Airstream Progress Report

As I've posted about before, I've been (very) slowly restoring an "ancient" Airstream travel trailer that was in fairly desperate condition.  The major aspect that's underway now is replacing the old, rotted floor, after which progress should be much more rapid.  As it is, I'm not at my best when crouching and kneeling, which doesn't help any.

The last of the old floor left the trailer months ago, but revealed that some of the aluminum floor joists had corroded in places.  I fabricated reinforcements back in late summer, half of which I installed before summer's end.  Then my mother's birthday, various yard work, stuff with Day Job, the Thanksgiving holiday, weather, etc. intervened. 

Finally, this week, the weather was cooperative.  Today, I riveted the rest of the reinforcing pieces to the original joists.  Tomorrow's forecast is promising, so I'll likely crawl under the trailer, put a few more rivets in from below, and install patches over the worst of the corrosion in the aluminum belly skin.

Progress.  It is nice to be making progress once more.  I'll try to remember to take some pictures to share.

Sunday Trailer Progress

I made a little progress on the trailer Sunday. The previous Saturday I cut and fit a patch for the "hole" in the belly skin just forward of the street-side wheel well. Sunday has been permanently affixed with rivets and proper sealant. Small progress. I'm doubtful of much more progress this week, as I have yard work and taxes I need to catch up with. If there is more progress I'll report it here.

Saturday Trailer Progress

My work Saturday was limited. I have more or less fixed the "hole" I mentioned several days ago. It is by no means aesthetically perfect, but it should keep the elements out.  I am waiting on tomorrow's expected warmer temperatures before applying sealant and riveting into place. Today's temperatures were marginal. Tomorrow will also hopefully see the rest of belly skin work done.  If all goes well, the wires for the brakes, the insulation, and the middle section of plywood floor can then go in, and the old floor in front can come out. We'll see.

Patch being held in place by clecos, pending riveting

Before the patch was applied

Airstream on Mars!

Airstream announces special Airstream trailers for Mars!

Artist's rendering of Airstream trailer on Mars. From the Airstream website.

Yes, today is April 1st.

Upon Further Consideration...

Yesterday I mentioned the effort I went through to remove a small section of aluminum "belly skin" from the trailer. As I was thinking about it at lunch just a few minutes ago, I realized much of that effort was unnecessary. It shouldn't present any problems, but was a waste of time. I've got a decent solution for the torn metal problem, better than I thought up last night. If weather cooperates, I may have it in place and have pictures this evening. If not, then not. And now back to work.

Wednesday Trailer Progress - or lack thereof

I noticed a couple of days ago that some of the belly skin just ahead of the street-side wheel was torn, but it wasn't until I went to take a look tonight that the exact position and the extent of the damage registered. The tear is high enough that it sits at the level of the plywood floor, which means it needs to be fixed to keep the plywood floor dry. The proper solution would involve replacing the entire sheet, but that would cause at least two weeks of delay for an order of aluminum in the right size and allow, and for more rivets, and for all the work involved in removing and replacing the existing sheet - all outside during the month known for its showers. And it has to be addressed before much more progress can be made. 

The torn aluminum belly skin is unfortunately torn above the level of the plywood floor

Despite the fact that I'd rather replace the whole sheet, I'm not going to. Instead, I'm going to install a smaller replacement piece that extends downwards from the top to fill the hole. This bothers me, but less so than the prospect of major further schedule slippage. So today I removed the remnants of the aluminum that is still riveted in place above the tear. This involved drilling out all the rivets on the left half of the above image, then a few more further to the left to give me enough wiggle room to slip the snips into place to cut. It was a far more time consuming activity than I'd expected, and removing it required well over an hour. The sun had set by the time I was done. About the only other things I accomplished were to figure out what I shall do about the wire runs for the brake line, and 

Tomorrow shall involve fabricating the pieces I need to fix the hole as well as for the rest of the middle section belly skin fixes, and hopefully cutting and fitting the insulation. Due to the weather as forecast, the exterior work such as riveting the new pieces into place in the photo above will likely have to wait until the drier whether expected this weekend.

Tuesday Trailer Progress

This evening's work consisted of attaching the "bridge" pieces to the two pieces of plywood floor for the middle section of the trailer. I dry fit them again after the glue had a few hours to dry.

