It's Time To Make Time

    It's been nearly five years.  Five years that I've had my Airstream trailer sit idle while I accomplished other things in my life.  Oh, I would putter around with it now and then.  I replaced one of the vents on top with a cheap unit from VTS.  I put in three new panes of tempered glass to replace the three that had broken over the years.  Mostly I just ignored this project.  I painted my house.  I dedicated more time to my business.  I started riding my bicycle again.  Out behind the garage, the Airstream waited.  I'm not sure where the motivation to start working on it again has come from, but I've got it back.
    One thing that I had been dreading since towing it home from Cape Cod back in 2008 was getting it registered.  Every time I had to tow it someplace, either to have someone do some work on it or to go to a local campsite, I would borrow a dealer plate from a friend of mine.  Today, I decided to bite the bullet and go to my local DMV office and see what hoops I was going to have to jump through in order to get a plate.  You see, when I bought this Airstream, it had been sitting in a permanent camp site for years.  When the family decided to sell it, they hooked on and towed it home.  It was the first time it had moved in fifteen years.  Since they never towed it, they never bothered to get it registered and over the years the transferrable registration was lost.  The only paperwork I had was a notarized bill of sale from the owner.  In 2008, I didn't care.  I had my Airstream.  I would deal with the anticipated nightmare of getting it registered later.  Later came today.
    Armed with nothing other than that bill of sale from 2008, I drove to the DMV.  I presented said bill of sale to the lady behind the counter, and explained what I was trying to do.  She handed me three forms to fill out, and told me that the only other thing I would need was a pencil etching of the VIN.  Could it really be this easy?  I was about to find out.
     I drove back home, got the etching of the VIN and headed back to the DMV office.  I was hoping that I would get the same clerk who was so helpful before.  As I stood in line, I prayed that when my turn came up it would be with her.  I soon found myself at the front of the queue, and when the next clerk was available, it wasn't the one I hoped for.  I let the guy behind me go ahead, and I waited.  Five minutes later, the next clerk was not my chosen clerk, so again, I let the guy behind me go ahead.  It was ten minutes before the next clerk was available, and still it wasn't "my" clerk.  Screw it, I'm not waiting anymore.  I walked up to the new clerk, showed her my paperwork, she examined my etching, I paid a fee, and I got my plate.  I was stunned.  I had read so much about having to use a title service in Vermont.  I had been prepared to look for a wrecked Airstream with that all important transferable registration to buy for cheap, willing to have a registration that did not match the VIN on my trailer.  All of the things I had read.  All of the horror stories of not being able to register a trailer. None of that applied to me.  Thank you Chenango County Department of Motor Vehicles!  I can now legally tow my trailer down to Baltimore to see Frank at Franks Trailer works to get new axles.  The sky is now the limit.

Send Vulkem and Kleckos

Today I finished the street side belly pan curves and still had some daylight, so I decided to get working on the furnace hole cover. Since I'm not going to be re-installing a furnace, I needed to cover the hole where the furnace vent was. I used the original trim pieces and a piece of .040 aluminum to plug the hole. To this I will mounting the original furnace chimney for an original look. I'm not one who goes for non-functional decoration (you won't find spinner hub caps or under body neon lighting on any of my cars), but I think this is a better option than just riveting a new piece of sheet aluminum over the hole and hoping it's not very noticable.

I would have had this piece all riveted together and the furnace chimney mounted today, but I'm all out of Vulkem, that magic caulk which will seal the cover to the hole and still be pliable and working in another 50 years when the next guy takes my trailer apart. I could use a few more kleckos, too. Mine are all being used right now. Hey, Father's Day is coming up....maybe I should start leaving hints around the house.

Bling Bling

When I replaced the front crossmember, I was planning to leave it exposed and paint it whatever color I end up using for the tongue. After looking at it for a while, I decided it need to look more finished. I wire brushed and painted it with rust converter, then got down to business.I used .040 aluminum and cut the piece I would use to cover the crossmember. This would then be slid between the exterior skin and the metal support plate.The lower support undeneath the front window was in the way, and since.040 doesn't bend all that easily, I drilled out the rivets holding the support and took it off. Plenty of room now. I'll just rivet it back on when I do the rest of the riveting. An extra 4 rivets is not a problem when I'll be doing a few hundred.

