Streaming Soldiers - 1956 Sovereign of the Road

New Year News.

2012-01-05T21:30:00.004-06:00

Happy New Year to you all.

I have taken some time since the last post to finish the semester up, and enjoy my winter break in San Antonio with my family who I never get to see enough of.

When I spoke with North Dallas six weeks ago, the plan was to officially begin the work on my trailer shortly after the new year began. Well, I spoke with them two weeks ago, and they had just wrapped up a planning meeting for how to proceed on the work.

The first plan was to use a hoist and lift the shell off the frame. This wouldn't take hardly any work since it was only being attached on a four foot section of the 31 foot length, with a single pop-rivet every 8 rivet holes.

Once lifted, the REST of the frame will be scraped and painted. I was told that this work had already been completed since I had paid for it, but much like everything else, that person is a lying, cheating scumbag. Because a large amount of the area that was not painted is the new A frame we had welded on, this shouldn't take a long time.

Once paint is finished, most of you know what happens next. The floor goes down, (J, C, U) Channel gets installed. I have asked the shop to mount the two 25 gallon grey water tanks before installing the floor insulation and belly pan.

The latest addition to the money pit errr...SOTR is a set of four aluminum wheels. I found these on www.trailer-wheels.com which is not my usual outlet for these wheels. I chose this website because the same wheels were not only cheaper, but offered free shipping on orders over $100.

Classy looking aren't they?

My first time banned

2011-11-26T13:15:00.002-06:00

It seems that my comments about being censored hit a nerve over at AIRforums. The post referring for people to check my blog out was removed, and all subsequent comments about being censored (from myself or others). It's only a 24 hour ban, but I laughed quite a bit. The most ridiculous thing about this, is that I was contacted by another AIR member and told that my signature was erased from my profile. So AIR moderators are not allowing me to talk about my blog or promote it because I refer to their censoring. Amy and I have served for years in the military with countless others, some of which gave all for our rights to free speech. While I may not have free speech on AIR, they are disallowing me to even mention my blog.

So what led to this? You have read the posting before this, and that started the process. I asked for clarification on why it was removed. It was told to me by Kevin245 that any posting regarding another member who you did business with in a negative light will not be tolerated, and will be viewed as a vendor transaction. So let's look at a few things...

Member A sells Member B a trailer on the forums. Member B in his excitement starts a thread in his excitement, post pictures, etc. Once getting the unit home it turns out to be a TPOS (Total POS). Member B posts his displeasure about the deal and that he feels cheated. This is not allowed, and is subject to removal.

A member has a partial restoration or repair work done by another member who runs a Vintage trailer restoration company. A year later, the electrical that wasn't installed properly starts a fire, and the trailer burns down. Any posting referring to the electrical being done improperly by the "trailer restoration company" will be removed because it is a vendor dispute.

A member buys parts from a commercial vendor who is a member. The credit card is charged, but the parts are on back order for 6 weeks. The member cancels his order and orders from some other company and gets them in a week, but his money won't be returned from the Commercial vendor due to their policy not to refund money for several weeks. The purchasing member voices displeasure, and his posts are removed.

These are examples....ok one of them is true for sure, maybe all of them are.

Don't be voicing your displeasure with your new Airstream either. I was told that comments about ANY vendor will not be tolerated including Airstream. Unfortunately, complaints about the mothership are a weekly occurrence, and rarely get removed. Sound like overmoderation anyone? I know mods usually stand up for one another, but this is ridiculous.

Thanks for listening to the rant.

A long time coming

2011-11-26T09:24:00.002-06:00

Anyone who keeps current on my Airforum, "Relapse" thread knows that this project was taken out of the hands of the person working on it. The history about it is well discussed and documented on that thread, and I am not going to rehash it here.

I am however going to post something that was deleted by an AIRforum moderator. The following is my post, completely unedited.

This is a post some may want to skip. I wanted to separate this post from the feel good post above it.

As Wasagachris stated earlier, there are MANY things to be learned on this thread on how to NOT have your Airstream restored. I broke down the receipts to find out where our $1800 went.

I have receipts for the following:

Harbor Freight Tools-$529.08
Gasoline-$145.58 (I was told $100 would be spent in transporting the trailer to Dallas.)
Misc. Supplies-$897.42. These receipts included 3 tanks purchased from Top's TX vintage trailer, an order from VTS, several trips to Lowes, a trip to Metals for you for 3 inch channel (unused), and $85.52 to a metal shop to custom bend a piece of 14 gauge steel into a cross member instead of using C channel like I asked (which would have cost 1/3 the price).

Back earlier in the thread, someone stated that this was the perfect project to build a "library of tools". When the project started, I authorized tools that would be required to do work as it progressed, but that tools would have to be worked off before more tools were purchased. Many of these (Harbor Freight) tools were NOT AUTHORIZED. Here is the library of tools that was built on our dime, mostly without permission.

Orbital polisher/waxer
Digital multi-meter
(8) Ratcheting bar clamps
(2) Foldable Saw Horses
30" Sheet metal brake
Electrical receptacle tester
90 Amp Flux wire welder
Welding helmet
Welding Gloves
Full sized Router with table
Digital calipers
3 piece step drills

Considering the first step after tear down was to weld the frame and install the floor, what on Earth were the the polisher/waxer, multi-meter, receptacle tester, metal brake, and router/router table being purchased for? I even questioned this, but was told, "We will need it eventually."

When the math was done, the receipts totaled $1572.08. Subtract that from the $1800 and you have $227.92 unaccounted for. Subtracting the $897.42 in misc supplies (much of which will NOT be used by North Dallas) from the $1800 means $902.58 (tools and cash) was taken as payment for services rendered. Since these tools were being taken in lieu of cash, I was to be provided an hour breakdown. There was nothing included among the receipts indicating amount of hours worked, but it doesn't even take an Airforums n@@b to see that these tools were not worked off.

My one happy thought going through my head right now is that these tools were purchased at Harbor Freight, and will likely fail without providing long lasting service the one who owns them.

Here was the private message from AIR about the post. I have replaced the surname that was included in his posting.

"Steve,

A courtesy note letting you know the post below was removed as it is vendor dispute territory. While we empathize with the Mr. Voldemort dealing, we can't allow this post to stay.

Thanks for understanding.

Kevin"

No...I don't understand, explain it to me. So this is a VENDOR dispute? That's weird since the only VENDOR in this case is ME. The (dis)service performed on my trailer was not the work of a vendor, or even a person with a business license. So I told Kevin that if I was in violation of VENDOR rules, he could go ahead and delete my VENDOR status. I also think it is funny that people post things like this against AIRSTREAM, but they aren't deleted.

It is comical to me that since the 5th of September, the previous individual working on my trailer has not posted a single time. I was told by a good friend that this individual had told him he was forbidden from AIRforums or anything Airstream related by his wife. I am making an assumption that he received an email update when I posted on Relapse, and complained to the mods. Good thing they cannot censor here.

I think that the following PM from an avid follower of my AIRforum "Relapse" thread is about as on target as you can get. (Edited to remove personal information).

"I'd bet that Mr. Voldemort reported the post and complained about it. He is such a little girl hiding behind the skirts of his mommy (the mods). He doesn't have the balls to comment publicly or even to face the music of public comments. It's obvious that he is scared of what people will say because he has never posted a response once in this thread. If he had any valid responses to your comments he should state them publicly. His lack of responses speaks volumes."

I posted this here because it will not be censored on my personal blog. No responses here needed. Thanks to the several people for the KARMA that I received from the deleted post above....it still shows, but the thread shows N/A on the user CP.

Progress Report

2011-08-06T17:10:00.005-05:00

This posting was updated on 11/26/11 to remove personal information of the previous individual restoring the trailer. Please refer to AIRforum thread, "Relapse-1956 Sovereign of the Road".

Well I am at one month since my last post, so here is a progress report. As some of you are aware, the second worst drought in Texas history is currently going on. With the lack of rain has been a punishing heatwave that has reached record temperatures across the state over the last month. Unfortunately, this heatwave has stunted progress for the last three weeks. Originally, we had a group of people willing to remove the shell in order to access the frame, do the welding, paint the frame, place the new floor, and replace the shell. Unfortunately, our host had other plans and work days were canceled. After the cancellation, Voldemort wanted to move the trailer to his backyard in order to have better room for working on it. He spent two weeks mixing concrete by hand, making a gate into his back yard, digging out bushes and dirt that were in the way of said gate opening, and cutting off a portion of his roof to make this happen....all in the sweltering heat.

Finally in the back yard!

Voldemort has continued progression of interior skin and floor removal. The really good thing about the frame is that besides the rear crossmember and very front of the A frame, the frame is in excellent shape. Here are some pictures from the continued removal.

Today, Voldemort removed the rear belly pan up to the axle and degreased the rear frame. Not bad looking for 50+ years old.

For the past two days, Voldemort has been prepping the new sub-floor for installation. The sheets were cut to width, and are being treated top and bottom. The first coat was a mixture of 1/2 Spar Varnish, 1/4 Denatured Alcohol, and 1/4 petroleum distillate. This was done to penetrate better into the wood and seal the pores better. Subsequent coats will be full strength spar varnish. We went with the satin finish as gloss would make adhering the future flooring more difficult. For insulation under the floor, we are going with 3/4" polyisocyanurate insulation with foil on both sides. Voldemort plans to build an air gap with strips under the floor to provide extra R value.

Before the floor goes down, the few issues with the frame need to be addressed. The rear most steel cross member needs replacement, and a stress crack on the main door step area needs fixing. After these repairs, Voldemort will apply Eastwood Rust converter to paint the entire frame. The Eastwood system is similar to POR-15, but not as expensive. Thanks to Lance (Top on AIR) for the heads up on this product. For the top coat over the rust converter, I have purchased Chassis Saver by Magnet paints. This product was suggested by Robin (Melody Ranch on AIR). He uses it on his farm trailers that are exposed to the weather all the time. Other reviews for this product from people who carry the product or have used it in the past were very good. I purchased a gallon of each, so there should be plenty for this job.

Aside from the work Voldemort is doing, I have been going crazy purchasing everything I can think of that will be needed. Robin sent me a great seller on Ebay that has incredible prices on items. I have purchased my new LP tank rack, 7 way wire pigtail, LP regulator with hose pigtails, and tank monitor panel panel from this seller...all for about $45 not including shipping. Other purchases were two Optima blue batteries, a KIB monitor panel, grey tank probes, 600 sq ft of Prodex insulation, Kitchen sink from Ikea, progressive dynamics power center, and two orders from Vintage Trailer Supply.

We are go for launch

2011-07-07T16:42:00.005-05:00

This posting was updated on 11/26/11 to remove personal information of the previous individual restoring the trailer. Please refer to AIRforum thread, "Relapse-1956 Sovereign of the Road".

Today Collin and I made the trip up to see the SOTR at Voldemort's house in Round Rock. It's a nice 90 or so minute drive up there, and the traffic through Austin wasn't too horrific. We pulled up to the house to find Voldemort washing the exterior down and sweating profusely in the 96 degree heat (No shade).

We discussed several options for the layout, and how he will proceed from here on out. There are several oddities with this trailer that I am no familiar with. Take for instance this little cone on the curbside roof. There is a hole in the interior skin near here, but it is unknown what it is for.

I had a good look at the A frame, and the metal is pretty worn on it. I don't know what they were thinking when they welded the extra metal to it, but it isn't doing us any favors. This area is a complete mess as you can see. I told Voldemort to cut off the LP tank rack since it is damaged, and remove the LP lines and wires. Once the shell if off, I am thinking that welding a new A frame with coupler will be a good idea.

While looking the trailer over, I decided that we will replace the roof panel that had the stack going through it. We are also going to replace the rear street side panel, and overlay a small portion of the panel just forward of the door since it is torn up from someone screwing the door shut. The stack is uglier in person, and I have taken a better shot of it. Lot's of tar.

On the trailer there are three exterior outlets with the old school plugs. We are going to keep the outlets on the port and starboard sides, but taking out the one in the rear corner. I will also be upgrading these to current code exterior outlets instead of the old plug covers. Here is a picture of one to be replaced. Wonder what the oval is from?

The interior piece for the range vent is missing, and now I need to either locate an interior piece or purchase a new unit from VTS. The bathroom hehr vent is missing and the trailer was exposed to WA rain for who knows how long. The floor is pretty much gone in that area, but we were able to get back to get some pictures. The tub is unique as I personally have not seen other trailers with this type of shower head. To me, this shower hear would spray all over the back wall and get over the floor. We are still planning to remove the tub in favor of t pedestal toilet on the curbside rear corner, and a shower directly next to it.

Another priority for me was to see the metal endcap condition. Voldemort thinks he can bank everything out other than the point of impact. We will try it and see what happens, but we can always replace them. I hope it works, yesterday I had to pass on a storm destroyed 57 Caravanner that I wanted to use for endcaps and the door latch, but the guy had others in the state who wanted it and I wasn't prepared to drive up to Indiana the next day to get it. Kip asked for a picture of the bead so I have a pic that I hope works for him. I'm not as optimistic of the dent coming out, but we can redo them if the lead shot and mallet doesn't get the job done.

