Restoration--Monkey Business--the '68 Caravel

[Peter417]

Originally Posted by docflyboy

I made some recent progress in the last few days. With the shower pan in place, the blocking has been made to support the toilet. I purchased a porcelain toilet that's the short height, and I'll have it mounted this weekend. I still haven't gotten my volume of my black tank tested, but will get that done this weekend as well. I've gotten about 1/2 of my PEX run, but need to pick up the valve that is used to pump the anti-freeze into the lines. Sunday, I had to quit a little early, because I was leaving too much DNA behind from the crimp bands putting little cuts in my fingers. I did manage to get a pic of the spin on fitting on the bottom of my black tank, which I think is an eye-opener, on how the tank will always hold some liquid in the base. Hopefully more pics after the weekend. Here's the look with my iPhone upside down though the toilet rubber grommet aimed towards the emptying 3" spin on, and another spin on patch that the frame shop must have placed. The green strip is the SeeLevel sensor. That needs to be tested as well. This weekend will be a PEX, ABS and electrical panel wiring adventure. Jerry

I am 90% sure my tank 3 inch is not like that. It looks more like your little fitting. It looks like that tank could flex/bulge down a bit and really hold a lot more volume. I forgot to measure mine. I probably wont at this point. So far it has been more than fine for us.

[Peter417]

I just confirmed that my tank is all but empty when I pull the lever. There might be 1/8" left but no more.

[docflyboy]

Peter- thanks for that. I got all my PEX done except from the fresh water tank to the pump. I've still got to take a blind leap and drill a hole for my water drain that will come out pretty close to where the propane comes in to the water heater. I cut a couple bulkhead templates and did some fitting. My trailer looks like it only lost about 3-4 mm of height in the shell off. Today is a fun day, I purchased my 1/4" plywood for my bulkheads and was able to get several pieces in sequence, so my bulkheads will match left to right, at least that's the plan. I had to go with Walnut, instead of Mahogany on the plywood, because I couldn't source a plywood core Mahogany, but could on the Walnut. My trailer was originally Walnut, so that's fine with me. I'm planning on pre-finishing all my plywood, so that when I put masking tape down, I don't pull up wood fibers. My task today is to go to my local woodworking store and get my stain just right, so that I can have my long boards Mahogany, which I think mills better (and I already have), and match those color wise up to my Walnut plywood.

My OCD is kicking in on this project, and I think I'm going to need a little Coors Light therapy. Hats off to anyone who can get one of these projects perfect. Jerry

[ALUMINUMINUM]

“(and I already have)”


That’s the theme around here. My 68GT utilizes a dozen different woods and grass from my hoarded scrap bin.

ash

bamboo

birch

cedar

cherry

fir

mahogany

maple

oak

pine

redwood

spruce

walnut

Some are sorta matched. I’ve got a dozen cans of minwax that I either blend in can, or base and top-coat ‘til I guess it’s OK. No one ever notices or mentions.

I think mahogany and walnut shouldn’t be much trouble to color match. I’ll guess they’ll mis-match themselves with age, so ease up on the CDO. I find life is easier if I replace the word “perfection” with “excellence”.

Sounds like you scored some great plywood.

"Beer was created so carpenters wouldn’t rule the world.”

[docflyboy]

ALUMINUMINUM-my OCD has problems with your CDO, LOL. Today I took two book matched 1/4" veneer on one side only sheets of plywood and started working on the finishing. I really don't want to do tung oil or Watco oil over the top of my new Marmoleum, and I don't want to pull the wood fibers up when I use masking tape to protect the veneer when I'm cutting them. So, I'm trying to pre-finish as much of my woodworking as possible prior to installing. Today, I upgraded my sabre saw to a Bosch, which is what I've seen 100% of my kitchen counter top installers use to cut out the hole for the sink, so that must be the brand. Normally I'm a DeWalt or Porter-Cable kind of guy. I also bought some blades that cut on the down-stroke.