The sheet in place and held with kleckos. It hung down underneath the cross member about 2 and 1/2 or 3 inches. Just enough to bend back up underneath the trailer. A rubber mallet and patience is all it took to get it to bend the way I wanted to.

The finished product. Aluminum looks so much nicer than steel. I don't know if the trailer originally had aluminum there or not. I know that newer Airstreams did, I like the look. The best part is not having to wonder, when everything is all done and I'm camping, if I should have covered it.

Getting Bent

It feels so good to be getting my trailer closer and closer to being able to take back out on the road. A few weeks ago, I was pretty nervous that I would not have my trailer ready in time for the Birthday Bash at Rob Baker's farm at the end of June. Well, these past few weeks I have been spending lots of time making sure I'll be ready. Today I riveted one piece of belly pan material to the trailer. I say "material" since it's only the curved piece that goes up underneath the trailer. A previous owner had cut the belly pan away, but left about 8 inches of the curved piece. When I'm done, I'll bridge the underneath of the Airstream with a sheet of aluminum so that I have an entire belly pan.

This is a new piece of belly pan material that I made. The original was just too banged up and coroded to use. I think it looks pretty good. I also used rivets from Rivetsinstock.com. These are solid aluminum rivets with plain heads, as opposed to some rivets which have numbers stamped into the head. The heads are just a fraction larger than the originals, but not so much as to be noticeable without it being pointed out.

Trial and Error and Success

You may have notice that I am bloging pretty regularly lately. You might think that it's because I am making lots of progress and wish to document it here. The true reason is that I am trying to make up for all of the other Airstream restoration blogs that I enjoy reading. I am blogging about actual Airstream restoration here to counter-act all those other blogs that like to document boat rides, farm animals, and auctions. Anyway, on with the blog...

This post is intended to help those who will be doing a shell on floor replacement on the front half of their trailer. One of the problems I encountered last year was that once I drilled out all of the rivets holding the exterior skin to the old j-channel, the door would no longer close. In fact, the only way I could make it close was by pulling on the grab handle on the outside of the trailer, hard, while simultaneously pushing the door towards the back of he trailer, hard. I solved the problem with a piece of string to keep the door semi-closed for the past 8 months or so.

The first thing I did was to install the new j-channel just to the rear of the door. This part of the trailer did not move much when I drilled out the rivets last year since it's only about 3 or 4 feet away from some good solid rivets. I positioned the j-channel, screwed it down, then klecko'd the skin the the j-channel. So far, so good.

A peek inside the trailer to see where we're at.

Next I repeated the process on the side forward of the door. Again, I screwed the j-channel in place, then I pulled on the door frame to get clearance for the door to close, drilled through the j-channel from the outside, and klecko'd everything solid. I stepped out of the trailer, closed the door, and THUNK. The door still was no where close to being able to close. I was a good 3/8 of an inch off. Great. OK. Time to try something different.

All I had to do was unscrew the j-channel from the floor while leaving it klecko'd into place. Then I shut the door from the inside (I had to kind of push and shove and shift the skin to get it to the point where it would close) and, with a little more pushing and shoving and shifting to get things into position, I screwed the j-channel to the floor. I finished putting the rest of the screws into the j-channel to hold it solid, and I opened the door to test the fit.

Success! One fingered door closing sweetness! What was actually a pretty simple process took about 2 frustrating hours. I hope when some of you guys finally get around to making the front end of your trailers as solid as the back end (I'm talking to you, Marcus and Whiskers), you'll remember this post.

Franks Trailer Works Is Awesome

J-Channel, or as some like to call it, C-Channel, is one of those things that you will need to replace if you're restoring an Airstream. There is no way around it. Sure, some of your sections will be salvagable. Most will simply need to be replaced. I'm at the point in my restoration where I need to do just that. My curved piece was (thankfully) in good shape, but all of my straight sections had deteriorated to the point that there was just no saving them.

