My AS Obsession: 1968 Tradewind Restoration

[sequoiacoast]

I am finally setting out to start a thread about my experiences while restoring my Tradewind. I have a lot of catch-up to do, so this may take a while. Grab your coffee, cocktail, or whatever and bear with me while I attempt to remember what's happened.

The first time I set eyes on her, the only Airstream I'd ever seen up-close, was on a visit to my mom's boyfriend's property. He had acquired the "silver bullet" from some old buddy and planned to do something cool with her later. Years went by and he didn't do anything with it - just let her rot.
In the meantime, my mom had bought a small, older mo-ho and they began camping. My husband and I, with our 3 kids were still tent camping, but hardly because of the hassle. So on labor day weekend 2005 we took our last tent-camping excursion.
We set out heading North, going as far as we could along the coast to surf and sight-see. Every night was a new campground. The first night was the worst: the baby (6/7 mos) cried every hour and I had to go sit in the truck alllll night with him. With no sleep, I wanted to throw in the towel and go home. Husband, whom I had drug(ged) to go camping in the first place, convinces me to try it one more night. Next night we barely get a spot (duh it's Labor day) and it's right on HWY 101 ( I can see the cars fly by 15 feet in back of our site) but the ocean is just a short walk away. So I set up camp and, grumpily, I accompany him to the ocean. And right there.... at the trail head is a beautiful AIRSTREAM! It was all aglow, looking so warm and inviting. I wanted to go in and have a cocktail but instead, I ended up sucking fumes from the neighboring campfire all night AND morning. We decided to sleep in the back of the truck with the baby and let the older two sleep in the tent. That was comfy !
Driving home I decided: I want a trailer. And not just any trailer, a COOL trailer. I want an AIRSTREAM.
So, with my mom's scepticism (and "WHY would you want that heap o'"), I convinced the boyfriend to sell it to me. He informs me that it leaks and needs a good cleaning but it's in pretty great shape. He ripped off a few things, he thought were ugly (shower curtain, rock guard, antenna), but mostly he thought everything worked.

And that's when I found the forum! The Tradewind was located 300+ miles from me, and I had to wait a few months to get her, so I began reading everything on the forum I could. It was the beginning of MY obsession.

[NorCal Bambi]

Sequoiacoast, congratulations on the move up to an Airstream. You are in
Eureka, "I've found it" and we are in Yreka "white mountian". I remember one of your first posts when you were talking about going to get your trailer. I guess its home now. I sure you have to deal with the Eureka, Yreka question as much as we do. Keep us all posted on your progress. I'd also like to see pictures or your new project.
Don

[sequoiacoast]

It was sometime in October 2005 when we went to see her again and find out what condition the tires were in..etc. I made an appointment to get new tires and bearings packed and now it was the SCARY proposition of getting this trailer down a STEEEEEP, wet & muddy, dirt road to get to the appointment.
The brakes were locking up so, we had to disable them. I was in another car (with the children) leading my husband with AS down the hill. This is where I get sick.... My mom's boyfriend (who's spastic anyway) is all jacked-up on coffee, and leads my husband out of his country gate...pause... he's watching ONE side and saying, "you've got it, yep, keep'er going.." and then: EEEEEERRRRK, "STOP!! - You aren't going to fit - I've got to remove this post here (luckily he doesn't believe in concrete - so they pulled it out)!" But-
apparently the other side of the trailer was scraping the post and whoopsie, that $%^&ing post put some deep scratches all sown the side of an almost perfect body!
But, we move on. We had a lot of trouble with the tires, bearing re-pack, and finding grease seals, but that is on another thread, "Trip home...".
So a few days later we took her home.

[Boondocker]

Welcome to the most exclusive of all airstream clubs: the 68 tradewind club

[sequoiacoast]

Hi Don, Yes we get that Eureka/Yreka thing a lot! I was just talking about you guys yesterday, because we may have something in common. My tradewind isn't finished, but I have just dropped a letter in the mail to someone who has a late 50s ? AS decaying in their backyard - and I have asked if they'd like to sell it. So I was saying to my husband, see, I'm not the only nut !

Anyway, here are some of the before pictures:
(notice the lovely fabric!)

