1977 Safari restoration

[Zeppelinium]

Originally Posted by NevadaGeo

Hey Zep, has anyone tried to use heat and cold to help shape a panel? ...

I've heard of people using ice (or even dry ice) to pull out dents, but you need to do it fairly soon after the dent is created. Otherwise, the metal slowly stretches to relieve the stress of the dent and it can't be treated with ice.

Heat is more problematic in thin aluminum sheet. I'm no expert, but it would be easy to overheat the aluminum. I think you can overheat using a heat gun, if you're not careful. But if you do it successfully, it makes rolling out a panel much easier.

Zep

[OilnH2o]

Originally Posted by Zeppelinium

Well, it got up to 40° today, and sunny, so I ran out of excuses. The good news is, this first axle practically moved itself. Once I got it balanced on the floor jack (it only fell of a couple times), it was surprisingly easy to move by rolling the jack on the plywood (I can hardly pick these suckers up, so under the trailer there is no hope unless it can move on the jack....

...So far, it's not too bad as a solo exercise. I am surprised. The slots in the flanges don't line up with the existing holes in the fish plate, so I'll deal with that tomorrow.

Zep

Zep, your two posts (#154 & 155) have got to be a new record for a concise report on replacing axles, especially given the time between start to finish...
But, since I am doing the research on this (including your Overlander and disc-brake threads, and others, so I can do mine this spring) did you end up with the Dexters (?) as they came from the factory? And, was the axle rated-weight in the range you were considering earlier? Up here in Griz Nation options are few, but we do have a local Dexter dealer and I can get their "free" shipping. Lastly, it seems you did this set on your own, maybe even by yourself. Any lessons learned? Thanks - you do great work.

Dave

[Zeppelinium]

Originally Posted by OilnH2o

...did you end up with the Dexters (?) as they came from the factory? And, was the axle rated-weight in the range you were considering earlier? ... you did this set on your own, maybe even by yourself. Any lessons learned? Thanks - you do great work.

Dave, I only know two sources for these axles, Dexter and Axis. I have Dexters on the Sovereign and Overlander, and I had an Axis on my Caravel. All I can say is, I can't tell the difference between them. They use the same brackets and you have to drill out the fish plate for either of them. I gather that if you order Axis axles from Colin Hyde he gets them with different brackets so there is no drilling required.

I finally ordered 2800 lbs axles. For an Airstream that will never exceed 4600 lbs, that provides 22% margin at the max. You need some margin, something between 20-30%. The more margin, the less chance of bottoming the axle(s), but the harsher ride. Just remember that sometimes you won't have full water or full baggage, so be careful about the light weight days. I figure I'll most often travel around 4300 lbs, so two 2800 axles provide 30% margin, which is as high as I would like to go.

I did put them on single-handed. You can do it if you have a floor jack and two hydraulic jacks. Make sure you have a 5/8" rotobroach drill (my opinion is that a 5/8" twist drill will either break your wrist or wrap you up when it catches, plus the rotobroach is faster and can use a smaller drill motor).

Lesson learned (from memory, so take these for what they're worth):

1. I didn't pay enough attention when I drilled out the new holes (there's about two inches available). It's not a problem until the next set of axles, twenty years from now. But you need to think out how you're going to put the holes in a repeatable position, relative to each axle bracket.
2. Be careful about getting the axles perfectly aligned in rotation. I think I pushed up on the swing arms a bit too much and they might be rotated CCW (looking from the street side) about 3 degrees from horizontal.
3. If you have your Airstream up on blocks, try to avoid putting the blocks in positions that will prevent you from measuring the distance from the axle slots to the hitch. Luke (up in Ft Colins) pretty regularly finds that fish plates are not lined up opposite each other by significant amounts--my Overlander was off by 1/8" (fixed that by pulling with cables opposite directions) and the Sovereign was off by, what was it, maybe 3/8", so we flame cut the slots on one side. If your fish plates are off, your Airstream will track down the road a little bit sideways and you tires will wear out early.

