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Originally Posted by TomW Vintage owners - Don't forget about your wheel wells (like I did). 
Tom |
Non-vintage and near-vintage owners should remember this too. The weekend you posted this I was in the process of painting the frame in the area of the wheel wells and caulking the seam between the plastic/fiberglass wheel wells and the frame on our '85. I did this because I noticed that the floor below the closet to the rear of the curbside wheel well showed signs of being wet at some point in the trailers life (before we purchased it).
During the paint & caulking process I noticed that there were "designed in" holes in the frame where the outriggers attach to the main frame rails in front of and behind the wheel wells. These "designed in" holes would allow water into the belly pan when the trailer was pulled in the rain even if the noted seam was caulked shut. I do not know the reason that these holes were left there by Airstream when they manufacturered the trailer, but I caulked them shut, too. Well except for the one rearward of the curbside wheel well. When wirebrushing off the rust to paint that outrigger, a large-ish rust hole develped. Apparently all that water getting thru the hole where the outrigger attached to the frame rail allowed that outrigger to deteriorate from the "inside". I was surprised to find this damage, because the rest of the frame on our '85 is in better shape than most 80's-early 90's Airstreams I have seen. A trip to the local welder to get this outrigger reinforced will be in the near future. I will then caulk all remaining gaps in that wheel well shut.