Friday, December 18, 2009
Shower goes in
Today
I put the shower in. It has been painted for quite some time now, but I just did not have a chance to rivet it back in. I had to attach the pluming first. I bought a new shower valve from Home Depot and then used pex to secure the fittings in the back of the shower. I'm not sure how you would replace the shower valve if the tub was attached and the shower wall
was riveted to the Airstream. Lets hope that it never needs to be replaced, or worse that it leaks on my new floor. I made the pex extra long so that I can hook it into the water system in the next week or so. I will finish the fresh water system before I put the tub in, because I can still get to the valve and all the fittings at this point. I don't want to button it up before I have a chance to pressure test the system.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Driver side started but I was froze out
I ran out of the F7 polish, so I had to buy some more. I decided to try the G6 polish in addition to the F7. The G6 is definitely more aggressive. I like it! It cuts much faster. I guess you live and learn. The G6 leaves a tremendous amount of swirl marks. They don't show up until you shine a light on it at an angle. I am now polishing in the warehouse because outside it is too cold and it gets dark too fast. The swirl marks come out easy with the F7 and the cyclo. I have about 3/4 of the street side compounded and one small section cycloed. It is getting too cold to polish at this point. It just is taking too long to get the metal up to temperature. What I have discovered is that you need to actually heat the metal up at some degree to get the metal to "melt" and bring out the shine. Here are some pictures of the swirl marks. See if you can find what section was cyloed. I'm done with polishing in 2009. I will have to wait till the spring to continue and finish up the shine.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
One side is close
I got to spend the day outside this Saturday. I think this will be the last time this year that the old Aluminum money pit will see the light of day till next spring. It was in the upper 50's and it felt even warmer in the sun. I finished polishing the curb side with the F7 Nuvite. It is now compounded and cycloed. I will finish with the final polish in the spring when it warms up a little.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Still Polishing
Painted rear endcap
Tonight I finished the rear endcap. I painted it white just like the tub and sink. I pulled it into the ware house, turned on the fantastic vent to blow in and opened the rear window for ventilation. Feel pretty good about the look of the endcap.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Learned how to polish
I had a breakthrough on Wednesday. I have put in at least about 15-20 hours of polishing at this point and I finally figured out what I was supposed to be doing. I had been polishing but not getting the results that I had seen on the web. What I had been doing was using too much polish, not using enough pressure, and moving too fast. When I slowed down, applied more pressure and made a few more passes over each section, I got the mirror finish that I was looking for. I have included 2 pictures that shows the difference.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Last of clear coat
Monday, September 28, 2009
I've got gas.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Shitters full!`
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Sunday, September 13, 2009
Time to paint the tub.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
No more APB!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
New Plumbing and valves
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
It was a Fan-Tastic night
Tonight I decided to put one of the two new Fantastic fans in the roof. When I purchased the Airstream it has a leak in the roof vent at the front of the trailer. Originally there was a plastic insert on the lid that allowed light to come in the trailer. A branch fell on it, cracked it, and allo
wed water to get into the trailer. This resulted in me replacing the floor near the door and having to weld 4 new outriggers to the frame near the door. Since the old fan vent was broken and when you turned the fan on it was noisy, I decided long ago to replace it with a new fan. It seems that the fantastic vent fan is a top choice. The model I chose was the 6000. It has a powered lifter, rain sensor and temperature gauge. What I like about it, is that I can tow the Airstream down the road with the vents open and if it starts to rain, they will automatically shut. Another thing is that if we are camping and it starts to rain the they will shut and no water will pour through the roof. I purchased mine from Vintage Trailer Supply. It was a few dollars more, but the housing above the roof is grey to match the trailer and the interior trim piece is curved to match the curved roof in my trailer. The installation was fairly simple. On the inside, I
had to remove the light cover, the light assembly and drill out 4 rivets that attached the ceiling to the vent. I took a putty knife and a hammer to the roof and sheered the rivet heads off with the putty knife. I cleaned up the old Vulkum with lacquer thinner and then enlarged the opening with some tin snips. The opening for the old fan was square, but had rounded corners. The Fantastic vent had square corners. I squared off the corners and fitted the fan in place. I then moved inside and squared off the opening in the ceiling for the interior trim piece. The old vent had 2 sets of 12v wires running to it. One set was for the lighting and the other set was for the electric fan. I used the blue fan wire and wired it to my new fan. Everything worked. I then went back up to the roof and attached the fan. It comes with a closed cell Styrofoam gasket. I then screwed the unit to the roof with the provided screws. After it was screwed down. I ran a bead of Vulkum around the edge and put a dab of vulkum on the top of each screw head. I still need to attach the the interior trim piece, but I am going to wait until the interior is painted. I also moved the 12v lighting wires to a new hole in the ceiling so I can put new lights in the future. As a side note, I used my forklift at work to get on top of the trailer. I put a skid on the forklift to give me a platform to sit on. It worked out great. Much easier than hanging onto a ladder and trying not to put pressure on the top of the aluminum skin.
