Little Girl Refurb 1972

[Top]

Very, very nice work Chris and Kay. The galley cabinet look fabulous.

[HiHoAgRV]

That looks awesum! You guys keep re-setting the hi-bar for the rest of us wanna-be's!!!

[Minno]

Thank you all for your kind comments! We just don't show you the mistakes we make. Hopefully the insurance company agrees with you and gives us insurance so we can take her on the road in September....

Kay

[Minno]

Today, we built the fridge cabinet. The left side is ¼” alder plywood, and the right side is ½” plywood with ¼” alder plywood glued to the outside surface. We want the additional strength of the ½” plywood as we will eventually hang a TV on this wall. The inside of the plywood is primed, and I caulked all around the inside to keep the gas fumes from the fridge from entering the living quarters.





Sanding and 3 coats of poly need to happen before we actually install the fridge, but we’re close!

Chris

[Minno]

Kay built a box to house the converter until we get the microwave cabinet built. Just a simple plywood box that we screwed to the floor and then installed the converter into. Certainly looks a lot neater, and it'll keep the converter safe while we go camping this fall. The yellow and white wire spools are for the propane detector. We’re not sure exactly where it will be installed yet, so I just connected the spools of wire for now.

She also put the first coat of poly on the fridge cabinet.



This evening, I removed the old wheel chair battery we were using and connected the golf cart batteries to the converter. Soldered lugs onto the cables and covered with pretty blue heat shrink. A table will eventually house the batteries and cover the umbilical wiring.

Chris

[Minno]

Kay finished putting poly on the fridge cabinet tonight, and I built a cabinet shelf and back to seal off the top of the fridge area. Then we installed the fridge!



Still need to hook up the propane and electrical, but she’s installed and screwed into place.




I also made and installed trim for the end of the wall between the bedroom and kitchen area. It’s 3 pieces of red alder ripped to 1/8” thick. Then I glued and tacked it to the wall with headless pin nails. Final touch was sanding the sharp corner into a rounded over corner. Kay put the first coat of poly on it tonight.



She also poly’ed the door trim I installed for the bathroom door. This trim is basically the same as the wall trim above, but the pieces that make up the door stop are ¼” thick. Kinda hard to see, but the stop stands proud on the bathroom side of the wall. The door will open out into the hall area, with the hinges on the right. Now that the trim is up, I can build the door to fit.

Chris

[jdg1938]

We just picked up our second Airstream and it has all the original paper and this paper for the flag pole.

[jdg1938]

Wow I guess I have two post under my belt, I didn't pay attention and the scaner didn't get the whole page.

[Minno]

Wow, that's really interesting, jdg! I think the flagpole we have is one my dad made: it has pipe clamps holding the cord holder on, and has "my dad made this" written all over it! I don't think we could use a holder like that either: we're going to put an electric jack on. I never knew they came with flagpoles originally. Do you have the flagpole too?

Kay

[Minno]

Hooked up the fridge Thursday evening. This morning, we tested the propane system. Using soapy water, we checked all the connections for leaks. Had worse luck than the pex water connections. Had 6 leaks. All of them required re-flaring. But, after doing that, the propane system is leak free!

Tested the stove, water heater, and fridge, and they all work! We let the fridge run all day and it cooled off nicely.

We got quite a bit of other stuff done today, but our main computer is OOC due to our granddaughter pouring her mother's coffee on top of the keyboard. Unfortunately, she drinks her coffee with lots of cream and sugar, so the keyboard is toast. I have a spare I'll connect tomorrow so we can post pictures.

[Bauxter]

Originally Posted by Minno

Hooked up the fridge Thursday evening. This morning, we tested the propane system. Using soapy water, we checked all the connections for leaks. Had worse luck than the pex water connections. Had 6 leaks. All of them required re-flaring. But, after doing that, the propane system is leak free!

Chris/Kay, How much slack in the line should one allow, to be able to re-flare, without replacing the line because they no longer were long enough, after re-flaring?

[Minno]

Originally Posted by Bauxter

Chris/Kay, How much slack in the line should one allow, to be able to re-flare, without replacing the line because they no longer were long enough, after re-flaring?

