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Old 04-17-2011, 07:20 AM   #301
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Hey Daniel it's really starting to come together now. looking good. I've got a question for you though. In the third pic showing the view from the front, is that the hold down plate I can see in front of the shell? If it is it is supposed to go between the shell and the front section of the C channel.
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Old 04-17-2011, 08:30 AM   #302
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No that is some other thin aluminum cover thing that I assumed went on the outside. The hold down plate is on the inside. Maybe that piece of aluminum should be on the inside as well?
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Old 04-17-2011, 09:34 AM   #303
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No that is some other thin aluminum cover thing that I assumed went on the outside. The hold down plate is on the inside. Maybe that piece of aluminum should be on the inside as well?
Daniel I h8 2 b the bearer of bad news but yes it is suppossed to be inside as well. On mine it is pop riveted to the bottom lip of the holddown pl8. If yours is the same you might be able to drill out those rivets and slip the cover sheet up iside the shell and rerivet it.
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Old 04-17-2011, 10:08 AM   #304
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I'll see if I can do that. I just got my buck riveting stuff. I was going to have to drill those out anyway.
Having it on the inside should help mitigate any corrosion and maybe leak less.
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Old 04-24-2011, 08:15 AM   #305
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Slow Men Workin

Things on the plate right now are

1) Buck riveting the shell back to the chassis (C channels and hold down plates). Waiting for my helper (teenage son) to finish school and come home for the summer.

2) Finding leaks and temporarily or permanently sealing them (this will be ongoing)

3) Fits and starts on shoring up electrical and plumbing (ongoing).

4) Get interior ready to lay the tile floor.
-- this is the major effort this weekend.

The floor is attached and the seams bondo'd. I'm thinking sanding the floor and laying the tile should be one weekend.

Before that I wanted to get the 'boxes' in place in the interior. Boxes around the wheel wells and boxes for the outside storage compartments.

With the wheel wells I decided to kill two birds with one stone. Instead of using the interior wheel wells to hold the insulation, I'll just build a box around the outer wheel well, seal around the wheel well and use the big insulation between the wheel well and the box. I made the boxes so that the tops are removable.

I still need one more box forward of the streetside wheel well for outside storage.

I'll probably wait until I get the shell riveted, seals redone around the windows, and plug more leaks before I lay the tile.
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Old 04-24-2011, 05:45 PM   #306
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I'm pretty sure that the bathroom will be a toilet of some sort and one of these or something like it. Not plastic. I can use this to wash myself and to wash clothes, put wet stuff.. all sorts of uses, I'm sure. No shower.
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Old 04-28-2011, 07:02 PM   #307
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One more thing off of the list.
This evening I cut and fitted insulation for the wheel wells.
It is the same R19 unfaced insulation that I used for the outer belly wraps.

It took 3 sheets of 1/2" plywood at $15 a sheet and maybe a half a roll of the $15 roll of insulation to make all of the boxes and insulate the wheel wells. The outside storage boxes will need to be insulated with something yet to be determined.

Two pet peeves I have decided that I have are
1) Insulation
2) Space

I'm going to need as much open space as possible.
I threw up a piece of plywood to get an idea of countertop space.
When I laid the stovetop and sink that I have on the plywood it took up most all of the space, so I won't be using either of them. One deep sink and a two burner stovetop will be good, I think, and I buy more counter top space.

I hate the shower. Mostly because the sitting down part takes up a lot of vertical space that could be used for a better purpose, like a linen closet or something.
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Old 04-28-2011, 10:18 PM   #308
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Tread lightly Grasshopper!

Keep tabs on ACTUAL weight - 3 pounds per square foot per inch of thickness according to APA Plywood Design Specification makes each sheet of 1/2" above 40 pounds...

R19, 6-1/4'' x 23'' x 39'2'', Unfaced Roll Fiberglass Insulation 75.07 SQFT is 19~ pounds so its about 1/4 pound per square foot...

For pine 2x4's you are at 1 to 1.2 pounds per foot of length so the wheel well bracing is at or over 50 pounds...

So I calculate you added 150 to 175 pounds when including the fasteners and caulking...
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Old 04-29-2011, 05:26 AM   #309
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Point taken. Thanks for pointing that out. I need to get another battery for my scale and start weighing everything.
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Old 05-01-2011, 05:22 PM   #310
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keeping on keeping on

About to wrap up this weekend. Did a little shell work and interior work. I'll be using her as an aluminum tent while I figure out what to do with the interior and what-not.

