all the wiring before insulation.
Got some help from Norm and his beer to insulate and hang some skin.
Third Hand tool comes in handy when your riveting end caps with a friend or by yourself.
Shameless posed beer shot.
Tired riveters.
Finished up the insulation and readied the walls for the rest of the skin.
Next day, I pulled the trailer to Portland to spray Zolatone and start installing cabinets.
Katie took this photo of a label on the inside of the sink cabinet. Like the tribal theme...
We started the interior skin painting with a primer coat. I used all Zolatone paints, which are excellent. Their tech support is very helpful at specifying finishes and amounts needed for each step. We sprayed a gunmetal gray color primer. Next time, I'll just stick with white.
Next is the sheer coat using the Zolatone paint. I have learned so much this time around spraying this paint, I'd definitely spray other peoples trailers. The smell is growing on me too (Yes, I wear a respirator).
The next day (after the all nighter painting), my parents went to work mounting cabinets. They graciously refinished all the original cabinets. My dad is a master carpenter, trained in furniture making. He has also been a professional cabinet maker for many years. I am one lucky guy. Not only did they refinish the original mahogany cabinets, they made a full dinette from mahogany. He has not made cabinets or furniture for years, but they have caught the Airstream bug. He would like to make cabinets for others. So as of this project, he is for hire.
I made the final electrical connections before the dinette went in.
The cabinet in the foreground was remade to accommodate the replacement refrigerator.
Back in Seattle, I wired the electrical panel.
On the left is the electrical panel and on the right is the SeeLevel tank monitoring gauge.
Another major project and the start of another all nighter was to install the water heater. The original water heater was an electric only model. As we intend to do a lot of dry camping, I wanted a full featured Suburban water heater.
As the old saying goes, measure ten times, cut twice.
After test fit or two, I made the 110V AC connection and finished the placement.
Successful install for my first try...
Back to Portland a week later for the final fitting and installation of the dinette. Nice looking work, Dad!
His design is a good one and it fit like a glove.
While Dad was working on the dinette, I stayed out of his way and worked on the fresh water plumbing.
And mounted a few accessory items.
Spare tire is finally in.
Really looking like a finished trailer.
Don't forget to tickle the baby!!!
Back in Seattle again, grinding away. Original furnace is mounted with a new vent pipe. The furnace was serviced and tested by Evergreen RV.
Photo from the back looking forward.
Whenever I can, I like to reuse original parts. Just like with the 18 footer, we restored the original toilet. The toilet base was sandblasted. I soaked the china bowl in bleach water for weeks to get it looking better than new. From off the shelf parts, I was able to reconnect the base and bowl. Parts were ordered from Vintage Trailer Supply.
Time to go camping!! We made the deadline. While the trailer is not complete, we were able to camp in luxury at Greyland Beach State Park as dreamed about all winter long. Most appreciative may have been Georgia, she does love the beach.
And so does Emmett.
For that matter, who doesn't love camping at the beach?
Spending time with friends and family is worth it's weight in gold.
Washing off sand from the beach with warm water.
One happy baby in a baby sized window.
'What are you looking at?'
Uncle Wilson's lap dog.
I am not kissing that, thank you very much.
Once again, the overview.
A few detail photos:
Buddies...
Always nice to travel with other vintage Airstreams, this is Katie's parents '75 in the front and her brother's family's '70 behind ours.
Parting shot with us getting ready to leave Idaho last weekend. Soon, more finishing of projects and much more camping.
For the last six weeks, we've been polishing. It's satisfying looking at the finished product while thinking back at all those hours, but I am SO GLAD to be doing something else. It just so happens that the project I'm working on now is one that I love: putting stuff back on.
For some reason, I've been getting mentally ready to install new marker lights. I would have made an effort to save the ones that came with the trailer, but they were not originals and were pretty beat up. The new marker lights are available locally, but I got these with a big order from Vintage Trailer Supply. I was so excited to be adding some color to the side of the trailer and be doing something other than polishing, that I decided to make a step-by-step description of the process. So I can live the moment over and over again :)
Begin with the marker light base. These are aluminum so I can polish them someday. Lucky me!
Step 1: Drill a new hole in the side of your trailer. The base plate of the light has the same screw hole pattern as the original. The wire, however, passes through a different part of the base plate than the original.
Step 2: Spread a thick bead of Vulkem on the base plate. Enough to make sure it squishes out the sides when you tighten the screws.
