69 Ambassador Frame On

[Bubba L]

Originally Posted by Dremel

I will be redoing all the window glass to frame seals.

Wondering if I need to do the frame to skin seal and rivets.
They look ok, But if needed, now would be the time to redo since the inner skin is off.

Any opinions?

That’s a tough call. I don’t know the condition of the existing seals. On our 55 we found some corrosion between the frame and skin. But that was a backframe gasket that gets brittle after decades. If you have butyl, that lasts a long time. But, like you said, Now would be the time. If it were me, I would probably drill out the rivets, clean everything up, re-seal and re-rivet. If you do rework, I would straighten out the frame edges where the bucking dimpled the rivet holes. If you like to rivet and have the time, better safe than sorry. Bubba

[lahrfarm]

Have you made any more progress on the 69?

[Dremel]

Lots have been done.
Maybe I can find the pics and finally update this thread


Floors are bolted in
belly pan is insulated with rock wool
New 4x8 sheets used for belly pan
New axles are installed
front wing and center windows removed and reinstalled. Buck rivited.
one wing plex glass removed and polycarbonated reinstalled
All olympic rivits removed and newly bucked
All inside rivets and seams covered with trempro
AC removed and new seal put on. ( will use this ac untill it dies ) but framed it up so that a new one can drop on.
New tail light covers and led bulbs
New scare light
Adapted the 2 ceiling fans to Maxxfans
New tv antenna put on
Replaced the antenna mount
New LED marker lights all around
painted tongue
layer of the foil bubble stuff on walls ( will fill remainder with rock wool)
All AC 110v lines have been ran to their locations
All DC lines ran
( sill have to run a few things more that will be in the walls )

I think we have decided to make our own end caps.
Deciding on aluminum or wood
Going to do our own rear bath layout

[dbj216]

You are really going after it. Your 69 Ambassador will be very well built and very nice when done. I stumbled onto your project thread and have enjoy reading it over.

Renovating a vintage Airstream is a big, big project.

David

[Dingo Girl]

Great progress!

[Dremel]

Some pics of the progress. Somewhat in order.

( these are before the floor )

Repaired the wheel wells. There were some tears in the metal. I riveted on patches where needed. Painted inside with black rubber stuff.
Reinstalled

[Dremel]

floor going in
3/4" high grade plywood that has been polyed with multable coats.

I used elevator bolts in the middle. and 1/4" bolts in the channel and outriggers

[Dremel]

I got my GREY tanks from vintage trailer supply.
4 in deep. I have been told that 5 " would have worked.

anyways, since I used 4" , I could make my holders by putting then on top of the bottom part of the cross members.
I used 2 pieces of 1/8" steel bar and 1 piece of angle for each tank.

The tanks have a plug in the bottom to drain, one in the top for breathing and filling, and then they connect and pipe out the back towards the blank tank.

In the pic of the floor, you can see the cutout for the fill

One tank is over the front axle , then an empty bay, and then the second tank

[Dremel]

With the tanks, There would have been room on the far side to run 4 or 5" round solid duct work to connect the front square duct to the rear duct.

However the decision to go with catalytic has been made. So I skipped this.

[Dremel]

The front window and wing window at some point were olympic riveted.
So was at least 3 rear panels , rear window, and a bow or two.

Cut out all the olympics, and bucked

[Dremel]

replaced the polycarbonite in one of the wings, I could take the screws out and replace. The other wing was welded together, so I will live with the poly in it.
To bad the glass was broken a long time ago.

Clamped the poly down to cut.

[Dremel]

Putting in Maxxfans.
Cut the rounded opening square.
Decide to pop rivet on a few pieces of aluminum angle
Then drilled and Tapped for the Maxxfan mounting trim
This way I can use machine bolts instead of sheet metal screws
The pop rivets will be under the trim and not seen

[Dremel]

Cleaning up and resealing the bath fan. In order to take off, you had to remove the hat. Of course, the screws broke off. Had to drill and tap new holes.
Bath fan works fine.

Kitchen fan will need work or replacement. Makes a lot of noise

[Dremel]

Decided to keep the old coleman mach ac for now.
Took it off and put on a new seal.
Framed up the opening.
None was there. This will give a solid area to clamp the ac to.
Also designed it for the standard 14x14 for a new ac in the future. Just cut out the center piece of wood, and good to go.

[Dremel]

Sealed all the seams , rivets, and both sides of the ribs with Trempro.

Note: I did some with trempro. Then being out of tubes, I thought I would look local. Found some masterseal NP1. The tech sheet sounded close to trempro.
used 14 tubes of it. went on fine, looked fine, would have worked fine.
However, the fumes it gave off are too strong, still smelled a week later.
Ended up peeling off all of it. and redoing with trempro.

lots of time and energy wasted because I did not want to wait for a shipment of trempro.

Luckily all the smell went away after the peeling. even though I know there is remnants still there.

[Dremel]

Insulated and boxed in the wheel wells

New BAL stabilizers. The old ones had bent brackets and some breaks. Considered fixing, but this is easier. Was ging to make them electric, but a drill works just as good

Found this on the wall of our 69. dated 9/27/68 nice to know when production was.

[Dremel]

Went with Reflectix for the first layer against the skin.
I do not believe the company claims of r value even with the air spacing, etc.
But to each his own.
I did go ahead and use it in case the claims of refecting heat are true.
Electric will go in next and then the rest will be filled with rock wool


Next will post pics of belly skin, axles, and electric wires

[lahrfarm]

How hard is it to replace the floor with the shell on. Seems like it would be hard to get plywood in. The exterior skin on the sides of mine wraps to belly, so install from inside?

[Dremel]

If I had it to do over, I would do a shell off. Especially since I have a barn and rafters.

But, no it is not hard.
Now for my opinion on proper floor replacement.
You must remove the rivets holding your wrap down. You have to be able to put bolts in the c channel and outriggers.
I think you should remove the entire belly pan so that you can bolt the floor to the cross members. Others say you can screw it down.
The con of bolting is that you now have to insulate from the bottom and put up the belly pan.

When you remove the floor, put in spacer blocks to keeps the c channels off the outriggers
I would keep the back 8 foot attached to original until you get the front 1 or 2 pieces of new floor in. This way the channels does not move off the frame cockeyed, etc.

The area you are working on is NOT bolted to anything at the time you are working on it. Thus the ribs and skins will bow out as you rotate in the full width pieces of floor.

The back 2 pieces were the hardest. but they did go in.
I did have to jack up the c channel a bit. to reduce the friction of sliding in the piece.

But they all went in from the inside.

Center area between the wheel wells last

[Dremel]

Be sure to measure the width carefully, it is easy to think it needs to be shorter, and then the floor is only running half way under the c channel