Thinking of the summer

Sitting here where it is 8 degrees outside, one cannot help but think of Airstreaming this summer. Let's see, we have Cherry Blossum in April 6-9, taking place in Upper Marlboro, MD at our friend and fellow WDCU WBCCI member Clayton Roger's farm. Then, we have Region 2 in Gettysburg, PA in May 24-28. Our rally that we host here in central NY, the Pageant of Bands Rally, June 1-4 in North Norwich, NY. We will hit the Adirondacks in the June and July, and then Cape Hatteras, the Outer Banks of North Carolina in August. Man, I can't wait. The picture posted if of Colin in his 59 Ambassador, us in our 85 34' Limited and Rich Luhr and family in Vintage Thunder (prior to its paint job) all heading north after last years Cherry Blossum on I-81 going up the mountains around mile marker 106. I can only wait to be heading up the hill this year with the 58, next to Colin's 59. Now that will be a cool picture.
TRAILER ON!

What could have been!

Well, a friend of ours that has a 1958 sent us these pictures. These pictures are what we really thought we would find in ours - a mouse infested insualtion mess. Ours was much cleaner. But I thought these are good shots for people to see what happens over 47 years of age, when left outside and unattended. This trailer had mouse nests from front to back and solid between the plywood and belly pan. Scared? What's in your belly pan?

Side Panel off

So, here we have the rear panel that has come off. Also, a shot of a window frame being worked on that will be going in to the front window. I am currently on travel to Virginia, and tonight I will load a few more photos.

Voicemail to theVAP!!

Got a question. On Vintage or New? Listen to theVAP? If yes to the first two, and / or no to the last, then goto theVAP! The Vintage Airstream PodCast (VAP) is like a radio show but hosted on the Internet. It comes out every other Thursday. Oh yeah, there is something new too! theVAP now has a voicemail number! Check it out and give theVAP a call at 206-202-4VAP. Leave a voicemail, ask a question, or just leave a message about the shows, what you think, topics you'd like covered, and it'll possibly be played on the show!

Side panel on!

Here are some more pictures of the side panel going on! Colin and I worked out where all the electrical will be going in the trailer, aft road side closet. The batteries will be under the curb side bed, with the AC going in the bottum of the road side closet, where it will be on sliders to go in and out of the trailer.

The trip and a few pictures

Like I said, we made it to Colin's and GSM Vehicles this weekend to see the SOTR and the progress in person. It was a blast. Here are a few pictures Colin sent today. I'll post more tomorrow as well. Enjoy! Colin took a family photo next to my kids College money being spent. Then, you can see me posing in front of the Shasta. And the others are the side panel being cleco'd in and rivets being bucked! I'll post a few more in a few.

Made it!

Well, the Shasta is in Plattburgh, parked next to the Vagabond! It towed great, no problems whatsoever. Go back to December 23rd, and look at the curbside rear panel polished. When we bought it, there was a dent there. That has pretty much been popped out. However, there are some really good gouges there, that will not come out. While looking at with Colin today, we made the call to replace that panel too. So, in the next few days, you'll see that happening. Now, the skin will be near perfect. We just did not want to be sitting there in five years saying, "Man, wish we'd replaced that when we had the trailer gutted." So, we are, now! So, I'm making up this sign tonight...Will work for Airstream $$$$$. Just kidding. We've got a budget...remember, we sold our 1985 34' Limited this summer....just for this purpose. I'll work up a budget once completed, so you'll know what this takes. Just wonder what this will be worth when done? To us, it'll be priceless.

A look through

Here are just a couple more pictures for you all to see. One is looking through from the curb side, in through the trailer and out the hole on the other side. And, of course my old window. Remember, at one time, there was a huge AC in the front window. Never again! Our AC will be custom, about a 10,000 BTU house model, fitted inside the trailer, to keep the cool 58 SOTR lines. We'll take lots of photos this weekend. I probably won't be posting until we get back, early evening on Sunday. Enjoy the weekend, I know I will. And, yes, Michele, I'll give you Tube a hug for ya!

New panel and a Window Frame too!

