Family Reunion

We took the Airstream to my wife's family reunion in Mentone, AL the weekend before last.

My wife's grandmother has a 50 acre farm on the mountain in Mentone. The reunion was held there and there were close to 100 relatives that attended.

We had a great time unfortunately I didnt take any pictures of the Airstream. The above picture was from a relative.

We left the camper there because my wife's grandmother has an RV-port that we were able to park it under. We plan on taking several weekend trips there over the winter to work on the Airstream.

Falluminum

We had a great time at Falluminum! Looking forward to our next rally!!

 

 

Ready for this weekend!

We're all set to go to Falluminum this weekend!

Cabinet Drawer

Yesterday I built and installed the cabinet drawer.

The drawer face is temporary, it is pine which does not take stain the same as the walnut and oak that is in the camper. I was able to get it close but it is still somewhat noticeable. I will be buying a piece of oak for the drawer front soon.

I still need some type of handle for it.

Back to work

Over the weekend I got back to work on the Airsream. There are a lot of small projects I want to finish up before Falluminum, our first Airstream rally being held in Hiawassee, Ga.

The first thing I did was pull out the dent in the front. Here is a picture of what it looked like before:

and here is after:

I used a suction cup puller. Eventually I will remove the inner skin and hammer it out properly.

Next was the curved skin on the front street side that attaches to the belly skin. It was hanging down and looked really bad.

Before:

This is a bad after shot but you get the idea. I had to use a floor jack to hold the skin up while I riveted it into place.

The next thing I worked on was all the rusty metal on the exterior. The rims, bumper, and hitch were all painted at one point with an ugly gray paint that was peeling away with a lot of rust on it.

Here is a before pic:

Here is the after:

I sanding it down with a wire cup wheel on a drill then painted it with Rustoleum Aluminum paint.

Next I did the bumper. The aluminum door was mostly broken off so I riveted it back on once I painted the bumper.

Before:

After:

Next I tackled the rims, not only were they rusty but they were covered in grease from the hubs.

Before:

During:

After:

Next on the list was to build the microwave shelf and install the microwave.

Before:

Sorry I didnt get any in-progress pics of the shelf build but here is the after:

The last thing I got done over the weekend was the speaker covers in the front. I took them apart and painted them the lighter wall color for a little bit of contrast.

Before:

After:

Updated pics

Here are the pics that I've been meaning to post forever.

I haven't done any more work on it since March. We went camping in it the one time and haven't had the time or money to go camping since.

We've decided to sell it and find another one some time down the road when we have more time and money. Here is a link to the ad if anyones interested in buying it:

http://www.airstreamclassifieds.com/showproduct.php?product=13788

Update

I haven't had any time for new posts lately. We took our first trip in the Airstream the previous weekend. We parked in my wife's grandmothers backyard (her backyard is 50 acres on a mountain in Mentone, Al).

We only had electricity as I haven't finished the plumbing yet. All in all it was a pretty nice first trip. There is still quite a bit of things to finish up before our next trip which is to the Springstream Airstream rally in the north Georgia Mountains in early April.

I have completed alot since my last post but havent had time to take pictures yet. As soon as I do I will make a new post.

In the meantime here is a pic from the road on our first trip:

Replacing the airconditioner

The air conditioner on our Airstream does not work, it doesn't even turn on, hum, or anything. It's a very old and ugly unit anyways. Here is a pic where you can see the old unit:

We looked around on Craigslist and found a Coleman A/C for $150 about 125 miles away. I actually picked it up in our car:

I have no idea how, but I actually got it to fit in the trunk.

I removed the old A/C and found a mess of old vulkem and other sealents:

I scraped it all off and cleaned up the opening, then installed the new A/C using liberal amounts of Vulkem.

So for $150 we now have a working A/C! It works great and looks much better than the old one.

Finished Floor, Sink Install & Credenza

I finished the floor yesterday. I had originally planned on running the laminate floor all the way back to the bathroom but I found a lot of rot back there around the toilet. What I decided to do was stop the laminate at the doorway to the bathroom, install a threshold in the doorway, then put down some peel and stick tiles in the bathroom temporarily. I have less than 2 weeks left before we take our first camping trip. I will tear the bathroom floor out next winter then install laminate.

Here is a picture of the finished floor:

I've also been working on the credenza, I had to shorten it by 4" because the pull-out couch is deeper than the gaucho was. I shortened it at the slanted cabinet next to the fridge wall and moved the entire credenza down.

I didn't like the original top on it so I made a new one out of a product called Ponderosa Pine, it is basically pine strips laminated together like butcherblock. I got a piece for 25% off because it had separated in a few places, because of this I had to re-glue one piece back together once I cut it to size.

Here it is all glued back together:

I put a coat of amber shellac on it and installed it.

You may notice in the picture that I have it pulled away from the wall a few inches. Somehow I cut it too short so I'm going to glue a strip on the end of it. The fold out table is just sitting in place for now. I hate the laminate on it too so I need to figure out what I'm going to replace it with.

I also installed the sink. First, I measured and made my marks centered on the window.

I then cut it out and installed the sink and faucet.

I then put the countertop back.

It is just sitting in place, I still need to run the plumbing so I will leave it like this until I do that.

You may have also noticed from the pictures that I hung most of the blinds. These blinds did not come with the little clips that secure the bottom of the blind to the wall so I had to buy them separately.