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Old 11-20-2011, 03:35 PM   #1
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Anchorage , Alaska
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Interior Polishing

Seems like I have seen a thread on polishing the interior, but cannot find them now

Does anybody have experience stripping and polishing interiors of a 1963 ?

I am going to be largely shut down for the winter, until temps warm up. I was not planning on polishing the interior. But now I am wondering if I can take off a few panels as a time, bring them inside the garage where its warm, clamp them to a sheet of plywood, and do a few at a time, to make some progress during the winter.

Seems like the best approach is to polish with the panels installed. But would like something to do this winter to make progress. Do you the the minor amount of heat involved in polishing will warp the pieces and make them not fit when reinstalled?
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Old 11-22-2011, 11:12 AM   #2
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i'm thinking that the curved interior end panels are fiberglass--about 1/2 up the wall to the ceiling. don't know why they did that, but they did, at least in our 1961. take a cover off an outlet and look, or somehow check it....
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Old 11-22-2011, 11:41 AM   #3
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1962 19' Globetrotter
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I will jump in and state some points to think about..

First, your end caps are fiberglass on 1960 and newer except for bambi, so if you do decide to polish the interior the end caps will need to be striped and painted!

Second, I have found it is way easier and simply remove the interior panels and replace the zolitoned (painted) aluminum with new un painted pieces. It takes hours and hours to strip and when your done you will find that most of the striped panels have major dings and scrapes that you can not get out! I feel airstream used many damaged panels on the interior because they knew it would be coved up and it was away to salvage the panel instead of scraping it. I have found three panels that had bondo that was put on by the factory before painting.

Third, You have to ask yourself this question... Do you want a peewee fun house effect in your trailer? I ask this because it will look like a house of mirrors! The CCD trailers are more of a mill finish, I personally love the look, I personally can not stand the fully polished mirror look in the interior of the trailer.

Forth, the easiest way to this type of project is when the interior is fully out! Are you going to pull the entire interior out of the trailer?

In any case its a lot of work....Food for thought .... Good luck
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Old 11-22-2011, 11:53 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vinstream View Post
I will jump in and state some points to think about..

First, your end caps are fiberglass on 1960 and newer except for bambi, so if you do decide to polish the interior the end caps will need to be striped and painted!

Second, I have found it is way easier and simply remove the interior panels and replace the zolitoned (painted) aluminum with new un painted pieces. It takes hours and hours to strip and when your done you will find that most of the striped panels have major dings and scrapes that you can not get out! I feel airstream used many damaged panels on the interior because they knew it would be coved up and it was away to salvage the panel instead of scraping it. I have found three panels that had bondo that was put on by the factory before painting.

Third, You have to ask yourself this question... Do you want a peewee fun house effect in your trailer? I ask this because it will look like a house of mirrors! The CCD trailers are more of a mill finish, I personally love the look, I personally can not stand the fully polished mirror look in the interior of the trailer.

Forth, the easiest way to this type of project is when the interior is fully out! Are you going to pull the entire interior out of the trailer?

In any case its a lot of work....Food for thought .... Good luck

i disagree on that:

our airstream is a 1961 bambi, #3 out of california. the end caps are fiberglass, 1/2 way up the wall to the ceiling. that's a fact. it would pay to look at that area first....

don
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Old 11-22-2011, 01:02 PM   #5
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I have a 1964 Bambi II and the interior is entirely aluminum. Like they said....check before you do anything rash!
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Old 11-23-2011, 09:34 PM   #6
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1962 19' Globetrotter
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Don you are very much correct! Bambi is the exception to the rule in many ways even end caps! My point being is that 1960 Globe Trotters and larger trailers are stuck with fiberglass only end caps... Bambi and Bambi II seam to be the exception to this rule! My guess is that are not the same shape... I think because of the floor layout, and extra headroom is needed and windows are not the same height due to counter height?!?!

If your lucky to have aluminum end caps most would say your on the lucky side of the coin...
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Old 11-24-2011, 05:20 AM   #7
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Another exception here, 1960 Sovereign no fiberglass end caps. I'll second the concept that stripping the flat interior skins reveals more than just shiny Alclad...
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Old 11-24-2011, 06:53 AM   #8
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Lots of variations to the rule. I had 2 - 58 overlanders, one with aluminum end caps one with fiberglass.
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Old 11-24-2011, 07:10 AM   #9
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1962 26' Overlander
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I wonder if the Wally Bee had fiberglass end caps. It would be fitting for an all fiberglass trailer to have aluminum interior end caps....
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Old 11-26-2011, 06:46 AM   #10
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I started stripping my interior to polish and found a number of panels are anodized gold??? You never know what you will find..
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Old 11-26-2011, 08:20 AM   #11
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See post #771 http://www.airforums.com/forums/f36/...-38289-56.html

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Old 01-07-2012, 07:26 PM   #12
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We did it

We stripped and polished the inside of our 61 bambi. It was a lot of work but everyone pitched in and we had some fun. Once you put all of the furniture and curtains back in and paint the fiberglass endcaps, there's relatively little aluminum left showing. It's not perfect but we love it. Lots of phots of Sunnie from beginning to now on my facebook page, including of stripping. Albums by Julia Ratti | Facebook
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Old 01-07-2012, 07:45 PM   #13
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Our 63 end caps are fiberglass, if you have the storage compartment up front that's an easy way to check.
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Old 09-22-2013, 11:46 PM   #14
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61 bambi-first one, fiberglass end caps...
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