I was talking to Frank at Frank's Trailer Works ( http://www.frankstrailerworks.com/ ) about the situation, and he said to send him the dimensions of what I needed. I sent the dimensions on a Thursday, and Monday morning I had a package delivered with a Frank's Trailer Works return address.

Tonight I pulled out some of my old pieces of J-Channel. I wanted to get a few images of what the originals looked like for posterity. Not good.

Now I'm all set to get these things fitted to the trailer and start riveting the exterior skin back into place. Frank, you saved me the headache of buying the tools and materials to make these myself. Thanks a million, my friend.

Laying Down Wood

This looks so much better than the ground and frame that I've been looking at ever since last summer when I got home from the Baker's Acres Family Camping event at Rob Baker's place and starting tearing into the front half of the trailer. I still have some crawling around in the dirt to do in order to install the rest of the elevator bolts, but psychologically this is a huge step for me.

Nice new waterproof plywood, rustproofed and re-enforced frame members, and a nice solid step hanging down there in the background. It was a good weekend for working on the Airstream.

Steppin' Up

Well, after taking the kids fishing this morning, then Laurie and I going to watch our daughter's dance recital this afternoon, I was finally able to get out and do some work on the trailer after dinner. I applied the final coats of wood preservative to the sub-floor plywood. It'll be dry tomorrow, and ready to lay down inside the trailer the next time I have a chance to work on it.

The winds finally died down enough for me to be able to get my steps welded in. They are solid as a rock, and work exactly as they should. It's a pleasure to be able to step on them and not feel like they are on the verge of collapse.

I chased all the elevator bolt holes with a 1/4 inch bit, and it's a good thing I did. All of the paint and rust converter I applied made them just a hair too small. It would have been a pain to have to do that from below. There will be enough crawling around on my back in the dirt in the next few days.

Styeooin

Getting Floored

The steps are all painted and ready to we welded in. I use a little 110v mig welder, and it's tough to use outside if the wind is blowing since the shielding gas gets blown away and the weld left is very weak. I was going to get them welded in today, but of course it was too windy. Maybe tomorrow...


I've spent the last few days cleaning up the frame and getting it ready to paint. Flapper wheel on the angle grinder, wire brush on the drill, and a good old fashioned hand weld wire brush took care of any loose rust. What a dirty, nasty job. Then I coated the frame with a Rustoleum brand rust converter. What's nice about this stuff is that you can get it in spray can, which makes getting into all the corners much easier than with a brush. I have used POR-15 in the past, with good results. I decided to use the Rustoleum product, as I used it on an old Land Rover frame years ago and it's still holding up great. Plus, it's about 1/3 the cost of POR-15. Finally, I top coated with flat chassis paint.


Since I couldn't do any welding today, I took my daughter to Lowes and bought some 19/32 plywood for the subfloor. I cut it to size while my girl slept, and she woke up disappointed that she wasn't able to "help" me use the power saws. Maybe next time. By the way, 19/32 is the exact thickness of the plywood that was in the Airstream originally. When I did the back half of the trailer, I was at first concerned that it was too thin. Once the shell, frame, and floor were all riveted back together everything was as solid as a rock. I understand that Airstream used different thicknesses through the years, but 1961 Ambassadors used 19/32. Tonight I'm going to treat the plywood with Thompsons Water Seal to help ward off any future rot.

One Step at a Time

I stopped by Daryl's place, Pharsalia Metal Fabrication, today to pick up my steps. Daryl is the same guy that I had build my stainless steel black tank last year. I had intended to just have him make me up some new outriggers with the slots that the step slides in, but when I talked to him he told me to bring over all of the parts to the step. He called today to tell me it was done, and when stopped by to pick up my job I was very excited to see that he had assembled everything into one unit that can be welded right to the trailer. Very nice! The studs that ride in the slots were replaced with new, new bolts, new outriggers, and all welded together for $100. A good deal in my book, especially when you take into account that these parts are no longer available anywhere, for any price.

Somewhere on my computer I have the "before" pictures of what I brought over to Daryl's place, but I'll be darned if I can find them. That he could make such nice parts from such poor original patterns astounds me. I have great respect for craftsmen like Daryl.