Dry fit of middle section plywood floor

I was a bit tired tonight so there's still much more than I'd like that needs to get done before that plywood can finally rest there permanently. That includes fixing the belly skins, insulation, and getting the wiring runs for the brakes into place.

Monday Trailer Progress

This evening's session of trailer work was rudely cut short by the rain. As lightning accompanied the rain, I haven't been out to check for leaks. I did make some progress before that happened, though. The curb-side piece of plywood floor for the middle section of the trailer was cut, filed, and sanded until it fit properly. Then I cleaned any sawdust or debris and painted any raw wood that had been exposed by the cutting with a coat of thick, oil-based paint. I had just cleaned up from the painting and taken a few measurements inside the trailer to fit the "bridge" pieces at the plywood seams when the rain began. The plywood went into the shed to stay dry and I closed up "shop" for the evening. Due to the storm-induced end to the work session, I was too rushed to take any photos, and the lighting was poor besides.  I do have a few bits of fabrication I could do in the basement, part of the belly skin fixing for the middle section of the trailer. Maybe if I'm feeling ambitious later I'll do that fab work. If not it shall wait for another day.

The forecasts for Tuesday and Wednesday are promising. This should hopefully let me have a longer work session on Tuesday to get the belly skin work done, the "bridge" pieces glued and screwed into position, and insulation cut and attached. If that goes well Wednesday could see the installation of the middle section of plywood floor. That would make 60% of the floor replacement more-or-less complete (there's still a few screws to be screwed and glued in a few places farther back). It would also allow me to start of the removal of the front and middle-front sections of plywood.

Thankfully, the absolute worst of the current storm system appear to be passing by to the south. Here in southwest Ohio we're only being subjected to the outer edges of the mess that is plaguing so much of the south right now. May all go well for them in the hours to come. Stay well everybody!

Sunday Trailer Progress

The progress today was minimal. I dry fit the pieces of plywood floor for the middle section. The street-side piece fit well enough and looks to require no additional work. The curb-side piece almost fits, but it is catching on part of the wheel well. It looks like I'll need to trim a little bit off the plywood to make it fit properly, and will then need to paint the edge. Tomorrow's forecast calls for rain but perhaps there'll be a nice break in the storms or maybe I can do the cutting and painting. We'll see.

I also did a bit of leak detection during this evening's rains. The added sealant along the drip caps above the rear side windows and where gaps were seen seems to have worked. The sealing near the middle street-side window seems to have been less successful, as I saw some damp debris in the floor channel below that window. I'll have to wait until things dry out Tuesday to investigate that problem further.

In addition to getting the middle section of floor ready, tomorrow will probably also involve work on fixing up the belly skin in that area, and cutting insulation to fit.

Trailer Progress Photos

As I alluded to back on Friday, here are photos of the progress getting the wheel wells into place. These two pictures show the street-side wheel well. The curb-side one is also in place.

Exterior photo of street-side wheel well riveted to exterior skin

Interior photo of street-side wheel well riveted to exterior skin

Trailer Progress

The wheel wells have been riveted to the exterior aluminum skins. The piece that supports part of the entry step was also riveted into position, and the area of steel channel where the shocks had been attached got a fresh coat of paint.  All this work clears the way for more plywood floor to go in once some work on the belly skins is wrapped up and the wiring for the brakes is done. That should be fairly straightforward work, probably to be wrapped up by Tuesday. Then new plywood goes in, and the last of the old plywood comes out. Pictures when I have a chance.

Wednesday Trailer Progress

This evening I removed the useless shocks that were attached to the frame. They weren't attached to the leaf springs or any other part of the suspension, which lack an obvious attachment point. With some penetrating oil and a bit of elbow grease the nuts holding one went in but a few minutes. The other finally required a reciprocating saw to remove, due to poor leverage and stubborn nuts. Either way, they're both gone. After I removed them I realized one was so damaged it couldn't have attached at the other end even if there had been something to attach to. That took way more time than I'd hoped.

