'69 Airstream Sovereign

Another '69 Sovereign!

2011-02-01T09:45:00.000-05:00

We sold both the Spartan and the Safari and bought another '69 Sovereign!

We've already begun the restoration as we have a camping trip planned for early march.

You can check out the blog here: 1969 Airstream Sovereign

We've bought a new camper!

2010-02-22T10:09:00.000-05:00

We found a 1970 Airstream Safari that needs a lot of work. We will be doing small projects on it for a while and will begin restoration in a few months.

our "new" camper!

2008-11-02T13:28:00.002-05:00

We've bought another camper! It's not an Airstream though, it's a 1948 Spartan Royal Mansion. The restoration of it is going to take a lot longer than the Airstream did. Feel free to check the blog out from time to time. Updates will be coming slowly though.

Airstream sold

2008-07-24T08:46:00.002-04:00

We've sold the Airstream. We really loved it but it was time to move on to other things. We will go back to tent camping for a while. Some time in the future we will look for another one to restore.

Finishing the cabinets

2008-05-30T09:02:00.005-04:00

I haven't posted in a while because we took our first real camping trip with the Airstream. I'll post more on that later.

Last week we finished the cabinets. First I sanded them down completely and then stained them with Red Chestnut from Minwax and finished it off with 2 coats of satin poly.

Here are some pictures of the sanding process:

And the staining:

Here are some pictures from just before our trip:

There are still a few small things left to do like install the 1/4 round trim for the floors.

I'll post about our trip later.

Laying the floor

2008-05-19T06:57:00.007-04:00

Yesterday I laid the new laminate flooring. It was easier than I thought it was going to be once I figured out the proper way to make the cuts for short pieces. With regular flooring you just measure and cut a board to length. With laminate you have to make sure to cut the proper side of the board because each board edge has a tongue or a groove that needs to connect to the piece next to it. I messed the first cut up but was ok after that.

Since the first 3 feet up front will be covered with the couch I decided to use plywood for that area. It's hard to start thinking like a renovator and not a restorer, this is something I would never do in restoring an old house. I would have laid the flooring from one end to the other, my thinking being that someone years down the road might want to change the layout of the room, I dont ever want someone coming behind me and saying "what were they thinking!" But in the camper this is fine, the layout of the room will never change because this is the only place for the couch.

I was able to get the shape of the plywood to fit so perfectly by cutting a piece of underlayment to fit in the area then tracing it onto the plywood.

Here are a few pictures of the progress:

And here are a few shots of the finished area:

I still need to stain and install the 1/4 round molding.

I also repaired and installed the smaller shade on the curb side of the camper:

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the repair itself. It was broken about a foot from the back end. the metal pipe had rusted away. I cut it back to good clean metal then cut a piece of schedule 40 PVC to the proper length, then I trimmed down a pressure treated 2x4 to fit inside both pieces of pipe and used deck screws to hold it all together. It came out very strong, I cant flex the area at all. I put a PVC cap on the end, drilled a hole in it and used a threaded rod for the pin that holds the shade in place. I made sure to screw the rod about a foot into the 2x4 inside the shade. then I drilled a hole in the end of the threaded rod for the cotter pin. the shade itself covers the PVC so it looks perfectly normal.

Attaching the shade fabric to the camper was tough, there is a small groove that the edge of the fabric has to go into then you use rubber window screen trim to hold it into place.

The shade mechanism still works fairly well but the threaded rod in the repaired end makes it tough to roll up the shade. I may revisit this fix sometime down the road for something a little better.

Next up is sanding and staining the cabinetry.

Window repair, building the cabinets

2008-05-18T06:40:00.008-04:00

A lot has been accomplished in the last few days. Most of the work has been in the kitchen area. On Thursday we cut the countertop for the sink and installed the backsplash:

And then installed the sink:

I had to use a Forstner bit on the underside of the counter for the faucet to fit as this countertop is thicker:

On Friday I finally installed a new window to replace the broken one. I was going to use a piece of acryllic temporarily until I could order a new window but after seeing how time consuming it was to take the frame out I decided to use a piece of Lexan and make it permanent. There are about 50 large rivets holding the frame in place.

