More training, No Camping

I guess my promise to post and camp more went right out the window. I spent 21 days of June at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas. I returned home at the end of June and began preparations for catering a wedding reception for dear old dad. I am now in the final days of preparation for another two weeks of military training in Nebraska starting this Friday. With all this business, I have not had the chance to camp at all.

We do plan on taking a trip from the 16th of August through out the time of our Airstream rally on the 24th. Michigan looks like a good place to visit, but we are considering other places as well.

Steve

Long time...no post

I realize it has been awhile since my last post, but I have good reason. Last time I posted was right before the Branson Spring Rally. We returned from the rally, and I found out a week later that I was going to Afghanistan with the Illinois National Guard. From 16 April- 14 May I was full timing in the Ambassador at a friends property while I worked for the National Guard in Springfield, IL. I made it home twice over the month I was there. I am now back home, and looking forward to getting some camping in on the weekends.

Updates to begin again soon...I promise.

Till then....best wishes from all of us.

Ready to Roll

Plenty of things to talk about today. We left Friday after work to dive down to Airstream of Arkansas to pick up our trailer. There was severe flooding in Missouri and Arkansas from the constant raining earlier in the month. Many homes we passed were up to their 2nd story in river water. We arrived Friday night around 9:15 where Susan aka Alumatube was waiting for us. She was generous enough to grab some food for us at the Rib Crib before they closed. We all stayed up talking and running around on the AOA lot until about midnight. We all got up around 7:45 the next morning to get ready for the day.

The first thing Amy and I did was to give the custom t-shirts and ceramic smoker to Mike and Gene. They seemed to like them a bunch.

Gene and I got started by installing the mounting arm for our LCD/DVD television. The bolts that came stock with the unit were too long, and would have drilled into the fridge. We located some shorter screws and mounted the arm to allow the best possible viewing positions.



Gene and I then opened the magic bed to the bedOnce the television was in, Mike from the AOA shop installed the battery disconnect in the front position, and carried it through the door. We decided it was so much work to get it inside the door that we had to take a break as seen in the picture (Besides...the NCAA tourney was on, and we needed to test the newly mounted antenna.) After the break, we bolted the magic bed into the floor using four 5/16 lag bolts.




Next on the list was installing this "Home Sweet Home" door guard from David Winick. Installation was simple with four self tapping aluminum screws. Here is Amy looking through the door.

The last thing on the agenda was to install the dining area. We were trying to sell the dinette that arrived with the trailer, but no luck. We decided to use the hickory table that came with the dinette. The table looks perfect in the trailer, like it was made for it. We will have to take about an inch off the leg to level it out, but that's easy.

Doesn't this just look like a nice place to relax and enjoy ones self? Thanks to everyone who has read this blog, and supported us from the dark times of this trailer until now. We plan to continue adding updates from trips and small upgrades that we add along the way.

See you all down the road!!!!!

Steve and Amy and Collin

Positive Progress

A few things to post today. I spoke with Glastop about the sofa bed today. The transport company cannot find the sofa bed, and thinks it is lost in Atlanta or at the distribution center in Little Rock. Regardless, I need a sofa bed for the upcoming Airforums Branson Rally. In a feat of ultimate customer service, Glastop sent a brand new magic bed identical to mine, but it is covered in Ultraleather. They want me to have something to use for the rally, and this was the only way to make it happen. If we like the color when we see it, and if they do not find the actual sofa I ordered, we will get to keep the Ultraleather sofa at no additional charge. That's a savings of around $500. They will also send us a yard of the same Ultraleather so we can recover our chairs in. I don't know that too many other RV furniture places would go through this.

The other thing I want to update is that the leaks are pretty much taken care of (Crosses fingers). Gene called me today to let me know about the discoveries. The curbside window gasket was actually the culprit to the leaking over the streetside rear bed. On the curbside the cause of front and rear leaks was discovered to be holes from the original awning that were covered with the new zipdees, but not sealed or filled with vulkem. Gene said they are working on the best way to fix it right now.

Things are looking up for a Friday trip to Arkansas.

Steve

Magic Bed MIA

You always see stuff like this on TV or the movies, but it never happens to you....UNTIL NOW. We ordered our magic bed at the end of February to ensure it would be ready for the Branson Airforums Rally. I received a call on Tuesday from Glastop RV and Marine Furniture telling me the Sofa was going to be dropped off at Airstream of Arkansas last Wednesday. Wednesday came and went with no contact from the dealership (It was Gene's day off). On Thursday Gene called to tell me that nobody had delivered the sofa bed like they were supposed to. I quickly called Glastop and was told that they were looking into it. They called back on Friday morning to tell me that the delivery company was not returning calls.

I really hope that the issue gets taken care of. We need it delivered by Friday so we can install it this coming weekend. We won't have another chance to get back to AOA before Branson, and we are counting on that bed for sleeping arrangements.

