Month: February 2011

I am off schedule here a little, but we have all been sick here this past week again. Here is a picture of the frame after a first run of cleaning. It cleaned up really nice, but there is still more cleaning to come. The frame looks so long without the shell and it is amazing how flimsy these Airstream frames are, but that is all part of the unique design that makes an Airstream and Airstream.

It looks like at some point there was some major frame damage and you can see where an “attempt” was made to fix the issue. The rear portion of the frame from where that new weld is located is sagging and must be fixed. The frame is level up to that point, but is close to 2″ out of level by the time you reach the bumper area. Not good.

You can also see where the frame bolt for the shock also has serious damage. I don’t think rear sag over many years caused that and I would be very interested to know what actually caused that damage!

The welders were actually working on the frame today and made a lot of progress (lots of pictures during next week’s update). There was a lot more work required on this frame than I had originally anticipated, but we are doing it right and making sure it is fixed before proceeding. The welders are also building two sets of a-frames out of metal that are 13′ tall. We will use this from now on as our shell hoist and it will be a portable solution even at our new shop. The new a-frames should be ready this week and the chain hoists are ready and waiting at the shop. I will never again do a shell off the jack way and this will allow the shell to be gently lowered and positioned and even removed again if needed before bucking all of the c-channel rivets.

I have to do a mid-week report of the progress as we have reached a really big milestone, the removal of the shell! Phil did a great job getting the structure stabilized with a 2×4 structure that kept it 100% stable as it was removed. He also removed all of the lower rivets that were holding the outer skin to the c-channel. We are moving into another shop in a month that has incredible steel beams that you could lift a car on so we tried to get by with the bottle jack solution for this trailer, but boy oh boy I will never do another one with bottle jacks again. A hoist system is an absolute must for ease and safety.

The frame of the ’67 was supported with a combination of some small bottom jacks and some jack stands. This kept the frame from moving while jacking from the top. Also, I would highly recommend only taking out the bottom inner skin and then using a hoist system as you don’t have to go through any of the extra trouble that we did for the way we did it, but again we did with what we had since the rafters in our current shop are not strong enough to handle lifting the shell we were dealing with.

Bottle jacks and 2×12-2×10 blocks were used to do the jacking, while using jack stands in the floor of the trailer to keep things secure. The side panels of the ’67 are also interesting in that they go down another 6-7″ below the floor, so getting the entire structure lifted high enough so that it could then set down on the 4x4s which were sitting on saw horses was an interesting feat. There was a pretty scary bit and all I will say is if you are doing the bottle jack method take your time and make sure you have a solid and stable foundation for your bottle jacks.

The shell was then blocked up from the 4x4s and attached to the 2×4 rib structure and it is rock solid. The frame pulled out perfectly and is now sitting in the yard waiting for the welder to come repair the rear section tomorrow.

It is so great to have constant progress being made and Phil is doing a terrific job. I think he will get the Airstream bug at some point! There is still a busy week ahead as the rest of the floor will be removed and then the actual restoration will begin on the frame with preparing it for the POR-15.

This week has been extremely productive, with lots of changes taking place that we have been looking forward to for some time now. We hired Phil (seen in the pictures working
on removing the floor) to work on our project full-time starting this week and he has turned out to be a huge asset and is doing an incredible job. I would really like to do every bit of the work myself, but my consulting business keeps me too busy to really make much progress myself at the moment. Anyone interested in a restored or semi-restored Airstream please let me know as I am going to turn this into a business after we finish the ’67.

The week started off with moving the trailer outside as the weather is in the 70-80s here. We started by getting 80% of the clear coat removed before running out of airplane stripper and are planning on finishing up the last 20% this coming Monday once we will have more product. We tried Jasco, but the airplane stripper worked much better on the clear coat. The only place locally that carries the airplane stripper is Pep Boys and unfortunately they didn’t have much in stock. All of the name plates, emblems, and lights were removed and the windows that the PO had covered with plastic and duct tape were cleaned up and are now looking great.

Next, we finished removing all of the vinyl from the inner skins, removed the inner skins, removed end caps, and all of the insulation. The skins came down very easily and having that all out makes it look like it is that much closer to the build back phase. I have decided to use Prodex for the new insulation, so farewell to that itchy fiberglass stuff.

The next task was to remove the floor so that the welder could begin fixing the rear 4′ of frame. We drilled out around the elevator bolts and then used a multi-purpose tool to cut around the elevator bolts located around the perimeter of the trailer under the shell. This is my first time at any of this so there is a lot of learning, but by this afternoon we decided to turn this into a shell off restoration on Monday since it is barely hanging on at the moment. The rear separation is partially to blame, a broken outrigger, and then there are just way too many places where the shell’s C-channel is not attached to the chassis in any way at all. Having the shell off will allow us to more easily fix the frame, replace the flooring, and then make sure the shell is 100% secured and aligned to the chassis/floor as it should be. The good news is that it looks like the rest of the chassis is in excellent condition and the welders should be able to get the frame repaired sometime next week.

The first batch of Nuvite finally arrived today so this evening I tried a little test area with the F7 grade. I think it is going to take some G9 in this front section and we might also try some rouge to get the 80% polish on its way. Polishing this trailer into a mirror finish is going to be a huge task, but will be worth it!

Next week we will remove the shell, finish removing the flooring, begin on the chassis restoration, and possibly install the new axles or get busy with the new floor!

This update is delayed by two weeks as things have been a little off here lately. Two weeks ago a “blizzard” came through this area of Texas and our city is not setup to deal with 3-5″ of snow and 1″+ of ice under the snow. Anyway, no work happened on the trailer that week and then this past week my entire family and I came down with some type of a cold that took us out of commission pretty good. Well here is the update from several weeks ago now and this coming week is going to be full of tons of progress as we will finally have help to remove the clear coat, finish stripping the upper inner skins, and finally remove the inner skins. I have the POR-15 products sitting here ready for the chassis restoration to begin in the next week or two.

The AC is now completely off and was a fun little project to do by myself. I have not weighed the unit yet, but it was fairly heavy (I’m guessing 60lbs+). I lifted it off the roof by myself and set it on top of an 8′ ladder and then onto a 6′ ladder before it came to rest on the floor.

Here are a bunch of shots of the progress that was made on removing the vinyl. This is an easy task, but just time consuming. I have a pretty good process that involves two coats that works really well. We now have all of the vinyl off of the lower walls and just have the upper two panels to do the length of the trailer. Then we need to remove some of the left over residue, but that can be done once the panels are off.

This is the fantastic stripper product that makes removing this vinyl an easy task. I have done most of this in an enclosed shop since it has been cooler. The fumes are not bad at all, but it does burn like crazy if you get it on your skin, or in your mouth…note to self keep mouth shut when yanking off the vinyl as some of the remover might fling off into mouth.