Fun at the Sign Shop

[thesignlady]

When using Olympics they must be sealed by dipping them in Trempro or Sitkaflex. Do not use the ones that are sold with the washers on them, they will fail and are highly not recommended.

Here is the kit VintageTrailerSupply.com sells

Olympic Riveting Kit


and here is the thread I made showing how to find leaky Rivets and use Olympics properly for the repair.
http://www.airforums.com/forums/f381...ml#post1628345

Other things to look for when seeking out possible leaks are any obvious gaps that you can get your fingernail under or thin dark grey circles around a rivet, The thin dark grey circle around a rivet can signify movement in the rivet while the trailer is shaking its way down the road, if there is movement it essentially creates aluminum dust and leaves that tell tale dark ring that screams out to me...hey look at me, fix me, I am wiggly...

[thesignlady]

For those of us lucky enough to have real wood interiors in our trailers I cannot express enough how important it is to keep your wood happy. How do you keep it happy you ask? Feed it...use Lemon oil... brush or rag it on, let it saturate, repeat as needed and wipe off excess.

Before I fed mine, I gave all the trailers wood a very thorough washing with water, a Mr clean magic eraser and Murphy's oil soap and then I left the furnace on to let it dry overnight so I didn't trap water in the finish. If you come across any mildew stains, spray it down with a bleachy bathroom spray and bristle brush it in and leave sit a while. As long as you throw a heater in there shortly after direct exposure to bleach and water is not going to kill your wood.

There are many brands of lemon oil out there. I have used both the Old English and Formbys brands, its all the same stuff, it's awesome and makes your wood pop with vibrance.

Looking through these pics you can really tell what has and hasn't been fed yet.

[thesignlady]

The wood is in my Airstream is light Ash.

The fellow that helped me with the fine cabinet finishing in mine said the factory likely used the ash as it used to be common and plentiful in the area of the factory.

If you have damaged panels or partitions that you need to replace and can't find light ash plywood near you to do the necessary repairs with, the wood with the closest color and grain I could find was domestic birch, the Chinese made stuff had a very different grain. I had to replace a panel from the bottom of the above the stove cabinet due to a leaky stove vent fan hood and i used birch, it ties in just fine.

The wood finish I used to get the color right was Watco brushable lacquer. All other products I tried made the base color of the wood go orangish or reddish. The Watco product did not change the color at all.

[thesignlady]

The Watco brushable lacquer is easy to work with. I used a simple dollar store paint brush. It flows off the brush nicely and self levels so long as you are quick and don't try to go back over an area after 20 seconds or so.



The finish was dry enough 15 minutes after coating it out on a nice sunny day for my dog to curl up on it for a nap with no ill effects on the finish

[CaCraig]

I want to do that to my bath so badly but I'm afraid I'll break the plastic trim that covers the seams and I don't think there's a replacement.

The bathtub in my '71 is very light green gel coated fiberglass. Same with the end cap. The rest is a light yellow (I think that's the original color) ABS plastic.

[thesignlady]

If your bathrooms the color of my top pic here it started it's life out white. Someone one the forums calls it ugly old banana yellow, I think its an appropriate name for it...One of the compounds in the ABS yellows with age. A shot of krylon fusion for plastics and will look like the freshly painted one my child labour is reinstalling in the second pic.

[CaCraig]

I do think mine was a light shade of yellow. Under the toilet cover is a small area that doesn't see light so I would think that color is pretty close to original.

[thesignlady]

Repairing delamination

I just noticed an upper bathroom cabinet had some delamination occurring and I documented how to repair it for those that have never done it before. First remove your hardware and scrape any loose debris from the seam. Use exterior grade glue, force the glue into as deep into the crevase with a putty knife or scraper as you can. Next apply a clamp at the widest part of the delamination, then using painters grade tape, tack one side of the tape down then pull it tightly across to the other side, do this on both sides of your clamp and then move your clamp further along and continue the process. Wipe up any excess glue that squishes out as you go. At the end put your clamps back at the worst area of the delamination and leave in place for at least 12 hours.

