Visit our Popular Forums

dieseleagle · 10-13-2009, 01:30 AM

I understand the aesthetic considerations. The mix of dozens (hundreds?) of compromises we make during the course of our restorations makes each of them a little unique. Adds character.

goransons · 10-18-2009, 07:59 PM

Airforums Classifieds to the rescue. On its way, an original aluminum pressure tank complete with trim ring and cap. Once here, cleaning, maybe polishing (we'll see) and be happy to at least temporarily get this installed (it will have to be lifted slightly for tile when that goes down) but can get one more hole in the shell closed up before the weather gets worse.

Yesterday I finished up the craziest part of my year, and finally can get back to work removing interior paint, a labor intensive job but something believe it or not I've been looking forward to getting back to.

Here's the tank at the seller's location

Happy to also mark today as my 1000th post!

Xbob2 · 10-18-2009, 08:33 PM

Nice tank Scott ... you can take that off your signature!
Bob

goransons · 10-18-2009, 08:56 PM

Got it, thanks Bob!

soldiermedic · 10-22-2009, 05:36 PM

Congrats on your 1,000th post Scott. I may be able to get you the screens, but need to get over to the 63 TW I have recently taken over.

goransons · 10-22-2009, 06:46 PM

Thanks Steve, I have a perfect astrodome screen that measures 14 3/4 wide by 25 3/4 long, square corners, problem is the screen is 1" too long, both for lifter locations and frame, and with those weird grommets and crimped corners it would never be quite right. The measurements that appear would fit correctly are14 3/4 wide by 24 3/4 long. Can only presume they made several different sizes over the years?

goransons · 10-26-2009, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goransons

Airforums Classifieds to the rescue. On its way, an original aluminum pressure tank complete with trim ring and cap. Once here, cleaning, maybe polishing (we'll see) and be happy to at least temporarily get this installed (it will have to be lifted slightly for tile when that goes down) but can get one more hole in the shell closed up before the weather gets worse.

Yesterday I finished up the craziest part of my year, and finally can get back to work removing interior paint, a labor intensive job but something believe it or not I've been looking forward to getting back to.

Here's the tank at the seller's location

Happy to also mark today as my 1000th post!

Well back to the drawing board.... Pressure tank is back on my parts needed list. The tank I paid to ship across country was aluminum, but the entire bottom of the tank was coated with all sorts of jb weld patches and fiberglass repairs not shown in the photos. A shame because it looked nearly perfect in the photos and was told it held water, but can see through holes into the tank so know it can't possibly be.

Initial estimate is cutting the tank and welding in a replacement bottom would exceed the cost of just buildng one from scratch. Really don't want to go plastic, just for originality's sake, even though probably cheaper and easier. Anyone else out there that has an aluminum or stainless tank would love to know more about it, including how the bottom looks this time, and we'll see how the wife feels about spending money on something we already spent money on..

3Ms75Argosy · 10-26-2009, 06:01 PM

Scott - that's a major bummer! Just my two cents.. my 63 had a what looked and felt (must have been easy 70 #'s if not more!) galvanized steel tank. It appeared to be in "reasonable" shape, but I tossed it (sorry, prior to me knowing that you needed one!) because I couldn't fathom using it because 1) it had over 45 yrs of scum inside!!! 2) That thing was HEAVY!!.

I would consider going non original here... plastic would be cheaper I'm sure you could find a stock sized plastic one that would work that would be less $$ than a custom, and you wouldn't have to worry about getting a pump to pressurize the system to get it too work.

The seller won't come part way on the cost? Seems kinda "non-forums'y" to sell something that way....

Sending you positive Karma your way....
Marc

Xbob2 · 10-26-2009, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goransons

Well back to the drawing board.... Pressure tank is back on my parts needed list. The tank I paid to ship across country was aluminum, but the entire bottom of the tank was coated with all sorts of jb weld patches and fiberglass repairs not shown in the photos. A shame because it looked nearly perfect in the photos and was told it held water, but can see through holes into the tank so know it can't possibly be.

Initial estimate is cutting the tank and welding in a replacement bottom would exceed the cost of just buildng one from scratch. Really don't want to go plastic, just for originality's sake, even though probably cheaper and easier. Anyone else out there that has an aluminum or stainless tank would love to know more about it, including how the bottom looks this time, and we'll see how the wife feels about spending money on something we already spent money on..

Scot,
Sorry to hear you got skunked by a forums member ... I would ask for my money back or threaten to publish his Forums name so he could be shunned. (My galvanized tank is available for cost of shipping.)
Bob

goransons · 10-26-2009, 06:16 PM

Thanks Bob, Marc, I've sent a note to the seller to see if there is anything to do, but will need to give them time to respond. Thanks for the encouragement.

Blue Pearl · 10-26-2009, 06:25 PM

Scott, Just thinking, could you cut out the bottom of the tank and just get a water bladder to fit inside. Clean water and the look you want. Just an idea, I know nothing about the pressure stuff and if it would work.

goransons · 10-26-2009, 06:27 PM

see above for sent photo, here's what I didn't get to see. All the dark gray is JB weld or some other type of metal epoxy, the yellowish areas are fiberglass mesh. (Yes my fence needs to be pressure washed and restained, airstream first, fence second right?)

3Ms75Argosy · 10-26-2009, 08:18 PM

Good idea Theresa! They make water bladders for ski boats (to load the transom) that may work.... or a LOT of Camelback bladders...