Good luch. The first one is scary but after that it's just work.

Zep

[perryg114]

Zep so what worked on pre-bending the side wraps? Did the PVC mandrel work without kinking the metal? I used a piece of PVC pipe to pre-bend my rear side wraps and it helped. I think the metal was .032 6061-T6. I created a seam between the rear wheel and the corner sorta like you did but for different reasons. I have a center bath and the side wraps behind the wheels go up under the holding tank flanges and are hard to remove. Rather than get into a whole broken tank support bolt/redrill holes fiasco, I just left the first 4 foot or so side wraps under the tanks and made a two piece side wrap sorta like what you did. The rear side wraps were pretty much toast from the water leaks from the bumper compartment and bumper plate leaks. Without some sort of pre-bend the side wraps with the thicker metal would not have worked. My corner wraps are plastic which has pros and cons. The stuff cracks pretty easy.

At some point, I will have to bite the bullet and remove some of those tank support bolts and I am sure that many will break. My gray and black water tank pans were crushed by a careless PO or garage ape missing the axel plate with the jack and hitting the tank. I am going to attempt to splice in a new section of tank and also gain access to the leaking dump valves which I am not sure you can remove without dropping the tanks. The valves are sandwitched between the two tanks with very little clearance.

Perry

[Zeppelinium]

Originally Posted by perryg114

Zep so what worked on pre-bending the side wraps? Did the PVC mandrel work without kinking the metal? I used a piece of PVC pipe to pre-bend my rear side wraps and it helped. I think the metal was .032 6061-T6.

Yes, it worked great. A 3" pipe has a slightly small radius, so you have to be careful to bend the skin "loosely" around the pipe. I found that bending about 200 degrees resulted in a permanent set of 90 degrees. You need to clamp the skin to the pipe and you need a long piece of wood clamped to the free end of the skin to push on. Otherwise you oilcan the skin where you are pushing and leave a crease.

Originally Posted by perryg114

I am going to attempt to splice in a new section of tank...

I don't know what your tanks are made of, but if it's polyethylene it's very difficult to weld. Good luck. I've managed to weld a few small cracks that were leaking and I found a 3M glue (something like 8003) that will glue the stuff, which I used to fix a crack next to the toilet flange.

Originally Posted by perryg114

...and also gain access to the leaking dump valves which I am not sure you can remove without dropping the tanks. The valves are sandwitched between the two tanks with very little clearance.

My 75 Sovereign has a mid-bath and the valve arrangement in it sounds a lot like yours. I managed to get the valves out without removing the tanks. The thread just gives you an idea of how to start, I didn't document the actual removal.

Zep

[perryg114]

Sorry I ment tank pan not tank. The pan needs a new section spliced in but the tanks under the pan are good. I had to repair the fresh water tank pan already. I learned that you can't install 3/16 Stainless pop rivets with a hand tool without being the hulk.

I looked at your center bath repair link and my valves are not separated like that. mine face each other and I can get them out by destroying the common y-pipe between them but I don't think I can get the y-pipe back in. I am seriously thinking of putting elbows on the tanks and make a manifold outside the tank so I don't have to go through the hell of pulling the tanks to replace a valve seal. Right now having a third valve is a fair trade for not having to mess with removing the tanks. I maybe able to figure something out but right now it does not look great.

Perry

[Zeppelinium]

Well, it's been 9 years. In that time I redid the '73 Safari (twice), the Sovereign, designed and built a house, did Burning Man almost every year, and computerized all the systems in the new house, including hooking all the lights up to Alexa (but half the time can't remember what I named some of them), sold the Sovereign and Overlander, and the spouse bought a new Flying Cloud. But I'm still driving the same trucks and car.

So I've seen that ARROWWOOD is getting back on his '71 Safari, which means I need to get to work.

