73 Safari Dinette

[Zeppelinium]

The goucho and foldout table has never been a good dining solution for me. I redid the front end of my Overlander 8 years ago and really liked the dinette benches--very comfortable. So I'm going to try and duplicate that in my Burning Man Safari, as well as modify the counter and sink to provide more cooking prep space. This will require the street side bench to seat only one person.

First step, the goucho is gone.



The next step will be to build the new counter cabinets and install the oven and sink, so the next post will not be tomorrow...

Zep

[Zeppelinium]

It's been awhile. The kitchen oven/sink cabinet was installed last summer. The overhead cabinet is well on its way. I needed to glue in the sliding door rail in place so I would get the angle exactly right (about 1/2 degree off from 90, rats). But to do so I needed screw clamps with a reach of almost 12". No hab. But finding a piece of 7/16 threaded rod made DIY clamps a snap.



As soon as I get this cabinet finished, the dinette is sure to follow.

[Zeppelinium]

Still needs a little structural work on the skin at the right end, but the cabinet itself is functional. Now for the dinette--single seat on the kitchen side double seat on the door side.

[Zeppelinium]

This was the original dinette design from my Overlander. It turned out to be an excellent fit and very comfortable. I may make some slight mods, eg, seat about 1" higher and perhaps optimize the space behind the seats. The fun part of the Overlander project was the extensible table with no leg. It does require some modification of the front skin panel--additional stringers--to provide sufficient stiffness. Anyway, I'm glad I found this original drawing, it will save oodles of time.

[Zeppelinium]

Benches are coming along. The single bench will have (I think) 28 separate pieces of wood to provide the tight fit to the shell, a 3º seat angle, 15º back angle, and a 3" high edge around the seat for the 3" cushion. The double bench will require 38 pieces. In order to use 1/2" birch plywood, but still have solid edges, it requires a lot of clamps.

[dbj216]

Hello from Conifer: "Its been a while" is the understatement of the year so far. Very nice to see your name on the Forums again. I trust all is well with you.

You are right, the dinette is better suited for many folks over the gaucho and lift up table. I stuck with the gaucho as a dinette is a bunch of work. The gaucho might be easier to make into a sleeping surface.

Enjoyable to see the master craftsman back at it.

David

PS: I got to meet your friend Aerowood last fall. He helped our Sovereign project with some outriggers he had made. He showed me his "aircraft quality" Globetrotter. Aerowood is another fella who can do it all.

[Zeppelinium]

Thanks, David. We found that we liked the [semi-] permanent table arrangement, and the second seat in the double bench is very convenient. It also provides two drawers that can be accessed from outside, just by reaching through the open door (lots of times you need a small tool and you have muddy shoes).

As far as a sleeping arrangement, I can only get about 5' between the backs of the benches. I'm working on a diagonal arrangement that might provide a reasonable 6'. But I don't design my Airstream for the occasional person who might need the extra space once in two years.

Zep

[Zeppelinium]

A little more progress. Both benches are fitted to the shell--this can take a surprising amount of time. The next time-eater will be the arm rests. In the Overlander they took almost as much time as the rest of the bench. One thing to note at this stage, the seats can't hang on the hinges. They probably have the structural capability, but they would eventually sag and maybe tear out the screws. So I put a small "shelf" under the back edge so that the seat actually rests on the shelf and takes all the strain. So even though the seats and backs flip open easily, they are supported on all their edges.

The other thing to note is the 3" foam. If these were going to be only seats, then firm 2" would be more desirable. But for an occasional bed, 3" medium foam is better. So all the rails where the hinges are attached are 3" wide so that you only have to remove one cushion in order to open that seat/back and the remaining cushion won't be forcing the lid back closed.

BTW, the benches could be a little bit closer to the shell, but the 15º seat back angle creates about 8" of storage space behind the bench. Likewise, for symmetry and a 15º angle on the armrest, you get about 6" of storage space there. On the double bench, this provides plenty of space for two (almost three) folding camp chairs, plus the bed insert. The table extension will go behind the single bench. Each arm rest can hold a tool kit and a couple gallons of water, or three 12-packs of Diet Coke.

[dbj216]

Wow. Three 12 packs of Diet Coke. That will be the top selling point if and when you decide to part with the Safari.

Clever to make a good support for the seat bottom. They do see a lot of weight from us humans.

Building furnature from wood is very time consuming. Airstream used a lot of aluminum extrusions for their cabinetry back in the 70s. My 75 Overlander service manuals list about 80 different extrusions used in the trailer. Some of them are quite complex shapes. But they made building cabinets faster.

Enjoying your writing as usual. I often use your "tolerance" for parts or locations called "that looks about right". Seems logical to me.

