Rescued 62 Tradewind

[embark]

It's not our first Airstream (that was a '66 Ambassador) nor anywhere near our first trailer. But this just-rescued 1962 Trade Wind 24 TS (SO743 - 6202) is the first one we ever felt like we "rescued" in the same way you rescue a lost puppy, a hungry kitty, or an injured bird.

Yeah, that's white paint peeling off the exterior. Lord knows why the paint is on there. (It's going to make the polish job just that much harder.)

You can find anything on Craigslist! After seeing the ad there, contacting the owner, and purchasing it for almost nothing, we went and got it this morning and towed it down out of an Oregon mountain campground where it had been moldering away. It sure needed a good home. ... It was nearly turned into a chicken coop! (the owner just didn't "get it", not being a trailer person at all. But she's a nice lady and she practically gave it to us.)

It's damp inside. The original interior is 3/4 gone, but it has bits of the galley and a lot of the twin bed area left. There are lots more pictures inside and out as we documented the "before" state of our rescue project. If you wanna see some more, just ask -- and we'll be putting some up in the 60's photo gallery soon. Hopefully it won't be too long before there are some "after" pictures to add, too!

All comments, advice, recommendations, etc. are welcome as we proceed to restore it. (You can email us directly at embark@earthlink.net if you wish.)

Oh, and thanks for letting us join this distinguished group. We're glad to finally be here.

Tom and Molly

[utee94]

Hi Embark, welcome to the Forums, and congratulations on rescuing this trailer from imminent demise.

It's obviously tough to tell from the pictures and the paint, but it seems like the body is in good condition. Please be sure to post a lot of pics throughout your restoration process-- this one will obviously be an extensive remodel, and those are the best kind to document in a place like this.

Good luck on your project, looks like it will be a great one!

-Marcus

[goransons]

glad it got a good home. Saw that on craigslist but decided the neighbors would kill us with a second one in the driveway. Look at it this way, if you plan to polish you'd have to strip it anyway, at least this way its really easy to see what you've done and what you haven't.

[vinstream]

I saw this trailer too... From my experiance the old painted trailers, if not all dented up... will polish up nice... believe it or not the paint protects the Aluminum real well... Simply strip er down and off to the polishing gods..
Have fun... this should be a good trailer!

[centennialman]

The "poor old girl"!! She is so lucky that you found her and brought her to a new and loving home!

[flyfshr]

Nice find and rescue. Love to see more pictures as your progress progresses.

Brad
FF

[1963tradewin]

Nice trailer I love the tradewind Im in the process of getting mine done but keep running into road blocks. On my 63 it came with a compressor for the fresh water tank. I bought a shurflo water pump and replaced the compressor. Do I need the compressor as well as the water pump to operate the fresh water system? or is it not nessasary? any help would be appreciated thanks

[embark]

Originally Posted by 1963tradewin

Do I need the compressor as well as the water pump to operate the fresh water system? or is it not nessasary? any help would be appreciated thanks

It depends, '63.With the presence of the old compressor as evidence, you might have that #%@*&% "closed system" that must be air-tight. Or do you have a "normal" system with a compressor to assist? If you have an air pressure guage and/or a hand airpump attached somewhere to your lines, it could be the closed system, in which case you'll prolly need a compressor. There are other ways to tell, such as an air "feed line" from your old compressor into your water tank. (Don't hook your Shur-flo to that line.) I believe that a compressor alone operates the system via that air pressure.

Some folks have had success with utilizing a downstream water pump by either removing the insides of the Schrader valve or keeping the fill cap to the tank loose (not the greatest idea). The best way is to re-orient your water supply lines so that you have an unrestricted, gravity flow to the intake on your Shur-Flo; and creating a small vent in the system, usually a breather hole in the fill cap, thus making your water system "normal".

best of luck,
keep us informed.

tom and molly

[1963tradewin]

I dont know what I have nothing was there except the outside water cap did have a tire valve on it and the compressor was just laying in there. I ran all new copper and have a new rubber hose to the tank. just was not getting alot of pressure out of the tank but I didnt fill tank up all the way either lol Thanks for your help

[flyfshr]

Having a pressurized system for fresh water can be a pain unless everything is working properly. My '59 was set up this way without the compressor so it wasn't ever working properly once I got it. The aluminum tank was questionable with not knowing what had been put, stored or crawled in there. I also wanted more storage capacity than the original cylindrical tank. I switched out to a rectangular poly tank custom made from Inca Plastics. By doing this, I gained an extra 15 to 18 gallons. Since it wasn't going to be pressurized, the tank didn't need to have the strength of being cylindrical. For a tank vent, I removed the internal valve in the Schraeder valve on the water fill spout and drilled a small hole in the plastic cap. After I had gone this far plus adding a ShuFlo pump, I replumbed the whole trailer with PEX as I believe rubber to develop a rubber taste over time, especially with our desert heat.

Hope this helps and good luck with your water system.

Brad
FF

[1963tradewin]

I bought a inca 33 gallon tank because my cylinder was missing probably a good thing. The only rubber hose I have is connected to the inlet to the inca tank. Should I junk the rubber and put pex in its place? I went with copper thru the whole trailer because I was told its the best to use if you want to drink the water. I had a 70 rolite that had all rubber and pvc lines and you didnt want to drink the water lol

[safari57]

Neat trailer embark.

I suspect a pressure washer will do a lot for removing your paint but stay away from rivets/seams.

Will be watching for photo updates as you get going on it. It is always fun to resurrect something that was wonderful in its day, then left to deteriorate until someone who really cares comes along and gives it a new life.