Step 3: Get your original aluminum screws ready to go. These were polished before the Vulkem was spread.
Step 4: Line up the screw holes and tighten them down till their snug and press the base plate evenly so extra Vulkem squishes out the sides.
Step 5: Soak a clean cotton rag in paint thinner and wash the extra Vulkem away.
Step 6: Attach the cover plate and admire.
Step 7: Repeat three more times (or more depending on your vintage) with the other markers. Have fun!
Next to install was the oven vent cover. I really like this cover. On the 18 footer, the oven vented through some small holes drilled in the counter top. It was never a problem when we used the stove, but I like this one a bit more. It vents the burnt propane to the outside. But mostly, I just like the way it looks. It is Vulkemed like the marker lights. I also added a new fiberglass bug screen behind it.
After that was the plumbing vent cover. I set this one in a heaping pile of Vulkem. When we brought the trailer home, I discovered it had been the source of a major leak. The screws had backed out and water was just helping itself inside. Not any more. Once I place a vent pipe in the cover plate ( 1 1/4" ABS pipe) it'll get sealed with more glue.
From over the top of the trailer, you can see the refer vent and furnace vent mounted and ready to shed water. They got some TLC while off the trailer during polishing. I mounted them with butyl tape and original screws. After the excess butyl tape is trimmed, I will supplement with a bead of Vulkem on the perimeter.
On went the tail lights. Bedded in a layer of Vulkem, of course. While they were off, I cleaned corrosion from the bulb housing. Then I installed new wiring innards & light bulbs, picked up from the local auto parts store.
Last for the screw on fixtures was the license plate light. It is in really good shape, except for the rubber trim ring. The cracking in the rubber is only noticeable when you get right up to it. It got new electrical innards, too.
Last project for the weekend was to work on the door. I spent some time scraping old weatherstripping off and using a chemical stripper to remove most of the adhesive. After getting that clean enough, I cut and set some new weatherstripping in the screen door part of the door-within-a-door. There is more to do on the door, for now I'm just happy is is opening and closing well.
After brushing off a thick layer of corrosion, the threshold was polished and installed with a thick layer of Vulkem and new stainless steel screws. I found slotted screws that had a pretty low profile head on them. My senior blind rivet technician (Emmett) helped get the face of the threshold set in place.
What a great day & a half to get the trailer looking like a trailer again. I hope to get the rest of the door projects done, exterior outlet installed and sealed up, Fantastic Fans & Astrodome all done this week. Then when the weekend rolls around, I can do the interior rough in wiring and insulation. Soon, we'll be riveting interior skin!
So, that was not much fun. If I had all the time in the world, or if it was still winter, I'd have no problem polishing at a leisurly pace. But it's getting warm outside and we want to get this trailer on the road. Polishing is a dirty job and I would have prefered to have someone else polish because of time, but the budget didn't allow that. I can say now that the trailer is bright and shiny enough, even if there is more work to do later.
She went from elephant skin (galvanized metal I called it) to shiny in something like six long weeks. A few things I've learned along the way:
Not all Airstreams are the same. The corrosion on our trailer is different from our last trailer and it's corrosion is different from Norm and Mary's '59 Overlander. I had always been a little resentful of Nuvite for not providing detailed instructions for how to polish. And the polishing instructions I've read from the various websites (airforums.com, vintagetrailersupply.com, and perfectpolish.com) all disagree on technique, etc. Now I can appreciate, with more trailer polishing under my belt, that every trailer is different and you can't apply a cookie cutter approach to this craft.
On the 18 footer (still looking for her, BTW) F7 was all that was needed to remove the heavy corosion. After that cut, I moved to C and stopped with great results. On this trailer, we started more coarse, F9, with miserable results. My Dad and I removed corosion at a snails pace, not knowing why. After a using a pound of that (and working less than half the trailer) I tried G6. What a difference! It melted the corrosion off in about 1/2 the time as the more coarse F9. Who knew? I wish I had tried a small patch much earlier.
Using F7 and G6 on Norm & Mary's Overlander yields different results than I've seen before. Wierd. Their trailer had a clearcoat, so the skin reacts differently to the Nuvite than with our trailer that never had a clearcoat.
All I can say now is I'm glad that I've removed most of the corrosion and we're left with a completely beautiful skin. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Perfect does not exist as far as I'm concerned and I'm definitely not in search of it on fifty year old aluminum.
