We've taken two more trips and the trailer has done GREAT!! Mike and the guys went to Panther Creek in Illinois to check out the stars and planets the end of September and they didn't mess up a thing... not that I was worried.
Then this month, we met up with Steve and Duncan (Tinloaf) at Wash. County State Park, IL to do some water activities along with camping, dutch oven cooking and night sky viewing.
Today we got the wart (AKA air conditioner) off the top of the trailer. Wow - what an improvement. So, the next few weekends we'll be blowing out the lines and getting ready for the move into the garage. Yay! Then... the winter projects can begin. Hopefully that dang fiat won't get priority.
It's a New Year, so I guess that means a new project. On New Year's Day we started into the partial floor replacement. The PO had installed a new water pump, but had used the wrong size hose clamps. A leak caused severe floor rot and the plywood was coming apart. We took out all the loose stuff by hand, now we've got to get the masks for the respirator for the remainder of this section as there's asbestos tile to go through. We are just planning on replacing this section of floor, right now it's about the size of a sheet of plywood. Hopefully there wont be more as we get towards the street side, it doesn't seem bad... but, there is always a surprise.
The good news is that when we got the trailer, there wasn't anything up front - no dinette or goucho, just the little wall with the water tank behind it. PO had an after market jack-knife sofa that was moved out early on. There is nothing under the floor other than the wires that enter from the front tongue. Only sign of insulation is what was between the subfloor and the frame.
This wasn't too bad... However that was about a $3 mouse nest. It took us forever to figure out how they were getting in... up the front and through the frame!! There hasn't been any sightings since we moved the trailer inside last fall which is good .
The new section of front floor is in. Lots of cleaning, cutting of screws and bolts, and POR-15. It will get attached this week.
I really wanted to try and go with the original floor for the trailer. So, I pulled up all the carpet tiles, and it was obvious that it wouldn't be pretty. The glue used for the carpet tiles was just too much for it. We are going to go with a floating click floor, cork, and we just got the call it's in, so we'll go pick it up this week. We felt that was our best option (click) without taking everything out and starting over - a full "gut" is just not in the cards for a sheet marmoleum floor.
But, of course, one project always leads to another... We also wanted to replace the floor rot by the door. Interesting that in that little section there were 2 layers of plywood. And that leaking has been going on for quite awhile.
So, now we need to do a weld fix and find a new double duty bolt - to hold the floor in that section and to hold the step. (What were you just saying Melody Ranch... one thing leads to another??? )
another conclusion is that the mice were partying in there for years. Unfortunately, the realization is that they probably have eaten all the insulation in the entire floor. There was nothing under the door but "evidence" that they had been there. The only place we are finding insulation is where it was squashed between the plywood and the frame. We'll have to figure out how to put some in there in the future. At least the water tank will have it under it in the floor, well, maybe it's not a huge deal, but better than nothing!
We've been busy doing a lot of projects... finally have some time to post photos!
We put in a floating cork floor. Boy it sure feels nice underfoot. Installation was a snap, no pun intended, and we did it probably in under 3 hours including cuts. We didn't put it under the water tank, we put VCT tiles there in a retro pattern, but they shouldn't be seen under the sofa.
My camera just doesn't seem to want to take good photos of the cork. We still need to put in trim to hide the "gap" along the walls and baseboards.
We went through 2 designs to find the very best option for the sofa/bed/goucho. Option two worked the very best and is the easiest. Mike had made a metal platform frame and welded it. It is screwed into the floor and frame and we've topped it with 3/4 birch plywood.
Cushions needed to be made to fit. We ordered the foam from Foam N' More online from other recommendations here on the forum. We went with medium density in a six inch depth. I topped it with batting, but it still doesn't seem "fluffy" enough, so we may top it again with more batting or something else.
The decision that took the very longest and most time was picking out fabrics. Who could have thought it would have been so hard? Well, it's hard when you have a budget !
We finally found our favorites and what we could actually agree on. I did the sewing of both the curtains and the cushion covers and Mike helped alot in creating the patterns as we went along as we had nothing to go by. My little JCPenney machine from the 1970's was working really really hard, and it was a bit touch and go if it was going to make it through the sofa fabric, but it made it and I think I just have a few tweaks to do on the cord trim. I had never sewn anything like this, but am really happy with the results.
When making into the bed, the back of the sofa rests on the "drawers" Mike made that slide in and out underneath, then the back cushion lays on it. The drawers store bedding when it's a sofa. When set like a bed it measures 55" across, plenty of room for the two of us.