I had scribed my bulkheads from the Curb-Side onto some 5 mm sub-floor that's smooth and pretty cheap, at least it was when I bought it several months ago. I chunked it out on the table saw, and cut to my line, but I could waste a lot of that sheet for the price. With the templates, it looks like I can get the piece for the Curb-side bathroom, and the galley bulkhead as well as the endcap for the upper locker out of one sheet, and match the height of the grain pattern to all be in line horizontally.

As I had posted earlier, Honduras Mahogany in 1/4" can't be sourced right now at a reasonable price and reasonable shipping. I didn't want an MDF core on something that I wanted to stand vertically without getting a little wavy. I needed at least a 3 ply plywood, in my estimation. I was able to source American Black Walnut with veneer on one side locally, so no shipping. I had picked up a piece of 1/4" Sapele (African Mahogany) in an MDF core, and I liked the veneer pattern, and I haven't ruled that out yet, but for now I think my bulkheads are going to be Black Walnut and plywood core. One of my PO's put a Walnut polyurethane over my woodwork, and it was a little darker than the trailer was originally, but wood tone wise, it didn't look bad.

I went up to our local woodworker's store today, and the president of our woodworker's guild works there, or might be an owner. He's pretty expert at wood finishing, and teaches a class in it. I explained what I was doing, and he was interested in giving me some guidance, but seemed to have a blank stare about why one would restore an Airstream, but I didn't hold that against him.

I had watched a Youtube video about staining woods yesterday that was excellent, but I couldn't find any dyes that were oil soluble, to work with the catalyzed tung oil that I had finished all my other woodworking projects in.

His take was that the walnut had to have the green blocked, and that an orange dye in denatured alcohol put on in dilute layers would be his best recommendation. He also sent me to the local artist supply store for some oil soluble pigments and a color chart.

So while I was sourcing things, I popped the grain on the first sheet with bottled water, that probably didn't have any iron content, since I didn't have a jug of distilled water at home. After I got back home, I sanded lightly the grains that were able to be felt with 220 grit. Then the dye was added just two small squirts into a cup of denatured alcohol, and wiped on with a microfiber towel, one pass at a time, and then checking to see when the green had left the walnut, relative to my Mahogany blank for the front end-cap.

All told, it took about 4 cc of dye total to do a 4X8 sheet of plywood. So with that amount, I was able to skip a couple passes on the second sheet, and it looks pretty close. I'll let them dry overnight, and then hit them both tomorrow with a coat of Watco Dark Walnut, since I think that over Honduras Mahogany after a light sand, will be pretty close to the plywood. We'll see how it goes and keep you posted. I had already put a coat of Sunderland Welles Hard Sealer on a sheet that wasn't in my matched grain sequence over the weekend. Without stain, it looks about like a pecan dining room set my Mom had, but that's not the color I'm looking for in this trailer. It was a little gray, and a hint of green deep in the wood tone. After toning the two sheets that will take care of my bulkheads, I did a little toning with some stains that were compatible with my Hard Sealer on the third sheet, and got them OK for the bottoms of my upper lockers. I'll post the three side by side after the Watco that I do tomorrow or Friday.

[dbj216]

Boy, you and Aluminuminum are expert woodworkers. That is a real benefit when renovating an old Airstream. The plywood looks great. Be sure to tell me how you trace the curved walls in your trailer onto the plywood sheets.

David

[docflyboy]

David- you overestimate my talents, but maybe underestimate my Youtube watching. Here's the best video I've found

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5ygOsqYsOY

.

I was looking for tints that Diethylene glycol monobutyl ether as the miscible agent within. I'm mulling over the MSDS sheets for a set that Rockler sells, but ended up doing mine with a tint disolved in alcohol. Here's the three sheets done slightly different. The one on the right is the every step done in the video, and the style sheet. Before it was cured overnight, I didn't like it as much as I do now. Jerry

[dbj216]

I buy my tints in a can, stir and apply. Easy peasy. I wasn't very good at chemistry. But I have read a lot of MSDS sheets in the past.

The wood tints look great.

David

[Flostream66]

Originally Posted by docflyboy

David- you overestimate my talents, but maybe underestimate my Youtube watching. Here's the best video I've found

.

