Scrape crunch rip, ouch, parking accident, repair suggestions?

[jacarape]

Hi Airheads,

I did some decent damage parking, ripped off the rear arm of the awning, pulled the rivets out, scrapped the side and dented the corner of the AS when the arm came off cutting a corner to park in a really tight place.

Does the forum members have suggestions for repair? Ouch, this is going to hurt. Metal work, body work, and now I'm homeless!

Parked in Albuquerque, is there a shop in the area that can me back on the road?

jac

[pmclemore]

Sorry, Jac, to hear of your scrape. All I can offer is some sympathy karma. There are some good NM folks on the board, however.

Pat

[Sixty3TW4US]

That's one of my fears. You might post some pic's to help in the repair advise. I hope all turns out ok.

[millvalleyca]

Originally Posted by jacarape

Hi Airheads,

I did some decent damage parking, ripped off the rear arm of the awning, pulled the rivets out, scrapped the side and dented the corner of the AS when the arm came off cutting a corner to park in a really tight place.

Does the forum members have suggestions for repair? Ouch, this is going to hurt. Metal work, body work, and now I'm homeless!

Parked in Albuquerque, is there a shop in the area that can me back on the road?

jac

Hey Jac
I did the same thing to our new 2007 last year.
We didn't know we did it until we stopped for gas. Clipped the corner of our fence on our way out.
Our insurance covered the damage (great experience with American Modern)
We took it to the dealer to have the 7,000.00 repair done and instead traded it in for a 2008!
Good luck with your repair.
Dennis

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by jacarape

Hi Airheads,

I did some decent damage parking, ripped off the rear arm of the awning, pulled the rivets out, scrapped the side and dented the corner of the AS when the arm came off cutting a corner to park in a really tight place.

Does the forum members have suggestions for repair? Ouch, this is going to hurt. Metal work, body work, and now I'm homeless!

Parked in Albuquerque, is there a shop in the area that can me back on the road?

jac

Not all Airstream dealers or Service centers, can handle body repairs properly.

Be extremely careful as to what dealer you may chose.

If they have "ANY" problem writing an estimate, pack up and move on.

Also have that dealer explain to you how they remove "blind" rivets that hold the segments and quarter
panels together. If they cannot do that, pack up and move on, even faster.

Also, ask them how do they seal the sheet metal seams on whatever panel or panels they are replacing.

Vulkem sealer is injected between the metal seams, "before" the rivets are installed.

If they tell you that they seal the seams after the riveting is done, then keep your tow vehicle in gear, and leave.

Replacing sheet metal is not difficult, "IF" you use the proper techniques.

If you wish to come out to California, we can handle the metal repairs quickly and properly.

Andy

[Minnie's Mate]

We had body damage on our trip home from the dealer thanks to a guard rail at the exit of our first campground. We had more body damage on our next camping outing thanks to a deer who ran into the front corner of our three week old Safari.

We took our Airstream back to Jackson Center for the repairs so the metal panels would be "buck" riveted back to match the new of the other panels. It ain't cheap to do it this way. Excluding expenses for two round trips to the factory for drop off and two weeks later for pick-up the bill was $9,700.

Good luck. If you can't find anyone locally, you can see the country and take your home on wheels to JC or to Andy.

[jacarape]

Hey guys thanks for the replies. Man, that crunching sound you hear is your heart sinking. I kept thinking that I wasn't the first person to do this, but still you hate to drive your house into a wall.

Tom, remember the Robin Williams movie where he was moving in and an airplane crashed into it? Kind of comes to mind...

Maybe I'll get lucky and find a good trade.

Thanks for the encouragement folks, I feel a lot better.

michael aka jac

[Pudentane]

Ewe - that hurt I'm sure. I don't have anything to offer but sympathy - I hope your insurance will cover the damage and thanks for posting about it - it helps newbies like me with a warning.

[jerrypeterma]

I know that hurts, but it sounds like you may get to see a little of the good ol'USA to get her fixed.
Good luck and take care
Jerry

[TBRich]

If you can't find anyone there to fix you up, Oasis RV Center, the Tucson AS dealer can make repairs...(800) 658-5863 Talk to Joe Pershing, the owner.

Good Luck!

[Minnie's Mate]

Silvercabin here on the forums just had a similar thing happen to his 23' CCD while on the way back to Florida from the International in Bozeman. He had a planned stop in Jackson Center anyway, so he had them do the repair while he was there. It was a two day repair and he and his wife were able to stay in the trailer at night in the Terraport while the repairs were being made. In his case, they used Olympic rivets so there was no need to remove anything inside. He felt that the Olympic rivets were so close to the originals after they were shaved that you couldn't tell the difference unless you knew to look for them.

[jacarape]

Holiday Trailer in ABQ repaired the damage, incredible price! , wow these things are expensive to fix.

They did an excellent job, and like most people you meet RV'ing, nice people. There were a few ASs there getting dents pounded out, panels replaced, rivets shaved.

You can't really tell that it was ever damaged, excpet the awning works better .

Th etrailer was repaired very well, but I wanted to plug the shop and it's great service. I basically dumped the trailer on the lot,asked them to fix, winterize and store it, and they did an excellent job on a lot of little things I asked them do do. They saved my butt in a pinch, I literally left the lot and jumped on a plane.

[Mike Leary]

Originally Posted by TBRich

If you can't find anyone there to fix you up, Oasis RV Center, the Tucson AS dealer can make repairs...(800) 658-5863 Talk to Joe Pershing, the owner.!

Ditto that, They seem to know their stuff.