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Old 01-26-2014, 10:49 AM   #1
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1999 25' Safari
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Need Tambour Help

We have a ’74 Sovereign that is missing the tambour for the credenza and under the sink. Given the price of new tambour, we are wondering what others have done either to find reasonably priced tambour or what they have done in place of tambour. Someone mentioned replacing the tambour with doors but given the curves we have this doesn’t seem to be practical for a complete solution. Anyway, we would love to hear about and see, if you can provide pics, what creative solutions others have come up with. If by chance, you have or know anyone who has tambour they would like to sell, we could use the following sizes. All are 25” tall. The three minimum lengths we need are 39, 33 and 35 inches. These lengths would just cover the openings so a few inches longer would be ok. Would love to hear from you.
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Old 01-26-2014, 11:19 AM   #2
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I have rebuild many a tambour. I know a good method but it is time intensive. The tambours under the credenza, galley and lavarette are troublesome. They always seem to bind up. I got the tambour under the galley to work more easily by making it 2 pieces instead of one. If you are patient you can find used tambour on ebay, in the forums classifieds, or Colaws in Missouri. I am at the point where I plan on taking out the tambour under the galley, again, get some simple cabinet doors and glue the old tambour to the center of the doors.
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Old 01-26-2014, 12:00 PM   #3
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Check out this thread:
http://www.airforums.com/forums/f46/...ml#post1408283

Maybe they have something you could use!
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Old 01-26-2014, 01:12 PM   #4
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I am having the same problem. I am not going to pay $300 a sheet for the stuff. What I have seen on the entertainment center (credenza) is they put a new top on it with an angular profile and then they can use flat cabinet doors on the bottom. I am not ready to completely remodel my trailer yet so I am trying to make do with what I have. So far, that tambor in the entertainment center is all I lack.

Perry
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Old 01-26-2014, 06:23 PM   #5
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Lumatic, I wish I could put doors on both locations, but the curves create a big problem that I haven't figured out how to solve. I hope to get some options with this thread from streamers that have solved this problem in the past. Depending on what I get with this thread, I may get back with you on how to repair tambour. Any chance you are going to be at the Airstream Academy in Albq. the fist of May?

Becky, I'll check it out.

Perry, you are correct, new tambour is expensive so I'm hoping to find other options with this thread.
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Old 01-26-2014, 06:32 PM   #6
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We replaced our plastic/pressboard original tambour with solid birch tambour from Outwater Plastics. The wood is a bit thicker than the original, so I had to take the cloth backing off of the part that goes in the channel. Also, I cut it a bit too big (channel to channel measurment) so it's a snug fit. I think it would slide better if I had taken another 1/8" off.

I think the solid wood is less prone to sagging and chipping than the pressboard. Plus we really like the look of the real wood. It matches what we've done in the rest of the trailer. Pics in our blog, link in my sig line.
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Old 01-27-2014, 07:43 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Okiestreamer View Post
Lumatic, Any chance you are going to be at the Airstream Academy in Albq. the fist of May?
Went last year. This year maybe. I am only an hour away. My repair technique is not rocket science, just a couple basic steps, but it does take time. 1. Separate slats 2. Aluminum Tape at right angles to slats every 8 inches or so. 3. cover with ballistic nylon and contact cement. There is also some high tech mebrane with adhesive backing for model airplane construction I have never used.
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Old 01-28-2014, 03:11 PM   #8
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Sheets of Tambour

So this site has sheets of tambour 4' x 8' for less than 150.00 shipped. They come unpainted and is better quality than the original tambour.

Tambour panels & doors

tambour_solidwood.pdf
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Old 01-28-2014, 03:50 PM   #9
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Good Find Sam. You ever bought from them? Looks like they are using as wall covering as opposed to doors. I wonder what sort of backing it has on it? It is real wood as opposed to the fake plastic wood that came with the trailer.

Perry
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Old 01-29-2014, 06:47 AM   #10
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DIY Tambour from Big Box

Nice find on the panels for $150. This is a competitive option.

Here's what I'm working on in the do-it-yourself arena. I'm going to try glueing a wooden blind to canvas. My local big box sells wooden window blind that are a little thinner than original tambour. Hope the series of pictures illustrates better.

The materials are self explanatory. I removed the roll-up/down hardware from this brand of blinds. This included removing metal rings. The work surface has layer of plastic, then 10 oz canvas stretched taunt. My Lowes has 8 oz and 10 oz canvas drop cloth, I went for the 10 oz. Spread tightbond 2 with throw away spreader. Then set blind in place. Not shown is covering with boards and weighting down until glue dries.

