I bought my 1976 31" Sovereign International on June 24, 2010 about two miles from my home.
It's going to be a work in progress. I'll uncover, discover, and recover. It has some old leaks. I suspect the TV antenna and the skylights. I believe the leakage is minimal but I'll see.
We began by removing the living area builtins.
sofa out
Both sofas out along with the mickey mouse corner table and the finger pinch table.
Before removing the rotted floor sections under the window and by the door, I'll remove those nice blue floor tiles.
They appear to be original because the floor is like new under the tiles and the tiles go under the builtins. They come up like they were never glued with a heat gun.
The whole tile comes up in one piece. Unfortunately the glue stays down and stays sticky. Some comes up with Krud Kutter.
I removed the drapes. The end caps come off and there's a screw in the bottom track to remove and the drapes just run out the end.
It's going to be a work in progress. I'll uncover, discover, and recover. It has some old leaks. I suspect the TV antenna and the skylights. I believe the leakage is minimal but I'll see.
We began by removing the living area builtins.
sofa out
Both sofas out along with the mickey mouse corner table and the finger pinch table.
Before removing the rotted floor sections under the window and by the door, I'll remove those nice blue floor tiles.
They appear to be original because the floor is like new under the tiles and the tiles go under the builtins. They come up like they were never glued with a heat gun.
The whole tile comes up in one piece. Unfortunately the glue stays down and stays sticky. Some comes up with Krud Kutter.
I removed the drapes. The end caps come off and there's a screw in the bottom track to remove and the drapes just run out the end.
Dent repair using load jacks
Posted 04-29-2011 at 04:17 PM by Splitrock
Today I removed the inside end cap to expose the rear panel dent that came with the trailer. It wasn't near as bad of a job as I had imagined. I got it down by myself with no problems.
I'll take advantage of the opportunity to reseal the inside seams and rivets that I've exposed.
Below, the dent is visible.
I have had the good fortune to have a truck company owner for a neighbor for over 20 years. He's gone now and his widow sold me a few of the load stabilizer jacks stored in the shop. Those have come in handy binding loads in my freight trailer and in this Airstream project. I used one jack to lift the old air conditioner out of it's hole and now I am using two jacks to push a basketball sized tree fall dent out of one end panel.
There was a shadow of a seam that I rolled out with a laminator's end cap roller. It worked pretty well. The roller had a radius side that allowed my rolling to stay soft on the edge.
The original view of the dent . . .
The dent pushed out with the jacks. I'm gonna leave those jacks under pressure a few days.
I'm pretty happy with the way it pushed out. A casual observer wouldn't ever know there was a dent there. I decided I'd better get this done before I move on to finishing off the interior.
I'll take advantage of the opportunity to reseal the inside seams and rivets that I've exposed.
Below, the dent is visible.
I have had the good fortune to have a truck company owner for a neighbor for over 20 years. He's gone now and his widow sold me a few of the load stabilizer jacks stored in the shop. Those have come in handy binding loads in my freight trailer and in this Airstream project. I used one jack to lift the old air conditioner out of it's hole and now I am using two jacks to push a basketball sized tree fall dent out of one end panel.
There was a shadow of a seam that I rolled out with a laminator's end cap roller. It worked pretty well. The roller had a radius side that allowed my rolling to stay soft on the edge.
The original view of the dent . . .
The dent pushed out with the jacks. I'm gonna leave those jacks under pressure a few days.
I'm pretty happy with the way it pushed out. A casual observer wouldn't ever know there was a dent there. I decided I'd better get this done before I move on to finishing off the interior.
Total Comments 2
Comments
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Splitrock: I enjoyed this entry on your blog. It looks like you have an Airstream that was painted white on top, or maybe that is just how your clearcoat is breaking down. I would be interested in knowing how you remove that top finish. While I was replacing a broken window, I gave a small area some treatment with aircraft grade paint remover, and it worked pretty well, but it is very expensive. I have a 68 Trade Wind, mostly working on the interior for a couple of years now as time permits. I want to work on the exterior, it's not getting any better the longer I wait! :-)Posted 10-21-2011 at 08:43 AM by IndyAnne 
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Hi Anne,
The top of my trailer is just showing oxidized aluminum where the original clearcoat peeled away. I haven't started the outside stripping and polishing yet. I don't know how to do it. I have quite a bit left to do inside. I have the bed pedestal and side tables to build and I need to install a sofa, recliner, curtains/blinds, and things like televisions and radios:-)
Outside I need to strip, polish, and install new fabric on the awning.
GaryPosted 10-21-2011 at 02:56 PM by Splitrock