I still need to clean up the step parts and get it painted before I mount it. The steel tread is also rusted through in a few spots, so I'll be welding a new piece of diamond plate over the old. When it is ready to mount it will look as good as new.

A week at the spa.

The furniture in the front half of our trailer was in a real bad way. It was functional, but there were some changes that needed to be made to work better for us, plus they had 49 years of wear, tear, dirt, and grime on them. There was never a question in our mind how we would undo all of that shabbiness. We would send them to Frank's Trailer Works in Baltimore for him to work his magic.

If you live under a rock, you may not know that the Mid-Atlantic Region has been slammed with snow this year. While I feel bad for all those "Southerners" (Baltimore is below the Mason-Dixon line), it worked well for us. Frank currently has a big project going on that he is rushing to finish for a client. It's a big project that requires Frank to work outside of his shop, but when the snows came, he was forced inside where he could get cracking on our job.

In the picture above, you are looking at a drawer that we are having installed in place of the furnace that was originally there. We're not big cold weather campers, so the furnace was not needed. Being a family of 6, additional storage was needed. For heat, we'll be installing 2 catalytic heaters in the trailer, one just inside the entrance and one in the bathroom.

Nice deep drawer. Just right for pots and pans, strainers, maybe even a spare Mexican lime squeezer for those time we camp with folks who enjoy a good Mojito.

Ooooh, nice! The wood is a cherry veneer, similar to what we used in the back half. Frank's flourescent lights wash the color out, but he assures me that it is nice and rich. Once he gets done finishing the wood it'll be very classy. We can't wait to get those cabinets home and installed. You can see the work in person at The Airstream Founders Birthday Bash in June. The event is sold out, but you can be placed on a waiting list or bid on the one remaining spot (with procedes going to Roots and Wings food pantry in Chenango County, NY). www.bakersacresofchenango.org/auction

Do your cabinets look this bad? Well, call Frank. He is absolutely amazing when it comes to all things Airstream. Thanks Frank. Now get them finished.

http://www.frankstrailerworks.com/

Critical Measurments

My cabinets are currently at Franks Trailer Works in Baltimore getting all fixed up and made beautiful. Problem is that my stove is in central New York, and Franks needs a measurement. I'm posting this picture to show the dimension I measured. I love technology!

The measurement, from the outside of the flange on the right to the outside of the flange on the left is 22 and 5/8ths.

Shop Time

Today I started welding up the frame cross member and support plate. I Klecko'd the support plate to the trailer skin, then positioned the cross member between the main frame rails.

Once everything was in place, I tack welded the cross member to the frame, and then tack welded the support plate to the cross member. That made sure everything was exactly where I wanted it. After that, it was a simple matter of grinding the tack welds off the cross member and bringing the cross member / plate into the shop for welding up solid.

My shop is currently, how you say, a mess. Interior skins are piled here, belly pan wraps are piled there, j-channel strewn about with a liberal sprinkling of interior window frame trim to add to the chaos. Add in your normal household fix-up projects, and you have a real dump. What the heck. I'm building things in there, not getting the space ready for a Better Homes and Gardens photo shoot. A clean shop is a shop that's not being used to it fullest potential.

Look at that stack of dimes. My little 110v MIG does a fine job of melting the metal. I could have welded 5 or 6 one inch welds along the seams and it would have been plenty stong enough, but I was having so much fun I decided to weld the entire seam up. I was talking to my friend Steve a while back about this little project (ByamCaravanner on AirForums), and he made a simple comment. He said something like "Metal does wierd things when you weld it". Well, Steve, you were right. The support plate developed a nice bit of warp from all the heat. Hopefully not enough to bother anything, but I'll find out when I go to mount it on the trailer. If I have to, I'll ditch my work, start over, and chaulk it up to experience. I know I can build this piece better, and better is the enemy of good enough.

Frame Fixin'

I'm working toward having my trailer campable by next June for the Wally Byam Birthday Bash in Central NY. I decided I better get moving or I'll never make it in time. So, today I got my butt in gear and got to work. This is where I left off after I cut out the rotten frame cross member and support plate.

