Newbie in need of HELP!

[stumpshot]

Thanks to all who have taken on the task of restoring an old Airstream and shared your wisdom and knowledge on this site. I have recently acquired a '68 Safari 22' twin. To say it needs a lot of work would be an understatement...I only hope I live long enough to finish her. I am starting the restoration by closing up all the known holes in the exterior which are plentiful. The trailer has two windows broken out...the largest curved window on the side and the rear flat one which has been replaced with a piece of what appears to be plexiglass or lexan in a frame screwed to the exterior skin around the window...at any rate I have the replacement windows and should have new gaskets any day...I decided to start on the broken side window. I have been working at trying to get the two pieces apart which clamp onto the top of the glass...I have every shard of broken glass and the old bedding tape removed....all of the screws are removed except the one which attaches the bar to frame...that particular screw is surrounded by old Vulkem.... I have tried heat and gentle prying with a wide pry bar to separate these pieces with no luck... I am very afraid of damaging something. I do know that I have type three windows which are the only ones deemed serviceable in the field...so I have the easy ones...somehow doesn't seem comforting to me right now. I am wondering if I need to go ahead and remove that one last screw and if there is some trick that one of you wise veterans of the window wars might share with a rookie.

Thanks, Jess

[newsgauger]

Hi Jess,

I would suggest you use a dremel tool to knock the head off of the screw, thus freeing the frame.

Once removed you should be able to get at the back side.

Oh, and welcome to Airforums. And, we like pictures!

Chris

[stumpshot]

Thanks for your help Chris...I hadn't tried to remove the last screw yet...It came out easily but the two parts of the glass bar still don' want to separate in spite of all my efforts....at this point I am really not sure how to proceed short of getting brutal...something I don't want to do with aluminum. Any more suggestions would be appreciated.

Jess

[genearnold]

If I interpret the photo correctly the channels seem to be the kind that slide apart. Lots of rust and crud. I think I'd work on spraying penetrating oil into the channel and waiting for it to do its work. Probably will take repeated applications before it slides apart. Sorry if I've missed the point!

[TouringDan]

Welcome to the forums Jess.

As you may know the 66-68 Airstreams are the only ones with curved side glass windows with Phillips operators. The brackets seem to be made out of pot metal and seem to break easily. I have replaced about half of mine. I think I got new brackets from VTS. To remove the brackets you remove the c-clip at the top, then unscrew the set screw and slide the bracket off the end. If there is a problem removing the set screw I would just drill it out. This may ruin the bracket, but then you can replace it with a new bracket before it breaks. Here is a photo of one of the old window brackets. If it does not slide off easily after application of some pb blaster or similar, you might try to tap it with a small hammer. I hope this helps.

Dan

[stumpshot]

Thanks to all for your input....

Dan, I successfully removed the screw from the arm so from what I can see there would be no reason to completely remove it from the lower part of the glass bar...the screw which holds it in place is long and was certainly helping to hold the two glass bar pieces in place...but in spite of repeated efforts at soaking with penetrating oil, tapping, heating, gentle prying etc., it refuses to budge.

Thanks again to everyone for your help...Jess

[stumpshot]

Hurray...finally got the two pieces of the glass bar separated...it appears there was some sort of sealant injected into the screw holes at the time of assembly. The sealant finally gave way and let the two come apart. Now to get the parts cleaned up and reassembled with a new window and gasket...Thanks again to all of you for your help and encouragement.

Jess

[Macdady]

Congrats on your new(old trailer), I too recently just purchased a 68 22' Safari, I have temporarily replaced two of the 17 x 20 windows that were broke with Plexiglas until I order the real thing. Are you planning a shell off restoration to work on the floor and frame?
my shell is in really good condition, but has floor damage around kitchen and bath area and I am currently gutting the inside to see if I can pull of replacing the floor without removing the shell, providing the frame still looks good after the floor is out, It has been done apparently but most say taking off the shell is obviously best. Good Luck!

Greg

[stumpshot]

Greg,

Congrats to you as well on the Safari 22'...I am going to attempt to replace the floor w/o removing the shell but the condition of the frame will be the deciding factor. My trailer has a soft spot in front of the door, behind the fridge and in the bath area. I can see a cross member in the rear of the trailer which appears to have the black water tank right above it....that cross member is very rusty and looks like it will have to be replaced...I think that particular problem can be repaired by dropping the rear of the belly pan from what I have read on this site. This trailer has a decent shell, not perfect but decent. If I do any exterior aluminum replacement it will be the front lower quarter panels on both sides. The street side appears to have been damaged by the old tv antenna and the curb side has a puncture wound over an inch long...

Are you removing the interior end caps and or the bathroom? The bathroom will have to be removed on this one and it looks pretty intimidating...getting it back together looks to me to be the biggest hurdle...keep me posted on your progress Greg and Good Luck to You.

Jess

[Macdady]

Jess,
It sounds like we have twins, my trailer has very similar water damage as yours, in front of door, behind sink and fridge and in rear under the window and my cross member is rotted through also, the rear storage compartment door was/is missing (made a temp out of plywood for now) and any wood in that area is practically gone. I have 3/4 of the interior removed now and getting ready to start removing the bath area and it does look intimidating but I figure slow/steady and try to be patient (good luck..lol)and lots of pictures and this forum is a fantastic resource to say the least!...I will keep you updated on my progress and you do the same!..I am in the process of loading some pics to my profile and also may put some video of my progress on Youtube.

Greg

[stumpshot]

Greg,

It sounds like we are both in for a lot of work any way we go about it. If I had a place to work on the trailer that was completely enclosed for the winter I would consider the shell off routine and I still may do it next year...it's just that my rv parking area is basically a pole barn...the poles being 4"x6"...but never the less it has no sides on it right now and severe winters can occur here with lots of snow and no power for days...hence my decision to work on all the openings which are currently allowing in moisture...figure it will have to be done anyway...Today I worked on the old vent covers, two of them, cleaned them up and replaced the gaskets....the first one went very smoothly...maybe too smoothly as it took me 3 attempts on the second one...I had to cut the gasket about 1/8" too long at so that the seam is under a little compression...I look forward to hearing about and seeing your progress. Good Luck,

Jess