Island Girl got to take her first trip on her new axle and wheels. It was done pretty slowly since her shell is only held up by some strips of plywood and a few C clamps. Looks to me like she sits 3 or 4 inches higher than before and there's about a foot of clearance below the tanks (which all hang down 4" below the frame) and the spare tire.

Hopefully you can see in the pics that we've added quite a bit of structure to the frame. There's a piece of 2x4 tube forward with the spare tire mount, another between the two fresh water tanks, one more right by the shock mounts as part of the gray tank mount, and a final one replacing the rear crossmember which had significant rust problems. Also added a steel plate which will be riveted to the rear shell, like the existing one in front. Spare tire mount adds some structure too. Tire goes into the mount either with a floor jack or a small block and tackle setup.

Tanks are just loosely fastened in here for the pictures. Fresh tanks have baffles inside and the strap mounts hold them across the baffle area. They are 24 gallon tanks. Gray is 33 gallons and held both by the straps and the top flange. Most of the plumbing fittings will be on the tank tops with the exception of the shower drain which will follow those existing holes in the frame and enter either on the side or back of the tank. At least that's the plan now.

Shock mounts are pretty tight on clearance, but I think they'll be OK. Actually had to countersink the bolts on the lower mounts to make them fit.

I'll be wire brushing and prepping for POR 15 over the next few days. I know you guys in the hot country wouldn't think much of our current 85 to 90 degrees but for us in the Pacific Northwet, it's pretty darned hot. Might be taking it pretty slowly for the next few days.

Island Girl's Excellent Adventure at the Welder

I don't have a TV yet and my buddy that does was leaving, so the trailer had to go to the welder before he was actually ready to start on it. I've been having bunches of fun doing Hehr standard windows (9 of them on a Caravanner) while I've been waiting. They kill time really well as they take 5 or 6 hours each. I'm nearly done.

Bill, the welder, got started on Thursday. I'd had the axle shipped to him from Axis. It's a 5000 pound axle, derated to 4200 pounds, with 12 inch brakes, the zerk fitting for the bearings, and their high profile mount. Fit was just perfect with the only hitch being some concern about clearance for the shocks and we'll probably look at that tomorrow. Otherwise, everything is good: she sits up a little higher but I still have about a foot of clearance under the tanks hanging below the frame and I think the wheels I got from Marc look pretty cool.

The spare tire is going inside the A frame which means one more crossmember has to move a little bit. We're still kicking ideas around about the mount. Thinking about using a pulley system with some mechanical advantage to lift the tire up and then held up by studs and lug bolts. Ideas appreciated here. I've searched all the threads I can think of and can't really find anyone doing it quite this way, but we're thinking it's pretty simple and strong and out of the way better than most other ways.

Inside, my frame is in remarkably good condition. The aft crossmember is rusted out and gets cut out and replaced this afternoon. My trailer has the steel plate riveted in up front, but not in the rear, so we're adding one there as well. There's rust and damage on the step and it's forward outrigger that will need some work too.

We've added two pieces of 2"x 4" steel tube as crossmembers as part of the mounts for the gray and fresh tanks and have reinforced the existing crossmembers that will also be part of the tank mounts. The gray is held by angle on its flange and by straps. The two fresh tanks are secured by straps. All will be easy to drop from below should the need arise.

It is so much fun actually putting things into the trailer instead of ripping it apart. It's a really good time.

Spinning my wheels

I've been waiting for my new axle to arrive from Axis.  Shipped about a week ago, so I should see it soon.  Really been in a bit of a holding pattern while I'm waiting and have just been doing a few little jobs on Island Girl.

In preparation for the trip down the road to the welder, I redid all the lights with LED's and all new wiring, and made a new removable umbilical cord for the hookup.  I'd previously installed new marker lights from Vintage Trailer Supply, but a post by Reggiemon at Airforums.com prompted me to upgrade them to LED as well.  Thanks for the push, Reg.

I've also been stripping and polishing the rear interior endcap.  It's coming, not there yet, but it's coming.  Per Marcus' advice, I think I'll use new aluminum for the other bits inside that I'm planning to have polished.  I think leaving that endcap in place to strip and polish was the right thing to do, but it's still hard working over your head, making for slow progress.

I know I shouldn't do this and I really have been resisting. . . . .but I couldn't stop myself today.  Pam was happy sitting in the car watching me work, so I put a little polish time into the door withing a door.  Came up pretty easily but it'll need some more effort.  I promise to resist doing more of the outside for now.

A Rare Victory with Alzheimers Today

Alzheimers doesn't give you many victories.  Pam has been in a nearly ten year long descent with it and there's really not a lot of her left.  My only goal for her is that she is happy and thankfully, we're generally successful in that.  It would be so much harder if she were depressed.

We can no longer communicate verbally as she no longer even understands yes or no.  But, we can still communicate as her life is pretty simple now and very structured.  For years, she's been able to play solitaire on her computer and that has kept her occupied.  Unfortunately, about a month ago, she lost the ability to play.  She's not had much to do and has been pretty anxious on the boat, pacing back and forth.  We've pretty well solved that for now by going over to the shop each day, and working for a little while on the kayak and a little while on the Airstream.  That takes up a couple hours each day and she's really content watching me work or "talking" to that girl she sees in the rear view mirror of the car.  Ice cream from the grocery store usually follows the shop time.

Today was one of those little victories.  I've been really tired lately and I just wasn't up for more ripping apart work on the trailer today.  I laid on varnish coat number four on the kayak and was going to call it a day.  Got in the car and started to head out the gate, but Pam had other ideas.  The routine is for some time on the kayak and some time on the trailer and that's what she wanted as she kept pointing at Island Girl as I started to drive away.  She wanted me to stick with the routine.

