Do you live in the Houston area?

[Shiloh]

Do you need something to do?

Do you know about restoring vintage Airstream trailers?

Do you want to help out a poor college student?

If you answered yes to all these questions please PM me

Sorry if this is another cry for help like all the new people post on here. I just bought this trailer and it is not in the condition that I was told it was in. I need to be able to live in this thing by the end of the summer, and my plan was to do as many repairs as I could myself and maybe hire local people to help me out when I needed it. Well as it turns out there is a lot more wrong with it than I was told and I have somewhere between very little and no idea what I am doing. Im willing to work on it and do what ever it takes, I just have no idea what to do. I spent almost all my money on the trailer, but I am willing to pay something reasonable. Let me know

[carnegie1935]

You are in the right place to get answers on how to do your repairs. You do need to be more specific as what your problems effect. Pictures are always good. WE like pictures

What are your plans for the trailer ? Will you be traveling in it a lot or will you have it at a park as housing. Safety issues need to be fixed either way.

Plumbing and electric issues should be primary. Axels and cosmetic changes can be done later. Do the appliances work ?

Post specific problems and you will get some responses. This site is full of helpful people that share a vast amount of knowlege.

I have been helped a lot by seaching and reading. Good luck and WELCOME to the air forums family

Kay

[mimiandrews]

Start with easy stuff. How are your water lines? The worst you'll get working with water is wet--not a bad place to be in a Houston summer.

Plumbing is easy these days. Old, damaged copper water pipe is best replaced with PEX--go down to your local big box home improvement store, or a good hardware store and start asking questions. Plastic pipe, push-on fittings that will join PEX to copper, if needed--great stuff is available these days.

All the water lines in an Airstream are above floor level. If anything looks swollen or stretched, then it has frozen and probably needs to be replaced. Ours had major leaks the PO forgot to mention. Now it has all PEX and is in good shape.

Drain lines are usually something plastic that you can glue together. Parts also available as above.

Burrow around under the furniture until you've found and inspected all the water lines you can see. They're usually out near the very edge of the trailer at floor level. if there are no visible split lines, put a shutoff valve in the hose near your trailer so you can turn off the water quickly if it leaks, then hook it up and see where it goes.

Whatever you do, draw a diagram of how it is before you take it apart. Photos are good also. Much easier than trying to remember how it was.

Get someone to help with electric until you learn the basics. Definitely the same with propane. Neither is really difficult, but both will bite you if you blunder.

Lots of help is available here on the forums. I agree with carnegie1935 that you need to be specific.

Best of luck!

[Shiloh]

Attachment 105645

This is my main concern. Its the back end under the bathroom and it looks like the body is pulling away from the frame.



Here is a picture from the back (sorry its not very good)



This is also the same area from the side. It looks like there was a support beam type deal coming across and it got ripped off. (I know from experience its pretty easy to scrape it back here)



This is the next beam up. It seems like it may be bulging a little, but not much...?



Here is some more of the belly. looks good to me? What do yall think??



I have no idea what this is for, but it is causing a leak into the closet. it looks like its made of pvc pipe :/



This is my second biggest concern. There are rotten spots in the floor. i have dug out a couple spots with a screwdriver and the floor underneath so far doesnt seem rotten. As far as I can tell maybe 5% of the floor has this problem. Can I just fill it in with wood putty and put laminate over the top? I dont want to rig it up so it will have to be fixed again in a year, but my resources are pretty limited. I cant gut the whole trailer replace the floor and put everything back.


I plan on living in it while I go to school so it will be parked most of the time.

The fridge and AC are also broken and I have no idea how to describe what is wrong with them.

Hope all the pictures go up right thanks yall

[mimiandrews]

The item shown in picture #5 is a vent for the drain side of your plumbing system. The old ones are plastic, and leak rainwater when they get old and sun damaged. Replacements just like the old ones are available from Vintage Trailer Supply. New-style metal ones from Inland RV. Andy at Inland RV is a fountain of knowlege on Airstreams, and he participates in the forums.

Floor repair looks like it needs a penetrating epoxy to stabilize the rotten areas before any putty is applied. Two products on the market called Git Rot and Rot Doctor. I've tried Git Rot (from Cabelas) and it worked, but it's pricey. Found some info on the internet at
www.epoxyproducts.com/penetrating4u.html
that might result in a less expensive product, but haven't had time to try it.

The frame issues are 'way beyond my expertise. There are others on here who have handled those, or you can call Andy.

[FlashJim]

I sent you a PM