[sequoiacoast]

Okay, so... aside from some significant dirt, mouse turds, and a funky odor, the trailer seemed to be pretty solid. There wasn't any tile left on the floor and it was in good shape - except for the bathroom - which seemed a little iffy (boy was that an understatement).
So, I began by deciding to rid the trailer of all offensive odor. This meant: FIND the dead mice (mom's BF used Decon). I found some in and around the front goucho, so out that went. There was also significant nesting inside the stove top... which led to the removal of the nearly crumbling kitchen counter. And that led to the removal of the floor under the counter, due to soft spots. - I POR 15'd the frame while I had the chance.

[sequoiacoast]

Oh yeah and my chicken, "Redneck" came to help.

I have a ton of removal pictures: I took lots of pics, in case I forgot how it looked, or how to put it back together. I also wrote on things, and bagged in gallon sized ziplocks, all the hardware that went with whatever I took out. That proved to be VERY helpful. I tend to think I'll remember how things were later, but with so many things to remember - I forget!

[sequoiacoast]

As I moved through unscrewing and drilling out rivets, I figured it was so easy to remove, I can just clean everything really well and put it all back. This reminds me of my last house... I hated the linoleum in the kitchen and one day, to my husbands horror, I just started tearing it out. There were hardwood floors underneath, etc. Loooong story short: we had floor joists to repair, dry rot..... I opened a major can of worms,, so back to the Airstream:

I took everything out, and am glad I did, because that little soft spot in the bathroom, turned out to be subfloor on its way to compost. I even found ivy growing up the wall behind the bathroom pieces.

[LI Pets]

This not a cup of coffee story, it's looks like it's going to be a pot

The frame looks good no rot.

[sequoiacoast]

Okay one more post/ picture and then I need to get out and actually work on her!

After removing the guts and discovering that the last third (around the edges) was toast, I removed the plywood using a circular saw and a grinder to cut through the bolts. It was not an easy process, especially around the edges, under the u channel. The grinder didn't fit in many areas, so I bought a cheesy "dremel" tool from Costco for 20$ and finally saw the light of day, literally - through the floor!

So, this picture shows what I wouldn't have seen (until it was too late), the pan that holds the b/w tank :

[LI Pets]

But when you're done it should be good for fifty years.

[sequoiacoast]

That's what I console myself with, when I start wondering why I'm still work$ng on it and not camping!

[NorCal Bambi]

Sequoiacoast, What you have found looks very familar. It looks like you are in for as much work as many of us have gotten into. The good part is that when you are done you will have a very fine trailer and many many stories to share at rallys. Thanks for all the pictures. Keep us posted and we will be your cheering section. The group really helped me on days when i wondered why I had gotten into the project. After you are finished the second etc. trailers don't look so bad.
Yes I am crazy.
Don

[airdrmr]

Hi Sequoiacoast!

Just wanted to chime in to say that your story sounded so familiar to me. We had also "had it" with hassle of tent camping with the kids (not to mention our lack of sleep) and needed something to make the great outdoors a little more accessible - and comfortable. The trailers, campers and RV's we looked at just reminded me too much of someone's grandmother's living room. When my husband suggested an Airstream, I was intrigued. A couple of months of lurking around on the internet and checking classified ads, and I was hooked! I had to have my own! I've always been interested in things that have had a life with someone else, so the 22ft '67 Safari I found 1300 miles away in CO was for us. We've had her now for a few months and are lucky that we only had to repair some minor stuff (so far) to make her road worthy. I'm hard at work polishing and "redecorating" now. We've camped a few times and I can say it is WONDERFUL to have our little home-away-from-home! The kids love sleeping in their little bunks and eating home-cooked meals under the stars. My husband is still a little grumpy about all the new "honey-do's" on his list, but he starting to get into it and, like me, is excited to be attending the NorCal Rally in a couple of weeks (our first rally.) You made a great decision, and your family will certainly benefit for many, many years to come.

Cheers!

[sequoiacoast]

Thank you friends!!! I have to say it has been quite trying at times, and I'm sure the guilt over spending so much would have overtaken me if it weren't for the support and camaraderie here on the forum. My husband made a "wild" guess at how much we've spent and he threw out $10,000!!! I was aghast and began adding it up: new fridge, oven, furnace, water heater, axles, tires, disc brakes/ actuator, flooring, windows, cushions.....ummmmm.... yeah well, not quite that much!