If the merchandise isn't delivered by this Friday, I am thinking about requesting a full refund, and purchasing one in Springfield, MO on the way to Branson.

Advice and shameless plug from the VAP

Hello all,

Last night the newest episode of the Vintage Airstream Podcast was recorded and posted on the VAP website. I had called in last week and left a question about a sneaky leak that was not being found with the Seal-Tech pressure test. They addressed my concern and gave me advice on what to do. Speaking with Gene at Airstream of Arkansas later that day I was told that the shop boys planned to search for the leak that exact way on Saturday.

Thanks to Rob for mentioning this blog, and check his out for some great restoration info.

Steve

One and Done

Today I recovered one of the leg o matic cushions in the fabric that our couch is coming in. I am eyeballing a chair on ebay that matches mine in color and style. If I win it, I will have two without damage.

Planning to head down to AS of AR on the 21st to get our trailer.

Hope the weather calms by then.

Steve

Leg-o-Matics are here....Preparing to do the unthinkable

Well today we received several packages from the postman. Our Leg-o-matics arrived, the fabric to recover them with arrived, and our parts from Vintage trailer supply arrived to mount our table on the wall.

The leg-o-matics are in much worse condition than we thought. There are cracks that will continue to expand without corrective repairs, burns on one side of one of the chairs, and the rear back pieces are falling apart worse than we thought. Original plans were to sand both chairs down, recover with fabric, and re-stain the wood. Since the wood needs extensive repairs that will look really bad once stained, we are painting them.

We were thinking some kind of antique white for the color since the floor and fabric is this light brown color. Black is too dark, and brown would fade away into all the other browns. Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful.

Flooring Installed

Today Gene sent me pictures of my recently installed flooring. It looks pretty gosh darn cool looking and looks great in transition to the laminate flooring running from the bath hall to the rear of the trailer. Gene told me that Airstreams do not have their vinyl flooring laid down because of the flexing of the shell and floor while moving down the road. Hopefully there will be some edge treatment along the perimeter to keep the edges down.

We now must determine what color of fabric to go with for our sofa sleeper. We originally thought that a brown would be fine, but now with the floor installed I am unsure brown would be the right color. We were sent numerous color swatches to get an idea. Most of them were brown. Amy thinks that blue would be too much. The only other color choice is an earthy green that they sent us. Will green look ok with the gray counter top? We will need to recover the two leg-o-maticchairs in the fabric as well. Where is an interior designer when you need one?

Newest additions

From my earlier post you all know I was looking for two leg-o-matic chairs for our Airstream. Ilost out on an ebay auction in the last three seconds by a sniper other than myself. This was a set of three matching chairs in excellent condition. Bummed out, I decided to make an offer on the ones RichardT was selling on the forum classifieds. One of them has a piece of the laminate that is missing, and I will try repairing. Heck...they can always be painted if worse comes to worse.



Steve

Mega Update Part 2

Since I have so much stuff to post I added a second part to this update. Gene keeps sending me pictures. This guy could work for the paparazzi! Here is a better shot of the new vinyl flooring that will be installed. Very cool texture and nice color.

New coaxial antenna plates for the front and rear with the front getting a 12v plug as well. We also have a satellite in and out box mounted on the fridge. getting a 12v plug as well. We also have a satellite in and out box mounted on the fridge.


Remember the vent that emptied into the curbside twin? The Searcy, AR crew built an airtight box that brought the warm air to the bed face, and added a round directional vent.

Getting close!

Steve

Mega Update Part 1

As eluded to earlier today, I have a lot of information on the repairs and a lot of pictures to add today. I called Airstream of Arkansas earlier for the scoop and was told my vinyl was in. When we talked about installing vinyl, I told Gene to have free reign on what to install. After discussing it, he went to a flooring dealer and picked out the flooring. I couldn't really picture what it looked like from Gene's description, but I know that I will be happy from what little I am seeing. This flooring looks VERY thick and comfortable.

The new batwing antenna had been installed. This was great news since I thought they would have had to order it. I was told that they wired new plates for the hookups, and even reran some new coaxial cable for me. Then I was informed that they pre-wired the trailer for satellite. I was pretty surprised at the speed they were moving, but these guys don't mess around.



After all of this I was pretty happy. Almost everything has been completed that was on my wish list. There was some fresh steel welded onto the back bumper where there was obvious damage from a bottoming out or some other accident. The only things left are the rock guards, new flex-steel Magic RV bed, radio, and spare. Gene let me know the spare was ready to be mounted on the rim I gave him. Unknown to me....the rock guards were already installed. These were a perfect fit for my trailer since they had the lower charcoal colored stripe on them. My lower wrap just happened to be painted the exact same color..Huzzah!!



Gene also told me that the safety chains had been installed. From the looks of it, they added a fresh coat of pain to the trailer tongue.

We made our decision!