I got two neat tools this weekend. A pneumatic rivet gun (and air compressor) and an orbital sander for the floor. Needed to sand where the bondo is in the seams of the floor. It will take more bondo and more sanding. Before I lay the tile I want to get her on the road some to make sure the floor seams are not going to separate on me.

I took some of the original paneling and cut strips for the ceiling to get the wires out of the way.

My son has exams this week so next weekend maybe I'll be able to get the buck riveting done. I couldn't do much by myself.
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Old 05-26-2011, 06:34 PM   #311
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Once the shell is on and the thing is roadworthy, then most of the pressure is off. It is still a juggling act working to make progress on 4-5 things at once, but at a much more leisurely pace.

For my first tow vehicle I found an old church bus G30 1 ton 5.7 liter that somehow avoided Cash for Clunkers. The guy that I bought it from had the brakes done and changed the tires to 16s from 16.5s.

I installed a Valley class IV receiver this past weekend and got a weight distributing hitch with the trailer when I bought it. Thanks Lionel.

The van will handle any junk that I want to take along, including the Genuine Buddy 150. I got my 76 Onan 1.7KW generator running with a carb rebuild.

The big thing this week was finished getting the tile floor in. This is with a sealer and one coat of wax.

Today's milestone is the first hook up. Not pulling it anywhere, just hooking it up.

It was a rough winter but it is starting to come together now.
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Old 05-26-2011, 07:54 PM   #312
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Nice van Daniel. You should name it Dexter.
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Old 05-26-2011, 07:58 PM   #313
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I notice that your doors to access the middle of the van are on the right side instead of the left. Very unusual. But hey, so is the door on your Airstream.

Haven't seen that since the days of flipped negatives.
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Old 05-27-2011, 06:02 PM   #314
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revealed

Since day 1 the trailer has been sandwiched in under a tree. I have never gotten a good look at the exterior except close up.

I used Dexter to pull the heap out into the open.
I have discovered what to do this weekend.
Clean clean clean.
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Old 05-27-2011, 09:02 PM   #315
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Dexter has a nice ring to it.

Are the pics flipped or do you have an Australian version?
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Old 05-28-2011, 08:54 AM   #316
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Yeah, Dexter fits well.
I had a bunch of Marine Clean left over from cleaning the chassis, so I used that to wash the AS. It did really good on removing the tree gunk from the top and general cleaning of the shell.

According to the directions I slathered it on and let it sit for a few minutes then cleaned it with the boat brush thing and the junk came right off. Awning too.

I really don't want to get too much into the cleaning thing. I don't want the trailer to look too good because that will attract people who I don't necessarily want to talk to.
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Old 08-28-2011, 11:04 AM   #317
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new stuff

OK.. it has been a while since I posted on my thread here.. it has been a hot summer.

I pretty much have the exterior finished except for the underbelly. That will wait a while.

When I got the trailer it was entirely gutted and I got a pile of interior junk along with the trailer.
The thing now is to take the junk that I have and try to put some stuff together temporarily to see what I can do with the inside.

Picture 1 is the front couch thing in place. I built the front shelf thing to make it all fit better.. I think the final thing will be pretty much along these lines..
The aluminum on the wall behind the fan I'm thinking of, instead of a giant refrigerator, a wall mounted marine propane heater. Then in the summer maybe switch it out with a portable AC thing. The venting would be the existing refrigerator vent.

Picture 2 is looking backward from the couch. All of the room on the right I have no idea what to do with.

Picture 3 better view of the area on the right.. wall mounted marine heater and vast other space.

Picture 4 bathroom area

Picture 5 Rear area. Was two beds but will go with one. Thinking of a corner desk area for computer. The box on the right is external storage.
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Old 08-29-2011, 08:11 PM   #318
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Good to heat from you.
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Old 05-03-2012, 06:47 PM   #319
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I haven't posted for a while, but have been busy. I finally got around to pulling the trigger on a roll of Prodex and got it in. The pic isn't so great but I am happy about getting it done. I think I'm going to go with spruce paneling inside at least from the floor up to the curve in the ceiling in most of the interior.

In the meantime, after putting so much work and money into this Airstream I took a few weekends and built myself a Unibomber cabin.
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Old 05-04-2012, 06:41 PM   #320
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For the weekend

Arrived at Halfway Creek Trail Camp for the weekend. So far I have it all to myself. Boy Scouts last weekend. We'll see how it goes, and an accidental picture of myself..
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