When the Captain arrived in late April, one of the first things we noticed was that just about everything on the roof that was made of plastic was very brittle. The long term effects of the San Diego sun had taken quite a toll. The Captain has three vents in the roof including two 14" x 14" vents with fans and aluminum covers and one 14" x 24" vent up front that is covered by a fiberglass "Astradome." During the trip up from San Diego, the Astradome had disintegrated and needed to be replaced immediately. Fortunately, Ryan had a brand new one sitting in his basement that he had purchased for their 59' Flying Cloud.
In the photograph above my dad is trying to mark the spots where the three rivets will attach the hinge to the Astradome. As you can see, the vent lifter is still in place and we were trying to work around it and attach the Astradome to the lifters with everything still in the trailer. It worked as you can see below, but this is the wrong way to accomplish this task.
Although I had the instructions available from Vintage Trailer Supply's website that said to remove the lifters from the trailer, my dad and I thought the lifter was permanently attached to the bracket with rivets. Therefore, we mistakenly believed the bracket and lifter had to be removed as one unit by drilling out the rivets holding the bracket to the side of the vent opening. As a result of this mistake, we went ahead and drilled out the rivets for one of the brackets and, as you can see below, I have one entire bracket and lifter assembly out of the trailer.
I later read the directions on VTS's website more closely and realized that the lifters are not permanently attached to the bracket and can be removed by simply slipping a putty knife or screwdriver between the lower part of the bracket and the vent lifter. In the photograph above, the vent lifter is partially out of the bracket on the right side.
Oh well, lesson learned. I removed the remainder of the vent lifters correctly and only need to re-install one of the brackets with new rivets. Once we had the lifters out, we learned that one of the two Astradome lifters was completely seized and inoperable. We blasted it with tons of WD40 and other cleaners but could not manage to get it to operate. When I figured out how to remove the lifters correctly, I went ahead and took out all but one of the lifters from the rear vents (three of the four had already separated from the vent covers and only needed to be taken out of the brackets) and found that they too were seized. I blasted each of them with tons of WD40 and other cleaners with no success. I even followed Frank's advise to soak them for an extended period of time in WD40, but still no luck. So, for the last several weeks I've been turning back to them every couple days and trying to get them to turn with no luck.
Because I'm not completely sold on the replacements, I went back to my originals to see if I could get a complete pair in operation. If you recall, there was one still in the trailer that was attached to one of the rear vents. Last weekend, I drilled out the rivets holding that lifter to the vent cover and gave it several shots of penetrating oil. Miraculously, this one (pictured above) loosened up almost immediately and is now fully functional. So, now I have a pair of originals and a pair of replacements. We also put two of Ryan's old lifters in a can of Carburetor cleaner to see if that will eat through the corrosion that is keeping the old lifters from functioning. If that works, I'll throw my four remaining lifters in the carb cleaner and maybe I'll be able to get them all working again.
In the meantime, Andy came up this week and put in some more hours on the polishing. I'm pretty convinced that the best method of polishing an Airstream is to wait for a recession and hire a recent graduate of your rival college. He is doing excellent work and we love having him come visit.
(on edit - 7/12/09 2:30 p.m. PST) - after three months of messing around with the vent lifters, I finally found a thread on Airforums that detailed exactly how to fix these stupid things. "Anatomy/repair of LeDeux operners for the Herh Roof Vent" Four steps, with pictures, worked like a charm.
My dad and I went to work on the Astradome replacement the day after the Captain arrived. It, and the other vent covers in the trailer, are each held in place and operated by a pair of screw-type vent lifters that extend upwards nearly six inches when operating properly. These vent lifters are a source of many problems in old Airstreams as they have a tendency to corrode over time and become stuck in one position. When fully operational, they have an equally annoying tendency to simply extend on their own while in transit (I've now seen this effect on the Captain from a strong blast of wind). The bottom of the vent lifters are held in a bracket that is riveted to the sides of the vent opening. The top of the vent lifters are attached to their respective vent cover with three rivets that go through the vent cover and into a small hinge that is attached to the top of the screw mechanism.
