hello all, I'm a noob to the whole airstream world and just recently purchased an 62 globetrotter. I'm now in process of removing everything from the interior so I can replace the floors and repaint the interior. I guess my question is two fold.
1. What's the best way to remove the interior paint?
2. What's the best way to remove rivets? where should I buy new ones? and how many should I order? what's the best (not super expensive) rivet gun?
3. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed, what did I get myself into? how long is this going to take to
A. replace the floor.
B. strip out all the paint.
C. rewire for updated electric systems?
Sorry for all the questions, I really appreciate the help
Bobolo, welcome to the forum and congradulations on your purchase!
This is a great forum with a volume of knowledge. You have a lot of good questions that have been answered many times. If you go to the search key above, type in key names of what you are searching for, and you'll be surprised at all the threads already started with the same questions.
You can also go to the forum key, scroll down to Airstream Restoration, Repairs & Parts Forum, then click on the one of the five categories of your choice. All threads will appear and you'll have a field day. You can always add your own comments and concerns to old threads started 2 years ago, it will make that thread alive again for a day until no more posts are made.
Good luck, have fun with your search,
Gail
__________________
Crazy Banker & Wonderful Nurse
2 Beautiful daughters
1 AS named Daisy WBCCI #2905-NEU
There are indeed lots of answers to your questions in these forums. A couple of quick answers might help though:
1.) Interior rivits are most easily removed by drilling them out. They typically are 1/8" diameter rivits so use a 1/8" diameter drill bit. Once in a great while you will find one that starts to spin and won't let you drill it out. For those I suggest you use a straight bladed paint scraper and a hammer to just chop them off. The type of scraper I mean looks like an over-size putty knife with a blade that is a bit thicker. The blade is tapered and looks a bit like a chisel on the end. It pretty easily chops off stuborn rivits. Check out the following web site for a picture of what one looks like. I bought mine at Home Depot.
2.) The interior skins are held on with garden variety pop-rivits that you can get at most any hardware store and at places like Lowes and Home Depot. Look for aluminum ones 1/8" in diameter. Typically you will need medium length ones that can handle a total material thickness of perhaps 1/4".
3.) Depending on how many rivits you have to replace you can use just a hand-held rivit tool of the type available at the same place you find your rivits. If you have a lot of rivits to do and if you have an air compressor available I suggest you consider buying an air-powered rivit gun. I consider that to be one of the best tool purchases I have made in my restoration process. Check out the following one at Harbor Freight:
Right now they are showing it at $24.99 which is the best price I have seen on the item. I think I paid $29 something. A little note on Harbor Freight pricing - if they happen to have a store in your area print out a copy of the internet sale price and take it in with you. Sometimes the in-store price is not the same as the sale price but they will honor the internet price.
4.) Regarding floor replacement are you talking about the finish floor or the actual sub-floor?
5.) What paint are you thinking of striping out?
6.) Your wiring might not be in that bad of a condition. My AS is a 1973 so I don't know what yours is like but the bulk of my wiring is in good shape. I mostly need to replace some of the fixtures and the converter but not things that are inside the walls.
I hope this gives you a head start. Have fun with your retoration...
Reference to Malcolm's comment concerning your wiring...
I completely agree.
Last year, when I was looking over the wiring on my 64GT, what I found was wiring that's appears to be based on "house wiring". Other then it being dated, it was in excellent condition.
Let's hope you find the same for your unit.
Your interest in stripping the interior paint raises one issue that I'm not familiar with as it relates to the 62GT. On the 64GT, the interior end-caps are formed composite fiberglass and, if your's are the same..I would be very cautious about what type of paint stripper I used on it.
In my case, after cleaning the smoker's stain off, I just painted over the old with excellent results.
What kind of condition is the axle in and, do you still have the original split rim steel wheels? "Save your hubcaps if you have them"...lol
Wishing you all the best in your project`
Any pre-project pictures of your 62GT to share?
ciao
53FC
Thanks sooo much for the responces, your advice is really helping point me in the right direction. Malconium I'm going to take a trip over to HF today to pick-up those tools, thanks..
