A Piece of Steel Wool

Back in October I had sent a letter to Lopez Island to the address of someone whose last name was the same as the original owner of my trailer.  Doubted there’d be any connection, but figured it was worth the cost of a stamp to try.  I pretty well forgot about it, but a few weeks later I got a letter from the original owner.  She said her husband had died some years earlier, but that she was 92 and that she’d get some information together for me.  Exciting stuff!  A few weeks later I got a call from her son, Harold, who was in high school when the trailer was new.  He promised to get together with his mom and get back to me saying, “it may be awhile, but I’ll definitely get back to you before you get the trailer back on the road.”

And he did, emailing me about a week ago with some great info and stories about the trailer.  We exchanged a few emails that night, he’s read this blog, and we’ll stay in touch for sure.  As we get closer to Island Girl being finished, we’ll take a ferry ride out to Lopez and see if his mom approves of what I’ve done to her trailer.

Island Girl’s first owners had been tent campers who had friends who owned an Airstream and they decided they just had to have one too.  They took an empty two pound coffee can, soldered the lid back on, and cut a slot in what they now referred to as the “half buck box”.  Whenever either of them received a fifty cent piece in change, they’d save it and drop it in the box.  Most of the money for the Airstream was saved that way and in 1957 the box was heavy enough to justify a trip to the factory to purchase a brand new Bubble.  They got a deal, though, and drove home with a big, shiny, brand new Caravanner.  Harold tells me he can still remember the “new car smell” inside the new Airstream.  Their lot was small and the trailer would only fit in their garden next to their home in suburban Chicago.

Their first tow vehicle was the first new car they’d purchased, a 1951 Pontiac Catalina with a straight eight and a Hydramatic tranny.  It pulled the trailer pretty well, but Harold reported that they sometimes needed to run the heater on full blast at the top of long climbs to keep the coolant temps down.  I’ve done that a few times myself, but not in a ‘51 Pontiac.  In ‘59, they bought a new International Travelall that had a six cylinder with a three speed transmission with overdrive.  That first year that they had the trailer, 1957, they did the first of several trips from Chicago to Lopez, here in Washington’s San Juan Islands.  In ‘58, there was a trip to Nova Scotia and the New England states.  ‘59 began the towing duties for the Travelall with another trip to Lopez.  Minnesota and Michigan were the destinations in 1961 and in ‘62 they returned once again to Lopez and also to the Seattle World’s Fair.  A Florida trip was in 1963 and ‘64 saw a one way trip to Lopez with a garage being built for her there around 1970.  The trailer was used as a home on the island while a new house was built there.  From around that time period until just a few years ago, it likely never left Lopez.

Around 1999 it was sold to someone who lived on San Juan Island, but had property on Lopez, where they set up the Airstream.  They almost certainly never moved the trailer until selling it to the family I purchased it from, who moved it only the very short ferry ride between the two islands.

And the piece of steel wool?  Harold was called by his parents in the early 90’s to figure out how mice had gotten into the trailer.  He found the only likely entry around the freshwater tank drain and filled the gap with a piece of stainless steel wool.  I clearly remember removing that piece of steel wool when I dropped the bellypan.

-steve

Island Girl Has a Ceiling Raising Party

When I had the three big interior panels polished, I brought them inside the trailer and started to rivet them together.  Buck riveted as far as I could reach by myself and clecoed the rest.  Charlene was here for six hours today to watch Pam and I recruited some of my friends from the marina to help get what would be one large panel flipped over, lifted, and installed.  My buddy Jim, who has bucked way more rivets at Boeing than I ever could on this trailer, shot the rest of the rivets while I bucked.

Just as we finished, John, Tom, and Karen arrived and, with the help of a couple of 2x4 T’s and some clamps, we were ready to flip the panel and lift it into position for clecos.

We pushed and pulled for an hour or so and then clecos started lining up with holes at the back end.  Pretty soon the panel was pop riveted back up.  Big big difference in the way the trailer looks on the inside and it’s really satisfying to start getting some projects done.

Nice to have a great bunch of friends too.  Really good day.

Meanwhile, back here on the boat, Pamela has decided to be compulsive about where my mouse sits on the mouse pad (for some reason, she has decided that it must always be in the middle).  Windows sends me back to the desktop every time Pam touches the mouse, so I’ll admit defeat and wrap this post up.

A New Jack

Boy, they really knew how to build them in the 50’s!!

In the fall when we moved from the shady but soon to be muddy spot to the drier location for the wet winter, our original tongue jack failed.  I got a replacement quickly, but cold and wet soon set in and that job was put off in favor of the inside jobs I did during the winter.

I had all day to work on the trailer today and the temperature hit 60 for the first time this year, so it was a good day to tackle the jack.  As it turned out, I needed nearly all day as the old one was a bugger to get out.

It was fastened with 4 3/8” steel rivets.  I ground off the heads hoping I could then drive the rest through, but no go.  I drilled them out, but it still wouldn’t budge.  I then attacked the thing with my trusty old Makita grinder and a couple hours later, just as the grinder went up in smoke, the jack finally gave up and came out.

