'77 Sovereign 31' Restoration

[dbj216]

Restoring windows is a very time consuming task. Thanks for suggesting new over rebuilt. It might make more sense.

I hear you on those folding steps. There are a lot of parts in them, and the bolts, or pivots, are very expensive to buy. We paid $25 for one pivot bolt. I didn't count how many there are in the steps. I think there is about 4 different types of bolts in the step assembly.

We installed this one new bolt, and new step outriggers, and called it goot enuf.

David

[dbj216]

Folks are waxing foundly of Colorado Springs and the scenic beauty of the Rockies. Did anyone mention this?

David

[Kristof]

Originally Posted by dbj216

Folks are waxing foundly of Colorado Springs and the scenic beauty of the Rockies. Did anyone mention this?

David

That is what I am used to. And it looks lighter and fluffier than the coastal snow. No turn off for me David!


Kris

[Kristof]

There is a lot going on - hard to keep track of it all!

Leaks and Ceiling. Well there are still one or two small but persistent leaks which are aggravating but given all the rain we have had it us probably not as bad as I think it is. That said I wanted to get on the roof and re caulk and and reseal a few screws that have been causing us trouble. So we brought Lucy down to the water from the compound and was looking for a break in the weather (was supposed to get sunny . . .) but while it did clear the wind was up and it it got too cold to spend time on the roof. So I lit the heater and decided to work inside. I managed to prepare the front section for the curved 1/8 inch birch panels we are going to bend into the curve. I also bought the birch and have started to make the panels. Please note the new ranger towing the trailer with so much ease! Also note the dent and scratch in the rear quarter-panel that happened when some idiot lost control of thier shopping buggy at the grocery store. No note, no phone number and no acknowledgement. Discovered it while connecting Lucy up this morning. Grrr....

Floor. We ordered the flooring! It will be in from the warehouse on Friday this coming week which means we should be able to install it next weekend. This means that we need to get the in-floor heating system installed so we can add the flooring on top of it. I did not think this was going to be easy - for a couple reasons. The first one was that the radiation panels are in metric and I cannot get metric Heating Grade PEX here in Victoria in metric sizes - so we are having to adapt the radiation panels and the size of the channel. Also I have never done this before and thought common sense would apply - I know dumb right? Also while cutting the 5/8 inch by 5/8 channel I totally lost my 20 year old router in the job. So off to get another one to finish it off with. While the new router worked like a treat the bit just died and near the end of the first channel I called it quits. You can see from the pictures that I managed to get the PEX into the first part of the channel but I am going to need a heat gun and some patience to finish it off. Also looking to find another 5/8 in router bit was a real challenge.I am thinking the flooring may not start until Sunday now as Saturday will be more work on the floor channels.

Counter Tops. We found some wood counter tops on sale at the wood shop that are really nice and would be great for the table as well. I need to look at the design of the folding table we want to re-use (the original one) as the hardware I think may be limited to width of the wood there now.The alternative is to finish some Decent Birch or Maple Plywood and trim that off with aluminum strip. I think I will take the table apart this week after I finish the first two strips for the front section of the trailer.

Electrical. Made some progress this week on a main DC fuse panel with 24v to 12V converter and the solar MPPT charger. I did this mostly so i would not lose the parts!

Spice Rack. Found a really cool spice rack setup - it is magnetic. We are sold on it - a little early but it will go on the bulkhead behind the stove.

It was a real treat to back up, lower her onto the hitch and plug Lucy in and drive away today. Feels like a real RV now with functioning lights, suspension and water tight

[Minno]

Nice looking floor you're putting in!
We have some of those spice containers on a couple magnetic strips. Found them at Ikea but have seen them other places too. They hold well and we've never had them come off while traveling. We use a couple strips for knives too with same results. I thought you'd want to know.

Kay

[Kristof]

Originally Posted by Minno

Nice looking floor you're putting in!
We have some of those spice containers on a couple magnetic strips. Found them at Ikea but have seen them other places too. They hold well and we've never had them come off while traveling. We use a couple strips for knives too with same results. I thought you'd want to know.

Kay

That is awesome Kay and yes that is exactly what I wanted to know.

[Kristof]

Well they sent us home at lunch today - Huzzah! And the sun was out so I grabbed Lucy and headed home to try and finish that first floor heating section - AND - most importantly to caulk the snot out of the roof! There is a nice picture of Lucy in the sun for you guys.