I also dry fit the two wheel wells again. One fit almost perfectly, and I was able to clamp it in position and drill it to prepare for tomorrow. I will have to remove it temporarily to trim a few spots and to enable a little bit of other work around where it mounts. The other wheel well proved more difficult to fit. First I discovered a pair of rivets that still needed to be drilled out. Then I found that some of the aluminum pieces I'd fabricated and installed over the weekend protruded into where the wheel well fit. A bit of trimming and fitting ensued until it almost fits right. I'll need to pull it tomorrow to trim the edge a bit more, but it is otherwise ready for drilling and installation.

Because of how long it took to remove the shocks, I only got about 2/3 of what I'd hoped to accomplished. Still, I hope tomorrow will be the big day, and that I'll get the wheel wells riveted to the sides. That'll be a giant step closer to getting the trailer a bit more closed up.

If you've actually been following this trailer rebuild, I just want to say thanks. If you haven't, you're likely not reading this, so, um, I guess any thanks would be superfluous.  :)

Tuesday Trailer Progress

Out I went at 6 PM on the dot to start working on the trailer. The steel I primed yesterday received its top coat of paint. I made a couple cuts on one of the sections of plywood floor for a better fit, then painted the cut edges to help seal them a bit. Then I cleaned around the leakiest window and sealed it with Parbond sealant, as well as cleaning and resealing the top seam of the drip caps above three of the five windows. I guess I'll see how much difference that makes when next it rains while I'm in the trailer. The drip caps over the other two windows will have to wait until I can get a better putty knife.

The shiny black surfaces on the bottom half of the photo are freshly-painted steel.
There's about four and a half feet of floor missing.  Note how many tools are sitting on the other side.
I really could have used a few of them this evening. Oops.

I actually have several decent putty knives, but along with my good hand saw they were in a corner of the trailer. The wet paint lay in between. Much sadness. [sigh]

Photo of the section of aluminum skin that was riveted into place yesterday.
Olympic rivets installed but with mandrels untrimmed and unshaved.

Then I decided to seal up a few rivet holes by putting rivets in them. I'm using TremPro 635 polyurethane sealant on each rivet I install. The rivets are 5/32" Olympic rivets, a blind rivet that is somewhat stronger than normal blind (pop) rivets and that can be finished to look much like the solid buck rivets Airstream used on the exterior. All of the 75 or so that I've installed still need to have their mandrels trimmed and then must be shaved using the rivet shaving tool. For now, there's a bit sticking out of each one.

Today I put in about two dozen and had a dozen to go when the rain started. I then spent ten minutes rushing around putting away tools, getting the plywood with its wet paint under cover, and generally cleaning up. When I finally walked in the door, I found that almost exactly two hours had elapsed.

Tomorrow's forecast calls for it to be too cool for the sealants or paints, so I will likely work on getting everything around where the wheel wells go ready for their installation, dry fit them, and do the necessary drilling. Then come Thursday I should be able to install them for real, with sealant and everything. As soon as the wheel wells are in place, the middle section of plywood floor can be dry fit if not permanently installed. When that plywood goes in I will be 60% complete on the floor replacement.

Monday Trailer Progress

Despite the heavy downpours, it was warm this evening, so the exposed steel has been primed. I also discovered the shock absorbers that are present are only connected to the steel frame, and not to any element of the rest of the suspension. The present leaf spring and axle arrangement doesn't even appear to have a place they could have connected to. So now I plan to remove them. That will make the space occupied by the leaf springs, axle, and wheels a bit less crowded, and prevent the "loose" shock absorbers from causing problems if they shift around. If I ever need them I can install fresh ones.

One upside of the downpours is that I've identified a few spots where more sealing is required, primarily around windows. With rain predicted for much of next week, I'm going to try to focus on that and the painting tomorrow. If time and weather permit, the wheel wells will be reinstalled Wednesday or Thursday, paving the way for the next sections of plywood to be installed.

Sunday Trailer Progress

I made much progress today! The replacement piece I mentioned yesterday, and its smaller friend I fabricated last week, were installed, along with the piece of channel that belongs at the edge of the floor. Before and after photos, though not from the  same angle, can be seen below.