Marc

goransons · 10-27-2009, 05:34 PM

As the weather begins to turn and while I wait to figure out this tank stuff, I decided to address a couple known leak sources in the shell.

#1 the rear end cap seams are spread in places enough I'd have felt bad if I was assembling them, and have been sealed with what I think was white silicone 20 years ago, so working with remove that stuff (which is like concrete). polish the rear end cap, the mask at seal those seams. Lots of pitting on this trailer, don't think we'll ever have a mirror polish, but not in the plans anyway, just a tasteful shine, beauty marks and all.

#2 the patch on the curb side. Apparently very old, not sure if its from the AWC or not, but I'm going to at least pretend it is because I don't want to get into end cap repair. The original patch was a hack job, looked like a patch on the side of the road so I'm going to try to do a little better. Original was installed over a bondo/fiberglass type repair, still much to clean up here, then going to use some scrap from my panel replacement to make a more tasteful patch that sits flush instead of a 1/4" proud, and use rivets instead of pop rivets with silcone pumped on in the hole. When I removed the patch, water poured out from behind it. Labor intensive but cheap repair to do.

goransons · 10-27-2009, 06:19 PM

And here's where I'm at on the rear end cap polishing, just this afternoon for about 90 minutes, so have a lot of work left yet, but compare the before and after, already looks better. Wanted clean seams to seal to, plus the neighbors will be happier

66Overlander · 10-28-2009, 03:53 AM

Lookin' good Scott! Your work is an inspiration to us all.

And yeah, I remember that rear curbside patch from when I looked at the trailer. It was kind of rough. I think you're doing the right thing assuming it is from the ATW caravan and just cleaning it up, but leaving it there. It's got a story to tell. I doubt many trailers completed that caravan without some sort of path or other repair here or there.

goransons · 10-28-2009, 08:17 PM

its amazing how much those end caps curve, even in the flatter areas. Patch I removed was like pop can material, now .032 2024 scrap from panel replacement. Would have had it done before dark (took a picture while there was still some light) but there was a shooting outside my office this afternoon, nothing related to school, not school kids but ate up a lot of the afternoon. Only thing I wish I could have done was round the corners on the patch, but the original was square cornered, and the edges had been carved pretty bad over the years so I didn't like seeing lines completing the corners in the end cap, and slightly bigger just wouldn't lay flat, so its an exact copy of the original patch, but this time sits flat against the body, plenty of tempro on the slice in the skin, the edges of the patch and of course every rivet. Still need to shave (no I wasn't dropping the end cap) them and clean up the extra gray stuff and polish.

Thanks for the comment Joe, but am humbled every time I try to cut, file, drill or install anything metal here. Gives me a whole new appreciation for Kip, Zep and those other metal workers with the fancy custom stuff! I had a hard time making a square patch!

goransons · 10-31-2009, 04:03 PM

Tank update-

Great guy that welded my window frames looked at the pressure tank today, figures he can repair the end caps on it with some welding to rebuild bad metal, then roll a new body for the tank and transfer over all the brackets and filler. He said it will take more but he'd do it for 4 hours labor (@ $60.00 an hour) plus material. He guessed the tank was 1/8 plate aluminum plate, so probably a fair amount for material too. So I'm guessing around 500 bucks to repair the tank.

Not sure how to proceed now. Figure it would cost me about 200-300 to get a custom tank to fit correctly, plus I'd have to go buy an on demand pump, another 100+ for a good one, plus modifying the filler area, which I have a late 60's filler but would need to replace the panel under the window because the pressure tank's filler opening in the skin is much bigger than the newer style... Certainly not going to happen any time soon, especially when I hear the carrier units are going out of production and want the lowest profile I can get up there.

No luck with the seller on even getting an answer of "Tuff luck". Jill was the seller, she said it was out of her 61 globetrotter. She's the sales manager for an Indiana trailer company, but will refrain from the company name (she uses their email but don't think she represents the company). Not sure of her forums ID since it appears a different id for classifieds versus forums. As much as I love this forum I'm 100% certain I won't buy through classifieds again, rather stick with Ebay where a user profile and paypal is there to protect me a little. I plan to try to petition the payment but pretty much convinced the 90 bucks is gone.

Sorry to rant, this forum has been much more a positive than negative (thats an understatement) but this still leaves a bad taste in our mouths ya know?

Frank's Trailer Works · 10-31-2009, 05:32 PM

Scott, There is always the possibility the seller had no idea. Now she is just hoping that the problem will go away. This is the typical American response to making a mistake. Instead of saying "sorry, I did you wrong" you just hope the other person just gives up. But there is a real chance she had no idea the tank was bad. I would not surpize me in the slightest.

goransons · 10-31-2009, 07:13 PM

True Frank, I suppose, but could smell the epoxy when I opened the box, it was pretty fresh...

My next thought is the original galv. tank is pitted on the inside but unlike the aluminum tank is not showing signs of significant rust etc.

A few years ago I helped my dad redo the gas tank in an old car. Kit from Eastwood I think that you etched the tank, then poured in a solution, sloshed it around the epoxy coating relined the tank. I read up on the system and it isn't for pottable water.

Does anyone know of a system that is safe for drinking water? I think I could coat that galv. tank and be good for a long time and keep that original fabric.

Found this one source, have sent email asking for info, wondering if it can be poured and sloshed around in the tank, and sizes they have available.

Epoxy Coating &Ultra Pure Water Tank Coating (RODI)