Of course in closing I had to include the obligatory dead mouse shot. Voldemort saved it especially for me.

I am about to place a nice big order to Steve at Vintage Trailer Supply to get Voldemort started. I know he is planning tear down beginning tomorrow. Once gutted, I believe we are going to round us up a Texas streamer posse and do the shell lifting with as many people as possible, and prepare the frame for new metal/paint.

I was thinking about plumbing and Voldemort lifted up the street side mattress to reveal the electric water heater. I don't think Airstream had any loyalty back in the day as I have seen three different brands of these in three different 50's trailers. My 53 had a "Lectro" brand. This trailer's water heater was by Payne. Voldemort is going to test to see if it works, and if anyone wants it then they can let me know.

The last thing we discussed before heading to Rudy's for lunch was the running gear. Voldemort feels that the trailer would benefit greatly from new axles. The current axles are extremely heavy duty looking, and ride very rough up and down. On both my 53 and 56 in the past I kept the springs and had no problems. I wonder if this trailer was ordered with a beefier set of axles and gear because of the size. Would like to keep them springs if they will be okay, but it is undeniable that Torsions would make the ride nice. Also I didn't see any shocks or mounts for them, so those would require fabrication.

All for now.

Steve

Relapse....and a new look.

2011-06-21T12:33:00.009-05:00

1. To fall or slide back into a former state.

Almost a year ago, I stopped posting on this blog. "Why bother, " I thought. We had to sell both Airstreams to fund getting Amy a new car and house in Texas, and it rubbed us raw. Over the months that followed, we fell out of touch with our camping souls. I was in nursing school full time, and Amy had taken Collin to San Antonio with her. In December 2010, I reevaluated our situation, and we agreed that we wanted to pursue our Dream Stream. We have owned many trailers, and only camped in half of them due to their poor condition. We vowed that this would not happen again.

Since January, I have scoured craigslist, Ebay, and any other website that could hold our Dream Stream. Our terms wouldn't be easy to find. The trailer had to be a 13 panel...nothing looks as beautiful as a 13 panel. We also agreed that 26 feet was as short as we would go. We plan to full time in our Dream Stream some day, and want the space. After hosting an Airstream rally in a rented SOB a few weeks ago, we had to get back into streaming ASAP. Here and there since the rally some trailers fitting criteria presented themselves, but always far too expensive or in worse shape than we would want. That is until almost two weeks ago.

I had just returned from the FCU Restoration rally in ABQ, NM when my search turned up a 1956 Sovereign of the Road. "Wow," I thought, I only know of three other 56 SotR's out there, it's the size we want, and 13 panel! The price wasn't bad either, but it was all the way up in Seattle, WA. I called the number and spoke with a man who I could barely understand at points in the conversation. He was Russian, and had a thick accent. We spoke for a few minutes and he told me about the trailer. I hung up the phone skeptical. Thick Russian accent, no title, cheap price, 2,200 miles away, and the craigslist I found it on was Portland...not Seattle. I contacted Marc from Airforums and asked if he could check it out for me. I gave him the seller's info, and the seller wanted Marc to see it that night! Marc is a great guy. He went out that night, and took a bunch more pictures for me to base my decision on. Check them out!

Marc called me later on informing me that the trailer indeed was legit, and that this man had several other trailers he was working on. Knowing the legitimacy, I wired Marc the money, and asked him if he could help me get it out of the guy's yard until I could arrange transport. After a few back and forth conversations with the seller, we finally agreed that his daughter could accept the money and give Marc the bill of sale. I was at Sea World on Father's day when I received the word...the transaction was complete.

Unfortunately, the seller for a set of new RV rims for the trailer stood Marc up earlier in the week. Marc had to tow it away on the old split rims. About 5 miles down the road, the first tire gave out. The spare was without a valve stem, so Marc ended up dropping the trailer off at a tire shop around 11PM for the evening. Poor Marc, all that work and his daughter's sweet 16th birthday was the next day.

Last night while on the Riverwalk, Marc texted me to let me know he was finally able to meet up with the rims guy from Craigslist, and got 4 new ST tires mounted. He estimated that there has been around 70 pounds overall of rotational weight dropped, and that the trailer tows FAR BETTER with the new wheels and tires. These are temporary until further down the road of course, but a necessity for a 2,200 mile return trip.

So what is the plan? This trailer will be a well appointed living space away from home. With school in session soon, I will be having most of the work completed by a 3rd party. I will help when I can, but living 1000 miles away, it will not be often. Current layout plans for the trailer include a revamped rear bath with street side shower and toilet, his and her closets forward of the bath, twins in the middle, a well equipped kitchen with lots of storage, and a huge wrap around dinette that converts to a bed.

I wish a safe journey towing 2,200 miles home with only safety chains and his white knuckles.

It's good to be back,

Steve

All good things come to an end.

2010-06-29T15:00:00.002-05:00

Many of you are likely wondering why there hasn't been any posting for awhile. Since I have taken the door off to have it rebuilt, I have not done anything with the trailer. Adding to the complexity of a trailer rebuild over almost 2 years now, Amy's tour is up here in St. Louis, and her next set of orders has been issued. In the middle of July, Amy will be relocating to beautiful Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, TX. Six summers ago, we moved from San Antonio, TX back to Missouri, so at least we have some familiarity with the city and process.

Due to being accepted into the University of Missouri Nursing program, I will be staying here over the next 27 months to finish school instead of going with Amy and Collin. Trust me, this is something that has been tearing at my heart considering I won't be there for them, will miss his first day of school (it's his first year), and all the other stuff that comes with being apart for long periods of time.

Since we will be apart, we sold out 1975 Ambassador to a nice family in Kentucky. We did the exchange two days ago, and he said he had no problems getting it home. We hope his family has as much fun in it as we did. While it wasn't something that we wanted to do, Amy will need a new car to take to TX, and a computer as well since I will keep the computer here for school. Our thoughts now turn to the Flying Cloud. As I stated before, I have not touched it since April, and with full time classes for the next two years I cannot fathom having the time to work on it. I am at the point where I will sell it as a project (for a major loss just considering the parts I have that go with it), or take it to a restoration company. I have sent a few emails about the trailer to some restoration companies and I am waiting to hear back. Locally I was offered $5,000 by guy who really wants a project airstream.

In the mean time, I will have to live vicariously through all of you out there who are living the Airstream dream. It's been an interesting time since we bought our first trailer in November 2006. Thank you all for reading and contributing over the past several years.

See you down the road.

Steve

Off with the door, paint on the floor

2010-04-03T18:11:00.005-05:00

Today was an absolute beauty of a day. Originally I had not planned on working this weekend. Amy has been in Washington State at Fort Lewis the past 16 days. We spoke maybe 30-45 seconds every other day, and she was scheduled to be home at 0930 after 10 hours of flights overnight. She was able to get an earlier flight, and it have us more time to take care of things.

When I first picked up my flying cloud, I noticed that like many Airstreams, the door had flown open while traveling down the road. This put large dents in the door within a door, the main door, and cracked on of the jambs on the main door.

Both main and inner door dented.

In order to rebuild the door correctly, I need a large break to make a new main jamb. Since I don't have a brake, I enlisted the help of forums member oh2becarefree. They have a 48 Curtis Wright trailers. Mike is a contractor and former metal worker. Most importantly, he has a large metal brake.

While the door is being rebuilt, I have a few new additions. I ordered new stainless steel hinges from Vintage Trailer Supply several months back to replace the rusty steel ones currently on the trailer. I have also decided to completely change the door latch. You can see in the picture above that the door had a simple round knob, and a Yale deadbolt that never worked or had keys. I wanted a latch that was low profile, included a deadbolt, and was chrome. I found a FASTEC latch on ebay that fit everything I was looking for. I now just needed to ensure it would work.

After viewing hundreds of vintage trailer pictures, I came across a 58 flying cloud with the latch I had been looking for. Here are pics from the interior and exterior of the latch I chose on a door within a door.

Interior
Exterior

So back to what I was doing today. Since I need to take the door to Mike this week, I drilled out the rivets holding the hinges on. Once the lower hinge was drilled out, I used clecos to hold it in place while I drilled out the top hinge rivets. What I found under the top hinge was unsettling. With the difference of metals between the hinge and skin of the trailer, I had bad galvanizing corrosion. The corrosion was so bad, that the clecos wouldn't even hold the door hinge to the trailer. I had seen something similar to this on Bill Kerfoot's 54 Liner. I will likely use the same fix that Bill used, and rivet on a long piece of Alclad down the rear edge of the door.

Upper hinge area on skin (Bad)

Lower hinge area on skin (Good)

Door removed (Good)

The other item of business I had for the day was to get a coat of oil based paint on the floor. The flooring is already extremely moisture resistant (currently the lowest moisture absorption in the field for OSB and plywood), but I wanted to ensure that my floor will have more protection that it needs. The paint I used is oil based and made for house siding, decks, and patios. It is waterproof with a 15 year warranty. I brushed around the edges of the C channel, and then used a roller across the rest of the floor.

Before paint

After paint

Good day in all. I may throw another coat of the paint on tomorrow depending on my schedule.

Restoration Days

2010-03-29T18:30:00.004-05:00

On Saturday I got a call from the guy I had sold my 63 Tradewind to. He was telling me that his 12v power had gone out abruptly. As I sat on the phone going back and forth, I decided it was best to just drive down and help him out. His wife watched Collin while we spent the next seven hours working.

With a few calls to Melody Ranch from AIRforums, we finally figured out the issue. The old wiring had cracked sleeves, and was shorting itself to the frame. We started in on figuring out his umbilical wiring issue, but day rapidly turned to night.

The next day, Brian came out to assist me on my trailer. Brian is a contractor, and is much better at alot of things when it comes to his approach on Airstreams. We decided to buck rivet both sides down, and attach the trailer to the wheel wells. The previous owner had placed large wheel well flares over the side skin due to a blow out. I like the look of the flares, so I kept them. We applied a liberal amount of sealant between the wheel well and the exterior skin as well, to ensure we didn't get water penetration.

Curbside Riveted

Street side Riveted

It wasn't all rosy. We had to remove the rear corner belly skins that were hastily installed. The relief cuts were far too long, and were showing under the shell. This is a huge problem on the front of the trailer as well, but with everything riveted together up front, I am reluctant to remove everything to redo it. We will also have to cut a large portion of the front belly pan out that is buckling due to improper installation. When this was installed last fall, I was complacent, and in a hurry. That will end up costing me on overall quality of a job, and I am sorry about it.

To end on a positive, I found not one, but two of the Yankee 70 glass lenses that I had broken. One of them even came with the fixture and bezel (Impossible to find). I got both of them for less than $20. Kings to me!

Anyone interested in a rally? We are hosting a rally in Southern Illinois May 13-16th at Whittington Woods Campground. We had two great rally events there last year, and have 14 trailers signed up so far. Hope to see some of you there.

Awww Crap... (BOLO)

2010-02-25T14:13:00.004-06:00

ALCON,

Please be on the lookout for a red or amber Beehive marker lamp like the ones pictured below. While performing diagnostics on my running lights, I slipped on a small patch of ice and dropped one of my glass lenses. I was told these lenses are near impossible to find by Steve at Vintage Trailer Supply. At one point he was considering recasting some of them, but the process was too expensive to consider.

Since there are already holes in the trailer for this light that would not be covered up by teardrop running lights, I really prefer to use these original fixtures.

The reason I was doing this in the first place was because not all my marker lights were coming on when I used a battery charger to test the circuit. It is ran the exact same way as the original with a single leg covering both street side fixtures, the tail lights, and the curbside rear light. The curbside front is a short separate leg. The curbside front has no issues lighting up, but when I power the other circuit, the trouble light on the charger lights up. I have continuity through the lines, but no voltage. I was grounding to the fresh C channel. Perhaps there is not enough amperage passing through the lines from the battery charger, but I am not an electrical genius.

Getting back to work

2010-02-23T07:32:00.005-06:00

It's been a long and cold winter to this point. Instead of freezing my butt off in the uninsulated trailer, I have been spending more time with the family. A month ago, I sold our third trailer, a 63 Tradewind, and the new owner and I have been working on it for camping season.

Yesterday, my new friend Brian, (the Tradewind owner), came over to assist on working on the flying cloud. We pulled all of the new 110v wiring, and most of the 12v system wiring. We still need to run wiring for the porch light, two ceiling lights, and the DSI circuit of the future hot water heater.

We did accomplish some other things though. We installed the water fill and water tank vent in the front of the trailer. These are marine parts which will require a little finagling on my part to integrate into the system, but well worth the look.

We also installed this umbilical outlet on the front of the trailer. I like how our 75 has a removable trailer cable when not in use, and decided to do it on my Flying Cloud. I didn't like the plastic on Vintage Trailer Supply, so I went to etrailer.com's HQ which is a few miles down the road. The cover is galvanized, So in time it will rust, but I hope it's awhile till that happens

More later.

