gutting interior '73 overland

[donettb]

We are new to the forum. We just purchased a '73 overland 27'. After reading other posts extensively, we have decided to take everything out of the interior in order to clean, paint the walls and install the new flooring. Then we will put everything back. I have a few questions. Is that the best thing to do? Otherwise we would just clean and put in flooring around everything and it wouldn't feel clean to us. Are we on the right track with this thinking? The sub floor is in excellent shape, as are the walls so we don't need to do anything there. How long will it take us to remove everything? What is involved in that process? Everything is in great shape except for some of the tambour doors which have to be replaced. We are planning to put everything back in that originally came out. How long does it take to put it back in? Any help would be great!!
Charles and Donett

[Lothlorian]

Here is what I did to my airstream.

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f36/...ion-38204.html

I have owned a 73 Overlander for 3 years. I used magic eraser by Mr. Clean on the walls and it came clean like new. I didn't take out the whole interior and fixed the dry rot spots. I am very glad I did what I did. I will send you the link to what I did. I was camping 6 month after I bought it. Think about how long you will be doing a complete restore, and the money you will spend.

If you do a complete overhaul I am sure it will be nice.

Good luck

[Lumatic]

Originally Posted by donettb

Everything is in great shape except for some of the tambour doors which have to be replaced
Charles and Donett

Most tambour doors can be repaired, although it is messy and labor intensive. There is also new replacement tambour available.

To beat a dead horse that keeps getting back up around here, if your 72 has original axles there is a good chance they need replacement. No sense in rebuilding the interior to have it beat apart by bad axles.

[Tom Nugler]

Welcome to the Forums. Enjoy your new Airstream.
Do some through research before you paint the walls and ABS endcaps. There have been reports of adhesion issues and problems with the paint curing due to the existing finish.
Magi erasers and Windex have worked pretty well at cleaning the walls and just about everything else I’ve run across. I’m currently working on my 3rd Vintage trailer. "Clean" is a highly subjective term when it comes to removing 40 years of accumulated grime. After every trip you’ll look at some new pile of grit and ask yourself, "Where did that come from?"
I’ve found the interior come out quite easily in the ’72. You’ll find the fridge is bolted through the floor and the nuts are difficult to reach and probably pretty rusted. Be careful if you have the full sized stove. It’s very heavy with plenty of sharp edges.
Good luck, have fun,

Tom.

[bullydogsmom]

We took out the entire interior of ours. Took about 20 hours start to finish. We also did a LOT of other repairs before we reinstalled the interior. You can go to the tradewind section of this forum and click onto "Annettes Folley" and see what we did.

As with most projects, things just seem to take on a life of there own. BUT I wouldn't change a thing. We now have a trailer we can take anywhere, and we did a 5,000 mile adventure with our grandkids last summer and we never had one bit of trouble with the Airstream.

Do it once do it right and you will have years of worry free adventures.

Annette