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.

Paint it Black

Today I bought another quart of POR-15, to the tune of $50. I bought the black paint this time because that was the only color that the dealer had. My first quart was grey. I painted up all the welding that Jeff and I did earlier in the week. I installed the step, just to confirm that I welded up the supports in the right place.... I did. The steps will be a nice addition when I get everything back together. The other thing I got done today was to fabricate up the rear floor. I saved the floor that I removed a few months ago so I could use it as a template. One problem was that most of the edges of the floor were gone. I made a template from some cardboard that I have been using as a mat for the past few weeks. After that I used my jig saw to cut it out. I sure hope I can slide this whole sheet in from the rear (thats what she said).

Its welding time

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-attached 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.

Just a little rust

I dropped the black and grey tanks so I could get a good look at my frame situation. It was not good! Just a little rust! The rear cross member was completely rusted out. The center support that ran between the grey and black tanks was almost gone. I took some measurements and drew up what I needed with AutoCad and had a local shop make me some replacements. As it turned out they made my new brackets out of galvanized sheet and I am hoping that I will never have to replace them again.

I'm infamous

I'm now In-Famous, that's more than Famous (quote from the Three Amigos). I made the VAP! Vintage Airstream Podcast. This is a Podcast that comes out every 2 weeks. It consists of a host Tim Sheppard and 2 panel professionals Rob Baker and Colin Hyde. The podcast covers all things Airstream. From total restorations to traveling across the country to Airstream ralleys. They had been looking for people to call-in and talk about their year of Airstreams for a couple of episodes, but no one was calling. They wanted people from each year to call in on the episode that matched their year. I called in on the 78th episode because I had a 78' Airstream Soviergn. If you have 56 minutes to kill, 26megs of hard-drive space, and want to hear everything about Airstreams go and download it. 78th episode Rob Baker pretends to dislike everything about the 70's Airstreams, so that's why I'm hassling him on the podcast. You think I'm nuts about my airstream... Rob and Colin at any one time may own upwards of 5 to 10 each!

Kitchen removal

I had the Airstream cleaned out from the door forward, now it was time to remove the kitchen and the bedroom. It took me a few days to get all the stuff out. I'm not sure how many rivets I drilled out, but it must have been hundreds. All of the upper cabinets were riveted to the shell of the Airstream. At this point everything was removed except the bathroom. I took out over 500 lbs of material.

It's axle time

It's axle time. I knew that when I bought the Airstream I was going to have to put on some axles. Airstream uses an axle that is called a torsion axle. It has 4 rubber rods inside that compress to provide the suspension. Over time the rubber deteriorates and the axle sags. The other issue that I had was that the brakes on the Airstream were a Vac-Assist hydraulic disk brake system. My truck is a diesel and it does not create the vacuum that I needed to run the brakes. I scrapped the whole system and bought all new axles and disc brakes. Originally the axles were manufactured by a company called Henschen. There is only one authorized dealer in the country for these axles and he can charge whatever he wants. Needless to say, I was not paying the outrageous price. I purchase my axles from Dexter Manufacturing. I got new axles with disc brakes and a electro-hydraulic pump for about $100 more than electric brakes from Henschen. Dexter is the largest manufacturer of torsion axles and if I need parts, I can pick them up anywhere in the country.

The axles are only held to the Airstream with 4 bolts per axle. Mine were rusted so I had to use my sawzall to cut the bolts off. I backed one of the axles of the Airstream up on some 2x6's. The other axle was hanging in the air. I left the truck attached to Airstream so that I was not in danger of the thing falling off the jacks and crushing me, not to mention killing me. I cut the four bolts off and the axle just dropped right out. I used a floor jack to lower them to the ground. The old axle tubes are only 1-1/2 square. My new axles are are 1-5/8 square. I will post all the specs for the axle in another post. I had to cut the frame of the Airstream a little larger so that it would accept the larger axle. I cut it with a jig saw. It took about 2 minutes per side. After that, I sanded up all the metal and sprayed it with some flat black paint. When the paint dried, I put the new axles back in. I installed them by myself. It would have been much easier if I had someone to help, but I had to make due. The axles are pretty heavy. I think around 200+lbs. I balanced them on the floor jack and jacked them up into the enlarged openings. One of the holes in the frame lines up perfectly with the new axle. The other one needs to be enlarged by about an 1/8 of an inch. After that, just bolt them in place. After I had one of the axles bolted in, I needed to put the wheels on so that I could change out the other axle. This is where I ran into trouble. I grabbed the wheel and tried to put it back on the axle. IT DID NOT FIT. What I did not know was that the Dexter axles that I had specified had much larger disc brakes than were originally on the Airstream. Bottom line was that I could not use my current rims and tires. I freaked out. I had spent $400 on new rubber for these 15" rims and was concerned that I was not going to be able to find new rims to fit my new rubber. Well I put out a question on the forums and within a few hours I had my answer. New rims It looked like new rims were were going to set me back another $400. With every problem comes a solution. I ebayed my original Airstream rims and got $400 bucks for them. I put the rims back on the axle and repeated the axle install on the other axle. I now had both of the axles on, but had no idea if the brakes worked. As I stated earlier, I purchased hydraulic disc brakes. The way they operate, is that an electric pump is installed in the Airstream and it pushes hydraulic fluid through the tubes and activated the disc brakes. I have a controller in the truck that regulates how much electricity is sent to the pump. If the truck stops quicker, the controller sends more electricity to the pump and the Airstream stops quicker. I installed the pump in the front the Airstream under the front window and hooked up the hydraulic lines. I bought a kit from distributor and I had all of the lines that I needed to complete the project. I am not sure if the pump will remain at this location or if I will move it to another location, but it is hooked up now and it works. The whole project cost about $1000 more than the electric brake option, but I figure that if I have to stop quickly, I want to have the full stopping power of disc brakes. If I stop in an emergency and fail to stop in time, I will know that I have done all that I can. It's my family's safety that counts.