uh, oops. original Tradewind dinette design?

[SpaceEgg]

This is my first Airstream, so please enjoy the sheer ignorance I bring to the table. I hope to make up for it with Tasmanian Devil energy and raw abandon. My lesson? Enjoy the irony of preventable mistakes. Here's one for you...

My "as-is" Airstream weathered two leaky Oregon winters prior to my ownership and some of the wood had to be scrapped - including the shelf under the front window in the front end cap (dinette set-up).

I kept the old rotten shelf as a template and refurbished the old crossbeam (different wood - looked to me to be a replacement crossbeam). I finally installed the front shelf, attached the metal table-holder-thingee, and (oh snap!) realized this might not be original trailer design.

I don't remember ever seeing an old-school Tradewind that had the dinette booth attached to anything other than the window. I searched the 50s era photos on this site until about page 30 and decided I'd better just ask.

I found photos of trailers with the dinette table attached to a shelf below the front window, but they didn't have the upper shelf that mine has, and they weren't Tradewinds.

So my question is: did I just restore the previous owner's post-factory modification?

I'm happy with the result and I love my trailer set-up, I'm just curious if this is original '59 Tradewind design. Anyone out there with a photo as an answer?

May you never grow too old to leap before you look!

[SpaceEgg]

Did I hear someone ask if the original "as-is" rotten shelf had astroturf?

Why yes it did! How did you guess? Some before pics...

I'm convinced the upholstery in the previous post is original. The blue cloth business below was a "beautiful" protective covering.

[RichHog]

My 72 Tradewind had the Gaucho with the side table which seemed to be the standard issue. The Safaris were known for the dinette option and it's true that many Tradewind owners were envious of the better configuration. But in the 50s and early 60s airstream built a lot of custom trailers so who knows.

[Mel]

So, when are you going to install fresh, new astroturf onto the new shelf?

[BWH-Utah]

Originally Posted by SpaceEgg

Did I hear someone ask if the original "as-is" rotten shelf had astroturf?

Looks like someone tried watering that astroturf, to freshen it up a bit.
I'll remember not to do that if I ever find any.

Whether or not the dinette up is original, it is certainly my preferred configuration. I am in the process of converting a front gaucho to a dinette on my '65 Safari.

Good luck with your project.
BWH