Another Saturday

It was back to work this week, so our progress has slowed considerably. Renovations of this magnitude take 500+ hours, so that means at least a year of Saturday afternoons with two of us. Today, we started by scouring a local lumberyard's going out of business sale. We scored 2 sheets of 1/8" bendable birch (hard to find), and 1 sheet of regular 1/8" birch. We'll need more but this is a good start at a great price. Our best deal was 3 full sheets of 3/4" douglas fir marine plywood for $17.50 each (usually $70+).

Jack spent the rest of the afternoon removing flooring in hard to reach spaces, grinding off screws (check out the sparks!),

and jacking up the roof beams to allow the new flooring to be slipped under the outside stud wall.  As with all renovation projects, it is definitely harder than it looks!

Success!!  Replacing the floor is such a huge job.  We will be very happy when we are on the other side of that part of the project.

Meanwhile, I worked on the front picture window.  It was covered with years of grime, moss, and aluminum oxidation.  The tracks were full of insect webs and other yucky stuff. 

I used my power broom ($2.50 blow gun on large air compressor) to blow all the crud out of tight spaces.  Speed Ball (cleaner that will take the skin off your hands if you don't wear gloves) and scrub brush took the grime off the glass and aluminum.  I used SOS pads and wet dry sandpaper to remove the oxidation and polish the aluminum parts, and then finished the whole thing with Windex.    

Now, it looks like this:

One down, eight to go.  Now that I have a process, hopefully it will go faster.

I didn't go after the exterior window oxidation yet.  That will have to wait until the inside is farther along.  With any of these *small* tasks, we find ourselves having to draw the "where to stop" line.

I can see clearly now...

First of all, I have to agree with Keri: Jack does have mad skills. Second, we fortunately have some friends willing to help with the things we don't have a clue about.  Like jalousie windows, for example.... This trailer has jalousie windows, an early 1900s louvered window invention popular with trailer manufacturers in the 1950s and 60s. These windows are most commonly found in the south, and really are not suited for Michigan winters. This is especially true of our trailer, because a number of the louvers are broken or missing. I'm used to getting new glass panes cut down at the local hardware store, but they are usually fairly rough and irregular and wouldn't work well in this application.  Happily, we know a commercial glass specialist, who was kind enough to stop by and give us some advice. Who knew that there are tons of patterns of obscure glass for doors and bathroom windows? We were able to get perfectly sized, straight, clear and obscure jalousie panes from him, all edges ground smooth, and hand delivered securely wrapped in foam. Thank you, JD!  Now, if I can just figure out how to install it...

Finally, something positive...

Oh happy day!! After finding that the furnace, water tank, water pump, stove and most other mechanicals are junk or need significant rebuilding....we plugged in the frig and found it actually works! Considering that RV refrigerators cost more than most of the other mechanicals combined, we are quite excited.

Oh, and for those of you who think we are crazy...you'll get no argument from me.

Day 5 and 6: structure and floor

Jack is obviously doing the tough stuff. Friday and Saturday, he used a floor jack and other tools to lift the trailer enough to allow a 0.75" sheet to be installed underneath. The old floor is so rotten on the perimeter that the outside walls have settled, buckling a few interior walls. So, first order of business is to lift the structure enough to allow the new spacers to be placed underneath.

Day 5 & 6: clean, clean, clean!

By Friday, I'd pretty much removed everything I could for now so I moved on to washing the ceiling and outer cabinets. Most of the trailer cleaned up well. The bathroom is an exception as it has the rough Zolatone like finish, covered with decades of cigar smoke residue. Fred and MaryEllen came over for pizza at night, but MaryEllen first took a scrub brush and heavy duty cleaner to the shower. Check out the lighter color of the shower- that "brown" tinge to the paint is nicotine!! Gross.

Woodland Travel

We'd like to give a shout out to Woodland Travel, and particularly Craig Carlson. They have been in the Airstream business for over 50 years, and are a great source for parts and service for Airstreams and their "silver sisters". Craig walked us through our first trailer overhaul 18 years ago, and has given us lots of great advice about these classics over the years. He has been around Airstreams all of his life, and knows them inside out. We went to visit Woodland today to pick up a few items and get away from the project for awhile. Woodland recently renovated a '67 Tradewind, and it is displayed in their showroom. It looks wonderful!! We returned home with renewed motivation, ready to dig in again tomorrow.

Day 4: More floor removal

With the frig out, Jack moved on to removing flooring on the curbside of the living area. The center strip of floor seen in the photo above seems solid, though I'm sure we'll probably replace it too. The rule seems to be: The floor is rotten in hard to reach areas, and solid in the other areas. While he finished this, I removed the cabinet doors as eventually the exposed metal will all be repainted anyway.