I am in utter amazement. Your work is impecable and continues to facinate and intrigue me beyond belief. I'm going to have to build that Airstream shop I've wanted since I got into this aluminum thing and maybe you can come and cristen it with me.
IYou learned how to fabricate trailers, paint on canvas, and do woodwork with an art degree?
1) Did you have much help in doing these projects? I mean, these parts are awfully heavy and I'm sure you needed someone to hold things while you screwed or fabricated. You had help, right? 2) I want to hear about your background. How/where did you learn to do all this stuff? Not only can you do all this stuff, but you are so neat and crisp with the details.
David
Thanks for the kind words David. Those art degrees really pay off, you learn how to draw, make trailers, and then can earn enough to LIVE in one.
My grandfather was a farmer and shop teacher and so I just learned all this stuff growing up... my father makes furniture as a hobby and I had a woodshop to play in as a kid.
I did most if it by myself. The parts are pretty light when taken apart, I can pull this baby around by hand no problem. To do rivetting, you need two people if you cant reach both sides of the panel. For the most part this is small enough I can reach both sides, but for a bit of the work, I hired a local artist to help out.
Sculpturespace.org has been very generous in allowing me to use tools and space - they are a great resource for sculptors. If can pull it off, I'll make a few of these (this is a prototype) get a crew of artists together and make something like a travelling circus.
You do beautiful inspirational work! Looking at the photo of your A-Pod, a nickname popped into my mind that I couldn't shake unless I wrote it down somewhere, so my suggestion is "Sweetpea". Keep up the excellent work!
Carlos,
I don't think I saw any on this trailer, but on your last one you had made some circular patches on the skin to cover holes. The circles look pretty true. What did you use to cut them so perfect? Thanks.
I use a compass to draw the circle, then cut it with hand-snips and then use either a sander or a file to get it round enough to look round. When I draw that circle with the compass I draw another about 1/4" smaller that I will later use to drill the holes for the rivets. I do those on a drill press and then hold it in place over the area to be patched by hand until I can cleco the first couple holes.
I put the floor back on and used elevator bolts to secure it. A trick for doing elevator bolts by yourself is to use a screwdriver to pry down on the bolt while you are tightening below the trailer. Without this trick the bolt will sometimes spin.
Carlos, what an incredible thread and project! Thanks. If I hadn't found a person who wanted to refurb my Ambassador, I was going to shorten it to an 18' Zeppelinium, retaining the mid-bath. Love it!
Just a note about the elevator bolts. When I was helping 2333 yesterday on his Tradewind I noticed he used some "unusual to me" elevator bolts. They have two small spikes bent down from the head so that they grip the floor and won't turn when you're underneath putting on the nuts. I think he got them at Fastenal. I should have taken some photos--he's got his his floor installed and shell back on.
Just search for elevator bolts and they have a few options, one of them being "fanged". I would pop a few of them thru the floor and "set" them with a hammer, then crawl underneath and tighten them down. Worked great. Only a few out of the 120 gave me any problems.
I towed the little airstream from Utica to Burlington with some temporary lights. It looked like it was floating behind me, unattached. Now to work again...
More patches to cover dings and holes, there are about 20 now. It lends the pod a beat-up airplane quality. The patch made of four parts is to cover a dent in one of the rear curved pieces... The four parts allowed me to make something like a compound curve. And, it looks like a tiny wing, the kind that ladybugs have under the shell.
The front rain gutter was damaged and needed to be replaced too.
Last edited by C_Ferguson; 03-27-2008 at 10:58 PM.
The j-cap went on the wheel wells, I snip the trim to make it bendable and use a clamp and pliers to get the curve right, then some bending with my knee. Then the trim was riveted in place.
I put some thicker channel around the rear door opening - I looked across the parallel verticals to get it pretty square. It didn't line up initially, so I took out some rivets on the rear cone to push things into place.
The door opening needs to be planar in order to get a water-tight seal (I think) but airstream took the corners of the rear and front windows right up to the point where the curve started. I used some 1/8" scrap aluminum from a local steel yard to make shims.
Then I attached a rain guard just above the opening. Again, the curve that starts right at the top corner of the door made things tricky, but I just bent the drip cap around 'til it more or less conformed to the trailer.
It's all cleco-ed into place right now, rivets tomorrow.
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