[Zeppelinium]

Bad news. I started working on the electrical, only to discover that back in the day Airstream used a wire loom to build the harness. I think the 23' and 25' harnesses were the same, so there were a lot of coils and bends of wire in the ceiling channel, plus a lot of wires going to places that I couldn't imagine what they were for. So out comes a lot of wire and many hours of standing and just looking, counting wire, thinking of pumps and valves and speakers and lights and stuff...

Three weeks later and the wiring is 80% done, just waiting for wire loom tubing, a solar controller, and an XM antenna.

Meanwhile, how about some exterior party lights? The marker lights are already wired for both highway use, and for flashing when parked and ready for guests. But I want some illumination. I'm going to add a light up front for lighting up the tailgate for using the BBQ grill, which will be a permanent fixture. But for parties, I wanted temporary lights.

These fixtures are 3D printed, with pockets on the back side to hold magnets. The retaining magnets are attached to the inside of the shell--plenty of holding force. The lights are plugged into a jack down by the bottom belt line and controlled by a switch in the panel next to the door.



This might provide an idea of what two 1W disc LEDs can do. The two fixtures require about 1A of 12V.



The fixtures are printed in two pieces, takes about 2 hours for each fixture.

[Zeppelinium]

I thought I had finished all the mechanical shell and axle tasks way back when this Airstream was set aside. Then I saw a post by ARROWWOOD that made me take another look. Sure enough, the rear awning lock fitting was almost falling off. It was held by a single #10 sheet metal screw and the shell was deformed where previous screws had pulled out.

I guess I skipped this task because I didn't want to cut into the plastic dome in the bath, but now I realized it will (1) be in the closet and (2) when the piece is replaced, there is a caulk that is almost the same color and the join lines will be almost invisible.

First, if the inside skin is in place, it's hard to transfer an outside location to the inside skin. I drilled a "finder hole" through the outside shell in a location where I'll put a rivet when the final fix is in place. Once I had a good location, I cut out the plastic.



Once I could take a look, I found the single screw was tight to the bend in the rib, so a nutplate wouldn't fit. l had to move the lock fitting about 3/16" forward to make room.



The whole area of the shell under the lock needed repair. The two domed rivets under the lock location will be drilled out and replaced with flush bucked rivets.



The nutplates and shims on the inside will make the lock very secure.



On the exterior, I put one small 0.40 plate that still needs to be drill for the 3 visible rivets. Five flush rivets will be bucked in under the area of the lock fitting.

[Aerowood]

Sorry to cause you so much trouble but!!!!!!! It's better then having the awning open up at 65.

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[dbj216]

Greetings Zep: My my you have been busy. Glad to see you out of hibernation. Someone got a very good vintage Airstream by the ones you have sold. I'll bet money my awning supports aren't the best, but they are still working, so what the heck.

David

[Zeppelinium]

OK, I'm into day 5 of a 2-hour project. Who knew that getting the 12V power installed would be such a big deal. Not so much technical, mostly physical, getting all the wires terminated in the right area and finding space for the converter and solar controller. All this will be under the [front] bed. The wiring includes roof PV panels and portable panels.

12V buss.jpg Views: 33 Size: 266.4 KB ID: 413656" style="margin: 2px" />

[Zeppelinium]

The shell is reasonably reinforced for hanging overhead cabinets from the front dome to the bath partitions. Under the front dome and bath dome, however there are no stringers or ribs. I like to hang cabinets in the domes (which are probably strong enough to support cabinets), so while I have the skins out I add reinforcing structure between the shell and inner skin.

In the bath, I cut away the come so I can get at the wiring for the marker lights and provide access for adding small ribs and a new stringer. When the cabinet is put in place, the seams will be completely hidden. Here's the big cut:



The 7" ribs will support the cabinet at it's interior partitions and the 24" stringer will support a 6" wide piece of sheet aluminum for both support and to provide a join line for the reattachment of the piece of dome.