Barry

[embark]

Originally Posted by safari57

I suspect a pressure washer will do a lot for removing your paint but stay away from rivets/seams.

Barry

Barry, you're onto our plan. Being in Oregon, we're real used to pressure washers (moss, you know). We just did a "test patch" and the paint washes away almost effortlessly. What's surprising is that the original protective coating covers almost 75% of the Trade Wind's surface, although it's faded and dull in that way we're all familiar with. Underneath the coating the metal is very ... um ... shiny. We have high hopes.

Pictures in a few days ...

Thanks,
tom and molly

[embark]

Progress after 2 weeks:

1. The de-humidifier has sucked about 5 gallons of water out of the interior.

2. We've succeeded in mounting our two original Airstream propane bottles to the bottle stand. Now we're taking them to the propane guys (not quite as good as Hank Hill) to have the surgery done to make them compliant with the new standards.

3. the process of removing the makeshift interior cabinets has begun.

4. We've discovered that Airstream did not produce Owner's Manuals until 1964.

We have QUESTIONS!

First, we've looked on the WBCCI forums for some clues as to how to research the history of our 62's red numbers. Seems like they are all asleep on those particular forums. Perhaps WBCCI is too? Any advice as to how to find out more about ourTrade Wind's old red numbers would be appreciated.

Second, I - tom -am a dunce, because I can't seem to make the airforums search engine find me any info on how to acquire a blue Air # and be part of this. Someone please point us to this place.

Third, we're wondering about the appropriateness of continuing this thread here. Would it be more appropriate to move any further discussion of our progress on restoring the 62 Trade Wind to the Trade Wind forums? Should our pictures be uploaded to this thread, or would everyone prefer them uploaded to the Vintage Airstream photo galleries?

Thanks a bunch,

tom and molly

[utee94]

Hi embark, thanks for wanting to take the time to document your restoration. Yours in particular is going to be a lot of fun to watch, seeing where you're coming from.

I agree on moving the thread to its appropriate TradeWind forum, that's a good idea.

Having read through most (and possibly all) of the resto/reno threads from the past five years, I can tell you what I think is a very good way to do it.

I think you should use this thread as sort of your base of operations, and document all of the major steps with both text and pictures (before & after). When you have very specific questions about plumbing or electrical or polishing the exterior or whatever, I would suggest asking those questions on their appropriate forums (first so you get a quicker and more complete answer, and second so you don't clutter up your own thread), but post a link on THIS thread to those other discussions so that anyone who wants to follow the specifics of that detailed discussion may so so.

You can also post pictures in your photo gallery, but IMO accompanying pictures with text in your actual resto/reno thread is more informative and satisfying to your readers.

Hope that helps, it's oibviously just my opinion so please feel free to ignore most or all of it.

Looking forward to seeing pics of the pressure-washed exterior, and good luck on the rest!

-Marcus

[Bkrieger]

I would love to see more photos of your 62 TW. We just purchased our 62 TW - my husband brought it home on Valentine's Day!! What a gift! We are planning our 1st trip to Shawnee National Forest at the end of March. Good Luck!

[embark]

Welcome, Bkrieger!

Hope your husband didn't paint that TW pink. Paint is sooooo hard to get off! We're about 1/3 the way through removing it from our TW. Pressure washing won't budge the paint. We haveused a couple of chem paint removers (sparingly) instead.

I'm sorry I haven't been posting updates, I got a little busy just working on it!

To date:

All rotted interior wood removed. New birch plywood starting to go in for walls.

Floor plan finalized and framing for cabinets and appliances is about 2/3 complete.

Tankless water heater repaired, installed in system.

All exterior lights removed and 50% replaced. We saved much of the wiring as it's a b***h to replace!

Trex water lines installed.

Pleasant surprises:
All running gear is in prime condition.
Windows all seal perfectly and crank up and down as easily as they ever did in 1962.

Problems:
The back 25% of the TW was gutted and alot of the bottom pan was compromised, plus the entire interior under the floor was filled with spray foam. We're working to repair and replace. A big job. Also we cannot find a suitable black/gray water holding tank so far. We're considering having one manufactured. $$$

The roof vents are all leaking and the hardware is shot, missing parts and rust.. We're in the middle of removing them (frames and all) and replacing with new.

It's a labor of love, but right now the emphasis is on "labor"!

I'll get some pics together and post 'em soon.

Good luck with your TW! Have fun in Shawnee!
tom and molly

[66Overlander]

Originally Posted by embark

We have QUESTIONS!

First, we've looked on the WBCCI forums for some clues as to how to research the history of our 62's red numbers. Seems like they are all asleep on those particular forums. Perhaps WBCCI is too? Any advice as to how to find out more about ourTrade Wind's old red numbers would be appreciated.

Thanks a bunch,

tom and molly

Tom & Molly,
I just discovered this thread. I have some old WBCCI Membership Directories. If you can post the red number here (or send them to me in an email or private message - click on my forum name to do that), I'll see what I can turn up. If I happen to not have the correct Directories to show who had your trailer in the early to mid 1960s, I'll contact the club for further assistance.

[Bkrieger]

I just took some photos after we did a little work last weekend. We added the cbnet with the fridge and are working on the bathroom. The previos owner took out the toilet and the tanks as well as the sink. I have been looking at photos and trying to use an old layout. He did all of the major work prior to us making the purchase.
Brigitte


How do I get the photos in??? I tried the attach and it won't let me attach photos.

[Bkrieger]

Tom & Molly,
Finally-I finally figured it out! I hope that the photos can be opened. No more snow- Happy Spring!
Brigitte