Kiwi style 1966 Ambassador rebuild.

[Road Chief]

Hi airstreamers we live on the North Island of New Zealand. With a total of 5 million people and 63 registered Airstream travel trailers!

After selling my 32’ fishing boat I started looking for something different and within 2 weeks of serious looking an Airstream came up for sale, needs some TLC the advertisement said.

I’m one for a project, so I went and had a look.
Next minute I’m driving home with a 1966 28’ Ambassador, Airstream travel trailer in tow.
Must add I’d never seen one in real life, only in books and magazines.
If you don’t count the coffee trailer in the Auckland airport.

Well the first thing I did once home was, of course.. dismantled the interior, removed the inner skin, I’ve never seen such a collection of fossilised squirrels �� and rodents in my life, removed all the rivets from around the floor area and lifted the shell off the chassis. Ripped up the rotten flooring.
Welded some more steel into the chassis, sandblasted and painted the chassis, and replaced the floor with marine plywood, ran new gas lines, (NZ requirements) rebuilt the axles, replaced the insulation under the floor and replaced the sub floor. Then it was time to replace the shell.

Riveted the body back onto the chassis, filled the walls with R3.2 insulation, ran 230 volt cables and new inverter (NZ requirements) ran all new 12 volt system, fibreglassed up all the holes in the original end caps and fitted them back into place and replaced the inner walls with full length aluminium sheets.

I have made a new bed (island walk around) in the front. It lifts up for storage and has the pot water tank under it.
Made a cabinet for the switch board, fridge/freezer (full size) and a pullout pantry, made a set of 6 draws for under the 8’ long kitchen bench, and a shower wall with a cavity sliding door. The shower is luxurious 3’ x 4’ base, with rain head and handheld wand.
Oh and I had to replace the water heater, 3 way fridge, and gas hob to meet NZ standard.

I forgot to mention the 250 plus hours of cutting and polishing that I did while recovering from shoulder surgery.

Got the floor covering down a few days ago, one sheet of linoleum that looks like polished concrete.

All the furniture is now going in for the final fit and finish. A huge sigh of relief because now I can see everything I’ve designed in my head and fabricated on the shed floor, coming together at long last.

In short I’m almost 2 years into the renovation and hopefully will be Airstreaming around New Zealand by August/September (this year)

[Minno]

Congratulations on your rebuild! I hope you enjoy many years with it as we are ours!


Kay

[Peter417]

How about some photos of all this work?

[Road Chief]

Got way too many photos to upload them all, but we are now travelling around New Zealand in her and I live in it while working away from home, so we are really settled in and living the airstream dream.

[SuperTrouper]

WOW! She's beautiful! Excellent work!

[guzzinerd]

Great! That takes some dedication being half a world away from any AS suppliers.

[Road Chief]

I would have to agree with you on that, half a world away indeed. But I do have the power of the internet at my fingertips and I do have a credit card so by rubbing the two together I can get anything delivered to my door.
New ends for the day Zip Dee awning, Buck rivets and the tools to attach them, even period correct half moon hub caps but I do have to be careful with the ordering because returning items is almost impossible and in most cases unpractical, the cost of shipping wasn’t to bad but since Covid has increased to a point where it would be cheaper if I flew to the States, had a holiday and hand carried everything back myself.

[Road Chief]

Thank you so much, it’s been a great project and I didn’t really underestimate the scale of the project, I just knuckled in and always keep the finished product clear in my mind.

Now I’m enjoying the finished product and when I get nice compliments on the finished item it makes me smile on the inside.