A Twinkle in his eye...

...of course by "twinkle" I mean a steel sliver.  

This evening we got an early start at the warehouse with (high) hopes to finish the belly pan.   We were there for about an hour and had been drilling holes and using pop rivets to fasten the belly.  Brian crawled out from under the trailer and when he did a small piece of steel fell from his hair into his EYE.  I tried to remove the bit but was unsuccessful.  It was stuck.

The ER doctor said his eye will be good as new.  He does have to rest his eye for a couple of days.  The nurse said "no computer, no TV, no video games."   What's a computer programmer to do?  

(I wasn't in the room but I bet she didn't say "no riveting.") 

In the mean time, Brian digs the pirate look:

 

 AArrrrrgggg!

No Braggin'... We're Draggin'...

I haven't posted for over a week.  There's a reason for that.  We haven't made much progress.  Instead, we enjoyed our last weekend get-away before our maiden voyage.

We got together with some friends at a cabin in Lake Lure, NC.
(Not too far from Asheville.)

 

Friday we hiked to High Falls at Dupont State Forest.

On the way home we saw an Airstream just off of the road.  We stopped to take a picture.  It's shiny!  I wonder if they want to come finish my polishing for me?!

 

Speaking of polish, I did do a little polishing this week. 

Brian's been working hard on the belly pan corners.  Don't let the smile fool you.  I'm pretty sure he's cursing through his teeth.

The front streetside corner of the belly pan is finally installed.  One down.  Three more curves to go.  The kids are enjoying the belly-pan work because they like taking turns with the pneumatic pop riveter.

 

 We have about three weeks to get our trailer ready to tow out of the warehouse.

From here on out it's "noses to the (aluminum) grindstone."  

Belly Aching, Beauty Marks and a Little Rouge...

We finished up a few things this week to make belly-pan installation possible. Samuel helped Brian with the ABS pipe for the plumbing under the trailer.

Brian's truck loaded up with the new belly pan aluminum (5052-H32.)  We were supposed to get the belly pan aluminum in last week but our supplier fell through.  We were glad to find another local supplier and have already put in a second order with them.

We drug out the old belly pan to use it for a pattern.  

Brian doesn't remember the belly pan looking or smelling this clean.  

(I guess it had a chance to air out after sitting on our patio for a couple months.)

Trace and cut....just follow the pattern, right?

Time to install the first belly pan panel.

Drill. (Pop) Rivet. Repeat.

...cutting the belly pan to make it fit the curve.

Humm...

Something isn't right.

This isn't exactly going according to plan.

This is harder than it looks.

Plan B?

Cut another section and try again later.

 Mother's Day Decorations.  It's a Peony from our yard.

Brian fabricating the cover for the gray water tank.

"Please!  Please!  Please can I polish?!"

(Too bad the enthusiasm didn't last very long!)

Here's the beauty marks (scrapes).... 

Lower rear curbside panel "before" with a small amount of polishing.

(Definition of polishing= Moving the aluminum oxidation from the trailer to your skin.)

jewelers rouge we're using for polishing

Rear curbside panel "after." 

It's my reflection.
(Shiny enough to see that my face is covered in polish.)

Do you think I have too much rouge?

A Mother's Day to remember!

Creeping along...

...UNDER the trailer!

Brian is almost finished installing the waste water plumbing under the trailer. This fun task involved drilling holes through the frame members. (Caution: falling metal shavings are hot!) Could someone please pass ANOTHER drill bit?  He also installed the new vent pipe for the gray water tank.

I insulated the bottom of the trailer. I think the R-13 vapor barrier (read=covered in plastic/not itchy for me) insulation has been my favorite to work with. It has gone in the fastest, of the three insulations, by far. Maybe it has something to do with the staple gun attachment for the air compressor...too bad the staple gun wasn't an option for the anti-gravity insulation on the inside of the trailer.

Brian bravely and courageous took apart our infamous Bargman L-77 door handle. (Briefly, for the non-vintage-Airstreamers, this handle was only used for a couple of years. They have a tendency to break off. Currently, there are no replacements. If you're lucky, you can find a new/old stock handle. Those usually run in the neighborhood of $400-$500. Gulp!) We purchased a new lock cylinder for our handle. It will still be broken off but since Brian cleaned it the lock functions wonderfully. (Now we have a key for it too, hooray!)