In the photograph above my dad is trying to mark the spots where the three rivets will attach the hinge to the Astradome. As you can see, the vent lifter is still in place and we were trying to work around it and attach the Astradome to the lifters with everything still in the trailer. It worked as you can see below, but this is the wrong way to accomplish this task.Although I had the instructions available from Vintage Trailer Supply's website that said to remove the lifters from the trailer, my dad and I thought the lifter was permanently attached to the bracket with rivets. Therefore, we mistakenly believed the bracket and lifter had to be removed as one unit by drilling out the rivets holding the bracket to the side of the vent opening. As a result of this mistake, we went ahead and drilled out the rivets for one of the brackets and, as you can see below, I have one entire bracket and lifter assembly out of the trailer. I later read the directions on VTS's website more closely and realized that the lifters are not permanently attached to the bracket and can be removed by simply slipping a putty knife or screwdriver between the lower part of the bracket and the vent lifter. In the photograph above, the vent lifter is partially out of the bracket on the right side.Oh well, lesson learned. I removed the remainder of the vent lifters correctly and only need to re-install one of the brackets with new rivets. Once we had the lifters out, we learned that one of the two Astradome lifters was completely seized and inoperable. We blasted it with tons of WD40 and other cleaners but could not manage to get it to operate. When I figured out how to remove the lifters correctly, I went ahead and took out all but one of the lifters from the rear vents (three of the four had already separated from the vent covers and only needed to be taken out of the brackets) and found that they too were seized. I blasted each of them with tons of WD40 and other cleaners with no success. I even followed Frank's advise to soak them for an extended period of time in WD40, but still no luck. So, for the last several weeks I've been turning back to them every couple days and trying to get them to turn with no luck.
Although I'm not giving up on the originals, two weeks ago I went ahead and ordered a pair of replacement lifters from Inland RV in Southern California. I figured at the very least I would have two fully functional lifters and I could continue to work on the originals. Inland RV carries a new version of the lifters that fits perfectly, but operates a little differently. The action of the lifter is smoother and less prone to simply spinning open in a strong wind.
While the replacements work well, I prefer the look of the original units. The machined aluminum of the replacements is a little too modern for the Captain. I also found that the replacement units only lift the vent up half as high as the originals as you can see in this photograph below of both fully extended.
Because I'm not completely sold on the replacements, I went back to my originals to see if I could get a complete pair in operation. If you recall, there was one still in the trailer that was attached to one of the rear vents. Last weekend, I drilled out the rivets holding that lifter to the vent cover and gave it several shots of penetrating oil. Miraculously, this one (pictured above) loosened up almost immediately and is now fully functional. So, now I have a pair of originals and a pair of replacements. We also put two of Ryan's old lifters in a can of Carburetor cleaner to see if that will eat through the corrosion that is keeping the old lifters from functioning. If that works, I'll throw my four remaining lifters in the carb cleaner and maybe I'll be able to get them all working again.In the meantime, Andy came up this week and put in some more hours on the polishing. I'm pretty convinced that the best method of polishing an Airstream is to wait for a recession and hire a recent graduate of your rival college. He is doing excellent work and we love having him come visit.
(on edit - 7/12/09 2:30 p.m. PST) - after three months of messing around with the vent lifters, I finally found a thread on Airforums that detailed exactly how to fix these stupid things. "Anatomy/repair of LeDeux operners for the Herh Roof Vent" Four steps, with pictures, worked like a charm. 
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Love the recession/graduate polishing solution - I think we should all try it ! The Captain is starting to shine beautifully. Its funny how little things, like the vent lifters can cause allsorts of problems but I'm sure you'll solve them. I'm a great believer in sitting back with a beer and mulling it over. Good luck with it all, I'll be watching (& mulling it over with a beer, of course).
ReplyDeleteChris