I went to my local steel retailer, Steel Sales, in Sherburne, NY. They have a "drop room" that they'll let you poke around in. I was lucky and found a piece of 4 inch c-channel and a 24 x 12 inch piece of steel plate. Perfect! $17.00 later I was on my way. First thing I did back at the trailer was to fit a 2x4 piece of wood in where the cross member will sit so I could be sure to get the angles on the main frame rails set. The angle is 22.5 degrees, just in case anybody else is going to be doing this work.

Next, I transfered the angles from the wood onto the c-channel and cut it with the chop saw. This tool is indispensable for any kind of steel work. I cannot imagine making those cuts with a hack saw.

I was going to try to re-use the support plate, because it has so many holes that need to be aligned with the holes that are already in the skin of the trailer. Unfortunately, the plate was just too far gone. Also, I did not realize when I started that the plate actually goes all the way to the bottom of the c-channel and is not just welded along the top. In order to transfer the holes precisely, I tack welded the old plate to the new plate and used the old holes as a guide for drilling my new holes. Once I was done drilling, I carefully ground off the tack welds and I had an exact duplicate of the original plate.
Here is the almost finished piece, all mocked up. The next step will be to Klecko the plate to the skin of the Airstream, tack weld the frame cross member in place, and then once everything is lined up I'll tack weld the plate to the cross member. Then I'll grind the tack welds off the frame so I can bring the entire piece into the shop and weld it up solid. I don't want to weld it solid with it on the trailer, since I'm afraid the heat will hurt the aluminum skin. Once it's all welded solid, I'll do the final installation and welding of the new frame cross member / support plate onto the frame. Oh, I'll also cut the bottom inch of steel off the support plate that sticks down below the c-channel so it looks better. I needed a piece of steel plate that's 24 x 11, but the closest I could find in the drop room was 24 x 12. That's OK. I'll get my cutting wheel out and smile the entire time thinking of the money I save by not having Steel Sales cut me a piece to size.

We Can Rebuild It.

This section of frame has been weighing on my mind. The weather here has been nasty, and work has been absolutely nuts dealing with the flu outbreak. Today, however, it was a beautiful day and I had some free time on my hands. Time to get at it. I spent some time building a brace to hold the shell off the trailer for when I cut away the support plate. Much to my surprise, the shell actually lifted up about an inch rather than coming down. The support beam I put in place fell once the shell lifted up, barely missing hitting a window. The Airstream gods were watching over me, I guess.

Bad, bad rot. It's amazing what the tin worm can do.Tuesday I'll head to Steel Sales and buy replacement steel and begin fabrication. I have a few other small holes and weak areas to fix on the frame in other spots, too. I should be able to get that all fixed up pretty easily, then I'll POR-15 the frame and be ready to put down new wood for the sub-floor.

Heavy Lifting

I've got all of the floor pulled out of the front of the trailer and the frame exposed. Now the fun can begin. I have discovered that the front half of the trailer is a little bit more complex than the back half was, and is in pretty poor shape to boot. There is a lot of thin steel on the frame, the front cross member with it's support plate has deteriorated to the point of being scary, and the step out riggers are just about gone. Replacing all of this won't be too complicated, but making sure everything is fixed properly is critical. Unlike in the rear of the trailer, there is no "fudge factor". If I want the door to close and the steps to work, I'm going to have to be very precise.

With the entire front half of the trailer gutted and the back end still complete, the tongue does not have enough weight on it to allow the trailer to be cranked down to level where I need it to be. The trailer would balance on it's axles with the tongue jack off the ground. 250 pounds of barbell weight took care of the floating tongue.

Thin, thin steel. Strange that the plywood just above this section was solid and showed no signs of rot. It will be a process of welding additional steel underneath this crossmember to make it solid once again.

Both step outriggers look like this. I'll be replacing them with new ones, and also buying a new step for the trailer. The step that's on there has rust holes through the tread and the studs that ride in the track are just about worn away. I just hope I can find a step that looks right on a 1961 Airstream and not one that looks like a take off of a new SOB trailer.

That front cross piece? Yeah, it's bad. I'll be cutting it out and fabricating a new piece to go in there. The support plate is welded to the cross piece. The trick is going to be getting everything back in the exact same location after I take it all apart. That's okay, I enjoy a challenge.