The new one slid right in and fastened with grade 8 bolts.  Nice to see the trailer sitting on a jack instead of all blocked up like it’s been.

I was sure I’d stripped the Zolatone from both of the upper interior panels that will hopefully go back in this week.  I was sure but I was wrong.  One panel needed stripping and it’s the usual fight trying to get the Zolatone off.  This picture is after three coats of stripper.  Clearly more to go.

Got an email from the son of the original owners of Island Girl when I got home from the “jackfest” and that really made my day.  Lots of info about the trailer and it’s tow vehicles that I’ll be going through tonight.  She went from Chicago to the Seattle World’s Fair!

The Endcap is Done

I thought I was done day before yesterday, but wasn’t happy with the shape of the last panel.  Recut and refinished those two panels and put them up today.

Pam has her two teddy bears in her hand in that shot and that’s a definite sign that she’s ready to call it a day and head back to the boat.  The Tundra has a pretty decent sound system and she just loves to go back to the 60’s and listen to the Byrds on the trip back home.  Turn, Turn, Turn.

I’m happy with the way it looks and can’t wait (but I will) to see what it looks like with all the upper skins in place, polished aluminum in back and birch in the front.  Getting the aluminum back up is the next phase.  I have a new center piece still to be cut out and possibly some more stripping of old zolatone to do before the panels go up.

The First Few Panels Go In

The last few days I’ve been cutting panels and applying finish to them.  Using Waterlox for the finish, three coats on the back and four on the front surface.  First couple of coats really soak into the birch.

I had care for Pam today and had the first five panels all finished, so it was a good day to start putting them up.  Decided on a three inch spacing for the Olympic rivets, figuring using the spacing for the bucked rivets would just make way too many holes and going farther apart might let gaps pop up.  First is the all important Cleco shot, but it really shows the color better than the rest.  I like it, it’s light, but close to the original.  I want it pretty light in color after lots of years living with dark teak and small portholes  in the boat.

Happy with the way the rivets stand out making a nice contrast with the wood.  The rivet shaver was busy.

Ended the day with 5 panels riveted in place and the next two up for a trial fitting with clecos.  The next batch still needs to be cut out and finished, so it’ll be next week before they go up, finishing the end cap.

It is so much more fun doing this kind of work than ripping up old floors or scraping frame rust.  I know all the work I’ve done so far is really important for the trailer, but I sure like doing the pretty stuff.

13 Panels of Birch

There are so many great restoration threads at Airforums.com.  Many of them I’ve read over and over and pick up new ideas each time I go through them.  I do have a favorite and it’s  Carlos Ferguson's '62 Safari   Scroll down to around post #42 and see what he did.

Carlos is an artist and I am a hack, so I harbor no illusions about doing anything as nice as he did, but I think I can do something that will make me happy and that’s a reasonable goal for me.  I’m not doing the whole interior in birch.  I love my shiny 13 panel endcap in the rear and am planning to stay shiny as far as the forward end of the galley, and then transition to birch for the interior from that point forward.  Part of the reason is that my trailer has an ugly fiberglass endcap in front—it’ll get covered by 13 panels of 1/8” Baltic birch ply.

I used my rear endcap for making cardboard templates.  The fit is slightly different as my sloping rear has a different shape than the vertical front.  Here’s a rough first try:

Carlos used pop rivets on his but I’m thinking of using single use clecos (Olympic rivets).  I really like the way the rivets stand out in the rear endcap and it seems like the solid head on the Olympics would be closer to the look of a bucked rivet.  I think it’ll hold ok, going through two pieces of birch and then the fiberglass endcap.  Tried a couple today:

 

Tomorrow I go back to the doctor and hopefully ditch the plastic boot on my ankle for a normal shoe.  Can’t wait.

The Front Endcap Goes Back In

I needed a respite care day to get the forward fiberglass endcap back in.  It’s a big floppy piece that I can just barely handle myself, but knew I couldn’t do it with Pam in the trailer.  Today was the day, and it was really the first real work day in two months since the broken ankle.

I put in another layer of the Prodex insulation, but didn’t use the foam offsets to create a dead air space like I’ve done in the rest of the trailer.  The fit of the endcap was tight already and I didn’t want to try to fill so much behind it that I couldn’t get it back in.  All the wiring is now roughed in and ending at that forward end.  I’ve probably forgotten to add wiring for something really important that I can’t think of now, but today I did remember to add a run of coax and Cat 5 cable for TV and the computer.

One of my favorite current resto threads at Airforums.com is by Air19, 1953 Flying Cloud Project - Cabinetry Finally.  He’s been using lightweight Elfa storage bins for his drawers.  I’m copying his great idea in a few areas, the first of which will be these two bins for the cabinet between the recliners.

The plan for the old endcap is to use it to mount a 13 panel replacement made from 1/8” Baltic birch.  I’ve made templates from my rear endcap and really look forward to building it.