I was looking for tints that Diethylene glycol monobutyl ether as the miscible agent within. I'm mulling over the MSDS sheets for a set that Rockler sells, but ended up doing mine with a tint disolved in alcohol. Here's the three sheets done slightly different. The one on the right is the every step done in the video, and the style sheet. Before it was cured overnight, I didn't like it as much as I do now. Jerry

Jerry, that is a very interesting technique, and based on the way the one looks on the right, it is well worth the extra steps. Well done!

[docflyboy]

After a lot of this and that of getting the wood stain and finish, I am ready for the installation of my Steet-Side vertical locker and upper Curb Side locker in a couple days, when my best help has time to lend a hand. I have cut my blanks out of 5 mm subfloor material, and after we confirm those are a very close fit in the F-channels, I should be able to install both the lavatory side of the rear bath upper half bulkhead and the galley bulkhead, which is held together with the locker face frame. Airstream put everything together with dowels, which have reasonable holding strength, but modern cabinet making would likely favor a Kreg jig pocket screw approach. I see pocket screws in modern Airstreams, but the vibration going down the road, would actually favor either a Domino joint or a half-lap for strength in the face of vibration.

I bought a Stanley No. 59 dowel jig when I was buying some vintage wood planes from a guy a couple years ago. So yesterday was spent doing something Bubba and ALUMINUMINUM would I'm sure approve of, which was to repurpose some Hon Mahog, that I had milled to make wine racks out of, but then opted for a different design. I had three bundles of 1" x 1.5" stock that were jointed straight on two edges and planed to dimension on the other two sides. They had 1/8" deep rabbits every 4" and weren't going to be much use for anything esle. So I glued them up over the weekend, and ran them through the planer to get 3/4" clear mahogany of the widths that the old locker was. I milled enough for both vertical lockers and some to spare.

I still have to fit everything, so my plan for Wednesday is to double check the bulkhead templates, then cut ones from the stained and Watco oiled Walnut plywood, then trim the long side of the face frame to fit the floor to ceiling height. The dowels will be glued as it all goes together, and I'll cheat with a pocket screw in each of the rails. The original door will fit the opening, and I'll probably mill off 1/4" of the old plywood exterior surface of that and replace it with some 1/4" Mahogany, which with the stain formula looks pretty close to the Walnut. What seems to work the best is get the Walnut orange with Trans-tint dye in denatured alcohol and then brown it up with brown mahogany, then with the Mahogany, get it a little greener with Trans-tint Dark Walnut, and then two coats of Dark Walnut Watco. That keeps it just about how Airsteam did it on my trailer, except there was better walnut available for the stick frame portion. I haven't decide what I'm going to do on the inside of the lockers. They are just plywood without a hardwood veneer. The choices could be aromatic cedar with an iron on adhesive in the upper 2/3's of the lockers or, a brushed on Benjamin Moore semi-gloss in a color something close to a French roast coffee bean. So it will either smell like your Mom's Cedar chest when you open the door, or I'll hang a bag of ground coffee somewhere that smells good. We'll see.

[docflyboy]

Yesterday was a long day. I slept on what I last posted about the inside of my aft vertical lockers. The Walnut plywood that I could source was veneer on one side only. So my last efforts yesterday were to prime and paint the back side of the plywood with a oil base primer and water clean up Benjamin Moore Advance in a satin finish. I made it to my local Ace hardware about 8 pm with the trailer in tow, and selected the second lightest color on the off-white chip that has a color called Vanilla Ice Cream. Mine is not that color, but it's a great color that works with the vinyl clad skin color and the slight off white of the gel coat of the factory end-cap and the shower base. I was in bed by 11:30 with the primer on and the topcoat rolled out. Its self leveling, so it really is easy to work with. I need at least one coat so that I wouldn't have to paint up to my F-channel later.

Dustin arrived at 8 sharp and we had the curb side locker trimmed to fit, face frame installed and off to 5 Guys by 11:30 am. We stopped by Home Depot and picked up another sheet of 5 mm subfloor to make the Street-Side template off the old water damaged original.

