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…