New owner of a '72 tradewind

[harestream]

Thought I would introduce myself to you all. My boyfriend and I just purchased our new home this past weekend. We have quite a project a head of us, as we have decided to go fulltime traveling all over north america. It wasn't the ideal size or layout for us, but once i found out the original owner was Ferlin Husky, I had to have it. I am a huge fan of old country/honky tonk from the 50's - 60's. Anyways, the airstream looks pretty good, although we have a few things in mind to either personalize it or fix up:

• Convert the twin set up to a working full size set up.
• We aren't happy with the couch - would like to exchange it for a dining set up.
• Wood laminate is uneven throughout- we might re-do that or paint it.
• We might try to tear out the plastic yellowing cover on the walls.
• The newly installed berber carpet somebody put in recently is a horrible creame color.We'd like to upgrade it to fancy bamboo floors.
• Would like to go solar and add any "green" components possible
• Getting it up to speed with all latest technology
• Making pet friendly to house our rabbit and cat (i know it's a tight fit!)
• Have a hole on the belly to repair and some mending to do in the underneath seam.
• Replace all sticky cabinets covers
• Repair master control
• bathroom upgrades
• "Ferlin" hasn't been polished in 10 years
• Major scrub bath

so once we begin our restoration, we'll be posting updates of our project to share. We are in over our heads, but are very excited and open to suggestions, as we are realizing we really don't know the first thing. Thankfully my background is in architecture/interior design and i have friends willing to lend a hand. I really admire everybody's expertiece, going through and reading the threads, it's all very impressive. I know I will have questions for you all!

[Zeppelinium]

you propose to do exactly what I did to my Overlander. I couldn't have done it without access to a well-equipped wood shop. Having said that, my skill comes from lots of big power tools, so I have a lot of respect for people who can do beautiful cabinet work with a sabre saw.

I wanted more kitchen countertop, so I cut the tub in half and moved the bed back 14" (I started with twin beds, too, but made a double bed--48" wide--on the same side as the tub and kitchen--the othe side is shelves and a desk). If I had to do it over, I'd take the whole tub out (just the lower plastic piece) and replace with a shower pan. You can make a new shower wall with 1/2" plywood and a sheet of plastic available at HD (about 1/8" thick and one side is covered with little bumps).

Good luck. If you're beavers, you can get most of that done in 4 months (do you hear faint laughter in the background), but don't count on it...

Welcome, we're all waiting for more photos as pieces come out and go in!

[fastrob]

Looks great.
The stuff you want to remove might have value to others and you $$$.
This is a great forum to share and get ideas.
Please keep posting through highs and lows of 'Streaming.
Good Luck,
R

[Holzarbeiter]

Welcome, I just returned from a 10 day trip up by lake George, a good friend of mine moved up there recently from long island (my old stomping grounds) he still belongs to the metro unit of WBCCI. Try contacting them if you need help, I hear they are a great bunch.

[azflycaster]

Hi from a fellow Trade Wind owner and a former Long Islander! My dad used to work for Rheingold Beer in Brooklyn years ago. He went to his grave still pissed that the Dodgers moved to LA.
My TW is the double model. Instead of the two twins we have a double on the curb side and storage on the street side. We like it alot. The bed is the wsame gacho that you have in the front of your unit. Maybe you could relocate if you go with a dinnette setup. The double is not that big, but ample for us if we don't have any of the dogs visit in the middle of the night. We keep it as a bed all the time, because that's what we use it for. If you go any bigger then this size, you will cut off the isle to the bathroom. Good luck with your trailer. BTW, we are very happy with the Pergo floor that the PO installed in our trailer.

[Hippo]

Harestream,
Your 72 looks like my 75 interior. We replaced the carpet with vinyl. Cleaned the ceiling with future wax.
Hippo

[Zeppelinium]

I put the new double bed in permanently. It seemed to me that the corner next to the kitchen would be eating a lot of knees, so I made it a 45 degree "more kind to knees" edge. You can barely see it in the first photo here.

http://www.airforums.com/forums/211669-post1.html

Sorry, I don't have any better photos of that area and it's in pieces at the moment.