So, we still have lots of projects to do... however, it is camping ready! We went on our first outing this year to the Moraine View Rally. Everything worked great!!
It looks like you are making great progress. For it's age, that 1959 Avion was in really good condition. Especially when you consider where it was.
Thanks M2HB! Yes, we were very fortunate there wasn't more floor damage. It is quite different than when we got it, we are really happy with our progress, everything takes a long time, and we're lucky we can just fiddle with it when we want.
The decision that took the very longest and most time was picking out fabrics. Who could have thought it would have been so hard? Well, it's hard when you have a budget !
We finally found our favorites and what we could actually agree on. I did the sewing of both the curtains and the cushion covers and Mike helped alot in creating the patterns as we went along as we had nothing to go by.
This looks spectacular guys! Nice finishes, clean and fresh looking. Good job on improving an already awesome little trailer!
Shari
__________________
Vintage Airstream Club - Past President 2007/2008
WBCCI #1824 - DenCO Unit Past President (2005)
AIR #30 - Join Date: 2-25-2002
1900 miles and nothing major went wrong! Yay. Only small things that we keep learning each time we go out... Like store the awning poles IN the trailer NOT in the garage.
We left St. Louis, spent one night at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Campground, then onto Michigan and Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground for four nights. We played tourist by visiting Drummond Island, Whitefish Point and Wilderness Park. We paddled two different lakes, listened to loons, and stood in the waves at Fossil Rock ledges. We put real people and faces to folks we talk to on the forums at the Exploring Under the Bridge Rally and had fun with our friends from previous rallies. We then headed back to St. Louis, spent one more night at Indiana Dunes and headed home.
Pics:
Indiana Dunes Campsite #93, Indiana Dunes Lake Michigan Shoreline, Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground Campsite #249, Mackinac Bridge from Campground Lake Huron, Potagannissing Flooding Area Lake One (Drummond Island), King of all Beaver Dams/Homes on Lake One (Drummond Island), Fossil Ledges (Drummond Island), Migration Observation Hut on Whitefish Point Lake Superior, Wilderness Park and the gang on the last night Exploring Under the Bridge Rally.
Tina, I find myself looking at your thread often and it’s great to be able to see a fellow 59 to use for reference. I have a question on the floor replacement. I read somewhere that the shell is bolted to the frame on some trailers and on other ones the shell sets on the floor and is bolted thru the floor to the frame. Which way is it on your trailer? Did you have to lift the shell up to place the flooring in or did the opening just stay consistent as you pulled out the old wood? I tried looking at your pictures but really could not tell. I figure my trailer would be the same as yours. Thanks Steve
Tina, I find myself looking at your thread often and it’s great to be able to see a fellow 59 to use for reference. I have a question on the floor replacement. I read somewhere that the shell is bolted to the frame on some trailers and on other ones the shell sets on the floor and is bolted thru the floor to the frame. Which way is it on your trailer? Did you have to lift the shell up to place the flooring in or did the opening just stay consistent as you pulled out the old wood? I tried looking at your pictures but really could not tell. I figure my trailer would be the same as yours. Thanks Steve
I need to jump on your thread and see what you are doing...
To answer your question, the inside frame/shell on our trailer sat on the floor, but it also sat in a track all around which was on the floor between the two shells (inside/outside.) There are a million screws, no lie, they run vertical and horizontal, like every half inch. Mike was a bit concerned when we had the floor removed the support was then gone for the inside shell and that maybe the outside would bow a bit. That didn't happen, but we didn't leave it too long. He said it probably wouldn't hurt to have a few 3/4" block pieces to put in there temporarily.
The strip around the outside of the trailer, in the front, that runs horizontally above the tongue and just around the curves, covers up all those screws. We did not take ours off, it just looked too perfect, so we just cut off the screws from the inside.
Photo one you can see in the very front of the trailer this is the best photo I have to show the gap, can you see all the screws are hanging down and the gap if you enlarge it? They are on the left of the very front of the frame. click on the photo when it's enlarged, that should bring it up in a new window which you can then enlarge it again. Photo two shows the floor is also bolted to the frame in a lot of places. We used a heavy duty magnet to find the bolts and then used a hole saw to drill around the bolts, then we cut off the bolts with an abrasive cut-off wheel on a dremmel type tool (really cool - throws lots of sparks) Photo three is how we put the new floor back in, which was in 2 halves. First half went in pretty easy, not so with side 2 as it had to be coaxed into place with a hammer and block (since there was a curve involved along with an overlap) to get it into place. Our floor thickness is 3/4".
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