The Fun Begins

[wasagachris]

O.K. not me but the trailer.
Business and life kind of got in the way this week but I still managed to finish all the insulation on the curbside.
Friday I cut all the new material for the belly pan. P.S. Doug a small adjustment to the shears and they cut through the aluminium like butter.
Saturday was spent installing the rear section of belly. It was a little awkward handling a 5ft x 15ft piece of aluminium and getting it to fit well.
We had to remove the axles again to get the pan up between the axle flange and the main frame rails. We also had to make 4 bends in the pan to get it to wrap down around the black tank and then back up to finsih it's run to the bumper.
Once it was in a place we were happy with the holes were drilled and clecoed in place. Then the pan came back out to clean out the shavings from drilling the holes. Vulkem was then applied to all the seams,crossmembers and rivet holes and the pan went back in and was clecoed in place.
I bought an air riveter and wow was it great to rivet in the 3/16" large flange rivets.
Todat was spent driliing, clecoing and riveting the front piece from the fresh water tank to the tongue. This one was much easier to handle as it was only 5ft x 9 ft. Same procedure: fit,drill,cleco,remove,clean,apply vulkem,fit,cleco and rivet.
I'm not happy with the way A/S installs the front piece cut out for the spare tire. The A frame is 1/2" smaller in height than the main frame rails. The factory just leaves that gap between A frame and floor open. No wonder the belly fills up with muck. I Intend to make filler strips from aluminium and close in and seal the gap to keep the belly dry. Once it is done I will post pics of before and after.
I should be able to finish cutting and installing the side wraps and get the old banana wraps on this week.
Business is going to get in the way again because I need to winterize the park this week. It's getting to cold to leave it any longer. This usually takes me the better part of two days to do. 200 faucets, 8 toilets,1 urinal,2 showers.2 water heaters,3 pressure tanks to blow out.
Anyway here's a few pics of the new belly.

[Wabbiteer]

You have about 36 hours to remember anything forgotten above that new sheet before Vulkem owns it Are all the Cats accounted for?

Nice work : )

[driftless]

Excellent! No mice are going to get under your skin....literally speaking of course.

[wasagachris]

Wabbiteer Let's see two cats, one dog and one hired hand. Oh yeah and me, yup all accounted for. I can't say how many spiders may now be trapped between the belly and insulation.
Lew yes no mice entry points is a good thing. During teardown I discovered that they were getting in through the spot where the temperature probe for the thermometer in the front end cap. They were also getting in where the drain tube for the air con. exited from the shell. I drilled smaller holes that were just big enough to fit the tubes, leaving no gaps for mice to squeeze in. the same size holes were drilled for propane lines and tank probe wiring. You would think that Airstream could afford to buy more than one size of hole saw.
I won't be doing much on the trailer for a couple of days. It's 30 F here this morning and expected to get down to 25 F tonight so I have to spend all of today and most of tommorrow winterizing the parks water system.

[wasagachris]

It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted any updates and I'm guessing y'all are going into withdrawal by now. So here I go.

All the side wraps and banana wraps are now on. So is all the lower beltline trim.
I also fully enclosed the spare tire carrier area with aluminium. This area now is totally sealed unlike the way the factory did it. So no s**t from the road will collect in the belly. Some of the pieces required several bends to make flaps to overlap the center belly and the side wraps as well as each other. It really looks slick. Now I need the carrier and the spare.

