More Detail Work

We have continued to work on shell repairs this last week. When we bought the trailer, it had the original battery box in the center that was designed to hold narrow tractor batteries, as well as a newer, and larger, full size battery box added on the right. The newer box was very well made and installed, but it looked odd and unbalanced. Plus, my electrical plan calls for the batteries to be inside under the dinette. So, we went ahead and removed the extra box and filled in the holes with 5/16th rivets. I think it looks much better and just needs a little polish.

For hot water supply, I decided to go with an Atwood 10 gallon gas and electric water heater. As a result, we needed to make a new water heater patch to fill in around the original larger cutout. The old Atwood six gallon water heater that came with the trailer had been mounted directly on the floor with the c-channel cut out entirely. I didn't really like this method, but the height of the new 10 gallon did not leave me much room under the bed. We decided to mount the water heater on a scrap of 5/8th plywood (not the piece in this photo) which allows us to leave that much c-channel at the bottom so the belly pan remains attached and it forms a full square patch.

I bought all new replacement tear drop side marker lights from Vintage Trailer Supply. Unlike the originals, the mounting plates on these are aluminum so they will not rust and corrode. Ryan and I went ahead and buck riveted these on since we had access to the inside.

Ryan had to take the rear baggage compartment door off to get the shell back on. Before taking out the baggage compartment door and the fridge access door, the shell would not sit all the way down into the c-channel. Once these were removed, the shell quickly fell into place. So, while I had it out, I decided to give the baggage compartment door a little touch up polish. Ryan then riveted the frame back on. We still need to buck the last six rivets for the hinge side, but I either need a special bucking bar to fit into the tight spot on this side or we may need to use Olympic rivets.

Another necessary shell repair involved the fridge vent. Captain Wilson was pretty obsessed with carbon monoxide and realized that the original wall flue with a 2" hole in the roof, was probably insuffcient to properly vent the gases from the fridge. I think he was correct because when I took the interior skins down, I could see significant evidence of excessive heat build up in the form of heavily charred aluminum.

The original design utilized a bay between two ribs about 8 inches apart and a short pipe that directed the fridge gases from behind the fridge and into the wall. At the top of that rib bay, there was a small hole in the roof that was covered by a nice looking piece of aluminum.

The original look was very clean and I like how it looks on trailers that have not been poorly modified like mine, but it provides very little venting and seems to be dangerously inadequate.

So, sometime in the 60's it appears Captain Wilson bought all the pieces for the fridge venting system that Airstream began using around 1964 (and still uses today) consisting of the big plastic funnel on the inside of the trailer and the plastic dome cover over a large oval collar that goes through the roof.

It looks like Captain Wilson, or the shop he hired to do this work, hand built the flue collar and then installed it right next to the old small vent. It was a messey installation and I wanted to clean it up. I've attached a photo where you can get a glimpse of the exterior set up without the dome cover (it distentegrated on the trip up from San Diego). As you can see, it is right up against the original vent top and makes it difficult to reinstall the dome cover.

I came across a good solution while reading Tim Shephard's blog on his 1960 Ambassador. He bought a fridge collar for a modern Airstream to replace the 2 inch original vent on his trailer. In the photos it looked like it might be big enough to cover the mess I had and, when it arrived, I found it fit over both the retrofitted home made oval vent and the original small hole allowing me to create an entire new vent. It is also well centered between the two ribs.
The only unfortunate part of this fix is that the ABS cover I already bought from Vintage Trailer Supply is too short to cover the modern collar. I will have to buy the metal cover that Airstream dealers sell.

Moving on, we also removed the oven vent and re-riveted that back on with a liberal amount of Vulkem . . .

and we replaced the horribly brittle plastic stove vent with a new ABS unit from Vintage Trailer Supply. Our rivet spacing here is a bit off, but this is not anywhere near eye level. We used RV putty under this to create a tight seal against the trailer.

Ryan started wiring last week before he had to leave and finished about 90% of the rough-in electrical. I should be able to finish that up with a few more hours of pulling wire and then we can move on to insulation.