 We are prepping the trailer for installing the belly pan. The aluminum is supposed to come in some time this week.  To this end, we put in the remaining elevator bolts in the front of the trailer and (almost)  finished the C-channel.   Brian replaced the 12 gauge steel panel at the front of of the trailer that connects the skin to the frame. (It may sound like a small task, but it wasn't. Bending the steel was an ADVENTURE.)

 

Off and on this week, I worked on polishing the trailer. I'm supposed to be polishing around the windows so that we can re-install them. Somehow, I've managed to stall-out on the front panel instead. I'm pretty sure this panel is going to be the hardest to polish. Corrosion, probably from a leaky battery, has messed it up pretty bad. We were considering replacement for the whole panel.  Now, we are going to try to save it.  A good portion of the panel will be covered with a new battery box so the polish doesn't have to be perfect.  The corrosion is coming off...slowly.

 Check out these dedicated hands!  (Two fingers are taped up, his pinkie is bruised under the nail, and he has a cut on his right hand.)  We made a record 3 trips to the home store on Saturday.  While we we there, we picked up two pairs of nice working gloves  (Fit to size.)  Our hands are thanking us.

It's warming up in Georgia. 
We couldn't agree on a caption for this photo so I'm providing two.
Me: It's our redneck air conditioner.
Brian: At least it's not as ugly as a MaxxAir fan.

(insert your own caption here)

A Cup of Motivation

I did it.  I made the reservation for our maiden voyage in June.  I think our North Face tent would look pretty funny on a full-hookup site for a 26' trailer.   How "done" will our trailer be by June?  I don't know.  We may be camping in little more than an aluminum tent.

So, I guess it's time to get busy.

Bits and Pieces...

We've been working diligently on the trailer this week.   What have we finished?  Well, nothing.  We haven't actually "finished" anything.  We have worked on several things and we're making progress... just haven't "finished" anything this week. Progress is progress... and we're glad to be making some.  

Here's what we've been working on:

Brian got the old axle off

On Tuesday, the kids and I drove to Monticello, GA (about 2 hours away) to pick up or axle and mounting hardware.  Brian ordered it Thursday afternoon and it was ready to go pick up by Monday.  Wow.  It was so nice to be able to go pick it up instead of having to wait a few weeks.

old axle and new axle

Look Ma!  No wheels!

time to clean up the leaf springs...

Good as new...and shiny too!

Saturday, we tried to hunt down some shocks.   We went a couple of places and had people shake their heads at us.  Then, we went to Advanced Auto where someone was willing to hunt down the shocks we needed.  These shocks are for a 1963 Chevy S10.  They're a perfect match.

Double duty with the power tools cleaning up some of the old mounting hardware.
(Thanks for grabbing the camera, Samuel.)

After working all week to prep the trailer for mounting the new axle we weren't able to mount it.  Saturday (with all of our ducks in a row) we pulled out the mounting hardware and it was only 1 3/4".  We needed 2".  Crap.  Brian already talked to Dexter today.  They're mailing the correct hardware.
(I guess we'll have to wait on the mail after all.)

Oh well.  There's PLENTY of other stuff to do.

When we drilled out the windows and drip caps *someone* stopped drilling as soon as the rivet head came off.  (I won't mention any names... but if you look back you can see who was "on the inside" and who was "on the outside" when we drilled out the windows.)

The "rivet remnants" had to be drilled out.  (Yes, around all eight windows and the door.)  The hardest part about drilling out rivets was keeping the drill from slipping.  When the drill slips, it makes scratches on the skin.  (It will be hard work to polish out the scratches.)

We installed about 3/4 of the elevator bolts.  (Still have a little work to do on the C-channel at the front of the trailer before we can install the elevator bolts up there.)

I started polishing around the windows and couldn't resist working on a little section of the front panel .  It's shiny enough to see a reflection... but not shiny enough (YET!) that you can see how black my face is from the polish.

Sparky's Dead! Long Live Sparky!

Our new axle is ready.  Brian enlisted the help of our trusty friend, Sparky (the angle grinder), to get the old axle off.  We've heard that getting the old axle off is the hardest part about changing the axle.

Sparkey has done so much hard work recently.  It seems he just wasn't up for the  job of cutting off the axle bolts.  I'm sorry to report that Sparkey died a terrible death by overheating.

We're all going to miss Sparky.

...before Sparky was even cold... we went to get his replacement, Sparky Jr.  (Isn't he cute?)

Sparky was cool enough to touch by the time we got back from the home store.  Brian says Sparky Jr. makes Sparky seem like a toy.  I'm happy to report that Brian (and Sparky Jr.) are about half finished getting the axle off.