Longwinded Hello from Flagstaff!

[DesertBoater]

Howdy!

I'm fairly new to the whole Airstream thing but definitely not to living out of and working on small mobile spaces. I have a good friend who purchased an Airstream a few years ago with intentions if a modest renovation (you can probably see where this is going) and then living out of it full time while working seasonally as a field biologist. Needless to say, he didn't realize how big of a job he was getting himself into and ended up putting the trailer in storage for the last few years in rather sorry shape. After a phone conversation recently, he mentioned that if I were interested in continuing the project, the trailer was mine for the taking...so I went and had a look...

In his renovation attempt, he found that the PO had laid down pine flooring directly on top of the original(?) laminate, so he ripped that out, then realized that the entire subfloor needed to be removed as there was a good bit of rotten floor (most of it.) He also decided that a wood stove would be a great addition, so he removed the old furnace (as well as most of the other built in cabinetry and appliances) cut a hole in the top of the shell for a chimney pipe and then got back to thinking about the floor and realized that he didn't have the time, finances, or energy to devote to the project and let it sit in an outdoor storage lot for the last three years (prescott, az) without even a tarp over the hole in the roof. That is about all I know about the history of the trailer.

Because I am new to Airstreams in general, I have no idea as to what it's specifications are, or even where to start looking (and of course didn't have even a measuring tape when I looked at it...) I tried searching for some kind of VIN decoding formula to no avail, and thus have not even the slightest clue as to how old, what model, what specs, etc. The numbers that I could find on the small placards next to the door said:

Placard #1
#26TS S-0434
8 60

Placard #2
M26TS
S0434
1152
DOH#87011

And the big (faded) numbering on the front was #4883

Back to the trailer as it sits currently. For your viewing pleasure the first (I think) is looking toward the aft end, the second looking from the bathroom doorway forward, the third is the glaring chimney pipe hole, and lastly, the bathroom in all of its pink, dust-and-mold-covered glory.

Personally, I love having project, I'm not new to building, repairing, and working on mobile living spaces, but I am new to Airstreams. I know this will be a very large undertaking, but if it works out...

Thoughts, comments, questions, amusing anecdotes?

Cheers,
West

[eljay]

Welcome to the forum! It will be an adventure! I'm sure someone will be along shortly that can tell you more about your trailer.

[RM66caravel]

Hopefully you are planning on loseing the wood stove because that one was not ment for a trailer some are but not that one and it will work even better if you put a 2000 gal hot tub in front of it! *WARNING* fill hot tub from outside only!! certainly a diamond in the rough! Out side pictures? Welcome to the forum alot of awesome people here.
Cliff

[HiHoAgRV]

Welcome to the forums! I cant locate the link to look up your model/year by the numbers but I'm thinking it's a 1960/1961 26' Overlander built in California.

Look's like you have a blank slate! you are on target - fill in those holes before any futher damage happens...oh, post more photos!!!

[DesertBoater]

Sweet! Thanks HiHoAgRV for the starting point!!

I don't have any exterior photos and am no longer in town to get any, but if I get a chance to get back down there, I will definitely do so.

The next couple hurdles I'm looking at are a place to store/work on it, and a tow vehicle. I work seasonally as a river guide in the summer and as such, just live out of a camper in the back of my truck parking in various friends driveways. My truck is currently an 05 V6 Tacoma, and I feel like I might be able to get the trailer up to Flag, but definitely not something I want to move around on a routine basis with what I've got currently. Having acquired the trailer for mostly free helps things a bit, but I'm still looking at different tow vehicle options. Thoughts?

Thanks for the support!!

Cheers,
West

[BAB]

You are on the right website to get a very accurate read on what's in store for you if you decide to do the restore project. Even with all the sweat equity ahead of you, be advised that once you gut the beast and look underneath all that nasty tile you'll probably find rotten subfloor. When you pull up the rotten subfloor you will probably find a rusty frame. If you've surfed through some of the restoration stories, you'll find that one thing leads to another (I call this "scope creep"). Believe it or not, at the end of a restoration journey you could well end up with a real gem. All of the knowledge you would need to do this project resides in AirForums and you will find people on here who are real experts on everything from frame rebuilding, welding, plumbing, electrical, RV appliances...you name it. And, everyone will share openly and freely with you. It's like hundreds of unpaid consultants. Good luck!

[HiHoAgRV]

I finally looked it up-
Airstream, Inc :: Serial Numbers
List your trailer as #4 off the line in 1961

Here is a sales manual

http://www.airstream.com/files/libra...44bb1d0b79.pdf

[DesertBoater]

Sweet! Thanks for that info. In looking at the floor plans in the user guide, it would appear that the bathroom section is reversed from what the floor plan shows. Is this common or is it just a one-off difference? On a slightly more exciting note, I'll be heading down to prescott from flagstaff on Sunday to pick it up and bring it back! I've got a friend here in town that has space for me to park it and at least get it into a weatherproof state so hopefully I'll be able to get started digging into it next week!! Ready set go! Definitely more pictures to come...

Cheers,
West

[overlander64]

Greetings West!

Welcome to the Forums and the world of Vintage Overlander ownership!

Originally Posted by DesertBoater

Sweet! Thanks for that info. In looking at the floor plans in the user guide, it would appear that the bathroom section is reversed from what the floor plan shows. Is this common or is it just a one-off difference? On a slightly more exciting note, I'll be heading down to prescott from flagstaff on Sunday to pick it up and bring it back! I've got a friend here in town that has space for me to park it and at least get it into a weatherproof state so hopefully I'll be able to get started digging into it next week!! Ready set go! Definitely more pictures to come...

Cheers,
West

Through sometime in the 1960s, it was common to find that the rear bathrooms could have mirror image floorplans . . . with one being typical of trailers built in California and the mirror image being typical for those trailers built in Ohio.

Good luck with your Overlander!

Kevin