Seems as if fixing the frame will be a DYI job

[ND10CentCan]

Originally Posted by Aerowood

Tell me about the small sailboat.

The boat is a Skerry or a Wherry-I can't remember which. He started building it about two years ago and it took him about 9-10 months to build. He has fashioned the entire thing out of strips of wood and solid pieces of wood in several different species. He even made his oars-they are an interesting type of oar that has a cupped design.

The inside of the boat has a gray epoxy paint finish and the outside is white oak and the bottom of the outside is navy blue epoxy paint. He made the mast out of some mahagony his cousin gave him. It is a work of art that most people would have no idea how much work went into it. A lot like an Airstream!

He likes to do everything from A-Z in wood. He has made houses, furniture, boats, cabinetry, and guitars. There isn't much he wouldn't try to make out of wood and now his is taken by working with steel and aluminum. It has been an interesting change for him and we are both looking forward to seeing what can be done on the Airstream. We have never been worried about the interior finishing; it was always a worry about what we didn't know how to do like welding and aluminum.

Thanks for your interest in the boats. My husband could tell you all about the different types of boats and which ones he is going to build during his retirement. Right now all the boats are on hold as we trudge along on the Albatross and try to get his 94 year old mother to move into assisted living. It all looks easy now compared to that particular battle. Uffda.
Sandy

[clancy_boy]

That is one hard working individual. I wish I had 10% of that energy to commit to projects. I am such an under-achiever compared to that...... Whew, gotta get off the couch more often.

[ND10CentCan]

Originally Posted by clancy_boy

That is one hard working individual. I wish I had 10% of that energy to commit to projects. I am such an under-achiever compared to that...... Whew, gotta get off the couch more often.

I hear what you are saying. Dearest husband doesn't watch any sports and likes to get up at the crack of dawn to work on his projects. If we play Trivial Pursuit, we never want to get certain categories like sports because neither one of us knows a single thing about them. Ask us about anything else and we might have a clue. Maybe. That is when call a friend comes in handy.
Sandy

[marzboy]

Originally Posted by ND10CentCan

I hear what you are saying. Dearest husband doesn't watch any sports and likes to get up at the crack of dawn to work on his projects. If we play Trivial Pursuit, we never want to get certain categories like sports because neither one of us knows a single thing about them. Ask us about anything else and we might have a clue. Maybe. That is when call a friend comes in handy.
Sandy

Ha! I am the same, I love to play sports but cant stand to watch. Looks like you guys are on your way. Looking real nice, that is one talented man you got there!
On the welder, did he ever figure why it was welding strange? Was it used? He is using gas correct? It could be that the po ran flux core through, in that case the oil from the flux can make the wire bind in the machine. All he would have to do is change the liner in the hose. But check the regulator it is a way less time consuming fix.
Good luck!!

[ND10CentCan]

Originally Posted by marzboy

Ha! I am the same, I love to play sports but cant stand to watch. Looks like you guys are on your way. Looking real nice, that is one talented man you got there!
On the welder, did he ever figure why it was welding strange? Was it used? He is using gas correct? It could be that the po ran flux core through, in that case the oil from the flux can make the wire bind in the machine. All he would have to do is change the liner in the hose. But check the regulator it is a way less time consuming fix.
Good luck!!

He did figure it out because after I told him I posted the question, he asked me what question did you ask and I said that the tank was still at 50% and welding funny. He says I said it was 50# not 50%. Oops...he said when he took his tanks in for a refill, the guys told him when they get that low, they do act up. So all is well except my hearing.

His welder was brand new so no previous owner. He is really enjoying it and sometimes it is hard to get him to come in and stop already. I think a monster has been created. He is doing a lot on it and it is coming along nicely.

My next question is on the wheels. I am going to post some pictures and see if someone knows how to clean them up. This time I am not waiting to hear what I think he said. I am going straight from the Rookery to the computer with no one in between.
Sandy
Sandy

[ND10CentCan]

Here are a few pictures of the first of the outriggers to go on and the painting that has happened to date. Kind of hard to see how much work he has done but he has done a lot.

I do have a question on the wheels and the covers: How do we clean those up and get them looking good again? I tried a little aluminum cleaner and that didn't do much. They have a brushed finish on them and overall look salvageable. We would like to keep them if possible because then we can save some $$ and be able to tell people we saved the skin, hitch, and the wheels from the original Airstream. Every little bit we can salvage makes our crazy purchase off of Ebay look not so nuts.
Sandy

[wasagachris]

Sandy the rims are clearcoated. You will need to use a stripper to remove the clearcoat and then they will polish up like the shell of the trailer.

[ND10CentCan]

Originally Posted by wasagachris

Sandy the rims are clearcoated. You will need to use a stripper to remove the clearcoat and then they will polish up like the shell of the trailer.

Thanks WSChris,
I was wondering why the cleaner I took to them didn't seem to do a durn thing. Now I know. So I take some stripper to them and then try it again? Any particular type of cleaner? Then I take aluminum polish and go afterwards? Just like the Nuvite?
Thanks for your help.
Sandy

[wasagachris]

yes when I stripped my shell with Removal I also stripped the wheels. I used a liquid polish that I got from Wallmart. Mother's aluminium polish but anything like nuvite will do. The stainless steel center cap is also clearcoated, it will also polish up but not to a mirror finish as it has a brushed finish.

[Wabbiteer]

The inside area of aluminum wheels where the rubber tire 'bead' seals - seats against is the weak link and must be protected against corrosion, if you get even slight oxidation bridging the bead you will have air leaks.

