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

More on the floor and cabinet doors

I finished up the floor in the front and kitchen areas, the bathroom sub-floor needs some work so that and the bedroom are not done yet.

In the first picture you can see the pull-out couch we got. It was hell getting it through the door but we finally managed. The couch is a Queen size so we'll have a lot more room than the original Gaucho.

Most of the cabinet doors had de-laminated to some extent. I've spent the last few days gluing them then sanding, staining, and applying poly. Here is one that has just been stained and is waiting for poly.

The cabinet latches (the ones that weren't broken) were in sorry shape.

I lightly sanded the faces then sprayed multiple coats of Krylon Fusion plastic paint. I also had to paint the 3 new ones I got from Inland RV because they sent me white ones instead of brown ones.

Here are a few shots of the kitchen area with the restored cabinet doors.

I'm not happy with the color of the side of the sink cabinet, it's oak instead of walnut. I may sand and re-stain it to see if I can match it a little better.

Laying the floor

Yesterday I worked on the floor. I finished the patch near the door first. There were a few small areas of rot that I didnt want to have to tear out so I used a wood hardener on them, it seems to work pretty good. There was also the small holes by the door, for that I used bondo to fill them in.

Once the sub-floor was complete I laid the underlayment down.

With our previous Airstream I ran the flooring across from left to right. This time I want to go front to back, I think it looks much better this way.

I started in the upper left corner in the curve. To get the cut perfect I laid some underlayment down and cut it along the curve of the walls. Then I transfered that to a piece of cardboard. I then used the cardboard as a template for cutting the floor boards.



Getting the first board perfectly square was the hardest part. To get it perfectly square I started by finding the centerline of the camper, I used a marker to mark it. Then I measured 7 7/8th (the width of each piece of flooring) out from the wall right where it first begins to curve, I made this mark on the cardboard template. Then I measured from that mark to the centerline. I took that measurement up to the top of the curve and measured from the centerline towards the wall. I marked that line on the cardboard as well. This assured that the board will be perfectly squared, then I placed the cardboard template on top of the board, lined it up with the marks and traced the curve out on the first board.

This was as far as I got last night:

The flooring is called Spalted Maple. I'm hoping to have it finished today.

Rebuilding the cabinets

The little time I've had over the last week on the Airstream has been spent on rebuilding the cabinets. First I rebuilt the sink cabinet, I re-used the cabinet front from the ell and used oak 1x2's from the Safari I sold recently (they didnt want any of the interior so I have a lot of spare parts to work with) for the bracing.

With that done I turned my attention to the cabinets on the other side. These entailed quite  bit more work. First I took the stove cabinet face and cut it down to countertop height.

Then I took the top rail and attached it to the top of the new piece, this will make a drawer opening.

Then I cut the cabinet side down to match and re-attached it to the front then reinstalled the cabinet back in place.

With that done I started on the fridge cabinet. The fridge we are putting in here is smaller than the original Dometic so I need to build some extra framing.

First I cut down the upper cover plate that used to go above the fridge and stove to fit over just the fridge area, a microwave will be going on a shelf above the countertop.

Then I cut out a new wall out of 1/4 oak plywood since I couldn't find any walnut and I installed it using a spare metal track and then installed the upper cover plate.

Next I built the platform that the fridge will sit on and installed oak face frames. I used a 3/4" piece of plywood on top of the framing with a 1/4" piece of oak plywood over that.

Then I installed the cross pieces.

With the cabinets finished it was time to sand. It took an entire day to sand everything down. Once everything was sanded I began the staining process. I'm using Red Chestnut from Minwax. The original wall panels and cabinet faces are walnut veneer and solid walnut respectively. I'm having to use oak for the new parts. I dont like having to do this and as soon as I can find walnut I'll be replacing the new parts.

The next day I applied a coat of poly to everything.

Yesterday I cut the butcherblock countertop to size and test fit it into place.

The sink will go on the right and the cooktop will eventually be on the left.

We also had time to paint most of the interior skin, the color is Valspar's Homestead resort Parlor Taupe. The area that's not painted yet (upper walls) will be an antique white, I thought I had a full can but it turned out that I didn't. I'll buy a can today after work and hopefully have it painted by tonight. The color will be Homestead Resort Jefferson White. The cabinet faces are a light chocolate brown.

Next up will be repair of the sub-floor and installation of the laminate floor.