Some have asked how to scribe your bulkheads, so I'm going to share what I think worked great. First we had our old bulkheads, so we scribed those to 5 mm subfloor which easily slides in the old F-channel. We cut them with a down cutting sabre saw blade (Diablo) which works great and doesn't splinter. I used the 7 amp Bosch saber saw and its hands down the best I've ever used. The Makita is going to my son's garage on Saturday. No comparison.

Next we test fitted them in the F-channel and then belt sanded them a little bit at a time, till we got them right. We would slip the template up against the clad skin or end cap and look for daylight and mark the area for more belt sanding, and then in about 4 trips in and out of the trailer, we had them perfect.

Next we put blue masking tape down on the pre-finished walnut plywood that had the back side painted off white. We used the down-cut blade also and cut with the veneer side up. We cut to the ball point pen line, leaving the line on the tape. We checked the veneered bulkhead to the F-channel, but resisted the temptation to run it in and out and delaminate the top veneer on either side. With no daylight showing, we removed the little bit of blue tape and very little wood fibers came up with it, since I had put Watco on it previously. Probably even less would have come up with a harder finish.

Airstream puts a couple indentations in the F-channel to hold it where it won't show on the inside of the cabinet. The one sided Walnut plywood that I was able to source was a perfect thickness and held great by the F-channel.

I had my Hon Mahog face frame pre-finished to match the wood tone of the Walnut and had doweled it like Airstream did in '68. I had to scribe the bottom of the rear shorter stile needed some taken off the bottom since it rests on the lip of the shower pan. The rail needed some taken off the back 1/3 and a little relief for the aluminum extrusion trim piece of the shower pan.

Next the stile of the forward portion goes to the ceiling, which has a curvature to it. My guestimate was about 9 degrees, which was real close, so I cut this on the table saw and kept nibbling till it was a tight fit. I used a Japanese saw to cut the difference between the overlapped clad skin and the taller end-cap.

With the face frame fitted, it was time to glue it up. Because of the rabbeted edge it was hard to clamp up, so one pocket screw was added to each corner inside the frame and two to hold the lower rail to the Marmoleum forward of the shower pan. The pre-finished wood makes glue clean up very easy.

The forward bulkhead is full height and about twice the surface area as the back one. To apply the glue, I laid them on the floor and put blue masking tape about 1/2" from the edge, then used Titebond and a silicone glue roller, then removed the tape and put the forward one in the F-channel, then the same for the aft piece of plywood.

It was a 4 handed job, but then I pin nailed everything together as Dustin held it in position. We had checked for square (sort of, since there aren't any square walls in an airstream) and then before putting the pocket screws in the floor, checked for 90 degrees between the face frame and the forward bulkhead, and checked that high and low, since if the face frame was racked, I'd be building a very interesting door to get it to close.

We went to lunch an picked up some #6 counter sunk SS screws and washers at Home Depot after lunch and then marked them on 12" centers and ran some tape down the plywood about a 1/4" from the joint of plywood to rabetted face frame. I don't think it would be wise to trust just pin nails and glue over satin water base paint on the inside of the plywood.

We installed the upper Street Side locker, which I rebuilt over the weekend with pre-finished Walnut plywood. The face frame was in good shape and Walnut, so I sanded it and the assembly of that is all with screws, so that if I need to take it apart for my DC panel mod, that will be easy.

Dustin banged out the template for the Street Side forward bulkhead, and it looks like I need to veneer about 12" on the back side, where the cabinet that sits adjacent to the Black tank is less deep. I looked on my phone and I don't have a pic of how the header crosses between the two forward bulkheads for the accordion door to the bath. If anyone can open their back window and take a pic that would be appreciated. I can't find one anywhere on Vintage Airstream of the Forum.

It was supposed to rain starting at 1, but we got lucky and it started at 3:30 when we were all done, except putting tools away. I've got some leaks to hunt down next. Jerry

[Disco Stu]

Looking great Jerry!

[docflyboy]

Thanks Stu. I got side tracked for a few months and didn't get as much done as I wanted. A breakthrough is great. Sure gives one motivation. Jerry

[dbj216]

Thank you for your description on making bulkhead walls to match a curvy Airstream wall. I too use the belt sander for final shaping. But I didn't have a good "F" channel or a former bulkhead wall. I think Airstream used the "F" channels to help hide the miss-match in their walls. I just don't know what to do when I'm staring at a square piece of plywood and a curved Airstream wall and nothing else.