After finishing the first cut of polish (F9 on part and G6 on the rest) I washed the skin using paint thinner, a plastic brissle brush (Harbor Freight Tools -- ~$2) and microfiber towels (Home Depot -- 6 for $8). Then I got to start all over again with the less coarse C. The C takes out the deep scratches that the F9 and G6 leave behind and leaves less deep scratches.
After the C was completed, the trailer was washed again using more paint thinner and microfiber cloths only this time. Happily, this is where the trailer will stay for this year. I should borrow a Cyclo polisher from a friend up north and finsh the polish with grade S, but I'm thoroughly sick of polishing now and we have just over a month till we want to use this trailer. Polishing, happily, can wait till we have less of a deadline. We are really happy with the appearance of the trailer now. I will like it more when I have the time to use a Cyclo polisher to take the circular scratches out. It, and the grade S polish, apparently brighten the shine and make it deeper and more mirror like. I have not gotten there yet and look forward to the day when I can make that happen.
"Hi, could you pass a chocolate donut and juice box, please?!
I must be crazy to start a polishing project now!! Polishing a trailer takes many many dozens of hours. At a time in the project when we need to see some rapid action, I choose to polish. What am I thinking?
I justify my decision to polish by looking at the two tone colors from our panel replacement.
Just my opinion, but looking at the new aluminum makes the corroded, gray aluminum look really sad. We don't want a sad trailer, we want a sleek airplane looking trailer. A head turner.
I have polished one trailer already and I do know what I'm getting into. I placed an order for fresh supplies and expanded my arsenal of polishing tools a bit. Armed with a pair of polishers, fresh wool and some polish, my Dad and I got to work.
We started out on an absolutely beautiful Seattle morning. After giving the trailer a bath, I began removing exterior lights and locks - Dad got to work on the polish.
Dad helped me remove the door. It needs adjustment to close correctly, so we did a little straightening of the hinges. Comfortable with our prospects of getting it mounted as good as original, it came off so we could polish it and around the door more easily.
Emmett came down to help. He loves his 'Bapa' and can't be more than a few steps from him. I turned around and the little guy had crawled through the sunroof with his 'Dad, look at me!!' smile.
Polishing has a way of really dragging you down. The results are so rewarding but so slow and draining.
Progress comes slowly, so we work one panel at a time.
Pretty soon, it's looking really good. I've chosen Nuvite F9 for the heavy oxidation removal. Comparing the Flying Cloud to Norm and Mary's Overlander, we have a serious amount of age to cut through. Their trailer has a clear coat that has been applied over the polished aluminum. So you can still see your reflection in the skin. Our trailer did not have a clear coat, so all the years of weather have deposited a really thick layer of corrosion. It looks more like galvanized sheet metal.
On the left, you can see how heavy the corrosion is. On the right is clean aluminum:
We work and work and slowly the silver shows through.
This panel took approximately three hours with F9:
I washed a small area with paint thinner and applied the next grade of polish, G6:
It helps get the scratches out of the skin that the F9 leaves.
So it's been a while again since I've posted. Too long, I know. We're at the mid point of the project and trying to keep the energy level up. Driving on the freeway, I'm seeing more snow birds coming home from winter in warmer lands. More RV's are heading out for weekend-long adventures. Our trailer is lagging behind, in the shop, begging for attention. There is so much left to do and the weather is getting really really nice outside. What we need is focus to keep at it and see it through to the end.
We're enjoying the process still - very much in fact. But it would feel really good to see light at the end of the tunnel. Even if it's just a little bit of light...
Now that the shell is back on, there is a little more weight to help get the axle seated. I torqued the bolts to around 150 ft. lbs. as the Dexter manual said. Since I was to be rolling around under the trailer, I might as well hook up the brakes too.
I installed new wheel well trim. The old stuff was plastic and had deteriorated severely, so I bought some new aluminum trim from the flooring and laminate place down the street. The old rivet line was too close to the edge, so I had to trim the skin -- old and new.
Once trimmed, I installed the trim. Takes lots of cuts of the back side of the trim. Heat from a torch gets the aluminum trim pliable enough to make the curves. Drill and Cleco the trim in place, then rivet. Using 1/8" rivets looks really good in this application.
After the trim is installed, I added the original stiffener to finish the job.
Now that the shell is snugly resting on the trailer frame, we get to use aircraft rivets to keep it in place. For this project, I've recruited Ted and Wilson. They graciously drove up on Saturday night from Oregon to participate in our rivet marathon. I am really indebted to them for this one. It was a long day and a ton of work.