Good question. I allowed an extra inch or so at the stove and furnace. I figure 1 inch let’s me cut off the old flare and ½” of tube and re-flare twice. The routing of the propane line for the water heater didn't allow for any extra there, so if that was one of the leaks that I had to re-flare, I would have pulled extra line up from below the trailer. One of the leaks was in the connection for the water heater under the trailer by the black tank, and there was plenty of extra line there to allow me to re-flare that fitting. At the fridge, I made a large "S" (really looks more like a backwards “?”) in the gas line so I have plenty there in case a new fridge down the road has a different gas valve location. I think I have 5 or 6 extra inches of line there, which was good because that was fitting #2 I had to re-flare. The rest of the leaks were in the manifold I built under the trailer to go from the 1/2" main to the 3/8" branch lines. No extra tubing there, so I had to re-do all 3 of the 1/2" lines that connected the tee's together. Each one was about 2 ½” long. Discovered that the tubing I removed was slightly oval in shape instead of round, so I think that's why half of those fittings leaked.

Chris

[Minno]

Got a lot done the last two days again.


Cut 1/4" alder plywood panels, poly'ed them, and installed them in the fridge doors. Installed the handles as well, so the fridge is now 100% finished and functional.



Riveted the rest of the center ceiling panel up and installed the trim rings around the 3 vents.



Also installed the inner workings for the TV antennae. A smoke alarm is installed now as well, between the TV antennae and the middle vent, but no picture of that.


Decide to err on the side of safety. Even though we have AGM batteries, and some folks say they so not need to be vented, we decided that venting them was prudent.



So, we built a box for the batteries out of ½” plywood. Glued and screwed together, and the inside seams are all siliconed to seal it. The top is screwed on (no glue), with an EDPM gasket to seal it. We're still going to build a table to slip over the battery box to hide it, yet still have it accessable.



The box is vented out the front of the trailer behind the propane tanks.



I bought these cute little vents from Western Marine online. They are screened on the bottom to keep bugs out.



The biggest project we did yesterday and today was to build install the bathroom door. It’s red 8/4 alder stock planed down to 1 3/8” thick, the minimum thickness the door latch say to use. That's also the thickess I made the door jamb so it all aligns when the door is closed. The first picture is from the bedroom side, and the second picture is from the bathroom side.

We also worked on cleaning her out this evening. If all goes well, tomorrow she’ll be moved to her rightful parking place next to our driveway.

[Minno]

Big event day here! We have her to the point where we can use her for the rally, and we can put her safely on the road!

But first, we cleaned her up inside. Got all the tools and misc parts like rivets, boxes of screws, etc., etc. all out of her and dumped into my workshop. Now my workshop looks like a cyclone hit it, but Little Girl is all neat and clean inside!

We also built and installed a shelf over the front window. In part to hold the valance up better, but mostly so we could install the stereo. Boy does it sound good! Much better than the boombox we've been using.



Here’s a picture of the front living room now. We brought in the two recliners we bought months ago, and set them up. Other additions in this picture are the shelf and stereo over the valance, the two speakers in the side walls over the chairs, and two light sconces by the speakers (they’re kinda tucked in behind the curtains on the side walls).



Here’s a broader view of the living room and kitchen. All neat and clean!



Here’s a view facing aft.

As I mentioned above, she was moved today for the first time in four years. I hitched her up to our truck using our Equalizer hitch, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it’s not too far out of adjustment for our truck and trailer combo. Amazing, since the last TV/Trailer combo was an Excursion and a Starstream. I do need to bring the whole set-up over to Crystal Welding and have them re-weld the hitch head for this combination, but its close enough to make it over there safely.



Here I am pulling out of our driveway. Getting her to this point was an adventure all by itself, as I had to navigate from our way-back yard around trees and bushes that have grown quote a bit in the last four years. But we made it safely.



Here we’re threading between our son’s Jayco, a tree, the front corner of our house, and our Mustang. Easier pulling out forward than it was backing in 4 years ago.



Finally, here she is in her new home, which is right next to the driveway where the Jayco was in the picture above. Our Navy son’s Jayco has been moved to the side yard until they get back in the States from Pearl Harbor duty in 2014.

All in all, we were really excited to get her moved today, even though all we did was drive around the block! But it’s a major accomplishment! Still lots of work to do in her, but now we can use and enjoy camping in her as well as work on her.

Chris

[HiHoAgRV]

its awesum seeing one on the road....

Cheers and congrats!

