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Bathroom rebuilt... mostly

Posted 10-31-2009 at 07:16 PM by Bowmans
We sealed the shower walls with a PVC textured shower board from a box store and 100% silicone sealer. Here are a couple of shots before the hall wall went on:




We put a coat of polyurethane on the walls before mounting them, then put 2 more coats while in place. Here are...
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Old

Interior painted, now on to the woodworking

Posted 10-25-2009 at 07:02 PM by Bowmans
We finished the painting sometime last week and put all of the ceiling lights, outlet covers, AC cover, wing window trim, end cap tambours, etc. back on. Below is some picts of the paint inside:

The front end:


The rear (bath plastics are in the way but...):

...
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Old

Prep for painting inside

Posted 10-10-2009 at 09:33 PM by Bowmans
We needed to finish some stuff inside before we could paint the interior walls.

It started with the fridge. The frame of the fridge had some rust spots so we wire brushed these down to metal and put black appliance paint on the frame and doors. We will put pine panels back into the doors while we do the cabinets.

Before:


After:...
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Old

Starting on the inside of the 1979 International

Posted 10-03-2009 at 09:57 PM by Bowmans
I had 5 days off in a row this week due to vacation, comp and furlough time (will be the same for the next 4 weeks). We are hoping to get a good bit done before winter hits.

First thing we did was replace the antennae with a Winegard Stellar III (I believe that was the name). The controller and cable fit perfectly in the holes for the old one and the base was the same size so only had to drill a few holes. We didn't have any corrosion under the old base but we did find alot of...
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Old

Officially finished with the outside for now

Posted 09-23-2009 at 08:53 PM by Bowmans
We painted all of the trim and lettering on the camper, cleaned the trunk, made a new cover for the fiber-optic light thingy out of aluminum and used a wire brush on the tongue to clean up a little rusty area and re-painted that. I found out that taping of the lettering wasn't the way to go so everything that was painted was done freehand. The only things left on the outside are what we will do with the antena and polishing the gas tanks.

Close-up of the Airstream logo painted:...
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Old

Looks new from the outside at least

Posted 09-20-2009 at 06:02 PM by Bowmans
We have officially finished polishing . We also got the trimline inserted and most of the little things outside back on and painted/cleaned.



We also removed the lower trimline bracket at the rear and sealed the shell to the bumper aluminum so we can stop the water leakage into the flooring. I read Zeppelinium's post on this and really appreciated it but...
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Old

Inside out

Posted 09-12-2009 at 06:48 PM by Bowmans
I as off Friday so I thought I would hopfully almost finish the polishing. Got about 8' x 6' section done and the drill motor finally gave out. So I broke out a second Vistview and resealed it since the first hasn't leaked in 2 rains we got this week.

I also removed the front cabinet and the sink/stove cabinet. I couldn't believe the dirt buildup in the front end where the battery compartments and converter was located. Spent a while cleaning that up. I also re-located some aftermarket...
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Old

Progress on polishing and 1 Vistview window broken

Posted 09-04-2009 at 03:05 PM by Bowmans
We are now down to the rear endcap on polishing and it's about halfway done.



I finally ordered the gaskets for the Vistaview windows last week from Can-Am. The tint peeling in between the panes is too much to look at every day. The gaskets arrived and are rectangular from the side to fit in the area left by the inside pane you break and remove. I decided...
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Old

Polishing - We are seeing the light...

Posted 09-04-2009 at 02:57 PM by Bowmans
...at the end of the tunnel or blinding from the side of the camper, I am not sure which.

We are finally down to the last bit of polishing. The roadside is complete and this morning, I was able to knock out a little of the rear endcap, clean the running lights there and remove as much of the WWBC number and stickers as I could.

Beth and I also re-attached the roadside awning that we spent so much time removing, cleaning, re-stitching, replacing on the pole the correct...
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Old

The other side...

Posted 08-24-2009 at 01:06 AM by Bowmans
Well, we continued on our polishing of the other half of the Airstream last week. We have the roadside and rear end to complete. The roof is polished and we got almost all clearcoat stripped from what is left to polish. The roadside is about 2/3's polished as well. The picture below was taken before the upper portion was polished all the way to the rear endcap.


...
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Old

Moving further on the restoration...

Posted 07-26-2009 at 08:44 PM by Bowmans
Well, we finished polishing and re-sealing the roof Friday. I am happy that I don't have to go back up there except for whatever we decide to do with the antenna. When I was polishing that area, I took a look at why it may not have been raising from the handle inside. When I took the metal bracket off that hides the gears, I got my answer. A bunch of plastic pieces fell out. Some looked like gear pieces, others just plastic chunks. I nicely placed the broken antenna back on its' holder for...
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Old

Stage 1, the exterior is over 50% done

Posted 07-10-2009 at 02:36 PM by Bowmans
The front endcap and curbside are now fully finished with the roof 2/3 done with polishing The awnings are cleaned and remounted on the 2 sides that are polished. All of the windows and hardware have been scotchbrighted and light covers are cleaned. The windows and hardware that needed resealing with Vulkem are done also. Looking at just the right angle, it looks totally complete . I had to add all of the extras in for the photo since Beth spent so much time cleaning the awning material....
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Old

Polishing progress

Posted 07-08-2009 at 10:47 PM by Bowmans
Off for a few days and a little more of the polishing done. I figured out today, that the "C" medium Nuvite polish is taking a step back in the stages of polishing I am making. Using the F7 as a compound polish gets the aluminum smoother than the C medium with the Cyclo. I am not sure why but every time I use the C, it looks worse. Today I started skipping that stage and it didn't make a difference except less work. The S fine polish actually takes a little less work to get the mirror...
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Old

1979 31' Sovereign International - The Bowman's adventure...

Posted 07-06-2009 at 06:57 PM by Bowmans
Since we are so invested and are at the "no turning back" point, I figured it was time to start an actual blog on our progress.



In May 2009, we bought our AS and got it home without incident thanks to my father's great driving and hauling ability. We had no TV so had to bug him to not only check it out for us but later, drive 4 hours to pick it up and bring it
...
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