Monday, August 10, 2009
I've got gas
I think we all know that I have gas, but what I meant to say was that I now got a new gasket on both the exterior door and the interior door. The old gasket on the exterior door did not come off very easy. Lacquer thinner does a good job of dissolving the old glue, but it took a lot of effort to get the gasket material and glue off. Since I could not remove the door and lay it horizontally, the thinner would just run down the door and not soak into the old glue and gasket. The windows were much easier, since I could remove them and lay them flat. After the door was cleaned up. I just had to put the new gasket on. This gasket, purcha
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Window Gaskets
The gasket on my windows was old, hard and did not give a proper seal. I purchased all new gasket material for all the windows and went to work. The windows on my 78' are extremely easily to remove. Open the window a little. Remove the screw at the base of each arm that is attached to the frame, and slide the arm out of the channel in the window frame. Now that the window is free to rotate around the top of the window, you lift the window up so that it is almost perpendicular to the trailer and the window will just come right out. Installation is just the opposite. The window has an extruded channel at the top that "hooks" into the channel on the window frame. After the window was out, I put it on the workbench and removed the old gasket. I used a putty knife and a bunch of lacquer thinner to remove the old gasket and glue. It takes a while to get the frame clean of all the old glue. After it is clean, I applied a 3M gasket adhesive to both the frame and the gasket. I cleaned both with lacquer thinner first to remove any contaminates. I used an old tooth brush to apply the glue. It works like a contact cement. You must put it on both surfaces and let it dry to the touch. After 10 minutes or so you can start to re-attach the gasket to the window. Fairly simple process, but with (6) side windows and a front and rear window it took 2 evenings after work to complete the work. I feel pretty good that all the windows have new rubber and will not cause me further trouble with leaks.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Dam bathroom
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Well the Airstream project was put on hold for the past few months. One Saturday I deceided to replace a tile in our master bath. I got all my supplies ready to replace the tile, went upstairs, and started to remove a few loose tiles. One tile turned into 2, that turned into 4, to 8, to 16... after 20 minutes it was determined that I needed to replace all the tile. I was not planning on a bathroom remodel, but that
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Friday, February 20, 2009
Shocking
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Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Clean up and rivet
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Sunday, February 15, 2009
Finish the Floor
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Saturday, January 24, 2009
Steppin' it up
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Floorin it
Last night I started putting the floor back in the Airstream. All my welding, painting and frame work are now done. It's time to start putting the darn thing back together. I decided to start with the floor near the front door because I thought it would be easier to fit. Not exactly easy but by the end of the night, it was in place. I took some measurements from the side wall to the main beam in locations where I knew it had not moved. I then cut a piece of 1/2" plywood to 35-3/4 x 8'. I used this measurement because it would hit on the center of a support and I could bolt it to the frame. The wall close to the door was not supported and could be moved at least an inch inward and an 1" away from the trailer. Since my plywood was cut at a constant distance and my cut in the original floor was cut perpendicular to the trailer frame, I should be straight when it all gets bolted back together. One thing I remembered the next morning was that I did not install the aluminum shield that goes above the steps and under the floor. The aluminum protects the underside of the plywood floor because in the step location it is not insulated or sealed from the weather. I am hoping that I can just lift the plywood up and wedge it above the step stringers and I do not have to completely remove the floor.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Paint it Black
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Its welding time
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