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worldinchaos · 03-09-2012, 07:16 PM

Becky- my rear endcap was unfortunately fiberglass or else I would have loved the polished front and rear. The issue was that even if I bought some Alclad to make a rear cap, it would be 13 panel and my front is 7, like my exterior caps. I didn't want the mismatch and then Marie convinced me to do it in Baltic birch.

Sandy- more details to come soon as I complete it. I basically followed Carlos and Steve's threads to do it :-)

Becky B. · 03-09-2012, 07:24 PM

Aaah, makes complete sense! I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product. Looks great so far!

reinergirl · 03-09-2012, 07:51 PM

Looks great! I am so putting this on my wish list! Looking forward to the details...

marzboy · 03-10-2012, 07:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by worldinchaos

Psssst....

This endcap is tiring but fun.

Good God man!! I cant imagine how frustrating that must be. Templates, cutting, dry fit adjusting, adjusting, adjusting, adjusting, adjusting, adjusting, swearing, adjusting, drinking, drilling, where is my $%&@ cleco plier!!
I must do it.

Chlyman · 03-10-2012, 08:39 AM

This looks great! Are you doing the wood over the fiberglass? I will be doing the same thing, but I don't have half of my old metal endcap due to a fire. So not sure how to make the birch more secure. Or do I just do a 13 panel allclad!?!
The rest of mind are 7 panel also!
Did pop rivets or Olympic?
Thanks,
Carolyn

worldinchaos · 03-10-2012, 11:09 AM

Alright I'm in class learning about Statements of Shareholder's Equity, so I have some time to not pay attention... How about a little catch up on the trailer in the mean time?

Javier is spot on: putting up the birch involved cutting rough shapes of templates, taping, recutting, taping, tracing, marking ends, tracing templates on birch, cutting, dry fitting, drilling, clecoing, swearing, re-drilling, re-clecoing, tracing lines on ends, trimming ends, re-clecoing, riveting, rinse and repeat.

I used rosin paper instead of tar paper because I don't know what I would do with the other $20 of tar paper that I would be left with, and rosin paper was $4.

I added guidelines around the window and on the forward edge of the endcap using measurements from an early 50's 13-panel that I obtained from Steve (pbearsailor). If anybody needs them let me know, they do require adjustment for late 50's and after due to the wider body. I followed one of the previously posted methods of fitting the templates which involves taping up an oversized shape so that the visible edge is set properly, then cutting slits on the bottom edge that go past the top edge of the panel below. This allowed me to fold those short section up at the point where I wanted the new panel to end (1.5" overlap) and then cut the template along the fold to make my final template.

I traced these onto 1/8" Grade B/BB Baltic Birch, leaving the ends of each segment extra long, and cut it with a veneer blade on a circular saw. I added 1/8" holes with 3" spacing along the visible edge. I then fitted it into place one at a time, positioning it with both hands so that the visible edge was aligned with my guide markings, and so that the panel was as flat as possible on both edges. Once I had the position right, I held one end in exactly that position, and somehow managed to use my freehand to drill 1/8" holes and add cleco's one at a time, until half of the rivet holes were secured. I used 5/32" Cleco's in 1/8" holes because it snugged the panel up better to the fiberglass, which was not gripping well if I drilled the holes properly.

Next I traced out the profile of the window and leading edge of the endcap onto the two ends of the piece. I removed all the Cleco's, trimmed these ends, and then did all my sanding and prep before putting it up. I re-Cleco'd everything, and then used Olympic Rivets to secure it. One problem I am still encountering is areas where the two layers of 1/8" Birch are not completely flush with the fiberglass provide too much material for the Olympics to grip, and the pin ends up pulling straight through and breaking early. There are 1-2 of these on each rivet line that I will have to deal with later.

Phew, that may have been overkill on description, but hopefully it helps someone who wants to attempt this. In all honesty, it has gone much smoother than I expected, even though I had to re-drill the fiberglass a couple times because the panel had shifted too much while fitting it up (and holding it in place with physical force only).

I'm currently on Panel 9, and hope to spend some time at the trailer tomorrow finishing it. I'll post pictures then.

worldinchaos · 03-10-2012, 11:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chlyman

This looks great! Are you doing the wood over the fiberglass? I will be doing the same thing, but I don't have half of my old metal endcap due to a fire. So not sure how to make the birch more secure. Or do I just do a 13 panel allclad!?!
The rest of mind are 7 panel also!
Did pop rivets or Olympic?
Thanks,
Carolyn

Carolyn:

Wood over fiberglass, under metal on the bottom edge.

The 1/8" Baltic birch is surprisingly strong. I love working with it. Cuts well, etc. And when I finally found a good supplier in LA, it ended up being cheaper than any sort of plywood I could buy at any Big box store or at Rockler.

Olympics for everything except the hidden pop rivets that I used here and there (like when I started with the center panel - my favorite to install....)

Do a 13 panel in wood. It adds SOOO much character.

Chlyman · 03-10-2012, 03:59 PM

Thanks for the info. Finding a good supply here in Northern Cal. Is my next challenge. I had one, but they changed suppliers and now it is terrible. Your endcap looks amazing, so I think I will do it like that!

worldinchaos · 03-11-2012, 11:25 PM

Finished up the endcap panels today. I still have all the finishing items left: staining, poly, trimming and shaving Olympics, replacing the window trim, and adding lights. However, with the Big Sur camping trip coming up, I wanted the bed installed. We trimmed it to roughly fit and temporarily put the cover back on. Once it fully expands (was vacuum wrapped in shipping package), we will do a final trim.