David

[Zeppelinium]

Drawer are in. In my previous remodels, I've always had trouble devising methods for keeping drawers from sliding out during travel. I now use soft close glides, which seem to have just enough holding power to keep them closed (under reasonable highway conditions, at least). But they are finicky when it comes to clearances. I always construct the cabinets and drawer bodies with at least 1/16" more clearance than the instructions call for. If it turns out that's too loose, the glides can be shimmed in with framing and matting paper. But you can't go the other way. This install didn't require any shims, even with the slightly wider opening.



I don't do fancy drawers. Just butt joints with finishing nails and glue. They are quick to make and strong.

[dbj216]

Making a chest of drawers is difficult. Not just anybody can do it. Maybe you were a cabinet maker in a former life.

I find a plastic bin on a shelf works kinda like a drawer. Airstream stuffed their tambour door storage spaces with plastic bins. Take them inside to stuff your socks in one and then back to the trailer and slip it in a storage compartment under the bed. Airstream also made plastic drawers, a step up. The Sovereign had 6 of these. They are easy to make too once the mold is done.

David

[Zeppelinium]

I had Sovereign. And and Overlander. And this Safari had the plastic bins, too. Want some? But packing in the house and bringing them out for a trip is a [very small] reason to like the bins.

Zep

[dbj216]

Well, you gotta like the cost over a hand crafted chest of drawers. David

[Zeppelinium]

Getting ready to install the benches. I'm going to try and do a cantilever table (no leg), so the front panel needs to be really stiff. I'm adding three stringers (one at the top, two at the bottom) behind the panel (thanks, ArrowWood, now I've only got 4 of yours left). When I removed the inside skin, I found a couple places where the pop rivets completely missed the ribs, which is pretty typical of Airstream quality from the 70s.

Zep

[dbj216]

Actually I was quite surprised and pleased with the build quality of my 75 Overlander. I was expecting the worse, but it is not too bad at all. I've reused all of the cabinetry after a "rebuild". The 76 Sovereign I worked on this winter had a completely different type of laminated "wood" that had warped, cracked and rotted. It was not as good and we replaced all of it. It also has a flimsy 1/2" plywood subfloor. We welded more under floor metal supports to help stiffen the subfloor. I checked out a 79 Ambassador some years ago and it was the same way, cheap cabinets and thin subfloor. It seems from my experience that there were major changes between model years 75 and 76.

Well, diving boards don't have legs either. I wonder if you are planning a metal triangular "shelf support" to hold the table up. Or maybe a "tapered" table thick at the wall and thin at the outer end.

David

[Hittenstiehl]

Zepp that looks so good. The angle, the wood grain, the dual piano hinge, the rounded corners, the diagram. Now to remember all these tips and hints someday.

[Zeppelinium]

Originally Posted by dbj216

Well, diving boards don't have legs either. I wonder if you are planning a metal triangular "shelf support" to hold the table up. Or maybe a "tapered" table thick at the wall and thin at the outer end.

David

This is the table from my Overlander project. The [very] short table worked surprisingly well. The long version seated 4 people, but it had a leg (stored this top in the seat back). I added some additional structure in the shell to support this version, but not nearly as much as I'm doing now.



The vertical part of the table support provides a lot of moment against the shell, but the top in the new version is more than twice as long, so it's an "experiment" (a word my wife loves to hate). The support is attached to the shell using the two-piece extruded (and easily detached) table support rail. There is a bit of trick required to get the forces transferred from the rail to the wooden part of the structure (to be revealed only after I prove to my self I can do it again).





One note about "quality." In some of my posts from years ago you can see that I removed or modified many of the windows. Now, with the caveat that an Airstream is not an airplane, so the quality doesn't have to meet that standard, I found many places where the cutouts for the windows were ragged and many of the rivets completely missed connecting the skin to the window frames. For an Airstream, you can probably miss getting the rivets right 15-20% of the time and you'd still wind up with a sturdy vehicle. Never-the-less, it's still disappointing to remove an interior skin and find there was less connection to the ribs than you expected.

[Zeppelinium]

Both benches are finally installed. These photos show the storage area behind, beside, and inside the benches. It turns out that if you want to have a 15 degree seat back angle, you automatically get the storage space behind the bench (there's about 1/2" clearance between the shell and the top of the seat back). This only provides 70" between the back edges of the seats, so an adult would have to sleep at an angle. Now I just need to get the live-in seamstress to get to work on the cushions.

Cantilever table next week. Optimistically.

You can access the drawers while standing outside.




Turns out the armrest can hold 9 bottles of wine AND a 12-pack of Diet Coke.




The double bench can store two folding chairs and a camp table.

[Bubba L]

You sure have mastered utilizing dead space for storage. I really like the engineering of the armrest. Maybe on my next renovation. Looking really smart. Take care

[Bubba L]

By the way, when we got to the cushion and curtain stage, my live in seamstress of 44 years said if she got a new sewing machine she’d be off to the races. I got it, she mastered it, and we finished.