Your woodwork looks great. It is going to be a special Caravel for sure.

David

[docflyboy]

David- thanks for your encouragement. As you know, its a grind. It's been a real plus that I have all the original interior, though it was water damaged from sitting with a missing window. I appreciate the problem of not having a template to work from. Dustin undercut the Street side template and what we did, was use a scrap of wood from the 5 mm sheet to pin nail over glue the "board stretcher" and then scribed that to the wall. We left all our templates wide, but you can't leave them tall. You can scribe with a carpenter's pencil and keep belt sanding, till you get it tight, then you rip the excess off the hallway side with a table saw. Jerry

[dbj216]

I got my wife a new table saw for Christmas. She was thrilled beyond belief! She lets me use it occasionally.

I too leave enough "meat" on my bulkhead wall trial and error so I can keep scribing and working until it looks good and then cut my length from the interior wall to the edge of the bulkhead wall. I used 1/2" red oak plywood laminate that I was impressed with. I wanted more strength instead of lightness as the Globe Trotter gets used hard boondocking. We did not use any "F" channels to hide miss-match like Airstream does. We shall see if it holds up.

David

[docflyboy]

David-Looks like your wife is a good sport. I got my wife an electric pressure washer for something like Christmas or Mother's Day one year, and she actually lets me use it. LOL. This Mother's Day, I've got something for her that she's always needed. I'll post in a week. Should have gotten me one too. Jerry

[docflyboy]

Today was a good day. After dimensioning the stock for the cabinet face frames, I was able to duplicate the original galley cabinet in Walnut plywood and Hon Mahog solid stock. I haven't put the finish on it yet, but I went ahead and put it in place. I put everything together with # 8 screws so that I could take the face frame off and finish it with the stain formula that worked on the vertical locker. Tomorrow I've got a little time to stop at my hardwood supplier and see if they have 3/4" butcher block hard maple counter top stock, which I think will be the most expedient way to proceed and also give me a surface that has few regrets on how guests use the cutting surface. Jerry

[dbj216]

Aluminuminum is big on durable countertops. He makes them so you can clean fish, pack wheel bearings, replace the seals in the dump valve, or cut kindling. Your choice of countertop materials will please him. My choice of Formica was less than impressive.

Your little Caravel is coming together nicely.

David

[jwschnettl]

Your galley cabinet is looking great. I built mine last summer. The cabinet in my '65 was toast. The frig had been replaced by a PO and the job was not done well at all. I was amazed no one died of carbon monoxide posioning! The door on the frig was bent so it went in the trash and I opted to replace it with the Dometic RM2354 3-way. The big challenges for me were the width of the RM2354 and interference of the lower front edge of the wheel well. I solved that problem by eliminating the cutlery drawer originally above the frig and raising up the new unit to clear the wheel well. I also had to raise the overall height of the cabinet about an inch. My 5'2" wife didn't complain because she loved the final result. I also had to basically put the frig into a sealed "box" to make it safe and draft properly. I added a baffle along the back of the cabinet to move the air entering the floor vent up through the frig heat exchanger before exiting the flue. Then I used a whole tube of silicone sealant to seal up the perfectly scribed sides and where the countertop met. I must have done OK because the frig works great in LP mode and the CO detector doesnt go off. The open area at the bottom of the bulkhead cabinet was filled with a Camco catalytic heater unit. The bottom drawer below the sink pulls out and houses a small plastic garbage pail for keeping the trash out of sight.
I saw your previous post on your bulkhead cabinet construction. I know I have the accordion door (my wife didn't like it) and I might still have the upper support piece and aluminum track piece at my storage unit. I can check later today. I used the piece to make the inlaid replacement that is in my trailer now. It fit between the tops of the face frames of the bulkhead cabinets and I used Kreg pocket screws to attach the replacement I made. I will try to get a good photo for you too.
Keep up the good work. I enjoy seeing your progress.
John S.