The Kitchen is out

It was another nice partly sunny Saturday morning drive out in the country to go to work on May. Outdoor it was 11 degrees. The indoor work temperature was just under 50 and climbing when I arrived. I could hear the roar of the wood stove, so I checked on it and added a few logs, and started right to work. I have to say I love the smell of a wood fire, the act of tending to it, so this heat source is an added benefit of working at this location.

I wanted to tackle the kitchen today, so I started on the sink. I easily disconnected the waste lines and determined right there and then to reuse them, as they are fine shape (they'll need new gaskets). The main traps are not plastic, but of a metal that I do not recognize, but they appear to have much life left in them. After loosening the clips under the sink, the cast sink popped right out. I will reuse it again, set in a stainless steel counter next time. I then disconnected the hot/cold faucet, and a second separate cold water faucet. I hope to rebuild and reuse them the faucets again, as I like their retro look. Here are before and after pictures of May's kitchen.

Before picture shot last year outside with Kitchen intact:
Picture shot today after the Kitchen de-install:
Underneath the counter I found the last four digits of May's serial number, written at the California factory in 1964 by one of the workers. This was so they could match the counter top with the right trailer being built.I feel pretty good with today's progress, and so I will look forward to working again next Saturday. I believe I will be tackling the bathroom and closets, and I need to get me some Cobalt drill bits. Until then....

65 Degrees Indoors

The first day of indoor Airstream work was a success. The wood burning stove was going full force when I arrived, as promised, the landlord had started it earlier this morning. It was toasty inside, and I quickly got work in shirt sleeves. First up was to remove the oven/range.
The removal went much faster than I anticipated, and I had it out in short order

Note the oven is out. You can see that I also have the roof vents fully open at the same time, which is a first. The interior got so warm from the wood stove and the work lights that I was using that it was cooler to open the vents. 45 years old and the manual vent mechanisms still work great. By the way today's outdoor temperature was in the 20's, so I am glad is was "too warm" inside!

I found this fine mess under the rear street side cabinet under a false floor. It looks like both mice and squirrels have stayed inside this Airstream before.

I did a far amount of other work today including hauling out a full 30 gallon bag of garbage, measuring and cataloging the interior, removing hooks, removing kitchen doors, opening up the overhead cabinets that were glued shut with mirror mastic, and the list goes on. Next week I am ready to remove the sink and faucets. Until then!

May is on the move!

Picked up May at Hart RV yesterday. It was a beautiful day for the 240 mile road trip. Stopped on the way up at the Airstream Park to make sure all was well, and to pick up my set of four large wheel chocks. The Park was devoid of people and trailers, but on such a nice warm (45 degree) sunny fall day, it seemed like it should be open and in full swing.

May will need a new shorter drop hitch, as the new axle has raised the trailer by at least 2 inches. You can see in the picture that she is not sitting horizontally even. Today she will go in her new winter indoor home, and the work can begin again. I think today I will be spending time measuring and taking pictures, and get well prepared for the work to begin next weekend. Until then!

FOUND! Winter Shop to work on May!

Just a quick excited post to announce that I just came to terms on a heated shop to work on May this winter! It is 19 miles from my house, out in farm country. I will have the better part of a 40x40 shop from next weekend until April 1st. I will go get her next Friday or Saturday, and back her into her new winter home. Ultimately a plain old newspaper ad is how I found this option. In fact, I had two phone calls from two different parties with 40x40 shops within a few minutes of each other. So for less than $20 and 2 weeks worth of ads, I was finally successful. Soon I am back to work!

Labor Day Weekend Naked Butt!

Yes, I said it, Naked Butt! But first I digress.

Now that the leaves have completely fallen off the trees (exception as always, the oaks), our summer weekly and weekend road (mostly Airstream) travels have also finally come to a satisfying but timely completion. In a way I am glad to be off the road (literal), as it seems I (we) have been on the road forever. At least I have a couple Airstream stories to tell! As the winter and fall breezes are upon us, and time begins to slow down to a Fall and then even slower Winter pace, I will have more time to tell those stories (albeit late). Now on to that Naked Butt.

On Monday September 7th of the Labor Day weekend, I surveyed what I had accomplished on the '64 this first summer of '09, and felt mixed emotions on how far (or not far) the work had come. I learned how to polish, got some actual polishing completed, and put new wheels and tires under May for her to stand and drive on. I made numerous future plans, and began the search for a winter home to work on May through the cold and snowy months. Indoor work space of course, with allowance for power and heat, and that search continues. Ok, really now, on to that Naked Butt!

