Tale of a '55 FC Whale Reno

[Bubba L]

I ran the LP gas lines down the belly. I used a 1/2" L copper trunk line then tee'd off with 3/8" and a valve to each appliance. I use double flares for the connections and am protecting the lines using blue plastic corrugated tubing and the smaller lines with black rubber hose. Notice, in the first photo, my spare tire fits in the tire rack.



Stephanie finished the mattress. We ordered 4" medium density foam and topped it with 2" softer foam, cut a curve using an electric knife, then made a zippered cover. We also put a mirror on the sliding bath door using the original art deco clips.


Polishing also continues. goshawks00, that was good advice about using the acetone as a cleaner; it does a good job. Any more polishing advice? I found that if I set the speed at 3500 rpm using the black bar, I was leaving faint brown shadows that I suspect were the polish being burnt into the metal. Too bad I didn't figure that out until I was 1/2 done.

[Jeremy9107]

Bubba. All well done. Does the Acetone work to clean up the inside skins too? I took the vinyl off my skins and have some lingering adhesive that is stubborn. Also curious to know how you made the mattress covers considering the curved corner.

[steinVT]

Originally Posted by Jeremy9107

Also curious to know how you made the mattress covers considering the curved corner.

Bubba, we would like to know too. Lynne has been toying with the idea of sewing our own upholstery covers. Maybe you could ask Stephanie to post a couple of tips?

A couple of Questions:

• How were the panels laid out? Top, bottom and sides?
• How did panel size compare to foam size?
• Did you using piping everywhere?
• Did you cover the foam with polyester batting? How was it secured?
• Did you close with zippers or Velcro?
• Did you baste(?) the internal edges?
• What material did you use for the mattress covers?

Your cushions and mattress covers turned out great.
Thanks, Mark

[Bubba L]

Originally Posted by Jeremy9107

Bubba. All well done. Does the Acetone work to clean up the inside skins too? I took the vinyl off my skins and have some lingering adhesive that is stubborn. Also curious to know how you made the mattress covers considering the curved corner.

Jeremy, on the 66 the interior walls had the original vinyl that wasn’t in too good of shape. We removed the vinyl by brushing a section with Citristrip and covering with some poly to retard the drying time. If there was any residual glue left, which was minimal, we may have just touched up with Citristrip. There should be some sort of solvent that removes glue. After cleaning, we primed with Kilz Adhesion and used Zolatone Flex roll on.
Concerning the mattress, Stephanie is addressing that subject shortly. Thanks

[Joyflea]

Would like to thank Bubba and his lovely wife for the tour they gave my wife and I of their two projects . WOW , the photos do not show how great of a job they have done . And the polish job his wife did on these two Airstream trailers , well just have to say I need to hire her .
It was great to meet them and have made two new friends.
Thanks , Blue .

[Bubba L]

This is Stephanie..Thanks for the compliments and happy to share. I got most all my information from sailrite.com where they have tons of videos on sewing cushions. It's a real confidence booster and gives lots of tips. I will share my technique, but encourage you to watch their videos. sailrite has the continuous zippers I like to use. They also have a vinyl cushion underlining fabric that is good to use for the cushion bottom.

We order foam from foambymail.com and cut the curves using an electric kitchen knife. We like to get 3 or 4 inches of medium firm foam topped with 2" of soft. We use 3M 77 or Loctite spray glue to bind the foams together. The thicker the medium foam is, the harder it gets.

I did not use polyester batting on the Naugahyde cushions, but did on the cushions in our '66. I use the spray glue to attach the batting when I use it.

If you use a 100% polyester fabric, you can cut it with a soldering iron which fuses the ends. The Naugahyde fabric does not need basting. For the mattress material, I did baste the ends because it frayed a great deal. For the mattress top and sides, I used cozypure.com's DeVINE Organic Cotton Stretch knit by the yard fabric, but you can google mattress ticking fabric too. I used the sailrite cushion underlining fabric for the bottom of the cushions and mattress.

I just used piping on the top of the cushions and none on the mattress. It's totally your choice.