After debating between our choices, I spoke with Tim Sheppard of the Vintage Airstream Podcast about his living area setup. Tim's Ambassador has a Flex-steel Magic Bed along with a table on a slide rail. The table can be used for dining or as a desk. Tim uses a pair of vintage leg-o-matic chairs to seat on the other side of the dining table.

We had a good offer to make the interior of the trailer similar to the 23' interior, but the costs of cushion foam and upholstery would have pushed us well out of budget. While the custom fabricated cabinets would have been a great deal at $1,000, the Magic Bed with all the options and shipped to Airstream of Arkansas was only $1330.

I have been looking at the ebay auctions for leg-o-matic chairs and they are few and far between. There are a few on ebay now, but the owners were asking $50 each for the green ones, and $125 each for the black ones. This is crazy talk folks!!!

Since I do not know what the vinyl flooring that was ordered looks like, I hope that we pick out a fitting color (Dark Neutral to hide spots from Collin spills). I hope to find someone interested in our classic dinette to recoup some of the costs of the magic bed.

The only thing we will have to construct is a half moon shaped shelf/cabinet to fit behind the sofabed to take the space up. This will also house the battery.

It's all coming together.

Steve

Needing input

After talking with Airhog1 yesterday we have decided to scratch the LP cover for our Airstream. The cover would have had to be notched to fit over the WD hitch, and the cost was over $400. That was a nicety and not a necessity.

We have a quote from forum member Cabinetman19 to do our interior living area framing for a good price, but it will not include foam or upholstery. He would be replicating the 23' Sig series interior for our trailer, but we have 91 inches where the 23' has 105 inches to work with. The only way we could really get it to work would be by moving the fridge, and I am NOT wanting to get into that type of project. The hardest part of all of this would be that I will need the trailer cushions made and upholstered here before I get the trailer back. No exactly the easiest thing to do without having access to the trailer. The 23' interior has a 66 inch sofa bed that pulls out for sleeping two people, and the dinette forms a 39 inch wide bed. If we have the same size sofa bed we only get 25 inches for the dinette bed. This isn't exactly going to be a large bed for someone.

Other than foamorder.com or foamsource.com who has had good luck with getting good foam deals online?

We were looking at an LCD TV with built in DVD player, but that was quoted to us at over $700. Looks like a cheap 15 inch LCD with portable DVD player will work fine.

To do list update

In my haste to get my first post up today I forgot several things we had planned to get done.

In no particular order they are:

* Rock Guards...gotta protect the paint job
* LP Tank Cover
* AM/FM Stereo
* Running of duct work to the bed frame facing in the streetside rear.
* New LCD TV with built in DVD player
* Fabricate spare tire holder under tongue
* Mount spare tire on rim included with sale
* Welding a new safety loop on the tongue
* New Safety chains with hooks
* Fix the broken external stove vent (Off Track)
* Weld frame needing it under the belly pan, and paint frame (Dunno if this will occur)
* Add new Norcold fridge door shelves (Mine were missing for some reason)

Sealtech Test Revisited

I have decided to post pictures of the Sealtech results in hope someone may see something we did not during the test process.

New Airstream Art

My brother has recently decided to combine his love of art with my love for Airstreaming. The following is his first piece.

Nice trailer these guys have. Wonder if they are heading to Earth for repairs.

Welcome to the Streaming Soldiers

Happy President's Day,

With an average of 10 private messages per day on the airforums requesting updates on my trailer, I have decided to open this blog dedicated to our 1975 Ambassador.

Due to all the negative press on the forums, I have been banned from posting a thread specific to my trailer in general, but I can still post about specific issues on it when a problem arises.

Here is an update on what has been repaired or completed so far at the wonderful Airstream of Arkansas.

* Pressure test for leaks with Sealtech machine.
* Leaks Sealed.
* Rotted floor in the curbside front has been replaced.
* New Fantastic Fan installed in front vent.
* Rear twisted channel was welded back in place.
* Laminate flooring removed from the front back to the bathroom hall
* New vinyl flooring ordered



Bent Channel and Welding Repairs

Rotted Floor Streetside

New Fantastic Fan

So what is left on the chopping block after all of this? Several other things need to be addressed before we consider the trailer ready to roll for the family.

* New Batwing antenna with new amplified inputs

* Bath door porthole and covering. (Bath door has a huge gouge and scratch on it). We would like to have layered aluminum looking like Airstream panels, and possibly a porthole added from a CCD.

* New living area. This is where it gets tricky. As nice looking as the dinette from the classic looks, it is not very easy to get in an out of, and doesn't seat as many people as we would like. We are considering the following options.

1. Having a custom made sofabed and dinette combo similar to the 23' Signature series. The sofabed would pull out to a double bed, and the dinette would form a twin.

2. Replacing the dinette with a front gaucho or flexsteel magic RV bed. We would then mount a fold up dinette table on the streetside wall, or use a leg-o-matic table and chairs.

3. Having a custom C-shaped dinette created for the space.

I hope to give you all updates in the coming days.

Steve