Inside Out...

I know its been a while but we had Christmas followed by heaps of snow and freezing weather. But at last things are progressing again...

Unfortunately, after the positive step of buck riveting the shell back onto the chassis, it was back to a wee bit of destruction; the inner sheets needed to come out.

So more rivet drilling and more mess.

Most of it was in good condition but there had clearly been some water pooling around the head of the door.

There is this misheld idea that aluminium will never corrode - wrong. It may do it a little slower than other metals but where you've got alloys in contact with other metals and/or water it will pit, bubble and ultimately crumble.

So this is one sheet that will need a new section let into it.

Leaving a few clecos in one side it was soon hanging by the few central rivets.

Fairly simple to roll it up - I'm sure it came in through the door but for now it can stay put.

The state of the insulation varied ! Some panels were fine while others had become homes to a variety of critters.

Not a lot of insulating power here !

... and even a 240V wire sandwiched between the skin and the frame. Amazingly the insulation had held up.

Insualtion out & just the stern end-cap to come out.

As at the bow the base of the 13 panel cap was drawn in tight to the window frame with self-tapping screws.

Of course I didn't doubt it would...

... but it was nice to see it did fit through the door.

Down to her outer skin and skeletal frame...

The tar-like paint was adhesive to stick the insulation to the skin and seal the seams.

It also revealed just how many self-tapping steel screws Airstream had used.

These held in the drip-cap over the door and had probably been the source of the advanced corrosion to the inner panels around the door head.

These were obvious but when you looked closely they'd used them all over the place...

... all the window drip-caps had them in the corners.

With every other rivet in the cap bucked, I can only think they screwed the two ends to hold the cap in place while they bucked the ones in between.

As we've got access to the inside of the outer skin, all the screws are coming out & bucked rivets put in their place.

Even on the roof the various vents had been screwed down, though this makes more sense as they were probably added after the inner skin was in place.

... Vulkem, still sticky and flexible after 55yrs.

 Pete Ricthie had been busy while I'd been away & had removed the leaf-springs and old axle. 

They'll be sent off for re-binding and rejuvenating and the new axle is ready for their return.

Removing the aluminium eye-level cupboards revealed...

The best patch of original Zolatone yet...

As it'd been hidden from light and wear'n'tear it gives us a great sample to match to the new Zolatone.

Someone had added a square section awning track on top of the original rope channel.

They'd also liberally stuck it and filled it with every mastic and filler known to man; a bugger to clean off...

... but worth it. Giving her back the fine line of her discrete track.

It was also time to order up some polish. So polishing supremo, Kelvin buffed a test section...

He found that Nuvite's Nushine II @ F7 was quite abrasive enough to clear most of the corrosion.

...and even someone in a dodgy hat managed to buff a passable shine.

One failure... trying to strip the inner end caps. Too cold - even for my hands.

Generally the skin seems to be in good nick; although you can never tell until you start polishing.

But its nice to see her start to shine.

Buckerooooo...

Time to buck the body shell to the new bellywrap and C channel.

Tim's skills are suited to more delicate equipment (he's an excellent sound recordist) but he volunteered to help buck a few rivets; complete with protective headgear (not sure if that's to protect from falling objects or preserve anonymity).

Of course he got the comfy end of the bucking...

... while I got the short straw.

But at least being on the backside, you get to control the crumpling of the rivet's tail. I found the most useful 'bucking bar' was a small heavy piece of Tungsten Steel; despite its size it was enough to absorb most of the blows and crumple the tail nicely. Though where there was more room this combined with the head of a 15lb railwayman's hammer helped save my knuckles.

... you just have to trust the man with the gun isn't putting smiley faces on the heads or the skin.

Luckily he did a perfect job (of course!).

... which is more than can be said of his rivet storage !

The skin fitted pretty snugly against the bellywrap.

But there was just enough room for a bead of Vulkem (or TremPro 636, as its now called - from Vintage Trailer Supplies ) - sticky stuff that gets everywhere !

Vintage Trailer Supplies have recently started to stock solid 5/32 rivets too. They are in a soft aluminium which cuts and bucks easily.

I'd ordered the longer ones and even without proper rivet cutters, found they trim nicely with some sharp snips.

... without leaving a burr or distorting the shank of the rivet.

Choices, choices...

So I had the choice of hard (AD) rivets from Aircraft Spruce or the softer ones from Vintage Trailer Supplies. Having drilled out all of the original rivets I'm pretty sure the original Airstream ones were closer to those from VTS and the some of the harder ones from AS had lettering on their heads.

So the compromise was to use the harder rivets along the ends where the rivets are hidden by the trim strip and the softer ones along the sides where they're more visible.

Outside, where it matters...

... and inside where it doesn't.

You can see the gold colour of the coating on the harder rivets (it polishes off easily). You can also see the wobbly path of Airstream's original rivet line !  While its tempting to drill a straighter line, it seems pointless to make more holes as they'll all be hidden by the trim, so we stuck with the wonky old ones.

And a big thanks also to Kelvin (who works with Pete Ritchie at Vintage American Trailer Co ) for stepping into Tim's shoes and bucking the rest of the rivets - its one of those jobs that really does need good teamwork. I'll catch him on camera next time.

The old gal, looking good and strong enough for at least another 50 years on the road...

Now to begin work on the inside... wiring, insulation and then new Zolatone.

... hurrah !