The next step is to order the new air conditioner. I still need three vent stack caps but they seem to be out of stock. Then it’s on to (dare I say it?) the plywood subfloor! Spirits are running high now that it is sub-triple digit temperatures. We’re going to miss the upcoming rally to the Texas coast but the Texas Vintage Airstream Rally is just around the corner at this point. Enough time to get a floor and some cabinets in and a shakedown trip? We’ll see…

With new jack stands supporting the trailer frame, I spent this weekend under the Airstream cutting the brake cables, cutting a few bolt heads and twisting, pulling, bending and tugging on the belly pan pieces. For those that aren’t familiar, Airstream fabricated the belly pan in two roughly four-foot wide aluminum sheets that run the length of the trailer. They overlapped a few inches in the middle and are riveted to each other, the banana wraps and the frame crossmembers. Needless to say, that’s a lot of rivets. I was able to slide one sheet of the bellypan under the other to give me clearance around the wheel well. Once the first sheet was out, the other smoothly followed.

I’m now having second thoughts about buying all new aluminum for the bellypan. It’s not in horrible shape and the price of aluminum is high enough to make me reconsider buying a new roll. That’s about $800 that could be spent elsewhere (and there’s plenty of places to spend it).

The second chore this weekend was removing the mostly unriveted interior wall that ran the street-side length of the trailer. There were a few rivets behind the pocket door wall which required removing the wall face. Another 20+ foot sheet of aluminum into the garage. Did I mention how packed it is in there with the entire contents of a 28′ Ambassador?

As tomorrow is Labor day, I’ll be back out there again. This time, I’m ripping up the subfloor from the wheel wells back to the bathroom. I’ll also be painting that section of the frame with POR-15. I need to spend a little time under the Airstream as well (what joy) assessing the rear frame crossmembers and measuring space for a gray water tank.

It won’t be too long now when this think doesn’t have any more parts to disassemble and the only thing left to do is start reassembling…

• Removed awning rail
• Cleaned gunk from the Airstream where awning rail was (22 feet is a long ways!)
• Removed the old air conditioning unit from the roof
• Removed all of the cracked/broken vent caps
• Removed the remainder of the belly pan
• Painted the front half of the frame with POR-15
• Removed the lower 19-inch fixed window that was mysteriously broken

Next on the list is to order a new A/C and vent caps as well as a roll of new aluminum for the bellypan. Assuming it will start to cool off in the next few weeks, I’ll be back out there full bore with renewed interest because an Airstream sitting in the driveway for two years just doesn’t sound like my dream of wanderlust.

It’s the time again; time to gush over how great the Airstream community is.  We headed down to Braunig Lake RV Resort in San Antonio on Saturday to join in the festivities of the Texas Vintage Airstream Rally.  This time we came with WBCCI membership form in hand and are now official members of the Highland Lakes unit of Region 9.

Let’s backtrack a little and point out that neighbors from a house we pass on our dog-walking circuit stopped by last weekend with information about the rally.  They explained that they too had an Airstream, had stopped multiple times to admire ours in the drive, and were hoping we’d join them at the rally.  Well, of course we were already going, but now we had friends there (and it didn’t take long to make more).

We arrived in the Braunig Lake area a few hours prior to the start of the open “house.” Little did we realize that stopping for lunch consisted of eating at the sole establishment, a burger joint, in the whole area.  Of course, that’s where the rest of the ‘Streamers were chowing down as well.  Don’t worry, the unit ribbons didn’t give them away at all, it was the smiling faces…

We headed over to the campground about 15 minutes prior to the official start of activities.  We were greeted by no less than 6 people directing us where to park and where to get voting slips (did I mention the competitiveness of the club members?).  I immediately spotted Marcus from Austin Aluminitus fame (recognized by remembering his infamous photo standing on the ground through his Airstream frame).  We chatted briefly and then were joined by Steve, aka SoldierMedic, who is also under major renovations.  We met some Austin friends (no blog yet, I’m working on them) and started the whirlwind tour of 45 vintage Airstreams in about three hours time.

We saw all sorts of rigs: full-timers, “show trailers,” family heirlooms, party campers.  The only consistent part of the tour was the friendly, helpful people we met along the way.

I want to take a minute and point out how much the Airstream gang likes to party. Sure, you might say, what do a bunch of semi- and retired aluminum fanatics know about partying?  Well, maybe they are naturally drawn to beverages served in aluminum cans but I have to say, between the free-flowing wine and multiple margarita machines, everyone was having a pretty good time (not to mention the odd can or case of PBR and Schlitz). Heck, they threw a birthday party in between a couple of Airstreams for anyone and everyone that had a birthday somewhere around the beginning of February. Sign me up!

Since we were new members and all, we were invited to stay for the catered dinner.  Unfortunately some last minute birthday plans came up and we were whisked back to Austin.

