We Didn't Prepare For This

With the paint prep finished Brian started setting up his paint equipment.  He closed the lid of our brand new pressure pot and tightened down the pressure regulator.  It broke off in his hand. We purchased the 2.5 gallon pressure pot from that cheap tool place. (You know the one.)  There's a store a couple of miles from our house.  No big deal.  He  packed up the pressure pot and took it back for a new one.

 

mixing the epoxy primer in our second pressure pot, he's still smiling

spraying the primer

Everything was going fine until...

Suddenly Brian emerged from the trailer in a fog of fumes and a fountain of paint.

In the midst of the chaos Samuel yelled "Quick!  Grab the camera!"  

That's a kid after my own heart.

The cause of that great fountain of paint?  It was a hole in the hose of our paint gun.  

Want to guess where we got this tool?

Brian dutifully took off the Ompa-Loompa suit (err, I mean paint suit) and headed back to the store.

With all of the proper tools assembled again, we quickly ran out of paint before we ran out of trailer.  

I guess we should have expected this based on how much paint we lost to the fountain.  

What a predicament.   Our paint supply store was closed for the weekend so getting more paint wasn't an option. Letting the epoxy dry and starting again later didn't sound like a very appealing option either.  (If the primer wasn't covered within 24 hours then we would have to sand it again before spraying the Zolatone.  No thanks.)

We  noticed that the pressure pot siphon didn't reach the bottom of the pot.  This meant there was still a good bit of paint in the bottom.  Time to improvise.  I grabbed a roller and finished our thin layer of epoxy. 

Feeling like a Dad in the 50s,  I patiently (and sometimes not so patiently) paced outside the delivery room (err... I mean trailer) while Brian did all of the hard work with the Zolatone.  

For 6 hours.
Are these things supposed to take that long?
"I don't know nothin' about paintin' no trailers!"

Did I mention it was almost 90 degrees outside!  Poor Brian.

We cleaned out the paint guns and went to bed.

In the morning we were pleased with the results:

Predictably, fittingly, unfortunately (pick your own adverb) there's more to the epic paint saga.

After removing the protective covering from our new floor we made this gruesome discovery:

 The epoxy primer glued the rosin paper to our floor.

I guess sopping up the paint with towels wasn't enough!

(more on this later) 

Brian realized something from cleaning out the paint guns.  He was able to get a pipe cleaner in the tip of the 1.8mm gun he used for the primer.  The pipe cleaner didn't fit in the gun we ordered and used for the Zolatone.  The Zolatone gun was supposed to be 2.0mm, larger. 

We're not positive but we think our smaller-than-expected paint gun is to blame for the slow progress on the painting. 

In general, we're very happy with the results but we ultimately decided to order two more gallons of paint so that we can get better coverage in a few areas.  Brian is planning on using the 1.8mm gun for shooting the last two gallons.  We'll see if it goes any faster the second time.  We're both hoping for less drama.

My soap-box side note/lesson learned:  I neglected to name this post "To Hell with ______ (insert name of the discount tools place.)"  I'd like to say that we won't be buying tools from them any more but I can't quite go that far. Their tools are cheap.  Yes, I mean that in every sense of the word. Sometimes I feel like this store is our only option for local tools based on both cost and availability.  (Especially in cases where we won't be using the tool for some other project.)

I know we should be thinking "sustainability" instead of "availability." Sometimes it's so hard to avoid the temptation of going to the cheap place when we just want to work on the next thing without having to wait for tools to come in.  If I just think about how much sooner our tools from the cheap place will be in the landfill then it will be easier to make a good choice and buy higher quality tools from someplace else.

Paint Prep

A whole post about paint prep?  

Really?  

Yes.  Really.  

Prepping for paint is enough work to warrant its own post.

It seems like we've been doing paint prep since the

day we bought our trailer.  We've used stripper on the walls 

so many times I've almost lost count.  

I can think of at least four times:

• after we gutted the trailer, before we took the walls out
• before we put the walls back in the trailer
• and again
• endcaps (2-3 times) after they were installed in the trailer

During frustrating times with the restoration 

we've tried to encourage each other by teasing. 

"It could be worse.  We could be stripping paint."

note:  This only works when the other person is not actually stripping paint.

After the inside skins were stripped and installed they 

had to be sanded.  I used 150 grit and a palm sander. 

Sometime not long after we installed the skins we started thinking about ordering our paint.  We first tried the paint supply place that was right next door to the warehouse we rented at the beginning of our restoration.  They had a set of Zolatone samples.  We also looked online for a place to buy paint.  We called a couple more chain stores in town.  Finally, we settled on the local paint supply store.  They had the best price.  Before Brian made the order he called Zolatone to get specific part numbers.  Zolatone is in the middle of changing their epoxy primer.  The old primer isn't available.  The new stuff isn't available yet either.  They suggested we use any expoxy primer. (Okay, if you say so.)  We ordered the paint and expected it to arrive in 10 days.

Next, we wiped down the walls.  Four times.  It might sound a little excessive but our rinse water was
extremely dirty; aditionally, I was afraid stripper residue might interfere with paint adhesion.  We use a TSP cleaner and then followed with a rinse, twice.

Our paint came in.  Sigh.  We still (after a month of searching Craigslist) didn't have a conventional paint gun with the appropriate size tip.  We ordered one.  It was supposed to be a rainy weekend anyway.  We decided to work on the floor instead.

Our paint gun arrived.  

Time to tape.  

This, like every other part of the paint prep, 

took longer than we expected.   

Finally!  Ready for paint!

A Few More Things

 Eyebrow

For Brian's first attempt at fabricating a new eyebrow

he tried using the leftover .032" 2025-T3 

sheet of aluminum from the front panel.  

It was not the best aluminum to make the flexible brow.