[Minno]

Ran into a problem with our 3rd (center) brake light when we connected the trailer to our TV. Everything functioned as expected, except the 3rd brake light would blink or flash on every second or so when the brakes are not engaged.

I had simply connected the LED 3rd brake light to the blue electric brake wiring in the trailer, thinking that the power draw of the LEDs would not have a measurable impact on the function of the electric brakes. Which it didn’t as far as I could tell in my short trip around the block last weekend. But the blinking light was enough for me to look for another solution.

I Googled “3rd trailer brake light wiring” and was led to the eTrailer web site and an expert answer to my question. Here’s the link: http://www.etrailer.com/question-23155.html

They had the answer to my wiring problem! I bought the converter mentioned in the article, and installed it today. Wiring it in was quite easy – 3 connections plus a ground. Picture of it wired in below.



Now the 3rd brake light functions as it should, and the right and left turn signals also function as they should. One added benefit in my opinion is that when the hazard lights are flashing, the 3rd brake light also flashes along with the right and left turn signal lights.

Chris

[Minno]

Finished up some other projects we wanted done before bringing her on the road on Monday.



Installed the electric jack.



Installed the break away switch. I actually did this before bringing her out last weekend, but I forgot to mention it before.



Wrapped the umbilical cord, break away switch wiring, and electric jack wiring in self-sealing black tape from where they exit the front of the trailer up to where I attached them to the frame under the propane tanks. Just made everything look a lot neater.



Finished installing the duct under the bed, and put down some carpet to pad stuff stored under the bed. Now we can run the furnace if we need it at the rally next weekend.



Converted the xenon ceiling lights to LED. Used two 9 LED pads in each light fixture. The two pics show the same light with one LED pad on, and then with both LED pads on. Not only do they use a lot less current, they also are brighter, and produce a lot less heat. Those xenon bulbs are hot!! And they made the fixture really hot too. This conversion took about 10 minutes per fixture, as I had to take them apart, and tweak the sockets a bit so rotate them so the LED pads would both fit into the fixture and point down instead of off 45 degrees. Didn’t think to take pictures of that modification though.

Also installed a new 20 LED pad in the light over the door.

Tomorrow, we plan on installing the front window rock guard and door deadbolt.

Chris

[Aerowood]

Thanks for the link on the 3rd brake light. I had not wired mine in yet because of the reason you stated. Where did you put it, in the front or the back? Thanks

[Minno]

Originally Posted by Aerowood

Thanks for the link on the 3rd brake light. I had not wired mine in yet because of the reason you stated. Where did you put it, in the front or the back? Thanks

The controller, right? I mounted it in the front where the umbilical cord enters the trailer and connects to the trailer wiring. It's directly in front of the battery box stuck to the floor with the double sided tape it comes with. I had the 3rd brake light wiring run there already.

I see no reason why it couldn’t be mounted at the rear of the trailer either. All it needs for input connections are the right turn/stop signal, the left turn/stop signal, and ground. The only output used is the center stop signal going to the 3rd brake light.

Chris

[Minno]

Accomplished a few things on Sunday.


We installed the rock guard over the front windows. That was quite a bit easier than we expected it to be. The pictures in the instruction left a little bit to be desired – the instructions looked like they were a copy of a copy of a copy… Pictures were less than clear, but we figured it all out.



We also installed a big level on the front. It is level to the floor and fridge - the trailer's not quite level right now. There's something about a dark rock guard covering the front windows and a big ball level that just says “Airstream” to me. Probably because Kay’s parent's Airstreams always had these two items on the front. Plus the lower corner rock guards and a big awning, which we’ll add next year.



I also turned the jack head 90 degrees. With it facing front, the pickup truck’s tailgate hits it right at the orange reflector. So, by turning it, we should be able to open the tail gate while hitched. We’ll find out for sure on Friday.

We did run into a tire clearance issue that I fixed yesterday and today. That’s discussed in another thread: http://www.airforums.com/forums/f36/tire-to-wheel-well-clearance-96256.html

Now we’re scheduled to bring her to Crystal Welding Friday morning to have the hitch adjusted and new safety chains welded on. Then we’ll head up to the rally in Clear Lake.

We've also been moving camping stuff from our son's trailer into Little Girl. Not moving everything yet as we defiantly have a lack of storage right now, but moving enough stuff so we can go camping.

Chris