Information Overlander

I've been spending the last couple weeks reading several novels worth of internet posts by other Airstream fanatics who have gone down the path we are taking. There is a wealth of information available on AirForums, an internet forum with nearly 35,000 members who share information on their Airstream experiences and often post detailed write ups regarding their restorations. Luckily for us, there are several people around the country who have restored, or are in the process of restoring Overlanders from the exact same era as ours. I was actually pretty geeked out to see that at least two Overlander owners with extensive experience restoring 1958-1963 Overlanders have caught on to this blog - Utee94 aka Marcus who is blogging the restoration of his 1963 Overlander at Austin Aluminitus, and Frank of Frank's Trailer Works who owns a 1961 Overlander International named Anna Lumanum. Thanks for the comments guys - I've taken several pages of notes on your restorations and hope to shamelessly copy many of your ideas.

At times, the massive amounts of information to absorb have given me mild headaches and threatened to overwhelm the part of my brain that up till now had been occupied by needless college football trivia. There are a ton of decisions to make and many questions that can only be fully answered once we start taking the Captain apart. Among the more significant decisions are: how to replace the axles (a question that has been largely answered with advise from Ryan and Frank); what type of brake system to install on the new axles (another question quickly answered by Ryan); how to replace the black tank that appears to have suffered a series of "repairs" as evidence by this photograph of the nasty looking dump valve with a broken handle (you really don't want to see the exit side of this contraption)how to install a gray water tank in a trailer that did not have such a convenience originally; where to install trailer batteries (they were originally in a box riveted to the front of the trailer, but that box is to small for modern batteries); what to do about the ugly pigtail of an electrical connection at the back of the trailer (hey could those bushes be the termites path to my trailer??!)

how to maximize storage space in a trailer with very little existing storage; and the list goes on and on. I've actually started an outline that is nearly 10 pages long with forum posts and blog entries cut and pasted in at the relevant sections in an effort to keep all the different opinions and advise organized. While I might sound like I'm complaining, as all my friends know - I totally love this s#%*!

In the meantime, Eva, our two year old, has kept me very convinced that buying the Captain was a great decision. Just about every day since Jeff brought the Captain home, Eva has greeted me after work with the request "want go see trailer." The Captain is parked in our alley two doors north of us on a vacant lot we all call Lambert Park - named after our friends the Lamberts who let us keep the Captain so close to home. Eva and I spend about 10 to 15 minutes every night poking around the trailer before we head for the tree swing in Lambert Park. I suspect the whole "want see trailer" bit is really just a ruse to get to the swing, but I'll never complain because it gives me an excuse to visit my new obsession.

Several people have advised me to try and get the Captain out for at least one trip before we start pulling her apart. I so very much want to do that, but I will probably have to settle for a night "camping" in Lambert Park with Eva. This is primarily because our current tow vehicle (and reason my lovely wife is not about to let me take our children for a trip in the Captain this year) is this beautiful 1971 GMC 3/4 ton pickup affectionally known as Betsy.

Betsy is the second best purchase I ever made, right behind the Captain (check in with me in a few months when Betsy may have recovered first place). Technically, as in registered ownership, we share this awesome truck with our friends the Castletons. In reality we share this truck with just about everybody we know in West Seattle. While Betsy is great for dump runs, manure loads, moving furniture around West Seattle and other errands of less than 50 miles, I don't think she is really up to any serious towing. Ryan swears she could handle the job . . . and I'm sure he will keep working on Mary. But chances for a shakedown cruise this year are small. Oh well, time to sign off for now - "want go see trailer."