Here the new panel is in place. Look at the difference in the old oxidized and new aluminum. I'll also be posting a photo of the missing frame section of the front window. This is where the front window frame of the Shasta comes into play. It's almost weather tight once again..something this jewel has not had in a long time. It's coming along nicely. Comments?

A big hole!

Here are some photos of the side panel removed. We removed from just under the window to just behind where the hot water heater was. Now, when we put the hot water heater in, it'll look like it did when new from the outside. The next post will be the new panel all cleco'd in place! I can't wait to see this in person tomorrow. There is also a photo of the aluminum storage shelves above the Gally out of the trailer getting cleaned.

Shiny, Shiny!

Well, I hope that everyone is enjoying following us through our restoration. It is so much fun and tomorrow, we are traveling up from central NY to northern NY to GSM Vehicles and to see Colin, Suzanne, and Malcolm. My two boys, Stanton and Bryce are looking forward to it. So are Zoe' and I. I just hope we don't run into any problems pulling that Shasta up there. So, here we have a couple more pictures for your enjoyment. These are of the windows, Heir Vent and the side panel removed. I'll post more in the next post with the new panel back on. Enjoy!

The panel removal begins!

We might have to sleep on some air matresses this summer, but we'll do it right up front. Remember, this trailer is for the rest of our lives! On the blog here, I'll do my best to document the removal and reinstallation of an outside panel, and how it is bucked, just like Wally did it in 1958 and still Airstream does today...All by hand! Look at that window on the curb side all back in! Enjoy!

Sometimes you just gotta!

Well, in a restoration, sometimes you just have to make the tough call. Today, came one of those. Colin called during lunch, and left a message that they'd run into a little snag and needed direction. The road side living room windows were going in, and before that, they were polishing the outside perimeter of the window. Well, there appears to be some time of "acid" wear into the skin under the window area. There is also, once polished, a nice gouge showing up...a hidden issue under the oxidation (48 years worth) that you could not see until polishing. So, Colin wanted to know where to go with it. Replace the panel, or keep it there, and try to sand out the blemishes. Labor on sanding would add up. Replacing the panel is costly. But, they both work out about the same in my mind, actually replacing will probably save time. So, I made the call to replace the panel with a new one. Within 30 minutes I received the photo of the panel coming off! Wow! I figured that with everything out of the inside, this is the time to do it. If we decided to do it in 5 years from now, it would be very $$$$$ - alot more to do it then! So, we are doing it now. We needed to address an area just aft of there anyway, where the hot water heater was that had a rudimentary patch on it - see the photo. So, the first panel replacement is occuring now. We are planning on traveling to GSM this weekend, to deliver the parts Shasta so that the front window can be cut and fabricated into the front of the SOTR. It is coming along quite nicely! I love the feedback from everyone. Keep it coming.

Look at that!

Now, that is one big sheet of aluminum. Here you can see the stripped skin being sanded to get the remaining white latex off for preparation of re-zolatoning. The other is a rivet going in to repair the window frame where it was screwed to the trailer when I purchased it to keep it closed. Look at that nice polishing up of the window frame before going back in. This will save labor in the polishing process later. The roof vent lifters have been soaking for a while to loosen them up and this week, Colin's team has been working on them. Wow! They look great and are all in working order. The skin issue is next!

Loving the details!

So, here are some great pictures of the bedroom window back in and then some of the skin being washed. The paint is coming off nicely. This will allow the Zolatone to look great when we paint. I will be posting a few more photos on the next post. We have run into a little snag on the skin under the road side living room windows. Enjoy!

In between

Well, I am sorry that I haven't posted in a few days. I've been on travel, and the GSM work crew is just getting spun back up after the holidays! I am here in Fort Monmouth, NJ attending some meetings for work. So, after work last night, I traveled the 14 miles south on the GSP (Garden State Parkway - Toll road - did I say I hate toll roads) to the Colonial Airstream dealership. I wanted to stop in, see if they had heard of www.theVAP.com (they had) and look at a few Airstreams. My actual goal was to pick up the 2006 Trailer brochure, which I was successful at. This brochure has alot of Vintage ties in it with pictures of Wally and talks about the WBCCI. And guess what, the first trailer in the brochure has a big caption on its page: "The King of the Road." It is a 2006 Airstream Classic 31' model - a "Sovereign of the Road" wanna be if you ask me - our trailer has the crown! Colonial Airstream is in high gear preparing for the NJ RV show over the Jan 20-22 weekend here in Adison, NJ at the NJ Convention Center. They will be having the Base Camp there - so go see them and say hi! Tell them you heard about it on the SOTR blog. I got to tour a Quick Silver 16' trailer - way cool I must say! They have like 40 trailers on the lot...but unfortunately it was dark so I did not get to see them all. I was a blast, meeting Lauren and team! I showed them this blog and they liked what they saw! I'll be posting pictures soon from Colin.