Buckmeister Wilson as seen through a hole in the side of the trailer:
Ted and Wilson have both used blind rivets (pop rivets), but never the aircraft rivets used on Airstream trailers. They both have 1970's Airstreams. Both of their Airstreams need rivet work. I sense I will be helping them both with their rivet projects in the future.
We decided to start off the day with the wheel wells. All the existing rivet holes lined up, so we spread a bead of Vulkum sealant between the trailer skin and wheel well.
One rivet hole at a time, Ted removed the cleco then drilled out the hole to accept the new rivet. I placed the rivet in the hole and Wilson held a bucking bar against it. As he gave me the 'ready' call, I used the air riveter to vibrate the rivet in place forever.
The vibration from the tool combined with the pressure between myself and Buckmaster Wilson causes the rivet to mushroom and lock the metals in place. Ear protection IS required.
When the rivet is bucked and cleaned, we repeat. Many, many, many times. As you work from rivet to rivet, the work is dull. But as you look at the growing line of finished rivets, it gets exciting to see that you have accomplished something that looks good and will last.
Later in the morning, Norm came by to inspect the work and watch the technique.
It was not long before everyone was in on the rivet action.
Now I'm remembering that Wilson was on the bucking bar for every rivet and didn't get to work the air tool. Next time, Wilson!
She's looking like a trailer, again!
After getting a lot of rivets in place, we turned our focus to replacing two panels. The most important panel to replace was at the front curbside.
A previous owner must have had their tail gate down as they turned sharply. BAD CAN OPENER! A patch had been applied and it looked pretty bad. So, we drilled it out.
The second panel to replace was the front one under the window. The water filler had been removed and a large, uneven patch had been applied. It started getting breezy inside!
We laid out the new Alclad aluminum on the shop table and traced the pattern on from the old sheets. Next, we drilled out the rivet holes with a small drill.
I can't say enough about the five-in-one tool. I hear the seven in-one-tool has a bottle opener. Hmmm.... Maybe for my birthday?
New panel was fit in place, drilled, then clecoed.
Next, we pulled the clecos one seam at a time and applied Vulkum. The clecos were put back in every other hole to hold the panel tight. We riveted the empty holes, pulled the remaining clecos and riveted again.
This went on and on until everything was in place. We were ready to call it a day! Or night as it turned out.
It's about time we finish up all the underbelly projects and set the shell back on the trailer. One of the projects to finish up was painting the wheels. I picked out some auto paint that looks good with our future Zip Dee awning color, Tuscan. The awning is a dark orange color, so I picked a strong orange for the wheels.
As usual, it took longer to sand and mask the wheels than it did to spray.
I really like the color I picked, which is not usual for me. More often, I labor with the decision I'm making and immediately second guess it after it's done. Not this time. I've taken some ribbing for the orange, but I know it will look good with baby moon hubcaps and bright polished aluminum...
Saturday morning E and I headed to the shop to assess what needed to get finished up so we could get 'shell back on' party started. He'll keep an eye on the truck while I get to work...
Frame is looking good!
The last piece of belly skin to install is the front piece.
Like with the rear sheet, I needed a specialist to pull off the curve.
With the belly skin finally installed and fully riveted in place, we installed the axle.
Really not the easiest thing to bolt in place, but it eventually go. Fit like a glove too!
After dinner and helping my mom get the boys to bed (thanks, Mom!!), Katie and I returned to the shop. Roughly two months of steady work, we are ready to set the shell back into place.
After rolling the frame under the shell, we got it secured blocked in place. Next, we moved the weight of the shell onto the trailer frame and removed the sawhorses.
As we were getting ready to lower the shell, Norm and Jeff showed up to help. Jeff had brought Norm and Mary's '59 Overlander up from San Diego earlier that day. It was great to have some extra hands.
There was some trimming of C channel just like the original.
All in all, the shell was fitting pretty well. We voted to call it a night on the trailer and find a watering hole in West Seattle.
The next morning, Fred dropped by to lend a hand. We decided to rock the shell to one and cleco shell to the curbside wheel well. Then we set the other side down and basically wedged the other side in place. Took some wiggling, but it worked out really well.
Emmett was so happy, he danced a little jig.
More importantly for him, it was time to stop working on the trailer and go the the Mariners game with our family and Fred's family. What's better than baseball...
...and cotton candy...
...and your little brother...