Cutting the Lexan to fit was another challenge, I did this by laying the frame over the Lexan and curving the Lexan to shape, tracing around the inside of the frame then adding 1/4 inch all the way around.

Cutting the Lexan is very hard, it's not like acrylic where you can just score it with a razer and snap it, it has to be cut all the way through. I used a combination of a plastic cutting razer knife and my dremel with a cut-off wheel. The dremel died right as I was finishing the last cut.

Once the window was cut out the next issue was getting it into the frame. I think the Lexan I got was a little thicker than the original glass because it wasn't wanting to fit with the window molding in place. I finally was able to make it all fit though, in this picture the molding is still not completely pushed into place. I did that by using a dull chisel and soapy water:

It's a good thing I didn't try to use acrylic because it never would have survived installing it into the frame. Once the window was finished I reattached it to the Airstream with new rivets. I used Dicor caulk between the window and the camper for a water-tight seal:

Yesterday I worked in the kitchen area. I didn't like how the counter area by the fridge was turning out so I started over:

I'm gluing as well as nailing everything together:

This is my platform for the fridge, the front will be covered with a piece of Luann:

The area is now complete except for a few small trim pieces, a drawer front, and sanding/staining. Here are a few pictures with the appliances test fitted into place:

Wiring, painting complete

2008-05-15T08:06:00.007-04:00

All of the wiring is now fixed. The short in the trailer lights turned out to be from a missing running light, someone just shoved the wire back into the hole and caulked over it. The wire ended up touching metal and was shorting the lights. I have bought all new running and clearance lights and should be installing them today.

There were a few things wrong with the inside lighting as well, some of the overhead lights were wired wrong and was causing some crazy issues like one light not working unless another one was turned on and when they did come on they were very dim.

Here is a shot of the completed wiring, I drilled small holes in the cross-braces and tied the wiring to it with 18 gauge wire (I couldn't find my zip-ties!):

With the wiring fixed I ran new wiring for the spotlights then cut holes in the ceiling panel with a 2 1/2 inch hole saw bit. Then we reinstalled the panel, we used R-13 insulation above it.

Here is a shot of the panel and the spotlights:

As you can see we reinstalled the original fixtures also. This is temporary as we are ordering new brushed nickel ones.

Then we installed the mini blinds I mentioned in my last post. the blinds are brushed aluminum ones exactly like the ones that come in new Airstreams. We actually found them at Ikea while we were getting the butcherblock countertop. They were only $15 each!

We also finished painting. We ran a chocolate brown stripe down the camper below the window and used the same color on the cabinet faces.

Today we're hoping to finish the countertops and get the sink installed.

Cabinets, electrical, and paint

2008-05-13T08:54:00.012-04:00

A lot of work has gotten done since my last post. One of the first things I did was tear out the old countertop, it was sagging and rotted but we also wanted to change the layout. The original counter was L shaped and stuck out into the walkway. The gas cooktop was in the part of the L that stuck out. We're going to be getting a stove so we wont be needing the cooktop.

I dont have a before picture of the countertop but I found a picture online of one that looks a lot like ours did:
First I removed the L section of the counter:

Then built new framing using 1x2's. I kept the original cabinet front from the L:

I then used Luann plywood for the cabinet sides:

The new countertop is butcherblock and made of Beech wood:

We will be keeping the original sink and faucet, the sink will be centered below the window. I scrubbed both of them with CLR to remove the rust and stains:

Next I began work on the cabinet across from the sink. It used to hold a wall oven above the counter but someone removed the oven and replaced it with another cabinet. This is where we will eventually put the stove but for now we decided to make a countertop out of the area.

I cut the top cabinet out at the correct level to match the counter across from it:

I added a shelf above it for the microwave and a piece of Luann plywood to the side to divide the counter from the fridge, I built a platform for the fridge to sit on so it's at the height of a standard fridge. This area is just roughed in for right now:

I've also been working on the electrical, there are many problems to fix. I took the ceiling panel down and removed all the old, rotting insulation to access all the wiring:

I found this when I was going over the wiring, that's a 120v line, it's completely burned through leaving bare wires exposed:

I painted the ceiling panel with aluminum paint, I still need to give it a second coat:

These spotlights are from Airstream, they come on new models. I picked some up and will be placing them in the ceiling panel:

We've also been painting the interior. We're going with a two-tone look. An antique white above and a sandy color below. I dont have any really good shots of it yet but this one will do:

At the front we're taking the sandy color all the way up. If you look really close at the window on the right you'll notice the set of blinds, I'll talk about them in my next post along with all the other progress.