Cutting:
For all cushions, I use a 3/8" seam allowance. If you want tighter cushions, use 1/2".
Top and bottom panels: The top and bottom panels are cut to the exact size of the foam. Round the corners a bit instead of having a 90 degree especially if using piping.
Zipper Panel: I always use zippers on the cushions and generally extend the zipper down the back and 6" or more down another side (the larger the cushion, the more I extend down the other sides to make it easier to stuff). If you extend the zipper panel to another side, adjust panel sizes accordingly.
For the zipper panel, I cut it the exact length of the cushion side (ie no seam allowance between zipper panels and boxing panels). The width of the zipper panel is the height of the cushion + 1/2" + width of zipper .
Boxing: For the side boxing panels that do not contain a zipper, it is cut the length of the cushion side x the width of the cushion + 1/2". Sometimes I will cut one of the boxing panels a little longer if I want to make a pocket for the zipper slider to hide.

Construction (see sailrite videos):
If piping is used, sew it to the top (and bottom if applicable) panel first. Clip the curves to make it lie flatter. I have found quilting/sewing clips are wonderful to use to hold fabrics together instead of pins. As a bonus, I use the clips later when camping to attach string lights to the awning.
Make the zipper panel by folding in half, right sides together, and basting from the folded edge 1/2 the zipper width the entire length of the panel. You will then cut the fold open so that when it lies flat it is the width of the zipper. Sailrite tells you to sew the zipper on from the back; I find I have to sew it from the right side to make a prettier seam.
Sew all boxing/zipper plaques together leaving one of zipper plaque ends open.
Starting with the open zipper end, use clips to clip the zipper/boxing length to the top (right sides together). At the end, I overlap excess boxing fabric under the zipper to create a pocket. Sew together.
Add the zipper slider (if you have a pocket, add the slider from the opposite end so that the zipper slider will be at the pocket end when closed).
Do the same for the bottom, but make sure the zipper is opened so that you can turn the fabric to the right side when done.

It's not hard, just cumbersome.
Good luck and if you have any more questions, let me know.
Stephanie

[Bubba L]

Originally Posted by Joyflea

Would like to thank Bubba and his lovely wife for the tour they gave my wife and I of their two projects . WOW , the photos do not show how great of a job they have done . And the polish job his wife did on these two Airstream trailers , well just have to say I need to hire her .
It was great to meet them and have made two new friends.
Thanks , Blue .

Blue, thanks for the kind words. We enjoyed meeting you and Joy as well. I believe that anyone interested in starting a vintage project has the intent of doing the best job they’re capable of doing. It’s a labor of love and therapy. Your vintage Harley is proof of that. Thanks

[56 Flyg Cld]

I found that Goop Off After Paint Stripper works really well. All the best, Bubba looking forward to meet you and see your trailer at Pismo.

[Bubba L]

Originally Posted by 56 Flyg Cld

I found that Goop Off After Paint Stripper works really well. All the best, Bubba looking forward to meet you and see your trailer at Pismo.

Dirk, you are exactly right. I had forgotten about Goof Off. It’ll cut through just about any sticky stuff.
Jeremy, there you have it. GO is the answer for the residual.

[steinVT]

Wow, Stephanie. Thanks so much for taking the time to lay out the instructions with such detail. I have watched a bunch of those videos as well, but having your step by step is priceless.

We purchased enough upholstery fabric to actually cover the cushions and the mattresses front and back. Didn't really think about using the ticking or underlining fabric. Do you think that is a mistake?

My plan now is to build a practice cushion cover using some leftover upholstery fabric from another project and so I am sure that will generate some more questions.

Thanks again, Mark

[Bubba L]

Originally Posted by steinVT

Wow, Stephanie. Thanks so much for taking the time to lay out the instructions with such detail. I have watched a bunch of those videos as well, but having your step by step is priceless.

We purchased enough upholstery fabric to actually cover the cushions and the mattresses front and back. Didn't really think about using the ticking or underlining fabric. Do you think that is a mistake?

My plan now is to build a practice cushion cover using some leftover upholstery fabric from another project and so I am sure that will generate some more questions.