All the reflector markers are on and got most of the new LED clearance lights on. I found a big problem today while installing the rear upper clearance lights. It seems that some time in the past one wire to the curbside clearance light broke off inside the shell. Instead of drilling out a few rivets on the interior end cap to access the wire some IDIOT cut holes in the shell under the curbside and center clearance light. He then attached a new wire with a scotch lock from the center light and ran a new wire to the curbside light. The result is two ugly holes cut and the skin peeled open. Decorum prevents me from commenting fully on this type of butcher repair. I had to drop the end cap to repair the wiring and to clean up all the putty jammed in the holes and straighten out the edges of the cut outs.
Anyway back to the wraps. I kept the old ones as patterns. The first step was to do a dry fit of the old ones to see how they fit on the trailer now. I made a few tweaks to their size and cutouts to fit closer and to close in the belly a little better. Step two was to flatten out the wraps to use as templates for the new ones. The patterns were traced out and the new wraps were cut. Step three was to put in the curve. I used a piece of 4" sewer pipe and slowly rolled up the edge until the bottom of the sheet sat flat and the side was completely vertical. It actually worked quite well.
Step four was to dry fit the new wrap and check to make sure there were no problems. Some very minor adjustments to size were made. I cut each piece a little bigger to allow for this. Once I was satisfied with the fit then each piece was drilled and clecoed. Step five was to remove the new piece and clean out all the shavings. Then apply vulkem to all the edges and to all the drill holes and all the outriggers. Step six was to reinstall the new pieces with clecos and then remove one cleco at a time and rivet on the piece. The hardest part was drilling through the banana wraps into the side wraps. The side wraps are horizontal at this point and very floppy with no support above them. The side wraps wanted to fold away once pressure was applied to the drill. But if your'e careful and just let the drill float eventually it will penetrate the side wrap.
The lower beltline was not to bad to install. The same process, dry fit drill and cleco, remove and clean out shavings, apply sealer and recleco and rivet.
I also installed the new to me generator that I bought in September while in the USA. Much thanks to wannabefulltimin. I sanded and painted the case before install and used a butyl tape behind the case edge that meets the shell. I used the same large head pop rivets from the belly pan to attach it to the shell.
Next in the process to closing in the shell was to install the new LED lights. Last night I had 9 out of 12 installed and turned out the shop lights. They were so bright I could navigate the shop from their light alone.
Oh yeah I also removed the A/S lettering from the front and the nameplate by the door to repaint. I bought a can of Ford Blue from TSC and they look great. I still have a few more to paint and then sand off the edges so once they're done I'll post some pics.
I'm slowly working my way north up to the roof. My new propane fittings and copper arrive tomorrow so I am going to start the new propane line install. I want to run in the new lines before installing the appliances so I have room to drill down through the floor into the belly pan for the line access.
Anyway this is enough of a long winded post so I'll just post some pics and update more later.

[wasagachris]

Here's the rest of the pics. They are of the spare tire carrier, the generator installed and the damage the moron did to my shell.
P.S. I also got the sevin pin installed and wired and removed the other taillight housing. The housings now need to be soda blasted to remove the corrosion and repainted. Then they need to be modified to accept the new LED lights. A few other boring things have been done like cleaning all the old sealer and silicone from around the windows and door in preparation of resealing.

[DanielB]

Awesome..

[Aage]

That is lookin' some schmooth, brother! Way ta go!!

[Minno]

Looking great! At least the holes will be hidden under new lights, right? A couple of questions:

In pic 5 of post 165: What's the wire/tube sticking down from the banana wrap?

In pic 7 (same post): What's the opening in the under wrap behind the banana wrap? It kinda looks like a step, but there's no door there...

Did you use the original banana wraps? If yes, those are in great condition!

Chris

[wasagachris]

Thanks to Danielb and Aage for your praise.
MC Thanks as well.
Pic # 5 the wire and tube sticking out are for the temperature probe for the thermometer located in the front overhead Airstream Central Control Panel. It is above the storage cabinet in the front end cap.
Pic #7 the opening that you see is for the power cord reel and water hose reel. These retcactable reels were only available on the Excella models. I love them ,you just pull out as much power cord and water hose that you need. then when done a short quick pull releases the lock and the hose and cable roll back up on the reels. Just like a vacuum cleaner cord. I haven't put the door back on yet because I'm still trying to find a suitable replacement for the rubber flaps on either side of the door that the water hose and power cord exit through.
Yes they are the original banana wraps. I did have to rework them to remove quite a few dents and dings. They will have to be polished to really look good.
BTW how hard is it to use a cyclo tp polish the belly? LOL

[Wabbiteer]

Are you sure you're only using the hired helper on campground tasks? They'd be the one to assign to cyclo-polish the wraps, belly and tire compartment for sure!

