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Old 05-22-2017, 05:50 PM   #1
Freed
 
1977 31' Sovereign
Jonesboro , Georgia
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Question Gutted airstream does not have wall panels

Hi, I am investing in a gutted airstream that does not have the wall skins. Please recommend a replacement material.
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Old 05-22-2017, 07:49 PM   #2
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1959 26' Overlander
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Welcome to the forums.

The interior of the Airstream is structural, so you want a good strong material. I think the appropriate material is 3003H14, .032 thickness found at this link. I would call to be sure. The 3003 is best if you plan on painting the aluminum. Get the 2024T3 Alclad if you want a polished interior.

You'll find that the end caps are going to be a challenge to get the curve right. Some people have made the end caps out of 1/8" baltic birch plywood. Others have done it with aluminum. If you need pre-cut aluminum, I think that Colin Hyde Trailer Restorations was making kits.

This forum has so many posts that it is daunting to find answers. Even though some of these threads are older, you may want to start your homework http://www.airforums.com/forums/f44/...ons-35399.html.

You didn't mention what trailer you have. You may also want to click on the Forums Tab, then select Trailers and find the subsection for your year and model. When you're ready, start your own thread in that model year -- you should find fellow owners to be quite helpful.

Good luck!
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Old 05-22-2017, 10:22 PM   #3
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Not to big a deal. You can buy aluminum in sheets or you can do it in wood sheets. While the interior skins do provide some structural support, its not as critical as some make it out to be- as evidence of pop rivets to secure. So don't be afraid of no interior skins, many replace them anyway. Have fun[emoji106][emoji1]
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Old 05-22-2017, 10:28 PM   #4
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1974 31' Sovereign
1979 23' Safari
Wayland , New York
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I redid all mine with 5052-H32 .032" thick. Probably could have used .025" thick but I like the thicker material for attaching things to. Wasn't to tough to work with, but having the old skins to use as templatescsure helped.
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Old 05-23-2017, 09:28 AM   #5
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1973 21' Globetrotter
Houston , Texas
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Welcome to the forums!

I hope you got this aborted project for a give-away price. If you haven't made the purchase yet, I would run from it. Replacing all the interior skins is a time consuming project even if you have the originals as templates. Having to make them from scratch will be painful.

All that said, I would second the use of .032" 5052. Now clear coating it so that every finger print doesn't become permanent is ayet another headache.

good luck!
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Old 05-23-2017, 10:45 PM   #6
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1974 31' Sovereign
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If you're near a big city and can find a good metal supply place they may also have a sheet metal shear. I bought several (I think 7 for the interior) 4x12 foot sheets and for a small cost they sheared them for me. I drew out the sheets on paper with how I wanted them cut to get the pieces I wanted out of each sheet. This made things much easier. Since the trailer was longer than 12' I obviously ended up with some seams but was able to place them where they wouldn't be very noticeable and overlapped so looking down the trailer the forward sheet covered the rear sheet do it helped hide the seam. Since I knew I was going to paint the interior I didn't worry about small scratches. Used the old sheets as templates and simply traced and used a jig saw to cut curves for windows, wheel wells, etc. without the old sheets you'll have a tougher time fitting around windows and such. I'd recommend remove window screens and hardware, cleco sheets in place, then trace the window from outside then cut. Same with the door. If you don't have them yet you'll need about 100x 1/8" cleco and a cleco wrench. Extra sets of hands helps!
Other things that come in handy, lots of different size hole saws, dremmel tool with cut off wheels, power hand sheer(cheap at HF), lots of new sharp 1/8" drill bits.
With the old sheets as templates I had new ones done in 3 full days. Probably would have taken 7 full days without them.
When the metal place got the sheets they came sandwiched in 4x12 pieces of cardboard, if yours can save some for you they could make easy work at making some templates to transfer to metal.
It's also possible to get longer rolls but not necessarily to the width you'll want, requiring cutting down by hand.
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Old 05-25-2017, 07:44 PM   #7
Freed
 
1977 31' Sovereign
Jonesboro , Georgia
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Thank you, I am thinking of using ship lap
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Old 05-26-2017, 12:08 PM   #8
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1974 31' Sovereign
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Ship lap would look cool. It it's going to be a lot of weight. Look out for weight limits on your axles.
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Old 05-28-2017, 08:05 AM   #9
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Note: the overlap amount is typically not an issue, example the rear or front enc cap can be accomplished with rectangular parts.
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Old 05-28-2017, 10:30 PM   #10
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1974 31' Sovereign
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sgschwend View Post
Note: the overlap amount is typically not an issue, example the rear or front enc cap can be accomplished with rectangular parts.
The overlapni mentioned was from the fact that the interior sheets in an AS usually run from end to end. I had to have seams with the shorter pieces but hid them fairly well. Just about all the interior pieces can be done with rectangles. The bottom concave curves on the end have to be trimmed though due to the flooor.
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Old 05-29-2017, 07:13 AM   #11
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1981 31' Excella II
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The interior skins is not as big of a structural issue as we have been lead to believe. It is a royal pain in the ass to replace all that. I don't think a gutted trailer is a deal unless you plan to cut it up and make a food trailer out of it. A lot of engineering went into these things and it takes time to figure out how to re-engineer all the systems that were torn out. Trust me, I am an engineer. It is hard enough getting stuff to work like it was supposed to and improve a few systems that had issues in the first place. Stripped trailers are an aborted project that they want you to pay for their mistakes.

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