Being able to work on May only summer weekends that I was free and the weather cooperated, turns out to be not that much time (duh). But what is also now done is the deinstallation of the original rear lights, both running, turn and license plate. I installed temporary stop/turn lights after the picture below (thank you for your help on those temporary lights Jim!). I have wiring issues to resolve before the new and permanent replacement lights will work. This finding of wiring issues should not have come as a surprise to me, and to which some hours where devoted to resolving. Mark it down as just another one of those restoration tasks that was not planned. I spent all that time trying to get the the lighting (wiring) figured out, thought I had it resolved, did not have it resolved, challenged with LED grounding, resolved that, still not working correctly, ahhhhh!! But now you can see what May's Naked Butt looked like as of Labor Day Monday, September 7th, 2009:

I look forward to resolving the wiring, completing the rear polishing, and installing those brand new lights. By the way, look what else is in the rear, under the window, and right above the rear utlities door.

This AAA Emblem appears (and feels) to be stamped right into the aluminum! I will have to do some research on it, and will also look forward to getting a rear view of it when I strip the interior including the interior skin.

Until my next time, peace!

4 Weeks is too long

4 Weeks is too long to not get any work in on the '64, but that's what just happened. I just hit that time in summer where I had no weekend time to Polish. I had other projects and one trip with the '90; The Vintage Races at Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI. On top of it all I am very busy at work, and this affords me zero extra time this summer. Anyway, I finally did get back on the project this weekend.

I am working on the rear end cap above the rear window. I took off the remaining two rear lights, and used Acetone to rub off the thick black water proofing that was added by a PO. As described in a previous post, the lights are also not period correct, and will be replaced with tear drop style lights. You can see the black gunk above the rear lights in the previous post on July 7th of this month. It took me at least one hour per light just to get the black tar stuff scraped and rubbed off. I also used plastic paint scapers to try and pry hunks of the stuff. Once I got all the black removed on Saturday, then it was on to Sunday (today). Today I polished steps 1 & 2 the the grey and red abrasive bars (more information on polishing steps under June 24, 2009 post).

I shot this one picture just before I could completely finish polishing as time was running out and a small rain shower came by. After this shot, I covered the holes from the old lights removal with aluminum tape from Vintage Trailer Supply. Well, I am off again for two weeks. Until then, keep the Aluminum side shiney!

The Wheels and Tires Win! Well, almost.....

I was glad to spend at least one hour polishing this weekend. I am so limited in the time I can spend on it each Saturday/Sunday. I have other work I have to get done at the Park, I am outside and not under cover so weather/sun effects when I can polish, and I will not kill our mostly evening/night weekend social time. Heck, it is still the weekend after all! I work enough during the week, although we know Airstream "work" is not really "work". I am not using all of this as an excuse, as the time I get to spend polishing is during our glorious outdoor summer months. On Sunday I worked on the rear crown (end cap), and uninstalled one marker light. I removed the really hard and poorly installed black caulk/gunk from the top of the marker light with the help of Acetone. The old square marker lights will be replaced with teardrop marker lights that I believe '64 trailers could and/or would have had original from the factory. My current hypothosis is that a PO installed the end cap marker lights in the early 70's, as the old side markers from the factory are tear drops. Regardless, I like the looks of the tear drops better on a Vintage. Oh, and the above picture is after one pass of the grey compound (step #1), a light rain storm, with silver tape from http://www.vintagetrailersupply.com/.

So now to those #$%^ tires! 2 plus hours later I have the new tires and aluminum wheels installed. They look great now, but what a job getting them installed! The low riding Airstream with the small wheel wheel cut out area makes for one hell of a struggle getting new wheels and tires installed. The old wheels and tires came off without a hitch. The weight allowed each one to easily drop with gravity's help at a 45 degree angle away from the axle. Getting the new wheels and tires in was another story. My 81 year old neighbor actually came up with the best idea watching my struggles "why don't you take the air out of the tires?" It was a great idea, lessoned my struggles, but not entirely so. I fought the good fight, and finally won the battle, but those wheel wells did not give up very easily. In the end they are installed, and they do look good. Now I can go back to polishing and replacing exterior lights.

And here is the new long view. The exterior really looks great in this morning light right after a small rainstorm. Trust me, the interior is really pretty rough, and the smell of old mice p&p is rally hard to describe (yuk). But the exterior looks good, and even better with the new wheels and tires, and soon even better yet with a full polish!