Take a breath!

Tonight, I have been working on our photo album of this restoration, so that when we are done, we'll have this blog, but also, a hard copy to have with us in the trailer as we travel to show people the ins and outs of doing something like this. As I went back to capture all of the pictures we have, I found these, that I received from RichardT up in Bat Cave while we were considering purchasing this trailer. These are neat. Just look at those badges...."Sovereign of the Road" - I love it! I corresponded with Colin on it, and I'll post the email list of the things he sent to me to consider so that I knew what I was getting into upon buying it. So, here are some pictures of the "coolness" that the SOTR has, at least in our eyes! Here is what Colin told me to think about back on June 17th, 2005. So now, as we think back, this is exciting to see it all happening:

-Dent rear curbside (probably repairable without replacing the panel)
-Bent rear bumper (straighten & repaint)
-Needs front window frame(ebay) -Living room overhead light fixture is missing shade
-Non original fridge, possibly electric only
- Latex paint covering original Zolatone( probably just a scuffing required for prep work before re zolatoning)
-Woodwork appears to be stained dark to cover water stains. Probably white birch underneith. (we love the curved woodwork & the light wood color of ours)
-Original mattress covers (stained) nice single original looking bunk bed
-Original stove(needs cleaning of propane system)
-Missing onion skin from original front wall sconces (probably available from lighting stores)
-Original hot water cover + possibly original heater
-Missing kitchen side vent cover (ebay)
-Missing one Hehr roof vent cover (ebay)
-Missing original bifold doors. (ebay or Lowes)
-Original furnace not shown & may be missing or not ordered originally.(ebay or modern Catalytics)

All in all the body looks very good for it's age. It's a 7 panel model so possibly slightly less desirable than a 13 panel model from 57 or earlier. It will require a new floor & flooring, re zolatoning the complete interior, strip & refinish or replace most interior woodwork, possibly a new fridge or find an original one & refurb it, tub requires repainting, new bifold doors, upgrade the brakes with new backing plates, custom gray tank installation, upgrade to the AC & DC electric systems. It needs to be gutted to do it right but could be turned into a very comfortable, usable, light weight jewel that could be used for the rest of your life.

Our 57 Sovereign of the Road has similar pros & cons however this one has a much better exterior skin. If I charged myself for the metal work required on our trailer, it would cost several thousand $. This one has great potential however you need to be in for the long run & have something else to use in the mean time unless you have plenty of $ to get it done ASAP. We could do the major structural stuff and you could probably get your brother inlaw to do the cabinetry work to save a few $ or we could do it all.

Stripping and Repairing

Today, I received these three photos. The first photo is from this summer, in as found condition. It shows the bent window frame above the galley sink, and the missing vent fan cover - these let water in over the years. Colin's pictures show that the window frame is off and straightened out now, and the second one shows a vent I found off of an old Mobile home for $5, that I will use the cover off of. It is aluminum and identical. The last is of the inside panel in the paint booth having the old flaking white paint removed via high pressure. I can't wait for that to be back in and Zolatoned...it will be soooooo nice! Enjoy.

Jealous!

Man am I jealous. I haven't been able to get up to Colin's yet to see in person our trailer yet, since we took it up there at the end of October. But, Michele and Leon (myboyburt on the forums) were there at GSM Vehicles today and took some pictures...am I jealous that Michele has been able to see our trailer. But anyway, here are some pictures they took as they dropped off their Excella for some APB work. That last picture is an Airstream optical illusion. See ya tomorrow!