Roof: I spared to amount of caulk and just went nuts up there. While it is not pretty this is the Pacific Northwest, a rain forest and an island. I found a really drained wet spot on the old caulk around the skylight so I removed that and redid the entire section. The mast for the OMNI LTE antennae also had a huge gaping section where water could easily have got in. So happy it is all done - but while I was up there I noted that we are going to have to get the entire trailer done before long - many seams and window seals are in dire need.

Floor: Found a piece of ripped 2 X 4 that was cut to 1/2 inch at some point - perfect length at 12 inches long. I ended up pounding the PEX into the channel with this new tool albeit 2 inches at a time. In the 20 foot run I managed to miss the tool with the hammer about 10 times. Painful.

That is all for today. Tired from standing on the sides of the pickup holding myself against the trailer and trying to stay on the roof. We are enjoying the ability to bring her to and from the compound to the house in 10 mins. And legally!

[Minno]

Chris gets up on our roof using a piece of 3/4 inch plywood cut to span 2 ribs. As long as you have the rib support like that, you can get up on the roof. Don't try it on the end caps. As you know, there's no supporting ribs there!

Kay

[Kristof]

We cannot do that anymore due to the 8 X solar panels. The pickup technique seems to work fine as long as you comfortable navigating by whisker length. Max has always been the cat on the hot tin roof - but even now she has trouble up there it is so crowded.

[Minno]

Oh, I forgot about your solar. Yeah, that would limit it quite a bit!

Kay

[Kristof]

Amazing things can happen when the sun is out. Pretty happy with our choice of flooring and the way it is going in. Bummer today was that after routing thw channels the inner portion of the floor lost its stability on the frame. I had to McGiver some aluminum strips and screw them in to hold them in place. If the weather holds this could be a great weekend for finishing the floor.

[Kristof]

A picture of my workshop to show how all of the stuff that was there is now outside going into Lucy. Also some snaps from today as we made significant progress on the windows and the flooring. Hoping the weather will hold (we are cutting outside to save on cleanup) and can finish the floor. Walls go up next weekend if we can get the flooring in. Walls will also equal getting the electrical system in and producing power soon. Who knows maybe we can order the fridge and install it? It is nice to dream. ..

[dbj216]

Gee, your shop looks like mine, except all the stuff isn't nessicerily going into a trailer.

The floor looks great and looks like it will last a hundred years. And it is heated to boot. Wow.

No working outside here, snow tomorrow they say.

David

[wcronin4]

Beautiful floor!! And heated. Perfect for Colorado winters. You and Max are doing incredible work. And your AS will be a technological marvel.

[Kristof]

Wow! The worst storm of the year so far hit us today - rocking the trailer around, flying things whizzing by and horizontal rain! Good thing we finally had that sealing up session last weekend. Dogs are not happy with the wind and not being able to get outside.

First picture is of Lucy in her weekend spot lately - from the second floor so folks can get an idea of how crowded it is up the her roof. Those panels at last test were putting out about 40amps at 40 volts - so lots of power to harvest when we get the electrics in and running. She will get balanced on Friday this week (we level her all around and brace her position) in preparation for getting some walls in so we can start putting the electrical system together. So she will stay int he compound from here forward. We are going to start with some main walls, install and set to work the electrics and once we get that done, work towards the heating and hot water system. Then the propane gas system and cold water system followed by furniture, tables, cabinets etc. Leaving the black water system, beds, storage spaces, cupboards, cabinets, etc until the very end.

The big news is we got the floor in today. Yes it is complete and we are pretty happy about the choice in flooring, the method we used to install it and the in floor heating channels. We still need to seal it up along the sides and make it water proof around the edges. But at least there are not major leaks in and around the floor nor from the new ceiling. Be nice to turn some lights on someday!

Last picture of the dogs on the pillow is how we feel right now. Long three days, lot's of bending in and around things, getting up and down to measure and mark, cut and then install. Looking forward to something simple in the next few weekends and less arduous.

[dbj216]

Your canine companions are going to love that heated floor someday. It really looks great. And I bet it will last a very long time.

Putting in a new floor covering is a lot of work. But the belly pan may be even more work.

David

[Kristof]

I am NOT looking forward to that installation.

That said I have done the rear, tanks and front section up to the jacks. So outriggers, front and back curved panels and front section. Need to run gas lines and some electrics first. Going to be a summer job I am sure of it.

[Kristof]

I wanted to talk to those of you thinking about the those three words above. I have three things that are coming along that speak to the reality of restoring an AS and my experience. I am sure there are a few folks online here that are either thinking about a similar project, half way done one or finished and on the other side of this topic.

