Am restoring a Cruisette. With a single skin, front and rear, the rivets used show from both sides. This pretty much rules out the 3 legged bulb type rivet. Pop rivets would almost be as ugly. Seems like I'm looking for the same type of rivets that Wally used. Any help or direction out there. Thanks, Dennis
I assume the outside skin is attached to ribs? If thats the case, then you can see the ribs on the inside of the trailer? The orginal rivets were "bucket" types and I would think there should have been inner skin - is perhaps the inner skin missing? I know Airstream did a lot of custom stuff back then.
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Ken - Thanks much for the welcome. I arrive with little knowledge and many questions. The 52 Cruisettes were a one year thing, 15' long, with little creature comforts. In almost all cases, the front and rear 3' were of single skin construction, so the segments you see inside are the same segment you see outside. For that reason, you are also looking at both sides of the rivets. I believe at the factory, they were "bucked", which I guess is one way of saying there was a guy on each side - one with a "hammer", the other with a heavy back-up "buck" to help spread the rivet. In any case, I think what I need is a duplicate of the rivets Wally used and am hoping to find a source for that rivet. Thanks again, Dennis
Interesting - buck rivets should be very easy to find - chek www.mcmaster.com. Those rivets have not really changed over the years. I'm sure others will chime in as well. And yes Olympics would not work and pop rivets would be worse
If you have time, join us tonight (Tues) for chat night - every Tues evening at 9:00 eastern time - bunch of us get on there and talk about all kinds of stuff.
Check with an airplane mechanic. We had one replace some bucked rivets around the edge of our door, which only took one person. You do have to have two people, just as you described one on the inside & one on the outside, if work is in the center of a panel or inside your trailer..
Ken, et al...there are pictures of the Cruisette's single end cap skin on RJ's Archive website
Shari
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Yo Paul and other helpful aluminum people. Thanks for the thoughts, will check them out.
As far as my mini collection, the 52 Cruisette may be considered somewhat rare. What might help there is that it is a 15 panel trailer, # 8007. It is in the "throws" of restoration. The 30 segments are in great shape, thank goodness. From then on, it was in need of TLC, lots of it. I'm trying.
52 Flying Cloud, great shape, fun camper.
56 Overlander, 13 panel front, dutch back, aluminum good, needs resto.
68 Overlander, great shape, my wife seems to like the bathroom option!!!
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