[thesignlady]

At the end I threw every little clamp I had at it until it cured up

[thesignlady]

All better now...the one thing I really commend airstream from the 60's on is that all the edges of the doors were painted with a tan paint, not just the clear coat they did the doors with. I am certain that those painted edges are the reason why the door panels have held up so well for almost 50 years. Most moisture infiltration comes in from the edges, if you can keep it out the wood lasts longer.

[thesignlady]

I had a Private Message asking for stripe removal tips as vinyl removal is something I do almost daily at work. I thought I would share what I typed up for them

For removing a stripe, heat is your best friend. I would recommend a household blow dryer over the heat gun though as I would be worried about burning your clear coat off.

I personally also use an actual metal straight razor scraper knife not the plastic scraper blades, but go with what you are comfortable with.

If you go with the metal straight razor, start with a fresh new one and dull it out. To dull it out I use a clean 2 by 4 or some similar flat semi-smooth piece of wood and scrape the blade...away from the blade, along the wood at about a 30 degree angle, then flip it over and do the other side repeating this process about 3 times. This dulls the blades edge out and making it less likely to dig in and gouge or scrape your finish, if you are seeing scratches or it starts gouging as you go, toss that blade and start a fresh one. I commonly go through about two or three blades on a truck stripe removal

Working on a warm day and having the side you are working on facing the sun helps tremendously with softening the vinyl stripes adhesive death grip. Start at one end and heating up about a one foot area as you go, use your blade to get just a little ways under the strip, just enough that you can get your fingers on it to pull it up. Depending on the vinyl and how much it has deteriorated you may be able to pull up several inches before it breaks. When it breaks just get your knife under the edge to start again.

When you have the stripe removed you will have a lot of glue residue left on the trailer needing removal. Get some Rapid remover, or goo be gone or whatever adhesive remover is available in your neighbourhood hardware store and using a spray bottle nozzle, spray it all over the sticky residue, leave it sit about 60 seconds if an area looks like it is starting to dry out spray some more on. It will not hurt your clear coat. Once it is puffed up to the consistency of boogers use a plastic scraper and scrape it off into a paper towel. Re-spray the area for the stuff left behind and when you are mostly done saturate a paper towel and just hand buff the rest off.

Usually at this point you will be left with a dark grey line at where the margins of the stripe where, this is from when the vinyl shrank slightly over the years and the exposed adhesive edge gathered dirt and it has become somewhat engrained so for the very final step if you do have that grey line problem saturate a Mr. Clean magic eraser (grocery or hardware store) in the adhesive remover and scrub it off. I cut my magic erasers into three or four pieces because they break up and disintegrate as you go... The magic erasers have to be wet to work so if the sponge starts to dry out add more of your glue remover to it. This process will also work to remove tar spots and tree sap.

Good luck

[thesignlady]

TheSignLady's tips for fixing battery corrosion

Well here's something all of us RV folks can relate to. Leaky batteries wrecking our battery operated devices because we were silly and forgot to remove them for the off season.

Here's my tip on how to fix it and save it from going to the landfill

The white stuff that leaked out is potassium hydroxide and when it leaks out and absorbs carbon dioxide from the air it changes to that feathery white substance called potassium carbonate and it is caustic and can cause mild chemical burns so use gloves

You will need plain white vinegar, QTips, a small disposable container, paper towel and a small scraper thing like a toothpick or exacto knife.

Pour a small amount of vinegar into your disposable container. This step is important because you don't want to contaminate your vinegar bottle

With your gloves on carefully remove and bag the dead batteries so you can recycle them later.

Scrape and pick out any large potassium carbonate chunks

Dip your qtip into the vinegar and scrape it against the side of the container so it is not soaking wet, swab out the affected area. Pay particular attention to the springy part, work around the outside and through the centre of the spring. Start a new Qtip and repeat.

If your spring got rusty from the exposure get some fine sandpaper and sand the rust off the springs. Wrapping the sandpaper around a Qtip will help for sanding the centre area

Dampen your paper towel with water and wipe the area all out.

Leave to air dry and you're good to go.

This repair can also be used by using a mixture of baking soda and water or plain Lemon juice

[thesignlady]

All better !