Thanks again, Mark

Hi Mark,

The only reason I used the underlining fabric is because 1) the Naugahyde/vinyl doesn't breath and I wanted air to escape instead of feeling like you were sitting on a ball and 2) the underlining was cheaper than the Naugahyde and ticking and 3) the underlining grips more than fabric so the cushions don't slide around as much.
It it definitely fine to use your fabric throughout - that's what I did in our first trailer. It is an excellent idea to make the practice cushion.
Good luck and let me know how it goes!
Stephanie

[Bubba L]

We converted the Humphrey gas light to 12v LED. We found if we removed some of the gas parts, we could screw on a candelabra socket. In the third photo, you can see where we discretely hid a switch/button on the underside of the overhead locker. The globe came from VTS.


We had the original Swing-A-Way can opener that we cleaned up and installed.

And we finally got the sink plumbed. We had the original faucet, but pieces were so frozen that we finally gave up and opted for a new one that looked pretty close to the original.


We were able to test the on demand hot water heater and it works great (at least for the whole minute we tested it). It's a PrecisionTemp and vents through the belly.

Still pondering the bath.

[TouringDan]

An Argosy we used to own had a propane lamp. It was nice in cool weather, but the last thing you want in warm weather. I really like your led modification. It makes it useful all the time.

Dan

[dbj216]

Holy cow, where have I been all these months. I found your project thread quite by accident as it was on the top of the "new posts" search. I miss so much good stuff on Airstream Forums.

You have built one fantastic 55 whale tail. It is beautiful. I wanna see it some day.

I will pay closer attention to your thread now that I have subscribed.

David

[Bubba L]

David, thanks for the compliment. As you well know, it’s a long road from shell off to completion. We are close.

[Bubba L]

Stephanie does the electric and finally got it charted. We have a Progressive Dynamics 4045 (from bestconverter.com) which includes the converter, charger, AC distribution and DC fuse panel. Here is a diagram of how our AC and DC are configured using the PD4045.

We are using Blue Sea fuse block terminals on the battery for protection.

We were able to test the 12v system without a battery by having the PD4045's negative connected to the negative bus bar. Now we have an Interstate AGM GPL-27T 12 Volt, 100 Ampere Hour Deep Cycle battery from bestconverter.com connected.

All our wire was tinned marine wire from tinnedmarinewire.com. We also used their crimp/heat shrink connectors and are very pleased with them.

As you can see, we tend to avoid daisy chaining lines as much as possible so that one item doesn't bring everything connected down. Makes for more wiring, but that's ok.

We tested the fridge on DC today and it did fine.
Still no bath sink or shower pan.

[goshawks00]

Something I may have mentioned or maybe not, and it may be to late. When running your wiring at completion, make a very complete photo log of where all your wiring is, so down the road when drilling you will know exactly where every thing is at. BTW looks right to me congrats

[Bubba L]

Originally Posted by goshawks00

Something I may have mentioned or maybe not, and it may be to late. When running your wiring at completion, make a very complete photo log of where all your wiring is, so down the road when drilling you will know exactly where every thing is at. BTW looks right to me congrats

Thanks. We did make a photo log during the insulation phase. Also, I drew elevation drawings of the front, rear, curb and street where we color coded the wiring. You are right in pointing this out. Having a wiring location log is worth the effort for future owners and modifications.

[dbj216]

Stephanie does the sewing, Stephanie does the electrical. It sounds like she is the skill trades on the job.

Great electrical planning, and documentation. I did label the wires radiating from my fuse panel, but I didn't take interior skins down so I don't know where the run inside the trailer.

I have left signage under the trailer to identify the waste water tanks, and a caution "Don't Drill Here". There is only an inch between my tanks and the belly pan.

David

[Bubba L]

Originally Posted by dbj216

Stephanie does the sewing, Stephanie does the electrical. It sounds like she is the skill trades on the job.

Great electrical planning, and documentation. I did label the wires radiating from my fuse panel, but I didn't take interior skins down so I don't know where the run inside the trailer.

I have left signage under the trailer to identify the waste water tanks, and a caution "Don't Drill Here". There is only an inch between my tanks and the belly pan.

David

I did get her a new sewing machine for Christmas and a nice pair of electrical crimpers. Teamwork, that’s part of the fun. She does a great job and enjoys it.