My buddie Jeff and I welded up the missing parts tonight. Jeff was not able to show up at my work until around 6:15. He had to stop by a gun dealer to buy a slightly illegal AK47. (I can't make this stuff up) Anyway while he was working his way to the plant, I moved the Airstream from deep in the warehouse to my other warehouse. I do not have a 50 amp circuit available in its usual location for Jeff's welder. This was the first time we used this particular welder. Jeff's old company moved locations and he was able to pick up this $4,000 Lincoln electric mig welder for a few hundred bucks. You could say he stole it, but that's not how he sees it. I temporally hooked up the welder to the electric panel and I was ready. The first piece we attached was the rear cross member that had the holes for the black and grey tanks. It went in fairly easy. I re-attac
hed the rear bumper so that the main beams would be in the correct location. Next we moved inside the trailer to attach the 2 supports to the rear cross-member and to attach the middle stringer. I had a local fab shop make up these parts. I drew up the parts on AutoCad and emailed the drawings over to the shop. They fabed the parts out of galvanized steel. I don't plan on ever having to replace these parts. We also attached a outrigger that was rusted out under the tub. I bought all the outriggers and the step outriggers from
out of doors mart. Great company to work with! When we finished the rear of the Airstream it was about 8:00, Jeff asked what was next and I said that we were only halfway done.
The front involved welding up 2 stair outriggers, a single outrigger and 8 feet of 1-1/2 angle iron. The bottom of the main beam was rusted out in a few locations, so I decided to weld up some angle iron to beef up the beam. Not my original idea but I have seen a few people on the forums do the same thing. I notched the outriggers to accept the angle iron. The welding in the front went much faster. We finished up the 12 pack of Miller and started to clean up. I left the plant around 11:00 at night on a Tuesday. A picture that I see a lot on the web is the one with the crazy owner of the Airstream standing on the ground in the rear of of his unit. So heres mine. A friend pointed out that I only have one glove on... I was going for Michael Jackson look. I am so glad that all my welding is done. Now its time to put this money pit back together.
My buddie Jeff and I welded up the missing parts tonight. Jeff was not able to show up at my work until around 6:15. He had to stop by a gun dealer to buy a slightly illegal AK47. (I can't make this stuff up) Anyway while he was working his way to the plant, I moved the Airstream from deep in the warehouse to my other warehouse. I do not have a 50 amp circuit available in its usual location for Jeff's welder. This was the first time we used this particular welder. Jeff's old company moved locations and he was able to pick up this $4,000 Lincoln electric mig welder for a few hundred bucks. You could say he stole it, but that's not how he sees it. I temporally hooked up the welder to the electric panel and I was ready. The first piece we attached was the rear cross member that had the holes for the black and grey tanks. It went in fairly easy. I re-attac
hed the rear bumper so that the main beams would be in the correct location. Next we moved inside the trailer to attach the 2 supports to the rear cross-member and to attach the middle stringer. I had a local fab shop make up these parts. I drew up the parts on AutoCad and emailed the drawings over to the shop. They fabed the parts out of galvanized steel. I don't plan on ever having to replace these parts. We also attached a outrigger that was rusted out under the tub. I bought all the outriggers and the step outriggers from out of doors mart. Great company to work with! When we finished the rear of the Airstream it was about 8:00, Jeff asked what was next and I said that we were only halfway done. 
The front involved welding up 2 stair outriggers, a single outrigger and 8 feet of 1-1/2 angle iron. The bottom of the main beam was rusted out in a few locations, so I decided to weld up some angle iron to beef up the beam. Not my original idea but I have seen a few people on the forums do the same thing. I notched the outriggers to accept the angle iron. The welding in the front went much faster. We finished up the 12 pack of Miller and started to clean up. I left the plant around 11:00 at night on a Tuesday. A picture that I see a lot on the web is the one with the crazy owner of the Airstream standing on the ground in the rear of of his unit. So heres mine. A friend pointed out that I only have one glove on... I was going for Michael Jackson look. I am so glad that all my welding is done. Now its time to put this money pit back together.
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