I am actually looking forward to tearing into the floors once I get rid of any potential leaks. The polishing and replacing a few new exterior parts is fun because it gives you that sense of potential that the rest of the AS will look like that little area that you got done.
Frank's advice is sound. After just one weekend of camping in my new '63, I am already figuring out new things to wrap my mind around, while abandoning some issues that I thought might matter but really do not.
I love the UPS man! Mind you, I've never met him but he brings brown boxes to my house. A neighbor said to me tonight "it's pretty bad when the UPS guy has to use a cart to bring your packages." I said no, its pretty cool! I got my new 30lb aluminum tanks with gauges. I also got a rivet polisher, Cyclo polisher kit, Nuvite, POR 15, floor replacement bolts. I found a Dewalt polisher last week and started polishing around the side and clearance lights. Tonight I got those lights installed. I also drilled out the drip rail and started to polish around that area. I need to carefully straighten the drip rail and polish it before using Vulkem and reinstalling it. I also removed the Airstream sign and started polishing around that area and purchased the Royal Blue paint so I can get the sign back into shape.
Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of this stuff but I will post them when I get a bit further along.
now that you have those drip caps off it is a perfect time to insure your windows remain leak free for the next 47 years. You need to dig out all the old putty from between the window frame and the skin. A dental tool works perfect. After you have dug out as much as you can, inject vulkem into the joint. Use wide buthyl tape under the drip cap when you put it back on. Vulkem around each rivet shank... no worries about leaking windows. You've come this far, might as well take it to ELEVEN.
__________________
Frank Yensan The Airstreamer's Club MD-1 founding member "we're dead serious about having fun"
I agree. I'm going on a digging expedition. I bought a bunch of different types of seam sealer from VTS. A friend of a friend is a dentist and I'm going to see if he has a line on some of those tools.
62
I am a retired mechanic. Actually a mechanical supervisor, I promoted to my level of incompetence! I have used more dental tools than most dentists. They are so thin they will break. Snap on tools sells a set of picks that have a screwdriver type of handle and are covered by their lifetime replacement warranty.
All of the side and clearance lights have now been replaced.
After taking off the front drip rail, I notice that it had some dents so I used a body working hammer and dolly and gently worked them out. I polished it, sealed up everything and put in all of the rivets. I bought one of those rivet polishing tools and it works great. The most exciting thing I did was to recondition the front Airstream sign.
My Intelipower unit came in and I hooked it up temporarily. To my surprise, all of the 12 volt stuff works so that is a relief.
All of the side and clearance lights have now been replaced.
After taking off the front drip rail, I notice that it had some dents so I used a body working hammer and dolly and gently worked them out. I polished it, sealed up everything and put in all of the rivets. I bought one of those rivet polishing tools and it works great. The most exciting thing I did was to recondition the front Airstream sign.
My Intelipower unit came in and I hooked it up temporarily. To my surprise, all of the 12 volt stuff works so that is a relief.
My 7 year old, Jackson, came out to say hi.
Wow, your re-conditioned nameplate looks fantastic! I cheated and bought reproductions from VTS.
If you haven't already re-installed it, a trick Frank has told me about is to use fender-wrap to frame the outside of the nameplate to really set it off. He says that the '62 Internationals had this frame on them, and that fender-wrap can reproduce that look. If you skim through his blog he tells me there are some pictures of it, though I haven't had a chance to find them yet.
You can see it on my blog, it is on the July 27 post. Also May 18.... it surrounds the name plate and trailer plate. I must give proper credit to Colin Hyde of GSM for telling me that fender wrap can create the same effect for those who's trailers just have the plain old plate. It really does dress the plate up.
__________________
Frank Yensan The Airstreamer's Club MD-1 founding member "we're dead serious about having fun"
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