Loose interior ceiling

[Bandits]

I'm looking for any help/suggestions. 2008 30' Classic. Approximately 7500 miles on trailer. I notice that the ceiling in the front, underneath the rib where the cap appears to attach, seemed to be loose. I pushed up on it and the headliner is attached to the aluminum inner skin but the aluminum skin has separated from the rib. I had the dealer look at it and they said this is a structural issue. Initially Airstream informed the dealer that they would cover the repair even though we are about 8 months out of warranty. Then Airstream came back and said they decided not to cover it. As many of you know I have expressed serious issues regarding the strucural integrity of the newer Airstreams. I'm wondering if anyone else has had similar issues with the inner skin separating from the ribs.I am looking for any guidance in peeling back the headliner and making the repair. Thanks, Jerry.

[Naper]

Why did Airstream decide not to cover it?

[AirHeadsRus]

That is a bummer Jerry! I can't believe they said they would and then said they would not.
They must have these problems with others. Did Airstream at least provide you with the steps to fix it? Any kind of service bulletin on that?
Joe

[Roadtoaster]

I have to agree with Joe, seems a little low to back up after saying yes. So it goes with an expired warranty. Did you see Stan and Lynn's trailer at the CanOpener? They had sagging ceiling material. Someone did a great repair, giving it a tufted look. You could do the same thing, much less expensive than removing everything.

Good luck with your repairs.

[2airishuman]

hi jerry and others...

changing their minds about honoring repairs or offers to repair isn't new.

i had a WRITTEN repair approval (while still under warranty) and traveled to j/c.

about 100 miles before my arrival the scum bag in charge of warranty claims decided NOT to make the repair...

he also claimed 2 have never authorized the repair,

but had to retract that lie after realzing the dealer AND i had email proof otherwise.

and this all happened AFTER driving/towing nearly 1000 miles for the work.
_________

i don't understand the 'structural' statement.

the inner skin is really not structural on newer streams.

it's held in place with pop rivets and sloppy pop rivets at that.

there is no skin behind the front/rear overhead lockers for example.

many of us have had interior skin rivets come loose or fall out.

i suspect this happens when the rivets are poorly attached in new units and from travel vibration in older/new units.

most of the black staining on the wall mouse fur is over LOOSE rivets and is simply residue from metal dust/movement.

the problem of course in the classics is this is happening UNDER the padded vinyl and can NOT be easily seen.

once the rivets fall completely out they are like tiny pebbles under the vinyl.
_________

early (within the first 6 months) this happened in my stream in the galley area with about 6-8 rivets.

while in j/c for OTHER repairs under warranty i pointed out this problem and they removed the vinyl and put in new rivets.

of course the replacement vinyl was POORLY installed and had to be REdone a year later still under warranty.

so the fix is peel, RErivet, spray glue and reapply the foam/vinyl.

about 30$ in materials and 500$ labor.

and the risk that it still might not LOOK well done.
_______

while i share your concerns about the structural integrity and assembly/frame strength of newer streams...

the inner skin add little to this and the proof is in how poorly it's installed.

cheers
2air'

[Gene]

We have had rivets come out above the galley. They were supposed to be attached to a structural member going from front to back, but the factory riveteer seemed to miss it most of the time. In places I had to put oversized rivets in to get them to hold to the inner skin and I don't think any or most of them are attached to anything but the skin.

Poor riveting is almost normal. I had a guy at a campsite look at the exterior rivets and tell me he had worked in an airplane factory and knew how rivets should look. He said the rivet gun was set too high and that caused the skin to look like a small dish around many of the rivets. Many rivets have marks on them possibly caused by dirt in the gun and half moons around them on the skin perhaps caused by the gun being held crooked.

However, if the dealer is right and there is a structural problem, this is certainly more serious. Airstream has fixed things after warranty—it depends how you approach them. Call Airstream and ask to talk to the head of customer relations and tell him your story. Don't yell at him. He is more reasonable than some of the people that work for him. If that doesn't work, write a letter to the president of Thor Industries—you can find all the pertinent info on the internet for an address and name. That's what I had to do when the dealer refused to fix things and it worked.

Gene