Afternoon all.
New member here. Name is Kelly McCulley and I have a daughter...hence the MacDad...
I joined to search and learn more about our new to us Airstream and likely ask a few questions, probably dumb ones, but I appreciate any help.
Back round, I am a Union Master Carpenter and have done MANY different construction trades over the years like A/C, plumbing and some flooring. I also come from a long line of auto body repairman. My father was an auto body and paint guy and his dad was a body man and my grandpa on my moms side owned a sheet metal fab shop.
I think rebuilding this sweet Airstream will be inside of most of my skill set, but I already have found many unique concepts in the trailer so I will definitely need some input.
I am 50 yrs old and have had a bad neck injury a fe years back and have had 2 major surgeries with plates, screws, pins and plates on a 3 level discectomy. No fun, and has limited many of my abilities and strength, but if I take my time and my son in law to be helps with the labor I think we can do this.
The reason for the trailer: My daughter is getting married in Sept and her and her fiancé are full time volunteer ministers who tech the Bible to the deaf. They have both gone to school to learn ASL {American Sign Language} so that they can help people. They help deaf who have never been taught sign to learn the language on a volunteer basis, but their main focus is a Bible education. The plan for the trailer is to be able to stay mobile. They plan to live full time in it in an RV park either in Whittier Ca. or Anaheim Ca. but the trailer allows them a freedom to move anywhere they may be needed like in disaster relief, or to help a deaf congregation in need. Did I mention I am very proud of my kids?
We pooled our money and found them a decent shape 1972 International
Sovereign 31' that has a quite straight and clean shell but the interior was mostly gutted already and what was left was literally trash. The entire floor is spongy and needs replacing.
We have already drilled out all of the interior rivets and carefully removed the interior sheet metal for a thorough cleaning and stripping of years of wallpaper and paints. We have stripped all old wiring, plumbing and gas lines. We salvaged the hot water heater {not sure if we are going to use it or go a bit bigger for a live in} the furnace and roof A/C unit which I think we can get all working again. We saved the charger ac/dc converter but will not be using it, We are setting it up as a park model for full hook ups, no
12 volt or liquid tanks.
So far, we have removed most of the belly pan, thanks to this site I learned about the "hidden" rivets and that made the job a lot easier. We have interior completely stripped. The body is just about ready to lift off of chassis. We thought the chassis looked really good except under the rear bath where there was an obvious leak and a bit of rust but it is much more invasive that we thought. Not terminal, but will require a lot of fabrication and welding to repair...oh well, that is what we get for buying a unit from Texas that was in LA for many years...cheap is not always cheap...lol. Good thing my life long best friend owns a welding and fabrication shop.
Look forward to getting to know you all here and thank you for some much needed advice in advance.
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