Marie took a picture of me testing out the bed for the first time. The 8" foam is nice and comfortable.

Started framing up the kitchen counter as well. Hoping to have it ready for some basic electrical wiring within two weeks...

Becky B. · 03-12-2012, 06:54 AM

Looks fantastic! No wonder you move so quickly....you're just a baby! Love to see such talent in a young guy...you'll do lots of great things in your lifetime!

Lance M · 03-12-2012, 07:30 AM

Very nice Peter. Very, very nice.

3Ms75Argosy · 03-12-2012, 08:59 AM

Wow, go away for a weekend and look what happens! Nice work!
Marc

worldinchaos · 03-12-2012, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beckybillrae

Looks fantastic! No wonder you move so quickly....you're just a baby! Love to see such talent in a young guy...you'll do lots of great things in your lifetime!

Nonsense. I'm at least 25.

But yes, Marie and I do appear to be the youngest vintage Airstream owners that we have met so far.

Thanks for all the comments on talent guys, but remember - pictures make everything look better. There's lots of imperfections. It IS my first time at this, after all. However, the cool aspect of it being my first foray into woodworking is it is a great excuse to go on a tool spree. Bought a compound miter saw a few weeks back, just got a jigsaw, bought some veneer and plywood cutting blades, and this week or next I'm going to be investing in a DeWalt trim router and some bits.
This is what I look like.-->

pbearsailor · 03-12-2012, 11:37 AM

Nice work, Peter!! Looks great.

Roughly how much did you have to scale up the dimensions from my narrow trailer?

cheers,
steve

worldinchaos · 03-12-2012, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pbearsailor

Nice work, Peter!! Looks great.

Roughly how much did you have to scale up the dimensions from my narrow trailer?

cheers,
steve

Don't remember exactly, but I think I added an inch in each direction on the large panel at the forward ceiling rib, and then distributed another inch of growth on each side amongst panels 4-6 and 8-10. It was between 3 and 4 inches overall. I scaled these relative changes on the window, where only a couple inches or so were added along the top.

tinman54 · 03-13-2012, 04:41 AM

Looking Great! and it always helps to ease the some of the pain when you can buy new tools!

3Ms75Argosy · 03-13-2012, 09:22 AM

Heck, I'm 25 too! At least in my head I am.... my Wii Fit age is 35... I LIKE that!!
Marc

ND10CentCan · 03-13-2012, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by worldinchaos

Finished up the endcap panels today. I still have all the finishing items left: staining, poly, trimming and shaving Olympics, replacing the window trim, and adding lights. However, with the Big Sur camping trip coming up, I wanted the bed installed. We trimmed it to roughly fit and temporarily put the cover back on. Once it fully expands (was vacuum wrapped in shipping package), we will do a final trim.

Marie took a picture of me testing out the bed for the first time. The 8" foam is nice and comfortable.

Started framing up the kitchen counter as well. Hoping to have it ready for some basic electrical wiring within two weeks...

Peter,
If I can ask, where did you get your mattress from? We will need a couple of them down the road and they must be able to be cut to size do to our remodeling of the original layout. Thanks for your help and I only wish I was still 25!

Sandy

worldinchaos · 03-13-2012, 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ND10CentCan

Peter,
If I can ask, where did you get your mattress from? We will need a couple of them down the road and they must be able to be cut to size do to our remodeling of the original layout. Thanks for your help and I only wish I was still 25!

Sandy

The Foam Factory, Mattresses, Memory Foam Mattress, Memory Foam Mattresses

We went with 3" of 4lb ViscoPlush on top of 5" of HD36R base foam. Took off the cover, cut it on top of my plywood base as a template (since I had not yet mounted it). A sharp 10" bread knife cut through it like butter. We cut it large and are waiting for a week for it to finish expanding to its full size before we do a final trim and resize the cover.

Biggest complaint people seem to have about non-namebrand memory foam mattresses is odors and chemical smells or irritation. I have not smelled anything as of yet, and have had no irritation, even after touching the foam itself with bare hands while cutting it. Some memory mattreses are wrapped in a glass-particulate mesh (many comments on Amazon about this). This mattress has none of that, so it is easy to uncover to trim.

worldinchaos · 03-16-2012, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by worldinchaos

Becky- don't worry "mom" the next two
nights are dedicated to studying. The trailer will wait until Sunday.

HiHo- thanks and I think the biggest change for me was setting a couple deadlines by deciding on camping trips in advance. The biggest challenge was avoiding temptation to polish everything because it looks so good, but is unnecessary at the moment...

:-)

Gah! I'm having deja vu from 3 months ago. Finals tomorrow, and all I can think about is the trailer. I just cancelled my reservations for Big Sur due to the upcoming rains. All the trails will be muddy, dangerous, and I don't want to be anywhere near those Hwy 1 curves with 30% chance of rain. Booked new reservations at Anza Borrego, which is catching me off guard because I will actually have full hook-ups!!! I can use electrical things, and have water! What do I work on in the next 5 days???

Well, back to studying....