Last year, when I was looking over the wiring on my 64GT, what I found was wiring that's appears to be based on "house wiring". Other then it being dated, it was in excellent condition.
Let's hope you find the same for your unit.
What exactly does dated mean, I only have two prong plugs and I belive they are only 110 volt, Should I not try to update them it 120V?
Quote:
Your interest in stripping the interior paint raises one issue that I'm not familiar with as it relates to the 62GT. On the 64GT, the interior end-caps are formed composite fiberglass and, if your's are the same..I would be very cautious about what type of paint stripper I used on it.
In my case, after cleaning the smoker's stain off, I just painted over the old with excellent results.
I'm hopeing to get a CCD type feel (exposed aluminum) to the interior. I think that's what under the paint, and I'm a little bit weary about painting again on top of what already looks to be 3 prior paint jobs.
Quote:
What kind of condition is the axle in and, do you still have the original split rim steel wheels? "Save your hubcaps if you have them"...lol
Wishing you all the best in your project`
I believe the Axles to-be in good condition, when I bought the a 62Gt I took it to northdallas rv and got the LP and wheels worked on, and I did keep the hubcaps
Quote:
Any pre-project pictures of your 62GT to share?
ciao
53FC
I just purchased a new digital camera I should have pictures soon.
I hope that answered all questions I really appreciate the feedback, by the way If anyone in the Garland/Plano/Dallas area is intrested in helping me take off my shell I'd really appreciate it, just thought I'd throw it out there.
I think if you read the post carefully you will find that it says that anything larger than a 1/8" drill bit is too big for a 1/8" rivit. Using a 1/8" drill bit to drill out 1/8" rivits that you will replace with new 1/8" rivits should be just fine. The new rivits that I have been putting in fit nice and snugly into the 1/8" holes that I have, including the few entirely new holes that I have drilled.
110v and 120v are actually the same. Just a difference in the use of terms. If you have just two prong plugs then you might want to replace them with three prong grounded outlets. To do that you could just add a bare copper ground wire to what is already there rather than taking out all the 110/120v wiring (providing it is in OK shape). The ground wire does not need to be insulated from other things. You might also have to connect a ground wire from your main panel to the frame of your trailer if that has not already been done. The 110/120v circuitry is basically just like what you would find in a house. Any residential electrician could do the work for you if you do not feel comfortable with it yourself. There was a recent post that pointed to an excellant article about RV electrical systems you might want to take a look at.
I personally think you will have a terrible time getting the aluminum stripped back to absolutely bare aluminum for the CCD look. I may be wrong but I don't think it was originally bare aluminum for your rig. Some people on the forums have added a new layer of aluminum on top of the existing layer instead with good results. Try some searching using the search button at the top of the forums page. If you can find anything maybe I can help track down some of the postings for you.
Are you really in Polson, MT. I am in Canyon Creek, MT(outside Helena) and have just started restoring my 1962 globetrotter as well. I belive the front and rear inside panels are fiberglass and not al at all.
I personally think you will have a terrible time getting the aluminum stripped back to absolutely bare aluminum for the CCD look. I may be wrong but I don't think it was originally bare aluminum for your rig. Some people on the forums have added a new layer of aluminum on top of the existing layer instead with good results.
Another way to solve this is to just replace the aluminum. This weekend we will be replacing most of the kitchen and dinette interior walls of Project Vintage Thunder with new aluminum, to get that new CCD look. I'll bet the new aluminum replacement takes a LOT less time than trying to strip the original walls, although it is admittedly more expensive.
It's really not that hard (he said confidently without having done it before). Drill out the old pop rivets, use the old sheet as a template for the new aluminum, cut to match with electric nibbler, drill and rivet the new sheet in place. I'd much rather do that than fuss with toxic chemicals and scrub brushes for a few weekends.
Quick Links
You can always add your own comments and concerns to old threads started 2 years ago, it will make that thread alive again for a day until no more posts are made.
Drill out the old pop rivets, use the old sheet as a template for the new aluminum, cut to match with electric nibbler, drill and rivet the new sheet in place. I'd much rather do that than fuss with toxic chemicals and scrub brushes for a few weekends.
Linear Mode