One thing to note is the shape of the stringer. The rear shell in this area has a compound curve, so the stringer needs to fit the contour. It's impossible to curve a Z-extrusion to fit, so curving an L-extrusion (about 1/8" over 24") fits tight. If you don't do this, the shell will dimple at the ends of the stringer. So the stringer is made up of two curved L-extrusions and a piece of flat sheet.

[Zeppelinium]

Per the previous post, I added one stringer under the front dome. I fabricated this dome years ago and am finally at the point I can install it. My big concern has been, how tight does the new aluminum dome fit the contour of the shell? In order to put in a stringer, I needed it to provide a constant 1-3/4" gap to the shell. When I made it, I had glued pink foam blocks to the shell so I could push the panels into place with the intended gap.



Viola, it appears to fit! The good thing about the front shell is that it is flat (in the center) up 16" from the window. So this stringer was a piece of cake.



The stringer between the shell and inner skin will provide more than enough strength to support a moderately heavy wooden cabinet. The rivet line for the stringer will be brazier rivets, so they will have the same vintage appearance as the rest of the exterior.

[Aerowood]

Wow, you have been busy. But two tractors, a John Deer and a Kubota.

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[Zeppelinium]

In between mechanical work, I'm thinking about the electronics. Up in post #173, on the right, just above the converter, you can see a small red unit. That's my battery current monitor, 0-50 amps, one for each battery. This is overkill, since I'll never use more than 20 amps, but the smaller sensors, say 0-30 amps, don't look like they can handle even 5 amps. The bigger units are OK, since they provide 0.1 amp precision (also, about +/- 0.1 amp accuracy) in conjunction with the 12-bit A-D converter in an Arduino processor. Here's a close view of the units in a printed mounting plate.



I'm also working on a tilt sensor (all the ones I find on the web have terrible reviews). This little unit provides about 0.15 degrees precision (that's about 1/16th inch over 4'). I find that if the Airstream is level to about 1/4" over 4', it's great. A half inch over 4' is tolerable. Anyway, this device can provide about 3x the precision needed. The objective is to have a remote display in the tow vehicle so that when I pull into a boondocking site, I'll know if the terrain is level enough that my leveler blocks can achieve a "perfect" level.



Meanwhile, the Arduino will also have an LCD panel with the fridge temperatures, outside air, and inside air (also running the heater or A/C). It could also be the tank monitor, but I like the SeeLevel for that.

This all my look like more overkill, but the thing to remember is that when you have your inside skins off, get all the wires for the sensors installed! And that's not all. Don't forget the solar controller may have external control heads, there's radio and TV coax, front and rear speakers, the SeeLevel has wires to each tank (and the propane), the Sirius/XM antenna on the roof, the roof solar panels, external party lights, manual control of the front and rear upper marker lights (hey, when it's time to party you need to advertise ), etc. Pretty soon you begin to think your simple Airstream isn't really all that simple.

[Aerowood]

We'd never over do something

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[Zeppelinium]

OK, got two 100w Renogy panels connected in series, bright sun here at 11:30. I'm feeding an Epever Tracer MPPT controller with the MT50 remote panel. The PV panels are not quite aimed at the sun, maybe 20° off.

The MT50 is showing 40v/4.9A from the panels and 14.5v/9.6A into the batteries. My independent battery current data shows about 8.6A total. I think there is a lot of measurement error going on here, or the Epever is losing about 30% in the conversion process. I don't think so. I'll need to take more than a snapshot of data in order to see what I believe.

Just took another look and now the in/out differs by only 2W. I need to discharge the batteries maybe 30% and take data over an hour or so.

[57Vintage]

Were did you source the components for your level sensor?

thanks Harold

[Zeppelinium]

Originally Posted by 57Vintage

Where did you source the components for your level sensor?

Banggood.com
MPU 6050
5-pack for about $11
Arduino Pro Mini out of my junk box

I just monitored the output via the serial monitor in the Arduino IDE (a running average over 20 samples--filtered).