A 45+ year old anything I would argue is in need of some TLC - especially if you want to use that thing regularly and with confidence that it will perform as built. Also in 45+ years technology and the design of domestic systems and services has changed dramatically. The perception of art and what attracts us to things from that perspective has also changed. When I look at some of things in my AS project I knew right away they were going to change. The way electricity was distributed and used was the big one. This impacts everything from heating systems to roof space and was one of the big reasons for a full restoration vice a systematic approach. The wood used was layered in vinyl (really?) and plastic (surely not?) as well as the location of things like toilets, showers and bathtubs (in an RV?) were also drivers for change. All of that said, the manufactured design was not stupid in any way and there are many things I wanted to keep and restore to original. These things were core to why I am doing an AS restoration to begin with keeping them alive were important.

Let's talk about the steps today. The steps we had were functional but the outriggers were rusted bad. The steps were not functioning properly and someone had used spray foam in the inner part of the shell that had pushed out and stopped them from being put back in properly. As we approached the first phase of the project and looked at options for shell on and shell off restoration this one thing had a big impact on that decision as having the frame exposed would allow us to weld on new outriggers. As time progressed and we looked at the job itself we learned that buying the new outriggers for the step portion was far cheaper than manufacturing new ones. I also learned later on that the pieces I needed to rebuild the steps were available to buy. This helped me build confidence in the restoration of this smart and easy to use original system of the AS.

The first part of total restoration is making sure you can get the original parts, making sure you can re-attach the thing and have a plan for doing that (sequencing is important) and then there is the moment many of us are familiar with - the putting it all back together phase. In the case of my step, about half of the bolts in old step needed replacement - and about half of those WOULD NOT COME OUT NO MATTER WHAT. I created a special work area and started to drill out each one of them. 25 hours and 5 broken drill bits later I had one of 6 seized bolts out and was really concerned that the hole would not accept the new bolt without more work. I laid this part of the project down and moved onto something I could get some immediate satisfaction from. This was very depressing.

A new step was available - but expensive. After a few months I decided to buy one - thinking that would be easy. Well that was dumb - nothing about this step had been easy so far. The part took 5 weeks to clear customs - first time something ever took this long! Then there was the ordering of the grip tape and the application of that, the making sure I had all the right bolts - all that just to get to the installation phase where nothing ever goes according to plan!

Except this time . . . Today I took the step with me as I thought i might have time to try and put it on. Right tools, weather was okay and I had leveled the trailer and secured it in preparation for wall building. Attached are the pictures of the new steps. Huzzah! Time for a tot of rum . . .

The other photo is of the really cool wheel chalks that we found in one of the storage bins in the AS. They are aluminum and steel construction and are lockable! Not sure just how much of security deterrent they are but as rusty and worn as they were - it was a marked improvement on the plastic ones we have had on our last 4 RV's. So a sand blasting session, new paint and new nuts and washers and BOOM! Easy peasy restoration 101.

Tomorrow we will talk about the wonderful fold out 2-4-6 person table that came with this AS. I love it but this is a renovated thing vice a restored thing. You will see why "a demain".

[dbj216]

Your essay on renovation, restoration and rebuilding is well written. Thank you. The job certainly isn't easy. Many Airstream projects get stuck and not finished. Life happens. We've got a monster by the tail here in Conifer. I've spent way too much time rebuilding two simple wardrobe closets. I have much more to do to finish that so we can move on to the bedroom. Then we have to do the galley cabinets. Yowza.

The aluminum folding steps are neat. Airstream used them for over 30 years. Steps are a nightmare. I believe there are 5 different types of fasteners in the step assembly, and then the links, and then the platforms. We were lucky as the problem fasteners had fallen apart. We ordered two new ones at $25 each and also welded on two new outriggers at $30 each and now our steps work okay. Another many hours rebuilding.

David

[Minno]

We also elected to put in new steps vs. replacing half the parts in the originals and reusing. For us, it ended up to be a time vs. money issue. We didn't have near the problems with the new ones that you had. Not sure why...
We knew we wanted an Airstream - got the bug from my parents. We just never thought we could afford one until we realized we could renovate one much cheaper and to our specifications. It was ALOT of work, time, and money, but well worth it for us. If necessary, we would do it again. (Hopefully, never necessary!).
We also very much enjoy having a vintage trailer, and like the narrower profile. It's less heart failure towing through narrow construction corridors. And, it doesn't "look" narrower on the inside.
Wheel chocks are very helpful. We have found that they reduce the "shaking" when walking around in the trailer. Just don't forget to remove them before you drive off.... they don't survive well.

Kay