I glued this up on Sunday. Total time was less than an hour, and most of that involved cleaning off the work table. Once things thaw out a little today I'm going down to shop to see how things worked. One thing I would do different is dampen the canvas with water. Seemed that canvas sucked moisture out of glue a little quicker that I would have liked.

The blind was $35 for 23"x60", the canvas was $20, and the clue was around $7.50. Think the total Lowes ticket was less than $80 and that included the Chili Cheese Fritos and Diet Coke, and I have plenty of canvas for rest of the panels if this work.

My only real concern is that the wood slats have a series of threads that hold together - I hope I can cut so that threads are not in the grooves that the panel rides in. We'll see.

Dennis
Augusta, GA.
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Old 01-29-2014, 10:11 AM   #11
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It should work, as long as none of the slats in the new "tambour" are wider than the original slats. There isn't a lot of extra room in the spirals where the tambour rolls up. If the new tambour can't roll into as small a curve, it will bind up when opening.
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Old 01-29-2014, 10:28 AM   #12
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At first I thought just a few short pieces would work to be used on the areas that were broke. We ended up using a full sheet with the remainder used for the sections above the bed area, that we did not thought we would need at first. Another option is in possibly contacting some supplies for any smaller pieces?

Like mention above we had all of the tambour replaced in the galley and upper bed area back in 2010. ODM did a great job, know the dimensions, but there is always risks by having it done without the project being there (measure twice cut once). They may have some smaller pieces on hand rather than requiring a whole sheet that you will not really need to start at this point.

I look at those older pictures compared to all of the other work we've done and over time, these older coaches really begin to look pretty decent.

Good luck, take you time, but think of other possibilities of that other use of material.

SL4BLLT
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Old 01-29-2014, 10:39 AM   #13
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My 1976 31' Sovereign also had the Tambor doors under the kitchen counter and the small TV stand next to fridge. I tried repairing the old Tambour as well as buying sheets of new Tambour stock to cut and install replacement sections. I was never pleased with the results on either of these approaches. So I replaced the Tambor with custom made cabinet fronts, oak doors and slide out drawers. I also installed a roll up oak door and frame on the opening where the old 70's Microwave would have been. These things were huge. The roll up door works great in this area.

Here are some pictures of my kitchen remodel project that includes installing a Corian counter to as well as the cabinet remodel as well.

Airstream counter top.pdf
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Old 01-29-2014, 04:48 PM   #14
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Great Remodel Don. We are trying to keep ours as original as possible for the time being. Sounds like most people with experience are indicating tambour doesn't work well but there are very few options for our model. Thanks for the pics.
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Old 01-29-2014, 10:50 PM   #15
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To PERRYG114,
I am currently redoing a 1978 International Tradewind. Just got my tambour 4' x 8' sheet by UPS. Very nice quality and the back material is some synthetic fabric that is much hardier than the original backing, see pics. Same exact thickness and slat width. Not bad for the price of $150 shipped. Some AS specialty sites are charging $600 + for similar stuff. Will spray paint and then cut to size on the table saw. We'll see how it turns out.

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Old 01-30-2014, 06:35 AM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by webspinner View Post
It should work, as long as none of the slats in the new "tambour" are wider than the original slats.
The replacement piece is about 3/4" wider than what I need. I plan to solve that using the table saw and VERY GOOD panel blade. I didn't want to spend the propane to heat the shop up yesterday so that project is on list for Saturday.

Back to Normal Grid now that Southeast in thawing out
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Old 01-30-2014, 06:47 AM   #17
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Is it solid wood or some sort of veneer on it? Hard to tell from your pics. Do you have the part number for what you ordered? Let me know how the cutting on the table saw works out.

Perry

Quote:
Originally Posted by samvogt View Post
To PERRYG114,
I am currently redoing a 1978 International Tradewind. Just got my tambour 4' x 8' sheet by UPS. Very nice quality and the back material is some synthetic fabric that is much hardier than the original backing, see pics. Same exact thickness and slat width. Not bad for the price of $150 shipped. Some AS specialty sites are charging $600 + for similar stuff. Will spray paint and then cut to size on the table saw. We'll see how it turns out.

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Old 01-30-2014, 09:10 AM   #18
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here is a guy selling some on craigslist.
Airstream parts vintage trailer
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Old 01-30-2014, 09:30 AM   #19
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Try here

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Old 01-30-2014, 09:37 AM   #20
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Thanks garthf. I sent him an email. He posted it on 1-4 so he may have already sold it.
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