We’re looking forward to getting to know members of the unit better over the course of the next few months as we continue our own project.  I’m definitely hitting up the monthly lunch at Luby’s in NW Austin since it’s close to the office.  We were strongly encouraged to attend the next few rallies around Central Texas, Airstream in tow or not, just for some fun.  We’ll plan on it!

Two weekends ago weekend we removed the pantry, room divider, one twin bed, and the upper cabinets (basically everything down the streetside of the Airstream).  With some prying, chiseling, and luck we were able to remove the first section of flooring (the piece previously hinged up). With that piece up we could get a good view into the frame and cross-members.  Again, some surface rust but nothing that looked completely rusted through.

We spent the remainder of the day Dremeling elevator bolt heads out of the C channel around the perimeter of the curved front section of wood subflooring. Between each bolt was a nail that had a T head barely protruding above the aluminum. Prying these out was next to impossible as most broke. As daylight dwindled, we lassoed the flooring through a chiseled out hole and try to tug it free of the frame.  No dice.  Apparently those broken nails were holding better than expected.  We picked up some reinforced Dremel cut-off disks to make the job a bit easier the next time we tackled the elevator bolts.

This past weekend we re-assessed the front flooring section.  With the new cut-off disks, we carefully trimmed the nail heads flush to the C channel. We then used a nail to punch the rusted nail shank through the flooring.  This turned out to be quite effective at removing the remaining nails.  Unfortunately, there were two more elevator bolts we originally missed in the middle of the flooring.  More chiseling, Dremeling, and prying dropped those bolts out as well.  From what we could see, the flooring was completely free of fasteners.  Still no luck with removal, though.  Time to get out the circular saw.  With two passes down the middle of the flooring (being careful not to cut into the frame) we were able to remove the center of the floor (a piece that aligned with the front window). Now that we had some leverage room, the two side curves were removed quite easily.  Only a small portion of the streetside curve crumbled to sawdust and will have to be approximated.  At this point, our backs were sore and we recognized we couldn’t pull up any more flooring until we remove the kitchen cabinets and sink.  Instead of that undertaking (the garage is getting full already!) we disassembled and labeled all of the wiring connected to the Airstream control panel.  It turns out all of the 12 volt wiring is stranded copper and all of the 120 volt wiring is aluminum.  So I guess the upside is that we only have to replace half of the wiring, not all of it. Grrr…  At this point everything is removed down the streetside and we are now ready to tackle the curbside.  That’s what next weekend is for, right?

We could already see that the bolts around the floor edge were rusted. We also saw on closer inspection that the Airstream floor had been repaired in the past as it was held in by multiple screws, nails and a few elevator bolts. It took careful scraping with a dental pick to remove the rust from the screw heads so that a screwdriver would bite enough to back them out.   We tackled the rusted bolts with the Dremel and heavy duty cutting disks.  We’re getting through about one bolt per disk.  Not exactly speedy; we’ll need to research some reinforced disks for this work.

Today we had a little daylight after work so we prodded and pried a two-foot wide board out in front of the door.  We had to chisel around the elvator bolts to remove the wood.  There’s still one bolt attaching the shell to the floor that only allows us to hinge the board up, but we can see underneath and… surprise! the steel looks pretty good.  Sure, there is surface rust, but it’s nothing like the rotted out mess we expected.

We agreed to spend another night this week consolidateing/tidying the garage to make room for the removed woodwork.  The Airstream is getting pretty crowded with removed walls, couch assemblies, etc. Here’s looking forward to an upcoming weekend with more floor removal and frame exposure.

So the first window (small) went in October 25, the second, January 3 and the final (replacing the window AC unit) on January 11.  Each ended up taking about 4.5 hrs of scraping, cleaning, trimming, and assembling but they look great!

We also dug out the rotted seals around the fixed windows (above and below the forward windows) and re-sealed them with silicone.  A set of dental picks work great for this application.

Alright, finally, we’ll be digging into the floor next weekend.  We’ve danced around it long enough and now we’re going in.  I see that a local, Austin Airstreamer has been having fun with his floor.  I guess this is the Airstream renovation hotbed right now.  Wish us luck!

The lower window next to the door has been collecting water on the inside sill.  That explains some of the water damage I found on the floorboard near the door.  It appears that the topmost window in that section may be contributing to the damage as well.

The stovetop vent also has a small leak towards the rear of the mounting which has probably caused the rotted plywood behind the kitchen countertop.

At one point the street-side bedroom window was retro-fitted with a window air conditioning unit.  The remaining window opening was covered in plexiglass.  The air conditioner sits on metal brackets on the window sill and around this lower edge there is a small gap.  It doesn’t appear to be leaking, however there is water pooled in the metal channel below it.

All of the rooftop vents and AC unit look to be leak-free.  I was worried about one of the vents as the aft handle is disconnected from the vent top.

Priority number one over the next few weeks will be to find replacement gaskets for the windows and door.