Silver Bullet

Finally got the front belly skin off. Looked like pink mush. The wood floor from underneath is in a little worse shape than I expected. Once I get to look at the whole underbelly I'll have to determine what to do then.





Here's a look at the frame underneath. Some rust that needs to be cleaned up, but in all, it looks decent. A couple of the cross members look bad and I might have to replace them. I didn't have enough day light left to get under there and access the damage.





A bit of mold growing on the underside of the wood. It's up front on the same section that I already know needs replacing, but was a neat find.










Here's a look at the belly pan all cleaned up. Probably going to have to replace this piece. It's badly corroded on the edges where the steel frame came into contact with the alum.

Does anyone else's yard look like an Airstream junk yard???
I'm really starting to accumulate a lot of airstream interior on the exterior :)

I did make a bit of progress, though. Got the curb side of the galley out including the furnace, stove/oven and the counter top.


I also finally found the drain valve for the fresh water tank, so that''s been draining for the last couple of hours. I filled it up after I bought it and didn't realize that it wasn't hooked up to the plumbing system. Dummy me. There's a nice like puddle underneath the trailer now. I didn't realize that 45 gallons was so much










Here's the mess that was under the sink. The copper tubing was unhooked from everything and plastic tubing was installed instead. Come to find out, it was because of a blown copper line between of the valves below the sink. Oh well, I'm going to re-plumb the entire thing anyways using PEX tubing.






Here's the finished product after today's gutting.

And my final thoughts of the day, if you can see what's behind a rivet, look there before drilling. Ended up drilling right through 120v lines with the HOT. Made for a lot of excitement, sparks and smoke. Lost my drill bit in the process, melted it right in half. That was my favorite bit, too. Made a perfect size hole for my punch to fit in.

Made some progress today with gutting. I removed the credenza and the front end cap. It still boggles my mind that mice can get so deep inside the structure of this thing. The good thing is I've found most of their avenues of approach and I don't think that I have any current residents in the trailer anymore. I'm under debate right now as to replace the base floor. Once gutted, I'll make that determination.

I still haven't popped off the belly skin, but I know that I'm going to have to do that soon. Might be out of the "I don't know what I'm going to find"

Another good thing; I was able to pop out the dent on the side of the trailer being I've taken off the interior panels, so I guess some good is coming out of this.

Anyways, here's some pictures of my progress today.



I'm going to replace the fiberglass end cap and redo it with wood paneling. Haven't though about a design yet, but I'll have time to think about that as I gut it.

I decided that I would pop off an easy panel just to see the extent of my mouse infestation. After removing the access panel for the 7 way plug, there it was. That's all I needed to see.


As you can see, they used the panel as an access avenue into the walls. And boy did it stink.......Needless to say, I tore all the pink stuff out from the front wall.



Here's a better picture showing the extent of the mouse "motel"
And the aftermath from removing it all.

Well, it think that this brings me to a big decision, which I've already made. It's full monty time! I'll begin gutting the entire trailer. I don't want to put up with the smell and health concerns that comes from having these critters inside the trailer. Doing this should also give me a lot easier access to the wiring, plumbing and everything else.

Now I can do what I wanted to do in the first place anyways, which was to customize the inside and now I'll have a clean pallet to work from. Lots of ideas have run through my head and I may end up using wood veneer on the walls and ceiling. I don't think that the weight of it should be a real concern if I buy the right stuff. The one thing that I'm worried about is the wood warping from moisture.

I'd love to hear your ideas, as I'm going to redo everything.

It was a warm day in the Southeast today so decided to wash the Airstream. I don't think that the exterior has been washed in a while and wanted to see what she looked like "clean", so I got out the washing supplies and started scrubbing(softly). Took about an hour and a half to clean her up and well, there's still no shine :) So day she'll be shiny and new.





To my amazement, there was a small ant colony living inside the beltline that I took off(it was only hanging on by a couple of rivets) You can see the grim on the picture.

















Here she is all clean and sparkely!!!! By the way, ended up evicting a mouse from underneath. Don't think that it liked the soap and water. YIPPY!!! Whiskey will hopefully take care of it for me so it doesn't come back.

Got home early from work today and decided that I would start cleaning. You know, washing the counters, vacuuming the carpet, cleaning up the mouse turds, things like that.

Well, as I was vacuuming the wood floor tiles, one popped out. I though, huh. Well, the following pictures speak for them selves.

An afternoon of cleaning turned into an afternoon of ripping out carpet, taking up the wood tile flooring and removing the vinyl floor underneath the carpet.

To my amazement, pretty soon I was down to the original base board :) I did find on area of rot near a window, so I'll have to take care of that, but all in all, I think that the base board is in good shape given it's age.

Here's a view looking from the rear to the front in the twin sleeper section.
A pic of the rear bath.
Here's a view looking from the front to the rear. I started taking down the light fixtures. They were a very dark yellow and I believe that they're suppose to be white. Going to either replace them with the original or update them all together. Any idea's??

Here's the galley. Stove and oven work like a charm, but refer has died.


Whiskey's new bed :)

LOOK AT THAT PATTERN......How aweful! Still debating whether to take out this piece (can't remember the name of it) and replace it with two recliners. Have seen a couple like that and really like the idea.

Well, that's it's. not too much to show off, yet. That will come with time and $$$ :)

Here's some pictures of my Airstream.

As you can see, she needs some TLC but overall I'm happy.

The aluminum tank were pressure tested and re-built with the newer OPV system. Of course, the clear coat is gone. That's going to be one of the last steps that I do and have to wait till spring time anyways.

Well, just bought my 1975 31ft Sovereign Land Yacht today wanted to keep a running tally of my restoration project. I'll get some pictures up here to show the progress along the way.

Hope that you'll enjoy this as much as I.