Personalized Etching ?

[Tomm71]

Hi, we just got our first Airstream (1967 Sovereign). Lots of work to be done. We noticed there seems to be an etching from maybe the original owners (Howard and Irma Hertenstein). We'd love to be able to preserve this.

Does anyone know what this is exactly, and when we polish it are we going to essentially erase it or enhance it?

Thanks - Tom & Brandy

[Bubba L]

Tom, there’s a lot of information on the forums about removing ghost numbers and letters, but maybe not on preserving them. You may want to private message Scott Goranson on AirForums. His label is “goransons”. His the Vintage Airstream Club Librarian. He renovated one of Wally’s caravan Airsteams with all the entering and numbers. Good luck

[richard5933]

That actually looks like a previous owner had some type of sticker on the trailer with their information, and over the years the clear coat got worn away everywhere except where the sticker(s) were.

If you're going to polish the trailer then all that will be take away. About the only way to preserve it at this point is to find some way to shield it from the polishing before you polish, but if you use some type of tape to hold on the shield it's likely that when you pull the tape it will remove more of the worn clear coat.

It's possible that you can apply a new clear coat over the ghost sticker, but since it would be going on top of clear coat that's not too firmly attached it's likely not to stick really well. Anything that sticks really well would have to chemically melt into the old layer, and this would possibly (likely) remove what's left of the ghosting.

[66Overlander]

That lettering was definitely hand painted, not a decal. It was very common back in the 1950s and 1960s to personalize your Airstream with you names, home town, and possibly some of your travels, especially on Airstream caravans.

Howard and Irma Hertenstien were Wally Byam Caravan Club International (WBBCI, a.k.a. the Airstream Club) members in 1967 who lived in Indianapolis, Indiana. Their big red number that you might find ghost outlines of above the front and rear windows was 10970. They had no recorded caravans as of 1967. I could do some further research to determine when they first joined the club, how long they remained members, and if they went on any recorded caravans, but not tonight.

I agree with an email reply you have received from Scott Goranson that polishing will likely completely remove this lettering that was created by the aluminum/clear coat under the painted letters and symbols aging/etching less than the unpainted areas. You could chose to have those areas repainted to preserve them. If you want to polish the trailer and then repaint the lettering there are ways to do this, but it is too complicated to detail in this brief reply.

[Tomm71]

Thank you all for the replies, I think it's important to preserve the heritage. So it looks like I'll be breaking out some tracing paper to transfer the markings back some how.

I'm thinking maybe get a decal made and apply it in between rough and final passes of polishing then remove it and clear coat everything to keep it crisp but ghosted a little.

Any additional info about them would be appreciated.