Steve

3...2...1...Blast Off

2009-11-17T17:58:00.002-06:00

For months I have been looking for a local company that does soda blasting, but have had little luck. The lone prospect wanted $100 per hour, $50 a bag of blasting soda, and $0.58 cents a mile to my house for gas. I was born at night, but not last night!

So last Friday I was perusing the website of everybody's favorite place to hate on. The place where cheap and poorly made Chinese tools live...Harbor Freight. They had a portable soda blaster that held 10 pounds of media on sale for $79.00. I figured at this price it was worth it even if I had to bring the tool back. I picked up the blaster, set of funnels, and a 50 pound bag of blasting soda for $145.00.

Harbor Freight's 10 lb soda blasting rig

Assembly at home took 10 minutes, and was pretty straight forward. I took it outside and set my sights on cleaning off my front and rear trim caps. The caps were covered in paint and bondo from a previous panel accident. It took a few minutes to get the adjustments right, but the blaster worked incredibly well. Last week I had applied paint stripper and took several coats of paint off, but most of it wouldn't budge. The results of soda blasting are quite amazing.

56 years of paint and bondo

After a couple minutes of blasting with medium grit blast media

Clean with minimal effort

Soda blasting causes no damage to the metal surface

Completely done stripping the paint and bondo.

With the trim cap completely stripped, we installed it using round headed stainless steel screws. The cap doesn't fit perfectly, and I suppose it never fit perfectly on the original skin either. Strategically placed sealant will clean the edge up where the cap doesn't fully mesh against the front panel.

Vintage Eyes

2009-11-02T19:27:00.011-06:00

Well...I had a nice long posting all drawn out, and then my computer decided to go into shutdown mode, and the draft I saved is NOWHERE to be found. In short, Bob and I were able to use our 4 hour half day to good use, and got the front window reinstalled into the trailer. Rebuilding this window took a very long time, and there are a great number of parts to it even though it may not look like it.

We started by finishing the reassembly of the windw since I had missed a few rivets while I was last working on it months ago. I popped them into place, and slid in the newly rebuilt sash. I didn't have my camera, so sorry for no pics.

Next we dry fit the window into place. These old 50's windows sandwiches in between the top of the front curved panel, and a bracing panel that is inside the front endcap. This was done to assist in shedding water and help with rigidity. The holes lined up perfectly, but we had a couple of holes that would not hold tight with a 5/32 cleco fastener.

Window in place with clecos

After the dry fit, we removed the window and I applied a hefty bead of vulkem on three sides of the window opening where the windo would overlap the skin. The top would be vulkemed later once the window was installed.

Be liberal with sealant, and clean it up later before it is completely cured.

We placed the window back in the opening and seated it against the bead of vulkem. We then clecoed through the holes and proceeded to buck rivet the window into place. Each rivet squeezed a little more vulkem out the sides of the window ensuring me a water tight fit. A few holes that were too wide for a 5/32 solid rivet were replaced with olympic rivets. These worked like a charm. After the riveting, I proceeded to wipe off the excess vulkem with a laquer thinner soaked rag. I shaved the few olympics that we had to install with Bob's shaver tool, and we were done.

Get the mess off now or be sorry later.

We were running out of daylight quickly, and the sun had already gone over the horizon. We were working off the streetlight, and decided that we couldn't get much more done. I decided last minute to install the drip cap over the window to have a complete front window ensemble. I applied a liberal bead of sealant to the back of the drip cap, and used olympics in the installation. The originals were buck rivets, but I wanted the ease of olympics in the little light we had. I shaved the mandrels off, wiped the sealant residue, and called it a night.

Rebuilt window fully riveted and sealed

The Cylon

More work tomorrow with hopes of getting a couple more windows installed and the front panel completely fastened.

Another couple of days, and a few steps closer

2009-10-24T22:19:00.011-05:00

Since my last post, Bob and I have worked a few times on the Flying Cloud. Our first step was to get the front and rear sub floor installed. We spent a few hours one morning taking measurements, and looking at the only piece of flooring that I was able to salvage from the original. By the end of the day, we had both front and rear curves cut and installed. We also installed a long piece of angle aluminum to act as the steel backing plate found in most Airstreams, but not found in the early 50's (at least not on mine).

The next order of business was the front belly pan and panel replacement. The original front panel looks like it had been in a jack knife with both front corners dented, painted, and had bondo filler. It had to be replaced. I took off the front panel first to make it easier to do the front pan.Panel removed, and belly pan ready to put in place

I won't lie...it was a monster. We didn't have a special curved cut in the side of our version, and it completely effected the outcome. Our panel buckled multiple times no matter how we tried to work it, and we decided to call it a day. Bob and I both agreed to look over the forums again to see what we needed to do.

Bad buckling

Buckle in an overlap

After some research, it turns out that the small curves were essential to being able to bend it properly, and give relief. We were able to salvage most of the original piece of 5052 that we used, and will need only a small amount of beautification. It still took awhile, but we were able to get the front pan installed, and had minimal effects on the aluminum from our first attempt. We bent the new panel edges into place, and it fit with very minimal adjusting. We were stoked!

Bob lays the original panel over our first attempt.

Bob finishes the new belly piece (Notice the small curves cut on the rear edges)

Front belly pan at the A frame

While Bob was doing some work with the belly pan, I pulled out a nice new sheet of Alclad, and began laying out the new front panel. I traced the outline for the old sheet, and used a sharpie to hit all the rivet holes for drilling. We took a straight edge down the centers of the sharpie marks to ensure we had good markings on center. After we confirmed we were laid out well, I used a spring loaded punch to make a starting point for the drill bit.

Old on top of new to get a perfect cut

Checking out hole placement with the straight edge.

Starting rivet holes with a spring loaded punch

With the front panel drilled and ready for installation, we installed the front window frame back inside the opening. This would gave us some ribs to rivet to, and help the front curves hold the shape they needed to be in before we installed the panel. With the frame back in place, I decided to reinstall the piece of aluminum that I can only describe as a backing plate. This panel must have been used for rigidity.

Window frame and front ribs back in place.

Backing panel reinstalled

With the backing piece in, Bob and I grabbed the wobbly new front panel. To our surprise, the panel was very easy to bend around the front, and get into place. We placed a cleco in each window corner, and on at the edge of the 13 panel line of rivets. We proceeded to line up the holes on the front panel, and cleco them into place. One by one we pulled the clecos and buck riveted the panel into place.Bob poses after getting the panel roughed in

I drilled the front while Bob pushed the backside with a piece of steel to prevent dimples.

Almost finished with the panel

Making sure the Clecos we re holding

The first in a long line of buck rivets

The front panel was stable and attached to the frontribs. We decided that we had enough time to rivet both sides of the panel to the 13 panel crown. We started working from the window to the outside with our drilling. The rivet holes in the 13 panels crown made it simple to follow. We placed a cleco after each hole was completed. Bob was still pushing on the inside with a piece of steel so we didn't dimple the skin. By now, a good friend of mine named Rob had arrived with his family for dinner, and helped us out. He would pull the cleco out of the hole before Bob and I bucket it in permanently. Every other rivet we moved to opposite side of the panel to prevent it from walking. Rob probably saved us 20-30 minutes of just picking up the cleco pliers every time we finished with a rivet. After a loud 25 minutes, we arrived at rivet nirvana.

Streetside front

Curbside front

We are hopeful that tomorrow we will have a chance to get the front window installed along with two other completed windows, and get the front panel riveted to the C channel.

Hope you enjoyed

How build a trailer in nine hours

2009-10-03T22:42:00.013-05:00

I know it has been several months since my last post, but I have been busy. A couple of weeks ago, Amy and I hosted the 50th Anniversary rally to celebrate Cape Town to Cairo. At the rally, several forum folks were asking me when I was going to have my Flying cloud ready. My reply was, "Never at my current pace without any help!". Several of them said that they would be interested in helping me right the ship so to speak, and we set up October 3rd to meet up and do the work.

I have found that using the three steps below, you can accomplish anything.

Step 1: Recruit outstanding people to help you in your effort. Thank you so much to Mike, Tina, Alan, Rob, Jonathan, Roger, and Bob. Without your help, this project probably wouldn't have gotten to this point for another year. Other than being gracious enough to help with the rebuild, everyone showed up pretty early in the morning (for a Saturday), and some drove from an hour or over two hours away. These people are great friends to do this.

Step 2: Supply BBQ to the workers not once, but twice. I fired up the smoker at around 0700 to cook the chicken and pork shoulder. The chicken was done for lunch, and the pork made excellent dinner. Thank you Tina for bringing the apple/sweet potato dish, and the cookies.

Smoker rolling at 0730

Step 3: Have the right tools for the job. I had most all the tools for the build that were needed, but the fact that everyone brought more tools really helped out. Mike brought his sheet metal tools, and was a great knowledge source for the belly pan. A creeper would have been a great thing to have after rolling around on my back under the belly pan.

Jonathan was the first arrival short after 0800. We had a short discussion, had some breakfast strudel, and started getting things ready. Shortly after we pulled out the wheel wells, Roger, Bob, Alan, and Rob arrived minutes within one another.

We began with centering the wheel wells over the tires, and took measurements for the new Advantech flooring we would be using. Jonathan used it in his, and I read on the forums how great it was. Roger jumped right in and began cutting.

Making sure the wells fit correctly

Bob, Roger, Alan, and Jonathan survey the sheet before cutting

Roger Makes the first crosscut

As most of us were working on the floor and wheel wells, Bob took it upon himself to put in new bracing of the shell. This was a tedious task that he did alone for the most part. It was really being an unsung hero since he was off in his own little world.

Checking the old bracing

Bob decides it needs to be redone

While attaching the first sheet of flooring, Mike and Tina showed up. Mike immediately began screwing down the second sheet of flooring into the frame. At this point there was a small dilemma, and a new piece of plywood was required along with more #2 Phillips head bits, and some decking screws to assist Bob in his bracing. When I returned, the third middle floor section was cut and attached.

Before we could drop the shell, we would have to get the C channel on, and the belly pan. I bolted the channel through each outrigger with a wide head elevator bolt, and bent the end of the bolt over once the nut was fastened tightly. Between the outriggers I used hex headed zinc plated screws with neoprene washers on them. I hope the washers will prevent some of the corrosion that had occurred with the last floor bolts that were installed.

With the middle flooring and C channel installed, we turned out eyes to the belly pan. First temporarily fastened it to the C channel on one side with some Cleco fasteners. After the Clecos were in, we began to form it to the bottom of the belly pan with the help of some pulling, and 2x4's to hold it against the floor bottom. I laid under the trailer and drilled up through the belly pan and the frame to have a good spot to rivet. The frame space just rear of the axle was left open inbetween the main frame rails. This will allow me to accompdate a gray water tank in the future. We dud however wrap from the channel to the main rail.

Cleco Vision

Mike forms the rear wheel well pan

Mike measures while I drill holes, and rivet the pan into place

Mike measures for the partial belly

Roger, Mike, and Alan cutting the partial pan

We finally finished fitting the belly pan for the middle section, and it was time to buck rivet the pan to the channel. I had bought my rivet gun and bucking bar so long ago, and finally I had a chance to use it. I was unsure about the bucking process, but Mike (MASTER of all trades) was very familiar with it. He held the bucking bar and told me to just feather the trigger to mash the buck tail. A few seconds later, I felt like I had mastered the process. Bucking rivets isn't anything like I imagined. It was fast, easy, inexpensive, and very fun. Bob wanted his turn at bucking as well since he will be restoring his Around the World Ambassador. Roger, Jonathan, and myself fell into such a groove while bucking rivets down the line. Jonathan compared us to a NASCAR pit crew since we were moving so fast.

Clamp, rivet, repeat

Roger takes over as the bucker while I hammer the rivets

The pit crew in action

Bob tries his hand at bucking

The weather was starting to get cooler out, and we were losing daylight. We knew we had to get the shell moving if we were to get it done. We rolled the chassis out of the spot we were working on it, and up in front of the shell.

We hooked the chassis up to Alan's truck so when we put weight down, it wouldn't shoot the tongue up in the air. All six of us went inside the trailer and lined up three in front, and three in the back. We lifted the shell by the bracing, and walked forward. I was the first to arrive at the chassis, and had to step over the first cross members, and then onto the first section of flooring. The others followed until we were completely over the frame.

The three young guns prepping to lift

Over the frame shimmying into place

After the shimmy, we were finally in place to stop. The shell is back on, but not completely fastened yet. That will have to be done once I get the new flooring and belly pan in place. It looks a little weird without the fender covers over the wheel wells and missing half the pan, but it doesn't look that bad to me.

Shell on...for at least another 56 years

We cleaned up our giant mess, people loaded their tools into the vehicles, and we proceeded to feast on BBQ and the normal fixings. I am sore, tired, but overall extremely grateful for the friends who game me their Saturday.

