Detail Work

Since getting the shell back on the frame, we've been patching up the shell and reattaching all the Airstream emblems and badges. Ryan and I spent two days last week just riveting on patches and filling holes. Last weekend, Andy came up from Portland and he helped me finish up a few riveting jobs including reattaching the streetside window drip caps.

The 1964 vintage Armstrong air conditioner that I had originally hoped to salvage and re-install turned out to be more effort that it was worth. It consisted of an upper and lower unit with the upper unit screwed to the outside skin and the inner unit riveted to the interior skin with refrigerant lines running through a two inch hole in the exterior. There was also a one inch hole for the motor shaft which turns the interior and exterior fans.

I thought it looked pretty cool and it actually worked quite well when we brought the trailer home, but we had to take the AC down in order to get the interior skins out for the restoration. During my planning, I thought I'd just put it back up when we were done.

But once I actually took it apart and realized how incredibly complicated the installation was, I quickly decided to scrap that plan. My hats off to the folks who installed these originally. It was very well done and did not look like it had leaked over the years. I could tell pretty quickly that if I tried to put it back and made any mistakes, I could have ended up spending countless days on a AC that could quit on me any minute.

So, one of the first orders of business after getting the shell back on was to fill the thirty-plus holes in the roof from where it was screwed down, and to patch the two larger holes that had been cut in the roof skin to run the motor shaft and refrigerant lines. We also had to replace a piece of c-channel in that area that had been cut through as part of the AC installation.

Here is the view of the patches and repairs in the area where the AC used to sit. The second line of rivets in from the seam is the replacement c-channel. We also installed a new 14x14 section of c-channel framing on the interior to support the addition of a modern AC later. The cut-out area for that is marked with a rivet at each corner so we will know exactly where to cut when we get around to buying an AC (which could be a very long time from now based on how much we've spent on everything else).

Next order of business was addressing several holes that were too large for rivets, as well as a tear in the skin from what appeared to be an old awning attachment point and a horribly corroded hole in the skin from where Captain Wilson had mounted a steel license plate bracket. Ryan cut a bunch of nice looking patches and we applied a liberal amount of Vulkem to each patch before riveting them on. The first one below required pulling a section of the awning rail as the holes were actually through the awning rail. Fortunately, this was a short 1 1/2 foot piece at the rear of the trailer and came off easily with only about 5 or 6 rivets drilled.

This next photo is where the steel license plate bracket had corroded a hole right through the skin. I briefly considered replacing this entire panel, but this project is already too far out of control and I decided that since we were patching up so many other areas, we could live with one more patch.

All told, I think we ended up with over a dozen patches including two on the roof where the Captain had mounted eyeball shaped lights at each end on a wooden bracket screwed down with four large screws and a half-inch hole for the wires.

After all the patches, we were able to turn to some nicer looking parts of the project. In one of my earliest posts on this blog I talked about how much I liked the International badges that came with the trailer and we now have all three of those back on.

I also bought new Airstream badges for the front . . .

and rear.

As you can see in the picture of the front Airstream badge, we also buck riveted on the original dealer plate from Robert Crist and Co. We reattached the rear dealer plate in its original location just above the rear bumper (not visible in this picture).

I bought a new Overlander badge and new serial number plate that look very nice (I still need to punch the serial number before riveting that badge on).

The Land Yacht badge is not made in reproduction yet, but I cleaned up the old one and gave it a little polish. You can also see the small Mobile Home Manufactures Association badge to the right of the Overlander badge in this picture.

Finally, Ryan has been back at it this week installing the wheel well trim. This is one of those areas where his metal working skills are really impressive. The wheel wells look great.

Ryan also installed one of our two Fantastic fans today and is going to start on the wiring tomorrow. He only has a few more days before he has to leave for a three-month lineman apprentice class in Oregon. After that, I'll be on my own for a while. We are really going to miss Ryan while he's gone and I know Katie and the boys will miss him even more. But our family wishes him the best as he pursues this new career and hope he's back in the Puget Sound again soon so we can start camping.