March 5, showing damaged sections and opening

Today, with replacement sections in place and skins reattached

A bit of interesting (at least to me) science: The areas in red circles in the "before" photo show up as shiny in the "after" photo, because the aluminum alloy of the new pieces is much shinier than the 68-year old pieces adjacent to it, which have oxidized to a dull gray. Iron oxidize to form iron oxide, the reddish material we call rust, and will continue to rust away without further treatment.  The surface of aluminum oxidizes to a thin layer of aluminum oxide, but that layer protects the unoxidized aluminum below. This is why unpainted aluminum trailers, like Airstreams, are often polished - but must be treated with a protective sealant or repolished periodically. Polishing removes the layer of dull gray aluminum oxide to reveal shiny aluminum again, but the cycle of oxidation will start afresh without added protection. It should be noted that the older aluminum trailers (Airstream and contemporary imitators) could be polished to a much higher shine than modern Airstreams because they were skinned with 2024 Alclad, in which a sheet of 2024 alloy aluminum is coated with a very thin layer of pure aluminum. Modern Airstreams are produced with, IIRC, 3003 alloy aluminum, which aren't as shiny, but still have a pleasant sheen.

To get the skins reattached involved much drilling and temporary attaching if aluminum pieces via small devices known as clecos (named for the Cleveland-based company that created them), or panel holders. Nearly every hole has a cleco installed in it to make sure everything lines up. After everything was checked and double checked, most of the clecos were removed and a polyurethan-based sealant was applied where the panels were to join. Then I used Olympic rivets, a blind (pop) rivet that mimics the look of the solid (bucked) rivets used elsewhere on the trailer's exterior. Each rivet got a dab of the sealant on it to make sure it sealed watertight upon installation, and excess sealant along panel seams and at rivet holes was wiped away using rags wet with mineral spirits.

Aluminum skins temporarily attached with clecos.
Note the annoying dent in the panel is still present,
though much reduced from when I first acquired the trailer.

Alas, I have no pictures to show. I finished up about 9 PM, long after darkness had set in, and just a few minutes before the battery-powered work light ran out of juice. I still have to go back and cut off the remnants of the rivet shafts then apply a special tool to clean up each rivet head. I could have grabbed a fresh battery or an extension cord and kept working, except the special tool would make a lot of noise and I don't want to be the noisy neighbor.

If weather cooperates I may get that done tomorrow. If the weather is warm but rainy I will likely only be priming the steel; that steel needs to be primed and painted before the wheel wells and next section of plywood floor can go in. If it is especially cooperative I may be able to also address that ugly temporary patch you see on the right center of the above photo, and replace it with a real patch made from aluminum. The patch that had been there before, that came with the trailer when I purchased it, had been extremely battered so was removed.

It is starting to feel like I'm making real progress again. By the end of April I hope to have all of the new plywood floor in and the trailer weather-tight again, something it hasn't been since who knows when. Then comes all the rest of the stuff to turn it into a road-worthy trailer and a viable camper: brake lights, wiring and electrical, insulation, the minimal plumbing, reinstallation of the inner skins (inside walls), and the furniture. Whoo! That's a lot of work still to be done, but weatherproof and a good floor will go a long way to making that possible.

Double Decker Teardrop Camper

I've learned not to say I've seen it all. That's a good thing, because I'd never seen anything like this before. I've seen teardrop camper trailers before, small trailers with little more than a mattress inside and a kitchen under a hatch at rear. Some of them are pretty neat. They are definitely on the small side, though not that small - the average interior height is perhaps six inches less than in a full-sized van.  Still, definitely not the claustrophobes out there.

Still image of double decker teardrop camper shown in linked YouTube video.

But I'd never seen one that was a double decker before. Expanding from teadrop height to standing height, yes. Fixed height but with a cross-wise "shelf" bed for little kids, yes. Expanding to provide two entire queen-sized "bedrooms" with about three and half foot of headroom above each, no. Not hardly. On the other hand, it seems quite real. You can check out a short video of it on YouTube.

Saturday Trailer Progress

Thanks to the cool temperatures and intermittent misting and drizzle, much of what I'd planned to do today couldn't be done. An exception was fabricating a replacement for a broken piece of channel that helps hold up the "wall" and "roof" of the trailer. About a week and a half ago, I posted about it. This evening, I went down to the basement to do something about it. Doesn't that 2024 alloy aluminum reflect quite nicely?

The T-section that replaces the broken channel.
 (Yes, there's a rivet missing at the top. I fixed that after I took the photo.)