Steve

Lazy Poster

2009-07-07T13:55:00.002-05:00

I apologize that it's been awhile since my last post. Between the extreme heat here in Missouri, and the long hours I am putting in with my toxicology business, I have not been working on my trailer much. I did manage to get the front four pieces of the sub floor cut, and only need to template the rear curve to finish. I also bought some oil based deck sealant for all the wood surfaces. Two gallons should be enough to double coat the entire floor.

After the floor I need to find a shop that can fabricate new wheel wells for me. The person I had making me free ones said the stainless scrap he had was too thin, and the tig welder burned through it pretty easy.

I found a place locally that sells 5052 .032 sheet for several dollars less than 5052 .025 online. The issue I am reading is that the .032 is far more difficult to work with. This may influence me to buy the thinner aluminum to save the hassle. I also need to get new C or J channel made for my trailer. The old channel was pretty beat up, and wasn't salvageable. I could use the ALCLAD skin from the old shower, but braking this may be too difficult. Anyone out there want to let me know what they are using for channel?

Steve

50th Anniversary Cape(town) to Cairo Caravan and Rally Recon

2009-06-16T19:27:00.016-05:00

As you all know, I am hosting the 50th Anniversary Cape(town) to Cairo Airforums gathering this September. This event will start with a short caravan from Cape Girardeau, MO to Cairo, IL and back. We will be camping in Cape once we finish the 68 mile round trip.

Today, I decided to travel to Cape Girardeau to do a few meet and greets with the RV park, chamber of commerce, parks department, and prospective caterers.

The day started out rough. It was pouring in the St. Louis rush hour traffic around 8:30 AM. What normally takes me 20 minutes took double with people acting like they had never seen rain before.
The fun wouldn't end so quickly though, as almost the entire trip to Cape would be a nasty downpour preventing me from attaining the 70 MPH I desperately wanted to go. Several cars were less fortunate and ended up in the median or a ditch.

About 20 miles from Cape, I lucked out. The front was clearing out, and I would be able to drive the rest of the way on relatively dry pavement. I took this picture as I came to the end of the weather system.As what happens a great deal of the time, luck runs dry...pun intended. The heavens opens and poured down a hard rain as I entered Cape Girardeau. Fortunately for me, the RV Park was less than two miles from the exit.

The RV park is actually located in Cape Girardeau, and not on the outskirts. The workers told me that it was originally a driving range that went under. I am not going to lie, the park is pretty tight. A love thy neighbor type establishment. Due to the large amount of construction in the Cape Girardeau area, the park was packed with full timing construction workers. I was told that a group of pipeline workers was set to leave the first week of September. Due to this being the only park in Cape Girardeau, it is always busy according to staff. There are a few sites that offer water and electric only and are listed as tent sites. They are $20 per night if the park runs out of full hook-up sites.

Park overview from office

Paved main drives

The only Airstream in the park

The park has a nice pool that may still be open during the rally, a small general store, mini golf for the kids, laundry, and restroom facilities. Since there is another rally being held the same weekend as ours, we are unable to use the RV park's recreational center. Our Friday night happy hour and pot luck will be held pond side at the site below. I am asking all of you who have small 10x10 pop up tents or gazebos to bring them. We can move some picnic tables over, and use the fire ring. The owner said we can bring a generator and string lights if we desire. This will give us more room and less congestion than the main camping area. Any musicians among us?

Private pond that is catch and eat. No license required.

Nice level site for Friday evening

After I finished at the RV park the rain started to lighten up. I made my way to Kiwanis park where we have a pavilion reserved for the Saturday evening meal. This was the largest pavilion in Cape Girardeau that I could secure before the rally since other events are being held that weekend. Kiwanis park is only 2.5 miles from the Cape RV Park and is very easy to get to. The pavilion has four grills and eight picnic tables. With each table seating eight, we should have more than enough room for people and food. There is 110 electric at the pavilion to plug in an amplifier for Pee Wee, and projector if I can secure some slides of the original trip. For anyone other than us who is bringing kids, there is a huge playground right next to the pavilion that will be a nice distraction for them.

After visiting the park, I had a 1:30 appointment with the Visitor's center that is run by the chamber of commerce. The point was to travel around Cape and find a suitable departure point for the caravan, photograph the bridge lanes, and the main route we will take one in Illinois. I met with Chuck, and we quickly got underway. At first Chuck took me to a few places up river from the bridge so I could get some photos. The bridge is a newly constructed (2004) suspension bridge that took better than a decade to complete.

View from old bridge memorial

Upriver view 1

Upriver view 2

View from downtown Cape Girardeau.

After getting a view, I wanted to get some pictures of the traffic lanes. The bridge is four lanes with two lanes going in each direction. The lanes are generous, and should be no problem for wide body trailers. There is a full shoulder on the bridge in the event of an emergency stop. The pictures below show the east bound lanes into Illinois. The westbound return lanes are identical.

Passing into Illinois

Full Shoulder

After exiting the bridge we will have a short journey until we reach IL-Route 3. Below are pictures of what our entire route should look like. A two lane road with partial paved shoulder. There is enough of a flat grass space that does extended past the paved area in the event we need to stop.

IL-Route 3 to Cairo

Chuck drove me down to Thebes, IL which is about five miles down IL-route 3. At Thebes there was a historical marker for the Great River Road, and oddly enough...two Airstreams. We turned around and headed back to Cape.

80's Excella

70's Overlander?

The last order of business Chuck and I had was to find a departure point for the caravan. This point will also serve as a staging point for anyone who arrives late on the day prior. I explained what we needed was a large parking lot, preferably paved, with an easy route to the bridge. Not that I intend on using several puns, but Chuck hit a home run.

Allow me to present the Shawnee Athletic Complex in Cape Girardeau. This complex houses five

baseball diamonds surrounded by a parking lot. The parking lot makes a full 180 so entering and exiting won't be an issue. There are also public restroom facilities and fresh water that anyone boon docking overnight can utilize. There will be no games in session at the time of the caravan, so privacy should be easy.

Satellite View

Panoramic pic of lot

Not only is the location perfect for staging a caravan, it is extremely close to the bridge. Chuck plans on talking to the city police, and will ask them to block the few intersections off between the park and bridge so we don't lose anyone in traffic due to stop lights. While not entirely a necessity, it would be very convenient to have.

Chuck is going to speak with the Parks and Recreation department to ensure everything runs smoothly with getting Shawnee reserved for us. He also plans to contact the local television, radio stations, and news paper. I hope to see a great amount of press for Airstream and the remembrance of the original caravan.

Before I left town, I stopped in at one of the restaurants I was speaking to about catering. The owners were very nice, and their restaurant was very classy. I feel that they are completely capable to making our Saturday evening meal, but their price is past where our rally fees have been set, and that wouldn't be including other things that need to be taken care of. I am still waiting to hear from a few other places though, and have not ruled anything out completely

It was a long and exhausting day, but it is over now. Hope you all have a better understanding of our September event, and are looking forward to it as much as I am.

Steve

2009 Moraine View Rally

2009-06-16T19:04:00.002-05:00

After returning home last Thursday due to hurting my neck, I was faced with a decision. Should I stay at home doing nothing while laying around to allow my neck to get better, or do I take a chance with my neck, and go camping? The main reason I was sent home was because of the conditions of the field environment on my bodies natural healing ability to correct the issue. After debating a few hours, I felt that since I would be sleeping on a real bed with plenty of support, I could take the chance and camp.

Making the rally was a last second thought. I called another member attending and asked them to reserve me a spot. Not only was I lucky enough to get a spot, but since I have served a deployment with the reserves, I was given FREE camping for the weekend!!!

The weekend was great. There was no rain, minimal insects, lots of great food, and nice people to camp with. We didn't have a chance to make it to the rally last year due to my annual training, so we had not seen several attendees for two years.

I forgot my camera, so thanks to forums member Tin Loaf for taking some great shots below. The entire gallery from this rally can be seen here.

Killer Potluck

Amy and I talking with Sara and Maggie

Roger making sure I don't fall while leak testing

One special thing I want to include in this post is a picture of Pete and Sara at work. Pete and Sara have attended the past three Moraine View Rally events, and each time they bring their harp and dulcimer to play after dinner music. In fact, all weekend gentle sounds of the Renaissance period could be heard across the park. It was a real treat for everyone. I even requested them to play the official Army Song, and they did so having never rehearsed or played it before.

Thanks to all who made it such a great event for everyone.

Steve

2009-06-13T11:26:00.001-05:00

Stuck in a rut with no net. Sugarfoot...please get a hold of me as soon as possible

2009-06-11T15:18:00.001-05:00

Injured

I have not posted for a few days due to an injury sustained in the line of duty. I injured my neck, and 3 days of meds and therapy have had no effect

2009-06-09T07:30:00.001-05:00

Day 3 and 4

Day 3 was my b day and pretty uneventful here at the FOB. We sat around and watched movies.

Day 4 I spent in the rack on flexeri with neck pain.

2009-06-07T07:23:00.001-05:00

Day 2/15

After sitting around until around noon doing nothig, we finally convoyed up to the training site. We spent the next few hours getting our tent set up

2009-06-06T08:03:00.001-05:00

Day 1 of 15 recap.

I left the house on Friday at about 545 AM to get rto Springfield, I'll with time to spare. The day was over by noon. Hurry up and wait.

2009-06-04T18:05:00.001-05:00

This is a test of the emergency blogging system. If this works I can update my blog for my blackberry...MUHAHA

POR and Floor

2009-06-04T16:24:00.001-05:00

Over the past few days I have been working as much on the Flying Cloud as my job allows. I am leaving for two weeks for Annual training, and wanted to cover the frame before I did. A few days ago I started painting with POR-15 at 0700. Many hours in the hot sun and humid air later I was finished. After top coating the front and back areas, I took a can of Rustoleum black on the rest of the chassis and running gear. This was advised by Davis Winick when I inquired if I needed to POR the springs and u bolts.

I was content with leaving it like this for the next two weeks while I am away for training.

Earlier today I got a call from my friend to see if I wanted to go to Lowes with him. I went along to get som escotchgard for water proofing my stuff at AT. When we got back he wanted to look at how the wood fit the frame. It turned into a cut and fitting fest with both curved end pieces being cut and fitted.

Front Floor

Rear Floor.

The only other pieces are straight cuts that will have to wait until I return from AT. Hopefully thosewill go fast, and I will find a shop that can get some aluminum channel made for me.

Steve

Axle job accomplished

2009-05-31T19:10:00.004-05:00

Tonight I installed a new Dexter axle on the Flying Cloud. Since the old axle an springs were removed, it was a fast process that took just over an hour.

I had purchased all everything needed for the job as a new part since many of the old parts were worn or damaged during removal.

First we bolted the springs back on the front side of the axle. After that we moved the axle under the trailer, and used two jacks to hold it in place while we bolted the other side of the springs in place on the new shackles.

The only real problem was with the U-bolts that I bought at the store that I purchased the axle at. The mounts on the original axle where it sat on top of the leaf springs was not very tall. The new Dexter axle's mount is an inch taller, and made it so that the U-bolts I had wouldn't work. I went to St. Louis Spring, and had a custom set of U-bolts fabricated for less than I paid for the ones at the store.

Original Mount

New mount

All said and done, the installation was fast, easy, and painless. Hope you all have the same experience.

Steve

I love the smell of welding in the morning

2009-05-18T21:02:00.005-05:00

Long time no post. I have been so busy with running two businesses that I have hardly had time to do any blogging. Today I finally got some work done on the Flying Cloud.

There were several cross members and outriggers that needed to be replaced on the old frame, and today I had the welder/fabricator come out to do the work. The job took four hours and $300 cash, but I have a strong and reinforced frame that should last a lifetime after I paint it with POR-15. After the welder left I spent a few hours on my back grinding off old rivets and screws that once held the old belly pan on.

I had the welder fabricate the outriggers out of usable steel from the removed cross members. I had plenty of 3" channel from the new cross members, so the old ones were turned into outriggers.

I am looking forward to having time next week to getting the new axle installed, and getting the floor replaced. I need to find a local source for the metal I will use for C channel and the belly skin.

Steve

A trip to the Bluegrass State

2009-04-25T10:13:00.007-05:00

Last weekend the family and I took a trip to the Dogwoods and Bluegrass Airforums rally held at Natural Bridge State park. It was a great chance to meet many of the fine forum folks that I have chatted with over the years, and rekindle with friends from past rally events. Amy got home from work at 5:30 on Thursday, and we headed out of town. Here is a picture of the main attraction at the state park we were heading to.

Natural Bridge Rock Formation

Our first night we stayed in Richmond, KY about 45 minutes from the rally location. We were courtesy parked by Brad and Susan of Alumatube forum fame. We arrived around 0200 local time, and turned in for the night. The next morning I decided to try and get some fishing in, but the wet grass, cool weather, and no bites brought me back to the trailer faster than I intended. The walk from the lake was not however uneventful. Our Boston Terrier, Paige, saw Brad and Susan's Mule in the pasture on the way out to the lake, and proceeded to bark at it. On the way back to the trailer Paige inadvertently walked under the pasture fence where the mule was about 200 yards away. The mule charged at the dog, but she had her backed turned to it. I yelled as much as possible for her to get out, but she didn't and the mule stomped her. With the yelp that she let out, I thought her back was broken. After the stomp, Paige ran off towards the trailer. The combination of no shoes on the mule and the deep mud she was stepped into likely prevented anything other than a bruise and being scared. After we made sure Paige was alright, we took Collin outside to meet some of the neighbor's ponys.