One little tip I can pass on - at the hatch doors' frames where the sheet aluminum tucks in behind the extruded frame... Fill the lower corners and edges void with Alcoa Gutterseal or similar thin-bodied aluminum colored sealant.

I'm not 100% certain our hatch door frames have changed over time as I never have seen a vintage hatch door fresh off the assembly line - yours look truer than my trailers and the tops and bottom corners all have similar flares.

On my trailers the lower edges have opened about equal of the corners. Maybe the corners were 'flatter' when new and sun heating cycles have allowed them to push out...

Water may not be penetrating into the assembly but voids on the hatch door will hold liquid water from melting frosts etc. and freeze-thaw cycles will push against that area and increase the gaps metal over time.

I also see you have steel rivets in the hinges - I'm curious if stainless steel rivets bedded with vulkem would be good there. Even without stainless if using aluminum pop-rivets there is enough space to double or triple up the number used - they went with steel for a reason and aluminum may be too soft to stand the tension over time, perhaps gluing the hinge on and clamp down with rivets may work great?

With the rear hatch the alignment when using new 'D' gaskets is bad enough I think I will add up to an 1/8" shim under the entire hinge piece to better equalize the gasket compression and give a squarer look, when I drill out the steel stain maker rivets.

Your project is going nicely I must say!

[Minno]

Thanks for the info WC. The outside temp probe was missing from our trailer - but that does now explain the extra hole I found in the c-channel and plywood in that area. Never knew that any AS's had retractable power cords and hoses. Too cool!

I would think using a cyclo to polish the underside is asking for a sore back and neck and arms. But, like all good friends, I do have a suggestion... Mount the cyclo on a short stump with the polishing end facing up. Adjust the height so it hits the belly pan. Then simply hitch up, and slowly drive back and forth over the top of the cyclo until the entire underside is polished. Easy-peasy!

On a more serious note, I hope the outside and underside of our trailer looks as good as yours when we're done!

MC

[Aage]

Chris,

Something just occurred to me: if you took off the bumper, could you then close the door...?

Or did that boat already sail?

[Minno]

Please excuse my husband - he's been "ill".

If he actually does that with our trailer for polishing the underbelly, I'll be sure to post pictures before the ambulance gets here.

Kay

[wasagachris]

Wabbiteer Thanks for the tip about sealind the door frames to the shhet of the door. I never thought about doing that. It makes sense to seal that edge as well. I wondered why A/S used steel rivets on the hinge. I only have two such doors and only one shows rust on the rivet and assumed the PO had incorrectly replaced them. Your'e idea about the shim under the hinge may work for me on the windows. Once I replaced the window gaskets the window seems to not fit tight at the top edge by the hinge. Let me know how it works.

Aage the bumper is attached to the belly and actually sits right against the end of the frame rails so taking it off wouldn't gain enough space. Thanks for the suggestion.

Kay of course I was kidding about polishing the belly. If Chris actually does his have the ambulance send him here and he can recover by doing mine. LOL

[wasagachris]

Just a couple of quick shots of the lettering. I haven't sanded off the edges of the letters yet. It was quite tricky to sand the paint off the little letters on the nameplate that say" A TRAVEL TRAILER"

[Minno]

Just a thought (a real thought, not a crazy one ): Mount some adhesive backed sandpaper on a pane of glass or masonite, and use that flat surface to sand the paint off the edges of the letters.

MC

[Lance M]

Great work! Like the detail of the "A travel Trailer" emblem.

[Lance M]

So was yours like this?

[wasagachris]

Hi Chris Hope your'e feeling better. Kay said you were ill. I just assumed she meant physically and not mentally.LOL. Actually that's what I did to polish the letters in the first place before painting. I just clamped a sheet of emery cloth to the workbench. I wanted them polished before painting so that afterward all I had to do is sand off the paint and lightly polish the edges. The hard part I spoke off was on the nameplate. The little 1/8" letters that say A TRAVEL TRAILER.