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New Airstream owner.
Just recently acquired a 1981 27' Airstream Excella II.
The rig is in great shape for being 39 years old. seems like it has always wintered in storage here in Michigan, and before that Tennessee... I think. It was owned by a Michigan couple since 2000. Hard to believe this thing was made when I was I was 12 or 13!
Unit has a Rear Bathroom and Twin Beds as you go down the hallway.
My girlfriend and I bought it together and we've already done some huge demolition and started the renovations. (she is such a lovely lady!)
We were going to just paint the bathroom ABS fixtures and reuse them, but we decided to demo the two "wardrobe closets", and incorporate them into the new bathroom layout.
We purchased a four piece 32x32 shower, and I spent the day yesterday, shaping it to the curves of the walls. so that is in process, but there were many other things that need to be addressed as we go.
Today was a new adventure... I was pressure washing the "blue pin striping" decals and then discovered a lot of water in the "trunk" under the tank valves. This prompted a serious effort to wet vac the water out of the black and grey water tank area. while running the vacuum, I could smell the tell tale scent of mouse urine (or I suppose just urine, as it is a tank area), so I decided while I have the bathroom torn apart anyway, that I would bite the bullet and figure out the smell situation.
Me and my son pulled the tank pan and removed the "main" tank and the "auxiliary" tank (black and grey) tank today. both tanks were in good order, just dirty on the outside. Lots of gravel and grit in the pan. The insulation blankets were in good order. It was interesting to see how well thought out the insulation moldings were, with galleries for the "air flow" around the tanks... which brings up another issue that was bothering me until tonight.
When I tore apart the bathroom to install the shower... I noticed that the 4" duct from the furnace divided at the termination and also pushed hot air down under the floor. Before I knew what was going on I tried to vacuum air up through the 2" mini lines, and one was free, but the other was not flowing. This caused me to be curious and not quite understand what the intent was. I'm an HVAC guy, actually I worked in industry for 25 years, and now I'm teaching HVAC and Pipefitting. I'm curious by nature, and it bugged me that the air wouldn't flow through this 2" duct.
SO.... after pulling the tank pan today, I could see that the black side, and the gray side had a little heat duct termination into the pan area. Easier to see than describe, so I'll post some follow up pictures.
As it turned out... I found that in the 39 year life of the trailer... that the air was never flowing to the black tank. When the trailer came from assembly at Airstream, the builders had pinched the black tank duct between the floor plywood and the curbside main frame member... pinching it flat, and zero flow! I dug it out with a jig saw and my Vaughn Superbar prybar tonight, and I'll be restoring it to what the original function was intended.
The heat goes to those cavities to keep them from gelling or freezing up the valves. The air actually returns from the "Abyss" or "Narnia" or whatever you want to call that mysterious space, and it comes back around into the camper. SO... with the mouse pee smell and not knowing, it was obvious my curiosity got the best of me and I dropped the pan!
The investigation was great! I will clean everything and epoxy coat the pan, and anything else that looks like it needs it. (the frame rails were solid, still heavy with black paint, the only member that had rust was the cross weldment separator that the tank valves pass through. I will touch that up and make it better, or replace all together. I can thin-wheel it out and make a new one.
Gotta love the AS trailers. Well worth wading into projects on. I will post occasionally and show some pics.
Have fun everyone. Nice to have such a great resource on the web.
Andy in Kalamazoo MI.
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