He ordered some (softer) .032" 2024-0 aluminum from a local 

aircraft supply store.  When he went to pick up the order they

had a (thicker) .040" sheet of it instead.  

Even with the thicker metal it was so much easier to work with than the body panel aluminum.

2024-0 aluminum= nice eyebrow &  happy fabricator

Battery Box

When we bought our trailer there was no battery box; only a wooden shelf was attached to the front of the trailer.   Brian looked at pictures of old battery boxes for the inspiration to make ours.

support first

support frame & acid proof paint
We know what battery acid can do to aluminum.

   Our box is large enough to house two marine batteries.  

Smaller tractor batteries that would have been used originally.

Floor

We installed the VCT floor.  

We tried to come as close to the original floor as possible.  

The new tile is different from the old in two ways: 

It's 12x12 instead of 9x9 and is asbestos free!

Our inspiration piece:

 

a small section of our old floor

 

before

Square one.  The best place to start.

Ta-daa!  (Only 6 more coats of sealer and it will be finished!)

 

Goodbye, Decals

Back in February 2010 during the demo phase of our restoration we discovered some travel decals in our trailer.  We were delighted by the decals, feeling like our trailer was telling us part of its story.

Now, it's almost time to paint the interior skins.

Because I'm so sentimental about our decals I wanted to take our last opportunity to get the gang back together for a photo.

Ok, I confess.
I'm really "getting the gang back together" because I had a total hard drive failure in December. 
I couldn't stomach the thought of having zero pictures of the decals.
The cost for pictures?  Stripping the endcap after it was installed.
(Yikes!  Look out for falling stripper!!!)

We have a total of 61 decals. 
There are only 16 that we can't decipher.  

Here are the gratuitous close-ups with all the gory details:

Boy Scouts, unknown (2), Yellowstone

Mt. Rushmore, Black Hills S. Dakota

The Castle on Cedar Pass Badlands Monument South Dakota , 

South Dakota The Greatest Pheasant Area on Earth, 

Boy Scouts of America

Wisconsin, Minnesota, No. Dakota, Illinois

 

Iowa, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon

 

Washington, Seattle 1962, Grand Coulee, (Canada), Banff Canada

 

Lake Louise Banff Pk Canada, unknown (2),
Tri-State Mich/Penn/Ohio, Michigan

Michigan, "Prevent Forest Fires," Ontario Canal, 

Arkansas, Key West, FL, unknown

unknown, New Mexico,  Painted Desert Arizona,

Sequoia National Park, Kings Canyon California, Golden Gate Bridge

San Francisco Chinatown, Hawaii, Kauai, Maui,

Grand Tetons NP Wyoming, Jackson Hole

Tampico Mexico, Vera Cruz

Any guesses?  The second one says '68.

 Around the door:

unknown, Maine

Indiana, unknown

(2) unknown, Laborers Local 534

unknown, Canada, unknown

When I stripped the paint off of the decals we were delighted to figure out 3 decals we couldn't previously decoded:  the first Boy Scouts decal, Key West, FL, and Maui

It was sad to see them go:

see the paint bubble

Goodbye, decals.
Someday I hope that all of us will have an extensive travel portfolio like our trailer.

The Best Part

We have all worked hard to install the skins:

Sabrina stole Daddy's tool belt in hopes that we would put her to work.

Samuel popping rivets in the bathroom

Annabelle is a two fisted helper... pop riveter and cleco pliers.

There are still two skin panels not fully installed.  The front panel was left open for battery installation and a little wiring.  A section of the long ceiling panel is still uninstalled so that we can add the eyebrow for the

 front door.  

Hey look!  What's that I see?  I think it's an aluminum tent!

Time for a reward for all of that work... our first trip!

Hitched up and heading to Fort Yargo State Park, Georgia.

The best part about camping... being with friends!

Nose Job

We have an ugly front panel.
  

 Very ugly.

Notice the line of corrosion in the middle of the panel.  Apparently battery leaks do bad things to aluminum.

As bad as this panel looks, it used to look worse.  In order to get it lookin' this perty we polished and polished and polished.  We patched holes...

 We considered making an extra large battery box to cover most of the panel.  

We banged out dents.

We still weren't satisfied.

On Monday, we decided that this panel "just won't do."  Fortunately, there's a company just south of Atlanta that stocks 2024 aluminum.  The kids and I drove an hour to Peachtree City, Ga to pick up some aluminum for the panel.

 

Time to take out the panel

This panel wasn't doing such a great job of protecting the aluminum under it.

 Brian used the removed panel as a pattern for the new one.

 It was dark by the time we finished bucking the rivets.

Much better!

We had talked about changing this panel lots of times... if only we had known how simple and inexpensive this project was, we would have done it earlier.
  

Stripping/Showing a Little Skin

We're stripping paint, putting the skins in, cutting holes for new outlets...

 

This is our ceiling.  On the floor.  

We've been working around/walking around this huge ceiling roll forever.

 We decided to take it out and strip it (again) before installing it.

Stripping isn't fun.

 It's much easier to do with horizontal panels though.

I'll spare you the picture of the inside of that 5 gallon bucket.  It's where I put all of the paint and stripper goo after I scraped it off... we call it the "puke bucket."

Warning!  Gratuitous side note:

Buying the stripper was fun. 

The cashier at the home store told us:
"You have to be 18 to buy a [can of] stripper."  Haha!

(She wasn't kidding though, it's the law in GA.)

Brian installing the lower curbside skin.  

Our headlamps are very useful in late-night Airstream restoration as well as camping.

We're so excited about working on the skins.

We're adding a total of 7 new outlets to our trailer.  For each new outlet, we have to make a cut in the skin.  So, the skin installation is taking a little bit of time but we're getting close.