Airstream Forums - Blog Entries

090124k - Miscellaneous Repairs

Posted 04-05-2009 at 10:08 PM by chbocca (Toaster Travels)

Tags front window alignment, power off fuses, table support leg, trim strip

While repairing our first accident, took opportunity to complete a few other repairs.

Trim strip. Unbent the trim strip frame on the front shield. Riveted back into place.

Window alignment. Adjusted front-window to be centered against the two side windows. Easy repair.

Power-off fuses. During the removal of interior front panel, the power-off switch shorted. Using our Airstream manual, traced the problem to two 5 amp fuses under the left front seat, where...

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chbocca

Travelin' Style

Posted in Restoration Blogs, Troubles

Views 959 Comments 0 chbocca is offline

090124j - Installing New Bumper

Posted 04-05-2009 at 09:42 PM by chbocca (Toaster Travels)

Tags bumper replacement

This accident was not the first time our bumper was pulled off. Twice before, it's true. In our first year, we backed down the dirt road of our mountain place. We were pretty proud of negotiating the wooded access road (see picture attached).

Unfortunately, on the way back out onto the road, the step-up off the dirt road was too abrupt and the bumper edge caught the asphalt, pulled right off on one side. And again, we did not notice the damage until a neighbor waved us down.
...

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chbocca

Travelin' Style

Posted in Restoration Blogs, Troubles

Views 1115 Comments 0 chbocca is offline

090124i - Installing Interior Aft Panel

Posted 04-05-2009 at 08:33 PM by chbocca (Toaster Travels)

Tags bed, panel installation

Ordered new aluminum sheet from Dan at Out-of-Doors Mart, to replace the sheet we cut out under the bed in the storage area. A 50 x 33 in piece, or about 11 sq ft, which he sold to me for about $88.

The cut was quite three dimensional, so I used remnants from old piece to get line right. Once again, used a paper template first, then a combination of the Dremel with cutting disk and the JILSON SUPERSNIP SHEARS to cut to fit. (Again, next time I’d use Aviator snips for big aluminum sheet...

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chbocca

Travelin' Style

Posted in Restoration Blogs, Troubles

Views 1182 Comments 0 chbocca is offline

090124h - Installing Interior Front Panel

Posted 04-05-2009 at 07:55 PM by chbocca (Toaster Travels)

Tags interior panels, marson riveter, table

Best part of the whole accident repair. Opportunity to brighten-up area around table.

Made sure old rivets drilled completely out. Vacuumed floor for shavings, rivet stems, and wiped down panels with Windex and soft cloth.

Aligned panels with existing rivet holes and used my great Marson riveter to apply the AD45ABS rivets. Installed easy.

Reattached floor, door, and window trim. Then, seat and table. It all looked good as new. Even better, cause we fixed...

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chbocca

Travelin' Style

Posted in Restoration Blogs, Troubles

Views 1047 Comments 0 chbocca is offline

090124g - Fixing Aft Exterior Panel

Posted 04-05-2009 at 01:09 PM by chbocca (Toaster Travels)

Tags aviator snips, panel patch, supersnip shears

The aft exterior panel was by far the largest damage. If there was a time to jump to Step 3, this was it. Still, even though it was large, I thought to try the patch panel approach, used successfully in aft awning mount area and forward panel.

I had just enough material left from the interior panel to make the large patch in back. Also, because of overlap of the aft interior panels, they would be too hard to remove without cutting, which I did not want to do. Finally, I'd learned enough...

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