Susan came home for her luch break for a few hours in the morning to spend some time with us, and we left shortly after she went back to work. Getting down her driveway was a bit tricky without a turn around, but Amy and I navigated the 1100 foot drive with few problems. We hit the country roads, and arrived at the rally around 1 PM local time on Friday.

Over the next two days the park filled up with Airstreams and Argosy trailers from the 60's, 70's 80's, 90's, and even new units. This rally set a record for me seeing three tri-axle 34 footers in a single rally. Here are a few shots from the rally.

All set up and ready to rally
Wrestling with Collin

Collin with his hat given to him by Susan (Thanks Aunt Suz)

Fishing for Rainbow Trout

Dave and I feeling the evening chill

Got One!

View from the hill
A whole lot of Silver

Amy making pancakes

I was able to promote my leak testing services while at this rally, and tested three trailers and a motorhome. The motorhome was tested two years ago, and wanted to stay on top of their leaks (Which there were plenty of). I also tested a 72 Safari that had been sealed by its' owner, and had very few leaks. I found the most leaks on a 2008 Front Bed owned by Hank and Lois Grabowski. They have blogged about their experience on their blog.

Installing the ceiling piece of the equipment

Side panel leak

Awning arm leak

Panoramic window leak 1

Panoramic window leak 2

Heading out to the rally at Rend Lake, IL in a week...can't wait!

Sorry I'm late...

2009-04-14T14:28:00.009-05:00

There has been a flurry of activity going on around here, and I haven't really had time to post lately. Between work, working on the Airstream, household chores, and the military I haven't had alot of time to post.

Last weekend we held our fourth biannual Branson Rally, and it was a great success. It started out as a mini caravan through hours of rain with another forums member (Tinlaof). We met up at a local Missouri rest stop, let the dogs out, and proceeded to get a move on down south.

Many familiar faces and several new folks joined us from across Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, Oklahoma, Kansas, and even Minnesota.

The potluck was amazing as usual, and one local stated it was the best buffet in all of Branson. I have noticed at all rally events I attend that there are some culinary geniuses out on the Airforums. We have started compiling recipes for our Airforums "SilverPlatter" cookbook.

I consider it a blessing that the McDowell family brought along their daughter Hope to the rally. Collin is usually the only child, and now he had someone to play with, and did for almost the entire rally. Jack and Kani had their grandson Harrison, but he left after the first night. This kids had fun dying easter eggs and hunting for them later.

Last time I posted on the Airstream was when I brought home the plywood for the floor. Since then, I ordered and received my 30 gallon tank from PPL Motorhomes with grommets for venting and inlets. I also received my new complete 6,000 lb Dexter axle.

Due to severe rusting, I had to have my friend come over and cut off the street side leaf spring with an oxy-acetylene torch. Once it cooled, I used a wire wheel and my angle grinder to remove the thicker areas of surface rust and old and dried greese off the springs. The last piece of the puzzle is to remove the old steel bushings that are wedged into the leak springs. Some torch heat and an air hammer should take care of that today. Once it is all said and done, my leaf springs have a date with POR-15. I wanted to paint them before reinstalling them on the chassis. Once the axle is reinstalled, I will level the frame, and replace three outriggers, the rear cross member, and add a 4" channel where the gray water tank will reside.

Tomorrow we're off to the Kentucky Rally at Natural Bridge. Ahh the rally season is in full swing!

Steve

How not to repair your floor

2009-03-24T21:12:00.005-05:00

After returning from ordering my axle this morning, I had little time before the rain was due to hit. I wanted to try and get some of the flooring removed from the frame. I decided the easiest parts to remove would be the repairs done by the last owner.

What was this guy thinking? They used four pieces in odd shapes to replace a small piece up front, and the curbside under the window. Every place that I found an elevator bolt that would connect the shell/floor/frame together, I found the wood notched out around the bolts. Gimme a break.

Curbside piece

Front Piece

So you may be wondering how these pieces other than being squeezed together would be sitting in place. They were all silicone caulked together, and screwed into a plywood spline underneath. What a great feat of engineering on the worker's behalf. I wonder if the guy who replaced it was living in it at a mobile home park since it had no holding tanks.

After this I grabbed my trusty circular saw, set the blade for a smidgen less than 5/8" and cut out the area from the center of the floor to the curbside step. Interestingly enough, the step is comprised of a 2x8 that is capped with a 2x4. I may change this depending on how I put the floor back in. I am hoping some other folks with the 50's interior drop down step can give me measurements of theirs.

The original owner must have been really short. Not only does this trailer have the drop down step, but it also had a pull out step installed underneath the drop down step. There isn't a a lot of distance between the interior step and the exterior step underneath. I will probably remove the step underneath, and install on of my stabilizer jacks in its' place (Now to install them before or after the belly pan is installed?).

After getting the thoughts from the folks on here (Which are the same as the forum members that answered my poll), I ordered my new axle today. I took the axle to three different shops, and all three told me the same thing. I didn't have a standard size drop on my axle, and a new drop axle would bring me even closer to the ground. I opted for the 6,000# straight axle so I could keep my 6 bolt pattern wheels, and the spare off the Ambassador. The axle will give me about two more inches of clearance, so the difference will not be as dramatic as originally thought. This will also give me a little more clearance for installing my holding tank. Unfortunately the axle won't be here until the 3rd when we will be in Branson for the Spring Rally. Looks like I'll be busy on the 6th!

Steve

First floor cut made, Drop axle dropped

2009-03-23T19:19:00.003-05:00

Today was productive. On the way home from my Chiropractor I stopped at the lumber yard and picked up five sheets of 3/4" AC fir plywood for the floor.

I only needed one, but why make two separate trips. I unloaded them once arriving home, ad took one piece over to the trailer. I left what was left of the front floor intact so I could template it later. I traced the pattern of the C channel on the plywood from underneath as best I could. I final results were not perfect, but much better than what I currently have with an inch wide silicone snake filling the space they improperly cut. I also think that the C channel I based my measurements off of may be off slightly. From what I have heard, the front and rear curves are the same. I placed the piece of flooring on the rear area, and it appears to be too wide. This piece fits the front very well, but was too wide on the rear. This piece on the front goes the entire width of the outriggers, but is about an inch too wide...weird.

Throw away piece fits nice

After I put the cut plywood back in the garage, I decided to remove the axle. I have been shopping a new axle for about a week since this axle is missing brake parts that I could not locate anywhere. I had the same problem with my 56 Caravanner. The Caravanner axle was replaced with a new complete (straight) axle. This axle is a drop axle, and I am debating whether to keep the drop or go with a straight axle. Straight axles are cheaper and ride a little higher. The extra clearance would be nice since the grey tank I add will likely hang below the belly pan area. Many folks think that the vintage trailers ride too higg with a straight axle, but I have seen torsion axles on some vintage trailers.

This trailer axle and springs are quite beefy. It has a 6 bolt star pattern, and ten total leaf pieces in the springs. I want to use the same type of tires, wheels, as my Ambassador so I want to keep the 6 bolt pattern. Every place I have called so far has said that I need anywhere from a 5000-6000 pound axle. I cannot see why this axle was installed on such a light trailer, but perhaps it was an option in 1953 or is a replacement(?).

With rusty bolts all around, I decided it better (and faster :)) to cut off the rear shackle and the U bolts. I would rather replace them with new parts. The springs will be wire brished and painted with POR-15 or some kind of epoxy paint.

I have started a thread regarding the drop axle vs straight axle with poll on the forums here.

Steve

What a wild week or work.

2009-03-22T12:13:00.005-05:00

As of the 19th, I decided to make this shell off project. I have been keeping tabs on Crazy corpsman's blog and saw his shell bracing. It looked simple enough to do on my own, and with a 21 foot trailer, not that much work on my part. I also got a quote from a restoration company of $2200 to remove and replace the shell. Since most all of my rivets were already removed...I decided to give it a shot.

The bracing materials cost me about $45.00 for screws, 2x4 lumber, etc. After 2 hours of cutting and installing I was done. I cut a small hole in the belly pan to give me a point to jack it up, and proceeded to jack the shell up as you can see in the pic.

Braced and ready for lifting.

After bracing everything on the 19th, I went ahead and removed the shell the next day. It took me a couple hours by myself shoring the shell little by little. I actually had to raise the front end higher than I was comfortable with the get the tires under the 4x4 posts even after I deflated them.

After getting the front end high enough to let the tires clear, I hooked the hitch to my truck, and slowly pulled the frame out. Once that was completed, I began the process of lowering the supports so the shell wasn't so high. My neighbor came over that night, and we each picked up a side of the 4x4 while Amy removed blocks underneath until we had the shell sitting on only one block.

Finally on the ground

With the rear floor gone, I need to use the front floor to template my new front and rear end caps. From the pics you can see that this floor was pieced together with several pieces. On the curbside they actually cut the flooring wrong, and have about a one inch blob of silicone in between the wood and side skin.

Bad floor repair by a PO or service department

While I prepare to template the floor and get the frame welded, I need to worry about tanks. This trailer was built before the factory started adding holding tanks, and this one just dumped onto the ground. My thoughts now turn to whether I want to do a black tank only, a combo tank, or both gray and black tanks. The trailer currently has NO plans for a shower since we have a shower in the Ambassador, and NEVER use the thing. We always camp where there are shower houses, and most of those are very nice. My old 56 Caravanner had a black tank only, and all the gray water went to a PVC pipe under the trailer to use with a blue boy or hookup.

Below is a picture of my frame. The red circle is where the old toilet dumped through the floor and onto the ground. The red square is where a propose above floor black tank would be installed. The two yellow areas are spots that I could separate gray tank. One thing that concerns me is the tanks will be either over the axle or behind the axle. To me the axle placement on this trailer is to far forward, and should be placed further back. Another concern is not only venting the tanks, but the drain and dump valves. These reasons make me consider a black only or combo tank.

I found a local aluminum supplier that carries 4x10 sheets of 5052 .032 for the belly pan for $62.00 a sheet. This is $3.30 less per linear foot than Airparts. I didn't find out if they carry ALCLAD or not, but if not then I will order from Airparts for this.

After my frame gets repaired, I want to get my new axle installed. The local Dexter Supplier can get a new complete 4 inch drop axle without springs for around $275. Yesterday I checked the bearings and they were pretty much non existant. I also looked at the axle to find two broken shackles like this.

With no bearings, shredded tires, and two broken shackles on the running gear, I cannot believe I made it home in one piece.

Steve

Fantastic Fan Installation

2009-03-15T18:04:00.007-05:00

Today I decided to install my newly purchased Fantastic Fan that arrive a week ago from Vintage Trailer Supply. With my date of departure getting close I have been mostly working on restoring windows and getting estimates from shops. No matter where I end up sending the trailer to get work done, I have to remove the old and ugly AC unit from the roof. It has been sitting up on top unsecured with no bracing or interior skins for a few months now.

I pushed around on the AC unit from underneath, but it wouldn't move at all. I got inside the trailer and used a floor jack and a 2x4 to jack the hulk off the roof. I lifted each side with the jack, and placed a piece of cardboard underneath it. The trick was going to be getting it off the roof. I called a neighbor over, and we were able to pull the cardboard towards us enough to get the AC into our arms. Climbing down a ladder with an AC unit weighing over 100 pounds was difficult, and we must have looked nuts.
After removal of the beastly former cooling unit, I had this mess to contend with. The person who installed this unit wasn't satisfied with the AC gasket's ability to do its' job, and laid a thick bead of black sealant that looks more like tar than anything else.

Scraping with a putty knife and my all in one painter tool was getting me nowhere. I decided to pull out the big guns, and put 4.5" wire wheel onto my angle grinder. Between the gasket being torn to shreds and the tar, I blanketed myself, the Airstream, and the driveway with a fine coating of foam and tar. A little lacquer thinner and srubbing with a sponge got me a nice clean look.

The hole you see above was the original hole from the Hehr vent. The corners on the hole are radius curves, and needed to be squared up. A few snips from my metal shears, and the buzz of the grinder to smooth them out and I was all set.

After cleaning up the corners, I dry fit the unit in place to ensure everything fit well.

I added a hole in the roof rib where the 12v wiring will be supplied from. I placed a flexible plastic grommet from Home Depot to ensure the metal wont cut the wires in the future.

Having never installed one of these fans before, I contacted the factory. I was unsure about using the closed cell foam gasket that resembles styrofoam. The factory rep was adamant about using the gasket, and then sealing around the base with sealant as well as over every screw. The rep told me to have someone on the interior push up on the skin with a block of wood where I was screwing the fan in at. Amy felt she was finally up to helping on something with the trailer, and was my helper. With some of the screws, I had to pierce the skin and rib below with a 1/8" drill bit. I installed the fan without the lid on to ease installation, and prevent my keyless drill chuck from rubbing on the lid.