Anyway, back to where I've been:
So I had now a new b/w tank box made and needed to install a new plywood subfloor in the most sound way possible (without removing too much).
BTW this is when I get a tad manic and start taking on to many little projects at once: refurbish oven, take apart rear compartment door, take off skylights for new screen, take apart vent/hood/fan (oven)... I overwhelm myself easily -OCD- But see, I couldn't move forward on the plywood install alone and hubby gets busy and wants me to research all techniques till the death.. which I did anyway,.... so with 15, or so, open-ended projects spilling all over the garage, I POR 15'd the frame after scraping as much of that darned foam insulation off that I could. BTWagain, the frame that was covered with the foam was pristine! ( I feared the worst with all the warning of moisture retention and that foam.)
My husband is a finish carpenter (though this project was never on his list - it is alas, mine.. so no super cool cabinetry is coming- but a new dinette-which comes later) and he wanted that rear piece put in in one piece because it would be stronger.
I resigned myself to removing one side of banana wrap (which really intimidated me) and doing the partial clam-shell technique. The subfloor was of no use as a template so my husband made a flexible jig out of wood that he used to find the curves. He got the curve of the inside u-channel and added the width of the channel to get our template. I took a picture of the jig with my regular camera, and the film still sits on the counter - sorry. But I'll post it later.
So, my husband, 14 y/o son, and myself set out to do the clam-shell with 8 y/o daughter watching baby in bouncy seat 10 feet away. Not a great place for impressionable children but, we believe in suffering...and struggling... and swearing..oh.. The clam-shell began pretty smoothly.. son on bumper with cinder blocks, husband pushing, me guiding.. and running to the garage for lube . We ended up using a block of wood and a sledge hammer that we borrowed from the neighbor, broke, and had to pause for a trip to the hardware store. But in the end we had a solid rear floor from which to begin anew. The location of where to drill for the bolts, through trial and error, came with me removing some belly pan and drilling from underneath.
I am SOOO glad that part is over!!

[sequoiacoast]

With a new floor I turned my attention to the walls: Mold, who knows what... disgusting. The first go around I sprayed bleach and ran out. Then I followd up with this soap (pic below) that I absolutely love!! It smells awesome and it worked like a charm!

[sequoiacoast]

I neglected to take a picture of the banana wrap as it is when the belt-line trim is removed. I was appalled to find no caulking or anything under the trim or along all of the vertical slits in the wrap. The plywood sits right next to all those slits just beckoning water to rot it. It is NOT a good thing.

I had removed one side of the rear banana wrap and decided to put in a new piece as the old was badly corroded and on the verge of snapping at the bends.

On the advice of the forum I went to www.metalsupermarkets.com and found a "local" dealer in the bay area to purchase my belly pan and wrap aluminum.
I had my sheetmetal guy cut the new wrap and installed it myself... which was NOT an easy task, and I didn't do that great of a job. If I had more time and less pressure from the weather... and more $$ ... I might have started over. But I left it.

[sequoiacoast]

When removing the furniture I noticed dead ants, big ones, inside many things. And dead was a good thing. But then they had a re-birth and there were tons of carpenter ants pouring out of the walls.

After much stress and research I decided to go with poison, eventhough I am a strictly NO- poison type person. I bought the disk type units and powdered stuff which I sprinkled in a barrior all around the ground outside the trailer.

My neighbor came over and asked if my Airstream had died .

After about 3 months, the ants were all dead and haven't been back.

[3Ms75Argosy]

part of a DISASTERIOUS trip (cue rattle snakes, wasps, coyotes, skunks....) to Malibu Canyon St. park last year involved ants..... millions of them ALL OVER the outside and inside of the trailer. I had inadvertily had parked on top of an ant hill when we pulled in the previous night. It looked like someone had spraypainted stripes on the outside when I first pulled up. The inside walls were moving there were so many ants.

Anyway - long story short, we bombed the trailer to kill them (after a night killing them with duct tape).

i couldn't figure out why the tenters around us had put white powder around their tents. I later found out that ants don't like Borox powder - I bought three boxes for the rest of our trip. Our new rule, when in the desert communities, we make police outlines around the trailer jack, stablizer jacks, electric/water hoses, and tires. Haven't had a problem yet.... knock on wood.
Marc

[azflycaster]

Originally Posted by 3Ms75Argosy

i couldn't figure out why the tenters around us had put white powder around their tents. I later found out that ants don't like Borox powder

Do you mean Borax, like in 20 mule team Boraxo?