Trailer wiring

2008-05-02T20:51:00.004-04:00

Today I worked on the trailer wiring. Ever since we got the Airstream the taillights have been screwed up. The reverse lights were the taillights and there were no running or clearance lights on at all. It turns out that the main problem was the wiring in my truck. The PO did a horrible job of wiring up the 7 blade connector. There were actually 2 of them and neither of them worked right.

I bought a new 7 blade connector with the LED brake lights in it and installed it:

Everything works great now except the taillights, running lights and clearance lights. There appears to be a short in the trailer somewhere, I know that I wired the connector correctly but every time I turn the lights on with the trailer attached I blow a fuse. This is not going to be fun trying to track down the short.

The other thing I did today was to replace the old fridge with a nice stainless one I got. It's a few inches shorter but I think it looks much better.

New sub-floor

2008-05-01T08:22:00.006-04:00

Yesterday we got back to work on the floor. There was rot further back on the street side than I had first thought so I had to cut back all the way to the doorway.

I then vacuumed the entire area out with the shop-vac.

I was able to make a template for the curved area out of cardboard.

I filled the wells with foam insulation boards 2 to 3 deep and used Great Stuff foam to seal it all in:

Then I cut the new pieces of sub-floor one at a time and installed them. I'm using self-drilling screws to secure the edge camper shell frame to the wood. I will be using larger self drilling screws with large washers to secure the wood to the cross braces.

The screws that held the camper shell down to the wood were corroded and rusted in place so when I pulled the wood out the screws stayed. These had to be removed to put the new wood under the camper shell frame. I removed them with a sawzall and a dremel grinder:

More foam insulation:

Sub-floor in place:

Yet again more foam insulation:

Sub-floor complete:

Today I'll be moving on to the walls. I need to remove most of them to get at the wiring. Once reinstalled I will paint the walls then start laying the laminate.

Work begins - tearing out the sub-floor

2008-04-30T07:54:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we began work on the Airstream. In the morning I picked up a couch that we cound on Craigslist, it's a wicker pull-out that fits perfectly. Getting it in the door was very tough, we had to turn it on a 45 degree angle to get it in the door. All 3 sides were rubbing going through the door, if the couch had been even 1/4 inch bigger on any dimension it would not have fit.

We will eventually re-do the fabric on the couch but it's good for now.

We had the intention of putting the couch in place just to test the fit then take it back out so we could rip up the floor, but the difficulty in getting the thing through the door changed our plans. Instead we moved it as far back to the kitchen as possible, this way I could tear the floor up at the front of the camper.

The above picture gives you an idea of how rotted the floor is at the front of the trailer. Ripping it up was hard, the plywood is very strong, very old, 3/4 marine grade plywood. I had to use a circular saw set to 3/4" depth and cut it out in strips. Around the edges the plywood is sandwiched between the trailer frame below, and the camper shell frame above. this makes it especially difficult to get out.

Here I am cutting the old floor out:

Here is the bad area cut out. I made my cut at the center of a cross brace for strength.

Here is the debris pile left over.

I also took out the home made bed on the curb side of the camper, someone made it twin size and it stuck half way out into the hall. I will be cutting it down and reinstalling it. Note the flooring in this area, I'll be keeping the parquet floor, the rest of the flooring is coming up and wood laminate will be going down.

I'm hoping to get back in there today and install the new, marine grade sub-floor up front and maybe even start laying some laminate!

Our new Airstream

2008-04-24T07:48:00.001-04:00

We just purchased this '69 Airstream Sovereign. The outside skin is in decent condition, a few dents here and there and it will need a good polishing. The inside needs to be completely restored.

Here are a few pics:

We bought the camper down in Florida so we ended up making an impromptu camping trip out of it.

We're hoping to have it finished by fall so we can go camping in the north Georgia Mountains.