Thrill of the Hunt turned Excitment of Reno

[Lumeni]

Hi there, my husband and I have been contemplating purchasing an AS for a couple of years. Back in 2012, we discussed getting an AS but the price was just too much so we ended up with a 1973 Penguin. The PO had repainted, updated appliances, and reupholstered it and we loved that it was ready to use right away. We took our girls camping over the last three summers and had a lot of fun.

My hubby and I took a camping trip for our 15th wedding anniversary last week and decided that if we could sell the Penguin, we could roll the money into an AS... if we could just find one for the right price. So we returned Saturday from our trip, put the Penguin up for sale that evening, and sold it by Sunday morning. My husband joked that we should have put a higher price on it. I think the fact that the 4th of July is Friday certainly helped!

We lucked out and found a 1976 29' Ambassador to make our own and we picked it up Monday night. It's a classic beauty with lots of retro flair. Last night we were excited to find the original owner's manual inside. Hey, and there was even a beer someone had left in the refridgerator.

There are updates we want to make, but we want to use it as well so we be doing them incrementally. I love the air forum site and have found it so helpful already. I find all of the renovation threads so interesting and oddly addictive.

We live in the midwest and plan to camp in our area but our ultimate goal is to take a family trip out West and out East at some point before our girls grow up and don't want to hang out with us any more. :-)

[drboyd]

That's a very nice looking unit!!! Congratulations!!

[SteveSueMac]

Great story and WONDERFUL looking trailer!!


Welcome and please flood is with pics of the interior too! :-)

[SmokelessJoe]

Good find. Good luck!

[RM66caravel]

Awesome and yes we want pictures please we be junkies! Need pictures lol
Cliff

[Lumeni]

Thanks for the warm welcome. Here are some of the pix I captured. The program seems to be cutting me off at 11 of them. I'll see if it will let me do another with more. I love seeing other's pictures so I am happy to share. Does anyone know what that metal thing is attached to the wall?

[Lumeni]

More pix. Notice the paper on the divider walls is coming off in some places. Does anyone know if that would have been original? The ceiling has a wall paper on it that is similar but not quite the same.

[perryg114]

I think that wall paper is not original. The interiors were usually pretty dark. See what is underneath the wall paper. I would do a structural inspection. It looks well cared for but many trailers of that era have problems with rear end separation from water intrusion from the rear and resulting rot and rust and eventual structural failure. It looks really clean from the outside so maybe it has been covered.

Perry

[dbj216]

Hi there! You have found a great looking Airstream! Not many of that vintage are in such good condition.

I'm guessing the mechanism screwed to the wall was an old gas light. It looks like the mounting bracket and propane line is all that's left of it. Your owner's manual may refer to it. I'm probably wrong as the location doesn't make sense to me. My gas light is in the front sitting area where a person needs the light.

Join right in the conversations related to the Airstream lifestyle. Travel, maintenance, renovations, and many other interesting categories are all available on the Forums. And it's free!

David

[Lumeni]

I've read quite a bit about the rear end separation issue elsewhere on the forum, and please forgive me, but I'm not quite understanding what to look for. Does the separation occur in the ceiling, or in the floor, or just overall in the back? How do we check to see if our new baby has a "back back" so to speak?

[kswelsh]

Congratulations on your new Airstream. The pictures make me reminisce about our 1975 Excella 500 that we had for 9 years before trading for our 2006 Classic. I loved the twin beds and the rear bath configuration like yours. We did find that we dragged bottom in the back at times so be careful. You will have so much fun making it your own I was lucky enough to have the original marketing brochure with my unit that had all these wonderful pictures from the 70's. I did lots of research to find the exact pots and pans, towels, apron that were in that brochure - it was such fun! I miss that old '75 and really miss the twin beds.

[silverlabs]

Looks great! Congratulations! Isn't it fun when you realize a dream?

[GAStreamin]

It looks beautiful. Happy Trails.

[dbj216]

Lumeni: You can test for rear end separation by standing on the rear bumper and using your legs, push down and up like you were on a diving board. Watch for movement between the trailer's belt line molding and the frame rails. If the frame and body are not well attached, you will see a gap open up between the belt line molding and frame rails.

There may be other ways to test for rear end separation. This is the method I was taught.

Rear end separation is relatively common on 70's trailers due to a design flaw with the new body style. It is repairable.

David

[Becky B.]

Hi Lumei & welcome to the forums! I had a '76 Overlander at one time & my wallpaper did the same thing on the sliding door to the bathroom. I believe your wallpaper is original to the trailer. Here is what my bedroom looked like: My guess on the thing attached to the wall was a fire extinguisher.....just a guess! Enjoy your trailer...it looks very nice! My Overlander was my first Airstream (I'm on my third) and really polished up nice (if that's anywhere in your future!) This was my '76:

[A W Warn]

You and your daughters will make memories that last for ever. My twin daughters are 40. They often talk about the fun we had camping in the Airstream years ago.

Your pictures bring back memories for me too! My first Airstream had your floor plan.