Photo from about two weeks ago.
Fabricated piece will replace the lower portion of the bent and broken channel in center of photo.

Wednesday Progress / Forecast

It continues to be cold here, so I've mostly been working inside. I've cut the sides of the wheel wells to match the shape of the outer skins of the trailer. Below is a photo of what one looked like on Sunday, illustrating why the cutting was required. I'll likely dry fit them again tomorrow to make sure I didn't under-trim.

Before trimming

The current forecast calls for it to warm up again to temperatures I need starting Sunday. I need three warmish days, the last also dry, in order to get the wheel wells in and the plywood floor over them. Why? Because I need to prime and paint the steel the wheel wells and plywood floor rest atop, and that requires a minimum temperature of 50° F. Also because the wheel wells need to be riveted in place from the outside, which for a watertight seal requires a sealant, and that sealant has a 40° F minimum temperature.

Before that, over the weekend, I might get the "holes" at rear resolved over the weekend, if all works out OK. Once that's dealt with and the new plywood floor above the wheel wells is installed, the rest of the old floor is coming out. That also involves removing a number of large, rusty nuts and bolts, which complicates things. I'm sure I can remove the old plywood floor without too much difficulty, but the nuts and bolts need to be out of way before new plywood floor can be slid into position.

We'll see how it all goes soon enough. I'm impatient to be making progress but the bright side to the next few lukewarm days is that it should give me time to double check everything, dry fit all the components, and generally make sure that once the weather cooperates, things will go as smoothly as possible.

Airstream Closets and Storage

Since I posted earlier today about closets, I thought I'd briefly mention the closet and drawer situation with respect to the 1949 Airstream trailer I'm repairing and restoring. Though I'm currently weeks away from completing the replacement of the floor, I've been given consideration to the rest of the work involved. Adequate clothing storage space is a definite consideration. Most of the Airstream floor plans for that size and of that vintage (1948-1949) had two 20" wide closets, two 18" wide chests with five drawers each, plus additional drawers under the beds, not to mention kitchen storage. I don't need to bring along all my clothes, but enough for 7-10 days would be nice. Of course, it might not be just me along. If all that storage space could be used, it's probably more than adequate for even two people on a camping trip, possibly acceptable for three, but getting rather tight for four.

Created from content in 1949 Airstream brochure

Sadly, not all that space can be used. Space needs to be available for at least some of the camp gear like folding tables, folding chairs, canopy, grill, etc. Some of it can be stowed in the tow vehicle instead of the closet. Also, since there isn't a bathroom aboard the trailer, there needs to be space to stash shower shoes, toiletry bags, towels, etc. for use at the shower facilities. In any case, I do I probably need to reserve one closet for some of that, rather than for clothing.

That leaves one single 20" wide closet and the drawers. I can't use all the space under the bed and dinettes for drawers, as various systems are going to situated under them.  At least initially, I'm leaving out the stove and the rest of the propane-power appliances (furnace, refrigerator). In place of the stove, I think a similarly-sized chest of drawers could provide enough added storage space. If a trip lasts long enough, a visit to the laundromat will be required, but that should bring me to 14-15 drawers of about 16" x 15" x 5.5" size, plus the closet, plus some yet-to-be-determined number of drawers under bed and dinette.  I hope that shall be enough, but we shall have to see.

Sunday Trailer Progress

Much of today's work on the trailer restoration was devoted to the area seen in the photo below. The wheel tubs on both sides were dry fit, with a number of obstructions being removed on the curb side of the trailer to permit a good fit. The street side wheel well was able to be fit with much less difficulty.

Dry fitting the replacement wheel well. Note the adjacent entry step.

Most of the rest of the time was spent removing the old entry step, the wooden board for which was warped and may have been suffering from dry rot. The flooring attached to it was of unknown provenance, so I treated it as potentially asbestos containing and was wearing a breathing mask when working on it, and disturbed it as little as possible to get at the four hidden screws that were holding it in place. Finding they existing, then actually locating them, proved a far greater hassle than any other aspect of today's efforts.

Street side wheel well in position and marked so it can be cut to fit.

I just finished getting cleaned up from today's efforts and will be eating dinner. I may do more this evening, or not. If not, there will likely be an additional post, perhaps another book review, perhaps something else.