Silver inside

This afternoon I started with the rear lights. I took the lights apart, but kept them attached to the trailer. To remove the cast aluminum assemblies you must remove the interior skin to get to the blind rivits. To prep the aluminum I just sanded them with 150 grit and cleaned them out. On one side I just pulled the cans out and tried my best to paint around them. On the other side I cut the wires and it was much easier to paint. Not sure if it was worth it because it took me a long time just to re-attach the wires. I have new gaskets and new red monarch lenses. I also have a red reflector that is on the side. The only light that is not new is the small rectangle marker lights. They are no longer manufactured and I could not buy a new one. On the inside I decided to try and paint the front tambour cabinets that are in the endcap. I took that assembly completely apart and sprayed it with a silver paint. It matches the window screens pretty good and I think it lookds pretty good. I also started to re-install the window screens and all the outlet covers.

Color on the inside

The interior is starting to get some color. I decided to paint the ceiling tan and the walls a rust color. After I had the walls and ceiling painted it looked like to much rust, so I changed my mind about the front end cap and painted it the same tan color as the ceiling. I'm pretty happy with the results at this point. The pictures make it look pretty orange, but it is more of a warm color. I hung a window screen up against the front curbside window to see what it looks like against the wall and I love it. The small window below this window has some aluminum trim that will also be sanded or painted silver and will match the screen. I think I might change the color of the valances above the window and paint them tan just to give it more of a contrast. I'm starting to get there. Soon I can get some flooring and start the cabinets.

Primed for an adventure

I primed the interior walls today. I thoroughly cleaned the walls with Simple Green cleaner. I did this a few times to get rid of the sticky feeling that had built up over the years. I did a bunch of research about how to prep the walls for paint. In the end I purchased some adhesion primer from Sherwin Williams. This stuff will stick to anything. They had a sample in the store that they had painted on a piece of shinny tile.

An electrifiying condition

I spent some time tonight replacing all of the outlets in the trailer. The process was fairly simple. I purchased some shallow boxes from Home Depot. The electrical outlets that were in the trailer did not look safe. The wires were just pushed into the outlet and in my opinion it looked unsafe. The hole in the wall from the original outlests is smaller than a standard size outlet. I needed to enlarge the holes. After the hole was enlarged, I stripped the wire and screwed the box to the wall. Not much else to say about this. I also replaced the outside outlet.

Worked in the trailer

Today I put the screen material back into the frames. It was so cold in the warehouse that I moved my sawhorses and work surface into the Airstream. The Airstream now has heat and I was glad that it was working. It was a nice 65 degrees in the camper and a cool 25 degrees in the warehouse. I chose the black fiberglass screen. I like the look of it and it makes the windows look tinted. I'm almost ready to prime the interior walls.

Fill the holes

Today I tore down the upper cabinet that was above the sink and contains the systems computer. As it turns out, the computer is not part of the upper cabinet. I secured it with a strap to the ceiling and drilled out all the rivets that held up the only remaining upper cabinet. I then removed the 2 plastic cabinets that were attached to the wall near the window, and the plastic spice rack that was next to it. I am close to paint, so I need to prep the interior. I have a bunch of holes in the ceiling and walls where the old cabinets were riveted to the interior skin. At first I was going to bondo the holes and then decided to just put a rivet in each hole. The interior skin has a bunch of rivets, so I figure that I would just put some more in. They look fine and after I paint, they will almost disappear and look perfectly normal in an Airstream. After I ran out of rivets I took out all the old window screens. The screen material is a tan color that looks old and crappy. I already replaced the screen material on the door. I took the screen material off and spray painted the frame with some aluminum color spray paint. When it dried, I thought it looked pretty good. I then took all the screens to the paint booth. I tried to clean the 2nd screen with lacquer thinner and it took off the tan paint. I then sanded the frame and it turned the same color as the painted screen. At this point, I deceided to sand all the paint off the frames and will leave the frames raw aluminum.

Honey I "almost" blew up my boys!

I tried, but was unsuccessful. Maybe next time. Here is the story. First of all, if you are reading this blog, you probably know how cheap I am. I need a furnace for the cold days. First of all I need one this winter so I can work on the interior. I plumbed the system with propane and after I had the old furnace hooked up with gas and electric, I tried to fire it up. No luck. I could not get it to fire up. I then looked to the internet to give me some clues as to how to try and fix the furnace. Most people say to just scrap it and buy a new one. Since I don't expect to use the furnace very often I really dont want to spend much money to get it back in operation. I was told to pull the burner out and hacksaw the slots in the top open and that should fix my problem. I did just that, and put it back together and hooked it up. Guess what? It worked. It lit right up and I thought, "great I just saved myself $600" As you can see in the following picture you can see the blue flame. This is great! I decided to let the thing run for awhile so that it can get up to full tempeture. It shut off after about 5 minutes. I go over to the thermostat and shut it off and turn it back on. I then hear the furnace go "pop". I figure, that was interesting. I shut it off and do it again. I hear "POP". (that means a little louder) I do it again. "POP". The fourth time, it goes bang, and my ear start ringing. After I check myself for schrapnel, I decided not to try again. As you can see from the picture, the furnace blew out the sides of the burn chamber. I dedided at that point it was worth it to purchase a new furncace. I called Palamano RV in Florida and purchased a new one for around $350. If I knew that it was going to be around that price, I would not have hesitated and would have saved myself from death. I got the new one 2 days later and hooked it up. It works perfectly and now I have heat in the Airstream.