New Owners here

[Trafalger]

Hello!

We are about 3 weeks into our first Airstream purchase, we bought a 1965 Ambassador.

It currently lives in a park in the mountains near Blowing Rock, NC. The previous owners took very good care of it and did some minor restorations but we are trying to improve it a little bit more as we plan to use it more often than they did. While also trying to keep it as original as possible.

[Dennis C]

Congrats on your Airstream purchase!

[Bubba L]

Congratulations and welcome to the Airstream world. The interior looks to be in really good shape. Keep us updated and post some exterior pictures when time allows. Good luck

[Trafalger]

I totally forgot to post exteriors. The forum keeps flipping them upside down for some reason LOL

**EDIT: Figured out how to make sure the pics don't flip**

[moosetags]

Welcome to the Forums. We're glad to have you with us. Congratulations on your new baby. May you have safe travels and many great Airstream Adventures with her.

That's a great looking Airstream. we would love to see more pictures of her.

Brian

[dbj216]

I'm envious! The 1965 Ambassador International was a very special Airstream. You are lucky to find one in good shape. Maybe the nifty shelter for it helped keep it good. I assume all the systems; plumbing and electrical are working good for you. Maybe it even has an air conditioner.

I had a 66 Trade Wind but not nearly as nice looking as your new trailer. I did a lot of renovations to it, but generally the cabinetry I kept original except for the plastic bathroom which was in bad shape, including big holes in the floor.

Vintage Airstream trailers are interesting and fun for me. Welcome to these Forums and hope to see more of your trailer in the future.

David

[Trafalger]

Yes everything works....the only thing I want to change is to get the gas line hooked back up for the stove and I'd love to find a way to repair (replace) the furnace.

I replaced the sink faucet and shower last week to get that working, this past weekend we painted the shower/sink insert just to clean it back up and give it a little bit more life (it's just for us)

[dbj216]

Well the old 1965 "heaters" weren't as good as the ones they make today. They can get rusty and start leaking combustion air into the coach. Get a CO detector for safety.

I installed a new Suburban furnace in my former Trade Wind. The original furnace blew heated air into the galley, and sucked return air through ductwork under the floor. Kinda backwards I thought

So I blew heated air into the under floor ducts and brought return air through the cabinet door. Just the reverse of what Airstream did. It was a major job, but it worked well.

Here is a photo of my old Trade Wind, and a photo of the furnace I installed and the under floor ductwork.

David

[Trafalger]

Ok I see what you mean…but that unit looks WAY bigger than the space I have for my current furnace.

[dbj216]

And it may very well be. I installed a Suburban NT-30 which is a standard RV furnace of 30,000 BTU. Bigger than needed for a Trade Wind 24'. But we lived in Minnesota at the time and big furnaces was the standard thinking. They make a variety of RV furnaces in different sizes. You might find one that will work for you.

Here is a photo of the "patch" I made to cover the exhaust of the old furnace. It was much bigger exhaust than the new furnace I installed (the little square).
The previous owner had removed the old furnace so I don't know what was there originally.

David