After all the screws were installed, I went around the perimeter and trimmed the gasket foam that was sticking out around some of the edges. A utility knife handled this without any issues.

I reinstalled the vent lid, applied the UV protectant that came with it, and proceeded to seal the edges and screws. The instructions called for silicone, but there was no way I was using it. I went ahead and used the Parbond rubber sealant since the tip was small, and game a manageable bead of sealant. I was concerned about covering the screws, but every other fan install from the factory that I have seen has done this, and not nearly as pretty.

I still need to replace the front hehr vent with a non-fan Fantastic vent. I figure that process will take less than half the time since there is no AC unit to remove, and no tar that will require extensive removal and cleaning. I was pretty nervous about being on the roof with no interior skin in the trailer, but the shell held with no problems.

All for now.

Plans change...they always do.

2009-03-05T21:14:00.003-06:00

A few weeks ago I was moving right along on the "FC". The weather is starting to get better, and I just received a slew of parts from Vintage Trailer Supply. My personal time for working on the flying cloud however is nearing the end.

I have been applying for radiological technology in the St. Louis area recently, and I am getting responses. The only problem with the local school programs is that they are full time Monday through Friday for two full years, would cost about $12,000, and would discourage me from working.

Enter the usual culprit, the good old US Army. The Army offers an 12 month radiological technology program that is full time, but pays you while attending. One year instead of two and paid while attending sounds good to me. The first catch is having to reenlist to get the school. This adds three to possibly six years to my military career. The second catch is that I will have to relocate from my home for another year without the family.

My current plan is to full time in San Antonio near Fort Sam Houston. It's cheaper than an apartment by far, and gives me everything I need. I will be in San Antonio for at least six months. At the end of that block of instruction I proceed to an Army hospital for six months hands on clinical work.

I have contacted a few trailer restoration companies about picking up where I have left off. I have done a great deal of work, and saved the next person working on it a lot of time. I will have the "FC" dropped off via flat bed trailer to have a minimum of frame repair, frame painted with POR-15, new plywood floor, front panel replacement, new axle installed, windows reinstalled, 12v wiring run to the old 110v light locations, converter/charger/ac/dc distribution panel installed, two fantastic vents installed, and pigtail hooked up with all running and signal lams working. This gives me a blank canvas that is towable, solid, and ready to finish whenever I am ready. The shop will have a year to work on it in between other projects, so this will help keep the price low. Depending on the shop, I can option having other work done after the initial work is completed. Shop rates quoted so far have been $50, $60, and $68.

I'm "Shocked"

2009-02-23T20:02:00.005-06:00

After ripping out the floor and cleaning I have been looking pretty hard at my shocks. They look to be original, and I am wondering if I should loose them all together or replace them. When we had the 56 Caravanner we had a new Dexter axle installed because the electric brakes were toast, and parts could not be found to repair the axle. The RV shop told me that I didn't need new shocks because they don't really make a difference nowadays. He said that folks used to ride in these trailers and the ride needed to be softer to make sure nothing jostled around too much. Not knowing anything on axles, I turn to my readers and the forums. I believe that the shocks provide a better ride for the equipment and items inside the trailer while towing, and not just comfortable ride for a person.
Nut where shock bolts to the frame

Shock from above

Shock up close

Another top shot.

If I am to replace the shocks, I am in a dilemma. It looks like the bolt that holds the shock onto the bottom of the leaf springs on the curbside is bent upwards. You cannot tell very well on the pics, but it is bent towards the sky slightly. Another dilema is my POR 15 treatment of the frame. The nut on the inside of the frame where the shock bolts through would be rendered unuseable (I think) once I POR-15 over it.

Seeking expert advice.

Steve

Bargman #5..not all it's cracked up to be.

2009-02-19T20:00:00.002-06:00

Over the last day I have been rebuilding the guys of all my running and tail lights. I took apart the license plate light and started to clean the pieces. The round glass light cover was cracked, and broke during cleaning. The glass may not be a requirement to have the light, but it protects the lamp, and keeps stuff out of the fixture.

I have inquired about them from a few people, and I will wait to see what happens from here on out.

Steve

Moving Day, Loving the Lectro, and an Illuminating experience.

2009-02-18T14:08:00.006-06:00

Today was a big day in preparation of getting to start on the trailer. I started the day by moving the BBQ trailer from the drive and into the front yard. I then hooked up the Ambassador and moved it into the right hand side of the main driveway.

What a pair

This would clear the side drive for the Flying Cloud. After moving the Ambassador, I moved the BBQ trailer into the back yard, and finally moved the Flying cloud onto the pad.

Her new home (For now)

I hired a local unemployed union carpenter/welder to do the frame work and floor replacement on the trailer. Today he showed up on time, but decided to decline the job. After reading the Airforums threads, and knowing how important my trailer is to Amy and I, he didn't want to chance messing anything up with it. I thanked him, and proceeded without him.

In 1953 all the appliances and fixtures in Airstream trailers ran off of 110v shore power only. There was no 12v wiring, and in this model there was not a fresh water tank. A concern of mine through all of this was the Lectro brand hot water heater. It never worked after I brought it home and tested it. Digging deeper, I tested the thermostat, and it tested fine (Electrically speaking). I uncovered a cast iron tank about the size of a basket ball with a metal band around it. The metal band was the heating element. It had two screws that apparently got so hot that they broke. I added a new cord, plugged it in, and to my suprize the band heated right up. I am so happy not only to have the original working, but now I don't have to cut a hole in the side and run propane. Since we are not having a shower, the hot water will only be used for dishes.

After taking the lights out yesterday I decided to try a little experiment. I grabbed my trickle charger, and clipped the fixtures from the trailer. My first objective was to get the propper bulb numbers. Each tail light has a double filament bulb that was a #1176. The other bulb in the tail light and the license plate bracket was a #1141.

Trickle charger setup

I clamped the negative lead of the trickle charger to the fixture housing, and touched the bulb wire for each wire in the #1176. A little snap and pop from the corrosion that was on the wire, but each filament lit up. I tried the same on the #1141, and got the same result.

Bulb #1176

Bulb #1141

The license plate light was a different story. I had to remove the red glass lens to get the ball rolling. The phillips screw came out with little effort, but the screw with an asterisk (*) shaped head was far more troublesome. It was not a torque head like some suggested, but after enough force and select four letter words, I was able to get the cover off. Inside was a glass ring and the bulb. The glass ring is cracked, and chipped in many places. I don't think VTS carries these, so I will need to call a glass manufacturer. After I removed the bulb, the rest of the pigtail fell out the bottom. The spring and wiring was completely corroded, and I will need to replace it. With enough finageling I was able to test it. Success!!!!!

On Edit as of 4:00 PM Central time. I went to the local O'reilly's auto parts store and took my fixtures with me. I was able to get all new pigtails that work inside the old sockets. Overall cost was about $10.00 to get new wiring, terminals, springs, etc. Thanks to Scott with the 63 Safari from around the World on that one. No I need to figure out out of the three filaments....which is running, which is brake, and which is signal.

I want to thank Marcus for getting me out to work on the trailer. He challenged me, and it was something I needed to get going again. I want to start putting POR-15 on the frame, but it is still too cold, and hardly any humidity. My frame is rusty, and I want to paint directly over the rust. Not familiar if I need to use metal clean or metal ready on it since it is pretty rusty already. I am also curious about my hitch. It was welded on and still has the black factory paint on it. I want to paint it with POR, but don't know if I need to take this pain off it first, and POR should not be used over other paints.

Any comments would be appreciated

What to do with my Bargman 2's

2009-02-17T17:02:00.006-06:00

For the past few days, I have been wondering what I will do with my trailer's lights. While towing home, only the side clearance lights worked. No brake lights, signal lights, electric brakes...you get the idea. The wiring sure is old in here, and the sheathing is some kind of fibrous material that is peeling away. I decided to pull the bezels off the tail lights to check them out.

The tail lenses and bezels are in good shape aside from a hair line crack in one lens, and rust stains from the old screws it had holding it in place. The gaskets I peeled off the lenses however were not as lucky. They were cork and about 50% gone from each light. This with the rear hatch were probably my biggest problems for leaks. I will need to make a new gasket with rubber from the hardware store, or perhaps enough butyl putty and vulkem will make it nice and tight (Just kidding).

After removal and inspection of the lenses, I turned my attention to the bulb fixtures. You can see that on bulb has two wires going to it while the other bulb only has one. It also is interesting that the bulb with two wires going to it has two filaments in it. None of these have worked since I brought it home, so I don't know which bulb works for what. From the picture I have here, you can see how badly the wire is coming out of the fixture. I want to replace all the wiring, but this will likely mean new bulb fixtures. Anyone know where I can get them that are still this size?

The last thing I need to deal with back there is the center light which doubles as a license plate bracket holder. One of the screws holding the lens on is a star pattern that I am unfamiliar with. This light has never worked, and the wiring is pulling out like the rest of the fixtures. The housing is badly pitted, and I believe that the bulb housing will be in just as bad of shape as the others. Your thoughts are welcome and appreciated.

Lens with star headed screw

Wires in bad shape and a pitted housing.

Moving on to the floor

2009-02-16T14:16:00.008-06:00

For the last week I have had an ad on the internet looking for help with the flying cloud. I am not lucky enough to have alot of technically savvy friends, or family with the skills and time to help me with this project, but have found someone that is capable to assist in the work. This project has been at a stand still, and will continue to be at a stand still until I fix the frame and replace the current floor with a marine grade plywood 3/4 inch floor.

After my newly hired hand left, I began tearing out the sub floor starting from the rear. I removed the flooring all the way up to the cross member in front of the wheel well. To much joy, I found the frame to be in much better shape than anticipated. It is solid everywhere other than the outrigger to the rear of the curbside wheel well and the final cross member on the chassis.

Bad Outrigger

Rear crossmember corroded away

Something else I found odd about the frame was that one of the previous owners screwed a piece of angle iron into the frame who's sole purpose is to be used to attach the belly pan to. The belly pan is held to it with some HUGE screws.

As it stands right now, I will only be dropping the center section of the belly pan in order to replace the last cross member and the belly skin that has corroded away at the rear. After getting the floor up and a good vacuuming...okay, semi good vacuuming I was done for the day.

Oddly are the spacings between cross members. My rear curved piece has about three feet to the first cross member. From that cross member, I can fit a 48" piece of plywood that will cross over the 3rd cross member and fit perfectly on the 4th cross member that lies just rear of the wheel wells. I am only replacing the rear right now, and once it is finished I will replace the front. This is the way Marcus and Frank did it, and it is the way I will do it.

As for the belly pan, I will need to do a partial replacement and wonder what the best aluminum to use is. I will also need to have some C channel fabricated to reattach some of the shell to the floor since alot of mine is corroded. Anyone know what the best aluminum for this is?

Unfortunately for me, I will have to wait until the weather gets much better before using the POR-15. The temperature fluctuates too much here, and I don't want to have the finish ruined because of it.

Thanks for reading.

Steve

Afghanistan Deployment Revisited

2009-02-15T13:32:00.002-06:00

A synopsis of what happened this past summer with my National Guard unit.

In the Summer of 2008, the unit in the IL National Guard I was attached to was set to deploy in December to Camp Phoenix, Afghanistan. I went through all my train up, briefings, physicals, etc. At the mobilization site I was told that because of my time spent deployed from 2005-2007, that I could elect to take my dwell time (Two years free from deployment) and not deploy with the unit. Besides the obvious reasons for wanting to stay here, I had only signed up for a one year tour with the Guard to try it out and see if I liked it. That contract expired in November 2008, but I have been kept in the Guard due to a stop loss. A stop loss essentially prohibits me from leaving the military unless a waiver is granted for my release. The stop loss was supposed to be lifted in December once the unit arrived in Afghanistan, but it was not, and is scheduled to be kept in place the entire deployment.

Now to our current situation.

Today when I turned on my cell phone, I noticed about 12 missed calls from a friend of mine in the National guard. He told me that he received a list of people this morning for a deployment roster involving laboratory technologists. My friend was number one on the list, and I was number three. Of course, he has no other information on this, and all I can do now is wonder what the heck is going on. I argue the point that there shouldn't be a "Dwell Time" offered by the military if they don't plan on allowing soldiers who have been deployed take it. My biggest issue on this is of the flying cloud. It has been gutted of all interior furnishings and skin. It needs to have the frame fixed, and a fresh 3/4 marine grade plywood floor installed. Amy has stated that if I go, she plans on taking a 2 year tour in Kentucky at Fort Knox. This means I have to get the cloud out of my back yard and to a place that can do the work....or sell it.

Whatever the case, it has bee a wild ride. I will pay much better attention to contract wording in the future :).