One memory I'll share that might be helpful to you:
For a long time I could not get the furnace to light up. There was a thermostat in the front room, so I would set it to a high temperature and try to light the furnace. For the first year I could not get it to light. I thought the furnace was toast. Finally, I discovered a second thermostat behind the curtain in the bedroom. Set that one correctly and the furnace fired right up! I found out later the thermostat in the front room was for the AC that had been replaced. So, it did not control anything!!!!

[boliversr]

Looks wonderful have lots of fun.

[Lumeni]

Originally Posted by dbj216

I'm guessing the mechanism screwed to the wall was an old gas light. It looks like the mounting bracket and propane line is all that's left of it. Your owner's manual may refer to it. I'm probably wrong as the location doesn't make sense to me. My gas light is in the front sitting area where a person needs the light.

Join right in the conversations related to the Airstream lifestyle. Travel, maintenance, renovations, and many other interesting categories are all available on the Forums. And it's free!

David

Thanks David - I saw another user post about a gas light in the front area and was thinking the same thing. In addition to being free, I've been so impressed with all of the friendly, kind people on the forum. I typically refrain from posting comments on sites or participating in forums for fear that trolls will attack, but after consistently seeing how nice people are on this forum I decided to give it a try.

Originally Posted by kswelsh

Congratulations on your new Airstream. The pictures make me reminisce about our 1975 Excella 500 that we had for 9 years before trading for our 2006 Classic. I loved the twin beds and the rear bath configuration like yours. We did find that we dragged bottom in the back at times so be careful. You will have so much fun making it your own I was lucky enough to have the original marketing brochure with my unit that had all these wonderful pictures from the 70's. I did lots of research to find the exact pots and pans, towels, apron that were in that brochure - it was such fun! I miss that old '75 and really miss the twin beds.

Thanks, I think the twin beds will work out well for accomodating our girls. It will be good for them to have their own space. And I like that it doesn't feel claustrophobic in there. I can imagine it was a lot of fun hunting down those items, and it had to be hilarious seeing all of it in person.

Originally Posted by silverlabs

Looks great! Congratulations! Isn't it fun when you realize a dream?

Yes! I can't believe that we actually have an airstream sitting outside our house!

Originally Posted by dbj216

Lumeni: You can test for rear end separation by standing on the rear bumper and using your legs, push down and up like you were on a diving board. Watch for movement between the trailer's belt line molding and the frame rails. If the frame and body are not well attached, you will see a gap open up between the belt line molding and frame rails.

There may be other ways to test for rear end separation. This is the method I was taught.

Rear end separation is relatively common on 70's trailers due to a design flaw with the new body style. It is repairable.

David

Thanks David! We read a little more on it last night and haven't had a chance to take a closer look yet. We're a bit concerned since it seems to be such a common issue.

Oh and if you noticed those lovely fish that were stuck all over the wall rail, I'm happy to report that they were easily removed. Now we just need to figure out a name for our new bundle of joy. I'm trying to think of something that will incorporate the PO's desire to decorate the whole thing with fish, which we thought was pretty funny. We even found some fish themed border that luckily they hadn't put up yet. It was obvious they weren't done with their decorating :-).

[Lumeni]

Originally Posted by beckybillrae

Hi Lumei & welcome to the forums! I had a '76 Overlander at one time & my wallpaper did the same thing on the sliding door to the bathroom. I believe your wallpaper is original to the trailer.

Thanks! I love your pictures. What a beauty. That's a good guess as well, hopefully we will figure out what it is eventually. How did you deal with the paper coming off? My husband and I have talked about using an iron and trying to reattach it and also just trying to take it off, but there seems to be some extremely sticky stuff underneath.

Originally Posted by A W Warn

For a long time I could not get the furnace to light up. There was a thermostat in the front room, so I would set it to a high temperature and try to light the furnace. For the first year I could not get it to light. I thought the furnace was toast. Finally, I discovered a second thermostat behind the curtain in the bedroom. Set that one correctly and the furnace fired right up! I found out later the thermostat in the front room was for the AC that had been replaced. So, it did not control anything!!!!

Good tip! Thanks. I seem to recall seeing only one thermostat so far but now I'll have to look closer. We tried the AC unit and it kept blowing the fuse on our house because we had it plugged in there. Before it blew the fuse, it seemed to be kicking out some cold air. We haven't checked the propane tanks or the furnace yet. I think this weekend will be spent doing some closer investigation.

[dbj216]

Hello Airstreamer,

Your house wiring works! Chances are you plugged your new Airstream into a standard 15 amp outlet. Your Airstream air conditioner likely needs 20 amps to run, so the house circuit was overloaded. You shouldn't run your AC on a regular 15 amp household circuit. You can run your vacuum, fan, electric drill and other appliances plugged into your Airstream while it is plugged into your 15 amp house circuit.

Your Airstream likely has a 30 amp cord and plug for use at RV parks. Don't run your AC unit unless you are plugged into a 30 amp circuit. Inadequate power could damage the motor in your AC unit.

How about Charlie the Tuna. Or Silver Fish. Oh, I give up.

David