Still didn't feel like attacking the wheel wells, so I decided to replace the marker lights that I picked up on sale at Vintage Trailer Supply last month.  Got the compounder out and polished the area around the light mounts while they were off to make overall polishing easier later.  I'd earlier done one light, but today got the other three installed with Olympic rivets.

And Pam got to see that girl she's been "talking" to in the car mirror again:  this time with the girl in the shiny reflection on the trailer.

Good day for us.

I See Grass Instead of a Floor

Lots of little stuff still to do in the destruction phase:  break off all the old elevator bolts with vise grips, get the wheel wells out, use a wire brush in my drill to knock the rust off the frame, and remove some of the last bits of subfloor.  But, I am nearly to the end of the take apart part and I'll be glad to see it end.  I love the creative part of planning ahead and thinking of changes and how I want the whole thing to fit together, but there's nothing really creative about ripping all the stuff out of the trailer.

Since I'm parked in the grass, I left the belly pan on so I could clean out all the garbage from the top:  old insulation, mouse condos, dirt (lots of that).  My C channel holding the shell to the floor is in good shape, so I didn't really want to drill out all those rivets to drop the pan.  I left about a foot of it from the rivet line and cut it off from there, in effect leaving a border I can use to reattach it later.  Lots of damage under the bath area, including a really super patch made from an aluminum can, but most of the old pan looks to be reusable.

Bought a new tool for the job, Dewalt Electric Metal Shears, and they made short work of cutting off the belly pan.  Lots of money, but they'll also get lots of use ahead on the project.

The grey water tank arrived too.  It's a 33 gallon ABS plastic tank from Icon Technologies and measures 48" x 33" x 8".  Definitely have to move at least one crossmember to install it, but the size will be nice to have.  Kudos to Icon Technologies for the packing they did on the tank:  full cardboard box that was extremely well padded inside.  Shipped quickly too, but it did spend a couple of days clearing customs.

Haven't heard on the axle from Colin, but that's fine as there's still plenty to do.  Really want to get my lights squared away for the trip to the welder.  Lots of elevator bolts to break and remove.

Since I live on a boat, I'll still need a boat when I someday go to fulltiming on Island Girl.  My kayak project, a Pygmy Golden Eye Hi, is nearly done.  Mostly just needs a killer varnish job on the deck.

Tanks and Axle

With the old subfloor nearly up, I've been working on tanks and a new axle.  Once the floor is completely up and cleaned out, I'll drop the belly pan, probably by cutting it and leaving a 12 inch border.  Before I can tackle new floor, I need to get my tanks in, get some welding done, and replace my axle.

Tanks are hard to find in stock sizes that fit my frame, but custom tanks are more expensive.  The other thing that makes it hard, at least for me, is that while I basically know what I want for tank sizes and placement, I don't really know where I'll want fittings yet--I can't think that far ahead.  My black tank will be above the floor, so it's no problem now, but the grey and fresh go in the frame.  I decided to get ABS tanks for both largely because I can easily weld in fittings later with ABS cement.  Bought two 24 gallon Valterra fresh tanks that measure 8" x 16" x 48".  That's more capacity than I need, but gives me flexibility.  The ABS Grey tank came from Icon Technologies in Canada, measures 8" x 33" x 48" and holds 33 gallons.  I'll have to get some crossmembers in the frame moved, but they'll fit easily in the 51" I have inside the main frame rails.

Colin Hyde in New York has been running one of the premiere Airstream restoration facilities .  I emailed him about some axle decisions and happened to time it just as he is busy setting up a new company on his own.  I know he's busy and he's got a lot on his mind right now, but even so he probably spent nearly an hour on the phone with me going over options for my installation.  Cannot thank Colin enough.  He's the best.  He'll be ordering me a new torsion axle from Axis, replacing my old spring axle setup.  It'll be a 5000 pound axle derated to 4200, which should give me quite a bit of latitude in the way I setup and load the trailer.  It'll get shipped to my welder, so axle and tanks can all go in at the same time.  Big steps forward!

Started stripping my rear endcap, too.  The old Zolatone is coming off, but this is not going to be one of my favorite jobs.  Kicking around the idea of having polished aluminum on the upper inside and baltic birch replacing the lower inside aluminum.  Not sure yet, just thinking.

She is empty

Haven't posted in a month, but I have been busy.  Island Girl is empty as I've removed all the cabinetry, lower inside skin panels, and am now in the process of pulling up the old plywood subfloor.

I've read stories of great difficulty removing the bathroom, but mine came out very easily.  Nice and shiny behind the interior panels and nearly all of the old insulation was clean and dry.

The C channel holding the floor to the frame and shell is in very good shape and most of it can be reused.  Hard for me to believe that what I'm seeing is a 52 year old trailer.

Since the plywood is in really poor shape on both ends, I made a cardboard template to allow me to cut the end pieces of new plywood to shape.

Surprising to me that the elevator bolts holding the plywood down are installed at the joint between two pieces of plywood, really just acting as a clamp.  I think I'll likely make my plywood joints away from the crossmembers and use a strip of ply underneath as a doubler.

All along, I've wondered what kind of shape my frame was in.  It's hard to see without dropping the belly pan, so I've been concerned until today when the first sections of old subfloor came up.  For the most part, I've got a frame that is still painted and showing just some minor surface rust, much of it from the original floor insulation sandwiched between the frame and the plywood.  A little more serious rust in the rear streetside, but even it doesn't look too bad.