Steve

Texas Vintage Trailer Rally 2009

2009-02-11T10:19:00.007-06:00

After receiving a comment from Marcus (utee94) of austin aluminitis fame I am posting again. It is hard to get motivated about trailer restoration when you can't get out and work on things due to the weather.

From February 5th through the 8th I attended the Texas Vintage Rally in San Antonion, TX. I flew in on Thursday evening, and stayed at the hotel across from the RV Park. The rally was a huge event hosting over 102 Airstreams from across North America. Due to my work schedule, I was unable to attend any of the restoration seminars, but I enjoyed myself, and got to meet many new friends.

On Saturday and Sunday I performed leak testing on trailers at the rally. Tested trailers ranged from the 50's, 60's, 70's, an 80's trailer, and a 2007 Classic. Yes they all leaked, but some leak points were not typical. The 2007's fantastic fan had a crack in the frame allowing water to seep into the trailer whenever it rained.

One of my favorite parts of this rally was that Dale "Pee-Wee" Schwamborn was there talking about the Capetown to Cairo and World Caravans, the founding of the WBCCI, and all things Wally Byam. Here is a picture of Marcus, Tom, Doug, and myself behind Pee Wee and his wife Susan.

While much warmer than I am used to in February, the wind was the largest surprize. I was standing on top of trailers doing leak testing with 30 knot winds blowing across the plains. Wind + soapy water on roof = danger. Here I am testing a trailer in the winds, and sealing a leak at the hot water heater.

As for news on the 1953 Flying Cloud, I do have some. Pat McDowell who presented a few of the seminars had the exact back channel I needed for my Flying Cloud. The only issue is that Jim Whitworth needed it as well. Pat and Jim have allowed me to take the part home for an attempt at fabricating it. I sent it to the shop today, and we'll see where it gets us. Another thing on the front is a new set of stainless steel wheelwells. My dad's coworker has a ton of scrap from his side jobs and is making them FREE OF CHARGE (Now that is Airstream Spirit).

In all, Gayland Stephens and the entire Highland Lakes unit put on a great rally experience for everyone. We are making plans to make it next year as a family with out trailer for the entire event. Some other pictures I have are below.

65 Caravel

56 Safari

52 Flying Cloud

54 Flying Cloud

Thanks for reading.

Steve

What's three months between posts?

2008-12-29T16:53:00.007-06:00

So I have been MIA for the last three months. I usually leave before dawn, and arrive home after dusk, and don't have any time to work on the trailer. Besides the daylight, it has been pretty cold here. With considerably warmer weather the past few days, I took a chance to get out to the cloud and remove one of the wheel wells. I am going to have David Winick of Vintage Trailering fabricate a new set for me. As you can see from the shots I have here, they were in rough shape. To get the wheel well out I had to tear out the floor around the flange. It appears that the frame cross member to the rear of this wheel well is rotted to the point that it will need to be replaced.

Good thing I took that welding class.

Front well Face

Forward well edge

Top Flange over the arch

Rear Flange

Shot from inside at the curbside

Inside of the wheel well

New patch for the power inlet.

2008-09-28T15:27:00.004-05:00

As I discussed on the blog earlier, the PO had cut a nice big hole in the rear panel to install a shore power cord box. The box looked horrible, wasn't water proofed, and had no keys. From the start I had planned to install a Marinco power inlet, and wanted to at least get my patch completed over the weekend.

Box and Hole

My next question was simple. Where am I going to get my aluminum from? I haven't ordered any alclad yet, and didn't want to use something from the hardware store since it wasn't alclad. When I gutted the trailer, I had to tear out the bathroom stall since it wouldn't fit out the door, and because I planned to redo the bathroom anyhow. I grabbed the electric Milwaukee shears, and went to town getting a nice chunk of aluminum.

Mangled Bath Stall

I applied a liberal amount of paint stripper on the piece, cleaned the paint residue off with MEK, and cut it to fit the hole. I wasn't going for anything fancy (No Missouri shapes, no stars, no pointing fingers).

Holes laid out for drilling

Holes Drilled

After laying out and drilling the holes, I used clecos to hold it in place temporarily while I drilled holes in the exterior panel. I then took the clecos out, laid a liberal bead of Sikaflex around the exterior of the new patch, and riveted the patch in place with Olympic rivets. It was only holding a patch in place, and I figured no need to use buck rivets. I let the sikaflex cure overnight and went outside this morning to wipe off the excess with MEK. All I need now is a rivet shaver and to install the plug.

Lots of sealant

Ready for the plug and rivet shaver.

I hate rivets...

2008-09-25T16:38:00.009-05:00

Yesterday I had a job interview, and wasn't able to get much work done on the FC. Today I decided to change that. I began the day with a trip to Frank's favorite store to get a few things. I have been reading that alot of people are using spring punches during rivet removal. I bought one. I also picked up a quick connector set for the air compressor, 25 feet of air hose, a pneumatic cut-off tool, a 10 pack of Milwaukee sawz-all blades, can of WD-40, quarter angle drill, and an air sprayer nozzle for the compressor. When I got home, this was what I had awaiting in a lonely front porch box.
All I need now is some galvanized screen, and my windows will be finished for installation. Since I need to replace the floor, I will have to drop the belly pan. I began by removing the rivets around the wheel well that actually rivet to the galvanized well. Upon removal, I found this.

Full Wheel Well

Corrosion on the right

Corrosion on the left

Since the aluminum and galvanized steel were together, I have a fail amount of corrosion on the steel. I also think the wheel well aluminum cover was replaced before since there are extra holes in the underlying skin and wheel wells. My biggest worry is how to put humpty dumpty back together again when I am all done. Should I use olympics since the three legs will splay out? Aerowood on the Airforums suggested using a washer behind the skin so a buck rivet can fit and have something to grab on to. What material would work best since I don't want more corrosion? Will the washer be large enough to not pull through the corroded area?

I keep moving on after this, and start taking the rivets out of the belly pan. These rivets hold the skin, belly pan, and C-channel all together. Then I got to a point with HUGE popped rivets. They looked like shirt buttons they were do damned big. After removing them, this is what I was left with.

Here are holes that no 5/32 cleco or rivet will fit through. In fact, I have been rilling out these rivets with a 1/8 inch bit damn near center every time, and I have many that a 5/32 cleco will not secure into. What do I do now other than replace the panel (Which I am NOT doing).

I also began to take the rear rub railing off, but most the the screws are rusted to tightly, that even spraying them for 8 times so far with WD-40, they are not budging. Speaking of rusty screws that aren't budging...here are the ones in the front that are giving me hell.

Once I broke as many drill bits as I was going to for the day, and gave myself one hell of a gash in my pointer finger, I called it quits. My 18v drill's motor was really hot from running through rivets like it was. I will look for an air drill to keep from burning out the motor on my nice cordless drill from here on out. After all the drilling, I decided to go and cleco every spot I could find that would hold with 1/8 or 5/32 fasteners.

Vertical on the panel, and across the belly pan

Front Window Clecos

Behind the wheel well curbside.

In closing, I must say I am learning a lot of good information. I can safely say that the factory DID screw up from time to time. Take a look below at one of numerous double holes that had one rivet installed over both. No wonder this thing had a ton of leaks.

On the ponder list for next week is to use vulkem/sikaflex on the panels or rivets when reinstalling them (while bucking, or afterwards). I hope all three of you enjoyed this latest entry.

The bondo blues

2008-09-25T00:16:00.003-05:00

Sometimes I really hate the previous owners of these trailers. Take mine for instance. Wall paper inside on the walls over 4-5 layers of paint, unnecessary extra screws to hold in curtain valances, and this first....bondo on the exterior that was painted silver. It started small, but eventually came off in a few big chunks. The problem I have, is that the dents that the bondo was covering, were not that bad. They were not nearly as bad as the dent I pushed out in my rear panels by hand. Regardless, this panel is set for replacement now that I have my rivet gun, but I won't replace it until I have the new floor installed.

I have been rather unmotivated as of late, and managed to take the LP tank rack off the A-frame, and took the front rub rail off. The issue I have now are the 20 plus huge screws that were holding the skin to the c channel. Many of these go into the front vertical steel plate welded to the frame. I currently cannot see the plate, because the PO placed a piece of alclad over it, and SILICONED it in place. I have resulted to grinding on the heads, but I am getting nowhere fast.

Ready for a Bucking good time?

2008-09-24T15:59:00.004-05:00

Today I received my new 3x Rivet gun with 5/32 rivet set and bucking bar. I got all this for $70 shipped from toolsez. They have an ebay store, but were offering huge aircraft sets. This is all I need for my Airstream, and they made me a deal.
It's nice that it arrived today, because last night I purchased this monster 6 HP 33 Gallon upright air compressor off craigslist for $200. So for $270, I have everything I need to buck rivets on the Airstream. The rivets are going to arriver tomorrow from Aircraft Spruce. Then another Vintage Trailer Supply shipment is due by Monday.

Through the looking glass

2008-09-20T19:48:00.008-05:00

Tired of applying stripping agent over the last week, today I wanted to work on some windows. All of the windows in the trailer need new gaskets and new screens. Steve at Vintage Trailer Supply stated that my windows should probably be reworked due to the extent of my renovation. I agreed completely.

I first removed the street side bedroom window. I took the drip cap off, and then drilled out all the bucked rivets holding the frame in up top. After this, I had to remove the rivets holding the frame inside the opening. These rivets are not pop rivets, and not braizer head bucked rivets. They are near impossible to get out because getting the drill into the area is tough with the cross bar there. I have had to use some force in getting these rivets out, and I pray that I don't have to drill new holes when I reinstall the window. I have circled the rivets in the picture. If you can think of an easier way, I am all ears.

I took the window out and disassembled it by removing the pan headed screws and cross bar. I wire brushed the gunk off of the frame backs, and cleaned the glass off with MEK. I have decided to use new screws in reassembly, so I will have to wait for my next VTS supply order.

Before Disassembly

Disassembled

Cleaned Frame

The kitchen window was damaged more than I thought and is missing a crossbar and window operator. This is most unfortunate because it is near impossible to find parts for these old Hehr standard windows. If anyone knows where some extra parts are, or knows a person who can fabricate parts I am all ears.

I also removed the small window out of the bathroom. This window has some screen left on it, but I moved it do drill those damned rivets out.

Now on to things I need help on. In order to replace the screens on this window, you have to remove the piece on the crossbar that the operator arm slides through. It looks to be mounted very tight, and there is no rivet or screw holding it in. I don't want to wreck it since they don't make replacements for them.

The next item I am on the look out for would be whatever I can use to replace what connected the window operator arm to the front window pane.

The end to a busy week....kinda.

2008-09-19T17:03:00.010-05:00

So this morning I wanted to try and take care of a few things since I was waiting on Amy to come home before I messed with the ceiling piece. One thing that has bugged me since I brought the Flying Cloud home was the fact that there was a dent in the rear 13 panels that was not disclosed to me. Since the inner panels were off, I figured I could give it a try on removing it from the inside. The dent was over a seam, so suction cups are of no use getting it out. I went inside and gently pressed my fist against the interior of the dent and with a thunderous clang, the dent popped out. Thankfully it was a small dent.

Dent Before

Dent Inside

Dent Removed

After the dent was popped, I didn't feel like stopping. I was going to wait until Amy got home to try and remove the ceiling, but thought I might try to remove it myself the way that Shacksman on the Airforums told me about. He removed his by forming it into a "U" shape, and walking out the door at an angle. It was tough, but I was able to get it out myself.

Hoosier Back yard

After I removed the ceiling, I took the shop vac out and gave the interior a good cleaning. I also started to remove decking screws that someone used to do a partial floor replacement with. Something I definitely need to have everyone BE ON THE LOOK OUT for is a new door knob and yale deadbolt. The ones on my door are pretty much toast, and need to be replaced. Due to the door flying open in transit who knows how long ago, I will have to rebuild part of if not all of the entire door.

Side view of handle and deadbolt

Front view of handle and deadbolt

I am at the point now where I need to get started with the frame and floor. I have seen it done several ways both shell on and shell off. I need to figure out what my next step from here is. Tear out the floor with belly pan on? Take belly pan off first? Take screws out of the channel first? Please sound off on whatever you have tried, or plan to do. I know that my belly pan, side skin, and channel all rivet together at the belt line. My main concern is having a template for the new rounded floor pieces on the ends. The areas that are straight are not a big deal since I am not worried about the curves.

Steve

Learning I am, but what have I gotten myself into?

2008-09-18T18:01:00.008-05:00

I have been waiting for this post. The post in which I question just what the hell I am doing with this Airstream. Today was my neighbors day off, and last night he asked me what I was doing on Thursday. I told him I had no plans and that I planned to watch Collin and if time permitted, do some Airstream work. The thing is, my neighbor is the manager of a local full service Meineke shop, and he knew I needed to learn to weld for when I work on the trailer frame. We found a sitter for Collin last night, and I was set to go this morning. My neighbor took me up to his work and had his best welder show me the ropes of welding. He explained the process, and showed me a few tricks of the trade before sending me off to practice. While I only welded three things, he told me all were acceptable welds, and with a little grinding would all be sent out to customers. My neighbor's shop is closed on Sunday's and he offered to take the welder home on the Saturday night before I begin welding on the frame. Below are some shots of the work. Be nice...I'm a newbie.

