First order of business was to remove the fridge. I love this old fridge and plan on having the door and trim pieces powder coated a yet to be determined color before reinstalling (yes, I am leaning towards pink, I think it is a cool 50's color and my daughters would probably approve).My dad started taking it apart on Monday. It was a bear of a project. That thing is built like a tank and must weigh close to 200 pounds. By Tuesday afternoon it was ready to come out, but we needed the big guns to help maneuver it out the door of the trailer. Fortunately, Andy is also built like a tank and was up to the task (man I miss being 23 and having the time to spend 2 hours a day at the gym).
I must confess, when Andy called me at work Wednesday morning to describe their plan on how to get it out, I was more than a bit concerned that someone was about to get hurt. They had briefly attempted to take the door off to help it fit out the door and lighten it up a bit. However, upon discovering that removing the door was going to involve a huge amount of dismantling, they decided to leave it on, but have my mom hold the door open while the two of them carried it at an angle they felt would fit through the trailer door. I wished them luck, asked them to call me when they were done and crossed my fingers. Five minutes later, Andy called sounding a little winded and announced their success. Whew! Our trusty Duck only suffered minor bruising.
We are following Ryan's advise and moving from there clockwise around the trailer; bagging and tagging every little screw and trim piece that comes out as we go. After pulling out the mid-cabin bunk beds, they moved on to the front wardrobe, which came pretty quickly and appears to have been taken out for maintenance before.
This is when things slowed down dramatically. The beds gave them all kinds of trouble with hidden, rusted or just plain stubborn screws.
About 4:30 today I received a text from Andy with a quote from my dad "We're not doing well at all!" It's a good example of how discouraging it can be at times to work on an Airstream, but I totally disagree with their assessment.
Surveying the progress so far, I am so grateful for their work this week and think they did an awesome job.
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I found the deconstruction to be more difficult and time-consuming than I had expected as well. It's easy to get discouraged, but Andy and your Pops are doing an excellent job.
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't already, ask them to take really close-up detailed pictures of everything before they tear it out. I have found it difficult to remember certain details as I reconstruct, like how a piece of trim fit exactly on a cabinet, and the order things came apart, so that I can reverse it when I put it back together. It's nothing you won't be able to figure out with some time, but detailed photos can help you save that time, and spend it elsewhere. Like, replacing the floor and repairing the frame... :)
-Marcus
Thanks Marcus. My dad actually took a ton of detail photos as they were taking things apart. I think I might also take a video camera in there this weekend to film the what is still left. The ability to pan back and forth and show things in relation to other parts might be helpful.
ReplyDeleteyou might be past this but, you want to remove it from front to back. It was put in back to front. it it does not go through the door it is not taken apart enough. It all came in the door.
ReplyDeleteIt's lookin' good Norm. When you're at that stage it just seems like you'll never get all that stuff out, and then all of a sudden the trailer will be empty.
ReplyDeletesteve
The tear down of a trailer. Even though I'm not able to be on site with my tear down, I can certainly relate. Thank goodness you've got Andy and your Dad. Looks like they've done great.
ReplyDeleteIt will get better. At least that's what I've been told. :-)