A '63 Overlander Followed us Home
 

Oh no, what have we started...a family member called us on Saturday, they saw an ad in a local rag for a 1967 Airstream...7 miles from our weekend place...which just so happened was where we were...might as well take a look even though we were mainly interested in a '61 or 63' (birth years)...and wanted something short(er...than our 34')...and a little project for the dark days of winter is never bad...

After some confusion where we almost gave up, we finally pulled in and...it's not a long '67...its a '63 California Overlander in pretty good shape! We bought it on-the-spot.

As we were writing a check, the "second place" buyers pulled up...

So Sunday we drive 60 miles to the house...pull two tires off of the 34' and two more off of a small trailer https://www.airforums.com/forums/f437...ces-46305.html

and drive 55 miles back to the retrevial location...swap tires and tow back home...

Now the fun starts...

Nice find,thought I had a 62 bought a few weeks ago[real cheap],but then the wife said no,it`s usually the other way around. Dave

Congrats, glad you have another toy to keep you out of trouble!

Congrats! I have a 1960 and we are in the process of fixing it up. Yours looks just like mine. You will have a fun time with it.

Brian

Nice One!

Here's some more photos...
Aluminum front window cover...
Molded in bathroom sink...
Gas lighting...
and
A EP Evans Air Conditioner??? (It works!)

Very nice!!

This IS the fun part...wow what is THAT!...

well - it has the 'honeymoon' option, the street side bed is on slides...it scoots across the isle and buts up to the curb side bed...

Inside the street side closet is an electrical schemetic...

AND the red Elvis bar...including the 'rat pack'....

One last post for the night...
As you can see, the sofa is missing...It seems the snakes and the .22 cal rat shot were it's demise...we will probably go with a dinette.

Anyway...what are the 2 switches that are circled in red for?

The Overlander has a tentative name...Dolly. She's been fixed up a bit over the years, still looks pretty good from a few steps back but we know we need to be easy on her or parts might fall off...

Anyway...finally had a chance to do some investigating today, pulled back the carpet and there was tar paper...humm...thats not original. Pull back the tar paper and there is new plywood! Well, its not new now....it has been replaced at some time...BUT...was it done properly?

https://www.airforums.com/forums/f36/...oor-54952.html

The short answer...no.

It looks like the wood was cut properly, the joints are solid but there are no bolts holding the shell to the floor! Once the interior walls were removed the entire shell will slide in and out on the floor.

So it's all gonna get replaced...

De-constructing Dolly
 

This morning was 'tackle the kitchen'. The stove came out with no problem. Lots of mouse sign under the stove top but its in pretty good shape and shouldn't take much to refirb it. Pulling the sink was not a big deal, didn't have to disconnect any copper since every line has a piece of flexable plastic slicing obvious freeze damage...slicing the plastic is MUCH easier than uncoupling 48 year old brass!

The heater was replaced in 1980 and I never thought of it... what do you do to run the furnace in a 1960's trailer that has no charging system? ya add a 120 - 12 volt converter for the furnace.

LOTS of screws attaching the cabinet...some come from the bedroom. Once free, the cabinet top had to be removed to get the assembly out the door, revealing a small surprise...the underside has the S/N of the trailer written on it - so it's the original top.

Geez - the garage is fillin up quick!

Quitting time today. Everything forward of the beds has been removed. The fridge vent was a pain - the 48 year old stuff is kinda fragile. The factory didnt really care what the hidden holes looked like, it looks like it was cut out with a chain saw.

As expected there are holes in the floor. The 'new' open floor plan has me thinking...

I got in a couple of hours of work tonight...one of the things I'm carefully doing is DISASSEMBLY instead of DEMOLITION...I could just about put all of the stuff back into the original screw holes...not that I'd want to reinstall all of that delaminating painted crap!

Out came the street side bed, water tank and wheel well cover...

Some of the original tiles are reappearing after 48 years...we are going to use them as design clues when selecting the new colors...

Now I have to find a disposal method for those funky box springs...

I believe the switches circled in red are for your porch light. We have a 65 and only have one switch same location for our porch light. Nice find congrats again.

great find and good posts. I am working on a 66, but not taking everything out..just what I have to, which so far has not been too bad. Ordered my flooring yesterday.

Wanna share what ya ordered? We are considering sheet vinyl if I can get the floor good and solid...and find a good pattern...

I hope we are avoiding 'the slippery slope', the driving factor is ugly interior paint...so the interior skin is coming out..."while I'm There"...new floors will be a good thing AND the old stinky insulation could be replaced..................:huh:

Sure-- I ordered Trafficmaster Allure vinyl planks. In my last trailer I used the antique elm, it looks great, is a breeze to install and basically waterproof.
This time I ordered their new cork look, which looks very much like real cork...which I have used in the past also.

This is how it looked in my 80 Excella..

https://picasaweb.google.com/alansdav...03793419616130

My '64 Safari has two switches by the door: one porch light and one hitch light. They share the same coverplate in mine

Rich the Viking

Hitch Light? That's a new one for me...photos?

I couldn't upload any pics this afternoon. Http server error. I'll try again tonight.

Regards,
Rich the Viking