My First Attempt.

My second pipe was MUCH better.

Needs a little grinding but it wil do.

I took my friend to lunch for his kindness and we went home. After I dropped him off, I visited Harbor Freight to buy as many 1/8 drill bits I could find. They had packages of 10 Carbide tipped bits for $1.89 on sale. I bought six packages of them knowing I was going to be drilling out a bunch of rivets on the exterior.

With Collin at the sitters, I decided to spend all the time I could on the trailer that I could stand. This is the part where I try to figure out what I have done. I finished removing the lower interior panels within about 30 minutes. I am glad I decided to rewire this thing. No junction boxes, splices everywhere, it's amazing these things didn't catch on fire. The area where the floor was replaced on the curbside has a huge snake of silicone along the edge of the skin and the wood. The person who replaced it cur the new floor too short, and the channel wasn't fully supported.

Really safe wiring.

Curbside silicone snake

More silicone.

Pink insulation added when flooring was replaced.

The last interior lower panels are out.

Unsatisfied, I decided to move on to try to get the rear end cap out. After careful review, I realized the ceiling had to come out. I know the ceiling is comprised of three separate pieces of aluminum that are buck riveted together. When taken down, it is supposed to roll into a really long tube. To start with, I had to take down the interior control panel for the 50 year old AC unit. After getting that down, I started removing my clecos to lower the ceiling. I was able to get the sheet down by myself (Pretty scary when it dropped), but that is all I can do with it for now. The rear end cap had some rivets holding it in, and I drilled those out. Pretty difficult to get it out of there with the ceiling skin still in it, but it's one less thing to deal with now.

Ceiling on the floor.

Now you see it.

Now you don't.

Rear end cap resting on the lawn awaiting stripping.

I tried my damnedest, but I just couldn't get the ceiling rolled into a tube. Rob Baker tells me I need several people to do it, but please feel free to chime in on the subject. I also need to take the front window out of the trailer so I can remove the ceiling once rolled. Since the floor is getting replaced, I will just take the window out and rebuild it and not put in back in till I am ready. No need to worry about that wonderful solid floor in the trailer.

The last thing I will post about is what I found under the old pieces of rubber the PO had installed like rock guards on the front. It seems that there was a dent and it was filled with Bondo, and painted. When that looked like crap, they applied the rubber mats over the parts. Since I won a new pair of Milwaukee metal shears, and recently purchased some tools for riveting, I will look to replace this front panel with new aluminum. A shame since that was not something I planned to do for a cost saving measure. Here are some pictures of the damage.

I guess a shipment from VTS is a good thing on a day like today.

Cleco visions and stripper dreams

2008-09-17T15:53:00.011-05:00

Ever since receiving my last shipment from Vintage Trailer Supply I have been on a stripping kick. I am not 100% sold on this Removall 220 paint stripper that I bought, but perhaps the negative feedback should be directed towards the people who painted the interior of my Airstream. This Removall is supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread when it comes to removing paint. I have seen it take 11-15 layers of paint off with a single application. For the Removall 220 to be effective the paint layers need to have good bonding to each other. The layers in my trailer do NOT. Here are some pictures of in progress stripping.

Before Stripping

First coat progress after power washing.

The end caps are pretty difficult. Here is the rear after 2 coats

Almost there after power washing 2nd coat.

One panel good as new

On a side note, I received a package from Pan American Tools in Florida. I ordered a pair of Cleco pliers and 66 each of 1/8 and 5/32 inch clecos. I received all of these items for just over $50.00. What a great deal! Clecos are SO COOL! As I have been removing more screws out of the interior ceiling panel, I have worried about the aluminum getting disfigured by only being held by a few screws. Out I went with the new clecos and tacked the ceiling back into place. I can now finally finish removing the ceiling, and work on stripping it.

Someone's got a case of the Mondays.

2008-09-15T17:36:00.005-05:00

So as I was sitting here reviewing some other blogs today, I hear a rap at the door. Away down the street went a big brown truck. Sitting at my feet was this.
Yes the latest addition to my addiction. Inside was a gallon of RemovAll, back frame gasket, a Thetford to Valterra adapter for the Ambassador, and a tube of 3M Weatherstripping.

Unwilling to wait, I immediately opened the RemovAll. I had heard such great things about this stuff, and I hope it would do the same for me. I spent over an hour applying the stripper to the interior. I just checked, and after three hours, barely anything is noticeable. I am stirring it with a drill powered mixer before hand, and laying it on thick. The label states that you should apply it in temps greater than 13 degrees Celsius (55.4 degrees Fahrenheit). I am within my temp range, and following the instructions. I will look at it late tonight and first thing in the morning, but I am not feeling the love right now.

I also removed a few more panels on the interior, and it's starting to empty out inside. More of the hard brown stuff everywhere. It is all over where the adhesive held the insulation on to the interior skin.

Moving right along

2008-09-14T20:54:00.007-05:00

With it being Sunday, Amy being home, and Collin napping, I got a couple of hours to work on the Flying Cloud today. I finished removing the rear end cap lower panel and the street side panel. A weird thing is that the C channel on bother curved edges at the end are no single pieces, rather several pieces that are separated by a couple inches.

I also removed the ugly eyesore of the flip door power cord box revealing a nice hole that will need patching.

After I removed the interior walls, I took out the nearly flawless insulation. There were some areas I found what you see below. At first I thought it was mouse droppings, but it was really hard and solid. There were also no tunnels through the insulation. I think it may be mud that insects may have placed. It isn't formed like a dauber nest though. Who knows what it is.
What you see below is a part that I am needing for my trailer. It is a vintage power inlet. I know VTS sells them, but I would like the original. The original is partly missing, and in poor shape. These are near impossible to come by, so if one isn't located soon I will just put a patch over the hole and deal with it. So to all four of you who read this...please let me know if you know of where I can get one.

Steve

It's good to be the king

2008-09-12T13:42:00.003-05:00

An off related post, but I want to recognize these little critters. We have a rampant infestation of milkweed in our front perennial garden. I usually rip it our, and mow over it when I cut the grass. The other day, Amy noticed these monarch caterpillars, and I have decided not to rip out the weed until after they migrate on. Not only are they the coolest looking caterpillars, but did you know that because they eat milkweed, they are toxic to birds, and they are usually left alone by predators?

Guess it is good to be the king.

Vintage Trailer Suprize

2008-09-12T13:32:00.005-05:00

My first of three shipments arrived from vintage trailer supply today. A ring of the doorbell, and I flew up the stairs in a flash. The package was just sitting there from the UPS man. I could feel it peering into me, pleading for me to take it inside and open it up, "Let's Play," I heard it say. Inside the box were a Marinco power inlet, POR-15, 200 Olympic Rivets, and 48 feet of front frame gasket. I WISH it wasn't supposed to rain all weekend.

2008-09-12T08:21:00.006-05:00

Since my last post I have finished gutting the 53 Flying Cloud. I found several small spots of rot

near the bathroom and the wheel wells. I noticed that the floor in the front and curbside area was all replaced previously. Whoever replaced it used drywall screws to install it into the frame.
The first area to get the floor replaced will be in the rear since it is barely holding on to anything. I have been talking at great length with Frank of Annalumanum fame (Click his blog on the left side of the page) about how he did his flooring replacement, and feel that with a little help and confidence, that I should be able to make this happen.

I have also been busy removing the bazillion slotted head screws that are holding the interior skin on. There are a few places where it is riveted like around the entry door, and the rear access hatch, but everything else was done with screws. These will all be replaced with olympic pop rivets when I reinstall the interior skin after new insulation, wiring, etc.

Before the floor is done, I am going to restore the windows in the trailer. All of them need new new front frame and back frame gaskets as well as new screens. I have my gaskets on order from Vintage Trailer Supply along with a new 30 Amp Marinco Power inlet, a quart of POR-15, new 12v fuse panel, Aircraft stripper to remove the paint covering the interior skin, and a bunch of other goodies.

After buying parts, I had other business with Steve at Vintage Trailer Supply. See, my trailer came without the porch/scare light that mounts just outside the door. These are near impossible to find, but usually turn up on Ebay for over $100 when they are found. On my trip to Michigan, Rob Baker donated the porch light from an old Spartan trailer to me. A couple weeks ago, I found someone parting out a 1953 Clipper and he had the light. I scored it for a cool $25.00.

Spartan Light Fixture

Airstream Light Fixture

Like me, I am sure there are other people out there that are missing this piece. There is absolutely no good substitute to use in place of these. I contacted Steve at Vintage Trailer Supply, and offered to send these fixtures to him for reproduction. Steve accepted and the parts will be in the mail today. The only thing I asked for was a small discount on the part once it was finished to cover my shipping to them. Steve offered just to give me one of the parts as payment. The lights will likely be pricey like the new handles that they fabricate for late 50's doors, but will be new, beautiful, and worth it. Steve and I have also discussed refabricating the old Bee Hive marker lights found on some of the older 50's trailers.

Stay posted...more updates are coming!

10 Days, 2 Rallies, 1900 Miles....I'm Pooped

2008-08-25T13:26:00.014-05:00

Finally after months of sitting at home in the drive, we finally got to take out the Ambassador for a much needed road trip. We decided to travel up to the Detroit Metro Rally to meet some new forums members before our own rally in Missouri. To make it worth the while, we hit a state park in Pentwater, Michigan after the Detroit rally. The rally in Detroit was nice, and there were some really nice vintage units there. Collin had never seen the beach before, so he was especially excited when we visited Lake Michigan on a daily basis.

We returned home a day before our Silver Stars and Stripes rally. Being 70 miles from home, I made an extra trip to fetch my trailer smoker. We had 17 forum members for our rally, and many were first timers. We hope that the experience will make them want to return to future rallies. I made good use of the flag holder I bought from Rob Baker for the rally, and thought it looked awesome flying all the flags we had.

Unfortunately though, bad things do happen to good people. Amy hooked the smoker trailer up to the truck so we could go home Sunday night, but didn't check to ensure it was latched on the ball. It wasn't, and the coupler ran right into the tailgate. A nice dent and scratch will be next on the repairs list. I have never cooked that much food on the smoker before, and it turned out amazing. Props to all who brought food for the potluck.

As for the flying cloud, we have been gone, and not had a chance to work on it.

Happy now Frank?

Steve

1953 Flying Cloud: Our new Project

2008-08-07T10:39:00.003-05:00

Late last night I brought home a 1953 Flying Cloud from Iowa. I got a phenomenal deal on it, and we plan to make it into what we want, but may use the same layout. It has a few issues, but overall is in great shape. I plan to start removing carpet later today to see how the floor looks underneath, and will move on from there. Amy was really upset when we sold the caravanner, but now she has another 13 panel end cap and she is happier than ever.

Birthday Bash

2008-08-07T10:32:00.004-05:00

August 4th was Collin's 4th Birthday, and we threw him a party during the week since I have srill this weekend. Expecting a small amount of people, we were overwhelmed by the turnout, and ran out of several food items. The saying where only half the people you invite actually show up is NOT TRUE. All invited showed up other than one family. I think that we have pretty much made Stan Lee of Marvel a fat payday with all the Spiderman merchandise, but that's what Collin is into. What can you do other than suck it up, and shell it out...they only turn four once right?

Pics of the event.

Steve's Smokeshack

2008-08-04T13:56:00.008-05:00

Well today is Collin's 4th birthday, and I have decided to put the newly acquired smoking rig to good use. We didn't have a solid number of people who were for sure, but I never like to run out of food. I started out with a Boston butt roast, but moved up to added a slab of spare ribs, two chickens, and a bunch of wings.

As of 1 PM only the shoulder remains on the grill. I have been so busy I forgot to eat lunch, but snagged a chicken wing...OH MY...that's tasty.

I plan to bring this little rig to The Silver Stars and Stripes rally later this month if enough people want "Q".

Enjoy the pics, but you can't smell a picture.

Steve

More training, No Camping

2008-07-09T10:06:00.002-05:00

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

2008-05-16T10:40:00.002-05:00

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

2008-03-24T11:04:00.010-05:00

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

2008-03-18T17:38:00.002-05:00

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

2008-03-16T20:10:00.002-05:00

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

2008-03-14T21:35:00.004-05:00

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

2008-03-07T18:02:00.005-06:00

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

2008-03-03T17:21:00.004-06:00

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

2008-02-23T14:18:00.005-06:00

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

2008-02-22T18:19:00.004-06:00

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

2008-02-21T15:39:00.008-06:00

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

2008-02-21T13:36:00.017-06:00

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!

2008-02-20T19:51:00.007-06:00

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

2008-02-20T08:22:00.003-06:00

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

2008-02-18T16:44:00.003-06:00

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

2008-02-18T16:28:00.010-06:00

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

2008-02-18T12:35:00.003-06:00

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

2008-02-18T10:04:00.000-06:00

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