The OEM coating on the 'inside' should not be removed unless it is damaged, then its time to polish it out and re-coat but aftermarket applications won't be as robust. There are pastes tire shops will apply on request (usually) when remounting that fill irregularities and somewhat protect the metal...

All the acid rain, dew, fertilizer run off spray and ice melt salts will puddle at the lowest point of the bead - that wreaked havoc on my steel wheels during their fourty years, at some places they lost huge 3, 4 inch stripes of pitted iron where it was perpetually wet (shaded?)..

[ND10CentCan]

Originally Posted by Wabbiteer

The inside area of aluminum wheels where the rubber tire 'bead' seals - seats against is the weak link and must be protected against corrosion, if you get even slight oxidation bridging the bead you will have air leaks.

The OEM coating on the 'inside' should not be removed unless it is damaged, then its time to polish it out and re-coat but aftermarket applications won't be as robust. There are pastes tire shops will apply on request (usually) when remounting that fill irregularities and somewhat protect the metal...

All the acid rain, dew, fertilizer run off spray and ice melt salts will puddle at the lowest point of the bead - that wreaked havoc on my steel wheels during their fourty years, at some places they lost huge 3, 4 inch stripes of pitted iron where it was perpetually wet (shaded?)..

I didn't know there was that much to know about the rims. I will have to pass that info along to the man in charge. I think we will try to only redo the outside and we have to get new tires anyway so hopefully the tire place will know what to do and not do on the rims. I would like to use a local place here where I know the manager in order to try to avoid problems. Thanks for passing that along to us.
Sandy

[ND10CentCan]

Evening All,
I was wondering what we do next after the frame is done and we have the tanks here. Do we start wrapping insulation around the floor, then put the belly skin on, or put the floor in? Direction is needed if anyone is listening.

Also hoping to power wash the interior of the skin before we lower it on the frame. Once it gets washed out of all the remanents of mouse living, we are going to reinstall it on the floor and connect it all up together. I think we will have to either order new c channel or figure out a way to make it. Is it worth that kind of trouble and expense to buy the equipment?

We are also wondering how to send the wires all around the trailer without losing them into the interior as we reinstall the inner skins. There has to be a method to doing that so we would love to hear the suggestions. Any suggestions for wiring that we should do beyond the standard given wiring diagrams?

I would like speakers for the Ipod in several spots around the trailer and am not sure my better half is interested in that. If I could figure out how to do it, perhaps that could be my project. I don't know what kind of speakers to look for or what people have been using.
Thanks for your help if you decide to try to lead me out of the woods on this stuff.
Sandy

[ND10CentCan]

The frame is DONE and that has been a wonderful development. I thought I would share my husband's handiwork with the rest of the world along with a photo of Frank, the welding rabbit. Long story..

Husband is now trying to figure out the insulation question on the frame and the wiring. Plus we have a big question of the new fresh water tank because it is different in configuration from the original. Questions and more questions....
Sandy

[ND10CentCan]

Here are some photos of the progress my husband is making on the frame. I am making progress on buying more Airstreams .
Sandy

[Lance M]

Nice progress, Sandy. Looks great!

[ND10CentCan]

As you can see, there is progress being made on the Sovereign. We are now at the stage of putting the freshwater tank in and starting to lay the marine plywood. Big discussion piece was painting the plywood or staining it or sealing it or epoxying it; decided finally to put exterior paint on it with extra attention to the edges. Dearest husband said in theory, there would be no water that could touch it but I said in theory, we are sealing it up and no water should reach it. In fact, "they all leak" to quote the VAP.

I say better safe than sorry. So here it is with some shots of the belly pan too.
Sandy

[ND10CentCan]

My husband is coming along on the floor and we were trying to clean up the aluminum channel piece that the wheel well goes into (it is a channel with another area underneath it for the floor to slip into) and it doesn't fit the new wheel wells that we got. Hmmm....what's next?

I will attach a picture of the aluminum channel that we need to locate and if anyone has sources for it, I would love to know where. We will need enough to do both sides of the trailer. My dearest also mentioned he could try to fabricate something if I would let him get a spool gun for his welder so he could use it for aluminum. I am curious why every project step involves the purchase of more tools?

The other pictures will be of the floor progress to date and what is left of the hold down piece for the rear-he long rusty thing that looks like a rat chewed it up.
Sandy

[Wabbiteer]

A spool gun holds it value, many other people skip the initial purchase too... though its plain for all to see he really needs a TIG machine to fabricate that

[r carl]

Originally Posted by phoyt

Hi there,


Oh, I also chose a Hobart because they are 100% made in the US. I'm annoyed with Harbor Fright at the moment, that air rivet gun I bought worked for about 10 rivets before it quit functioning entirely. I had to break out the hand driven version so there was no way I'd consider a welder from Harbor Fright.

Pete

Sounds like their tires.

[ND10CentCan]

Originally Posted by Wabbiteer

A spool gun holds it value, many other people skip the initial purchase too... though its plain for all to see he really needs a TIG machine to fabricate that

I think he needs encouragement on the tool side of things....he may think he has enough tools sometimes when actually he needs something else on this restoration project for the Albatross.

In reality, he is pretty conservative on the tools-only gets what he figures he needs and nothing more to the point he will figure how many screws he needs and only buy that number. Drives me nuts because I am usually the person who runs back to town to get some more. So I believe we may have a spool gun and or TIG machine in our future. Uffda...they are expensive! Guess I know what I am getting for my birthday.
Sandy