On Sunday, our motivation returned! With Maude's top lowered into place, we've started the long, tedious process of getting her sealed up against the weather!
Stay healthy guys! <3 Becca
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We ended up not working on Maude on Saturday. After putting in so many hours over the last several weekends, we were needing a little bit of a break ;) On Sunday, our motivation returned! With Maude's top lowered into place, we've started the long, tedious process of getting her sealed up against the weather! We started by fixing the wheel wells. We had used the old wheel wells as a template to cut this arch-shape onto the new wheel wells. BUT turns out the new axles make the frame sit a little differently, so they're about an inch off! LOL! Sure is perfect for the way this trailer renovation is going - close, but not quite! ;) Above is the trimmed-but-not-lining-up wheel well. And here it is all trimmed up! Maude got an at-home haircut, just like the rest of us during this pandemic! We used a jigsaw to trim it out. Next, we slid this original piece of trim into place between the wheel well and the outer skin. While we were looking for other parts, we found replacements for these - at $50 each! SO glad ours were in decent shape! Next, we got to rivet it all together! We're using Olympic rivets. They're a rivet that can be put in place when you only have access to one side of the project, but are super strong and LOOK like the original buck rivets that were originally used. Buck rivets take two people who know what they're doing. We have two people... but not the knowledge! ;) What you can barely see here on the right is that when you place an Olympic rivet, it leaves a little nub sticking out. You go around afterwards and trim those off, then you use a special tool to shave down the surface of the rivet so that it looks smooth - like a buck rivet! We're studying up on how to do that part, so right now Maude has a whole ton of little spikes sticking out. I've been calling her "Battle Trailer Maude." And teasing her about how punk she is! Yep, I'm entertaining myself during this pandemic ;) And here's the wheel well all done! That trim makes a HUGE difference in how she looks! Just a little bit of work after not feeling motivated to work on her the day before went a LONG way to renewing our Maude-Fixing Souls :) And that was all we got done this week! This is a picture of one of the native strawberry plants we planted in our back yard last year :) It made me super happy that it was so happy!
Stay healthy guys! <3 Becca
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We finally got everything prepared to put the shell back down on Maude's frame - so this weekend was a HUGE ONE! Aaaaaaaand of course it poured rain on us! ;) We started by making sure the frame was level so that (HOPEFULLY!) the shell would go on evenly. We learned a bit from lifting the shell off how to put the shell down a bit more safely and smoothly. We got taller jacks so that we didn't have to use as much blocking. And same as when we lifted the shell we had a jack stand at each of the four corners to act as fail-safes. We went back and forth from the front to the back of the trailer, inching each end down a notch or two. Then we started getting close! We had to make sure that every one of those little tabs made it to the correct side of the outer skin! We used a bunch of wood shims to help guide the tabs and shell into the correct positions. It worked REALLY well! It took a bit of wiggling (okay, we jumped on the scaffolding on the inside!) to get the whole thing to settle into the correct place, BUT WE DID IT!!!! This was the most exciting day!! It was also one of the more stressful! Having that shell up in the air and wiggling around as we tried to lower it had me taking many deep breaths and uttering many curse words. ;) We were able to move all of the cinder blocks that we had used to support the frame out of our way! There's so much room to move around Maude now! I forgot to take pictures of much of the rest of what we did on Sunday. We were trying to get the door to close properly. As Maude sat for decades and the wood floor at the door was all rotten out, it made it so that the bottom of the shell was able to flare, so that the door frame was no longer plumb - the door frame was narrower at the top than at the bottom. We spent a lot of time using the chain and winch to pull the bottom of the door frame closer to each other. Throughout the process we gradually removed more and more of the scaffolding to allow for greater movement in the trailer shell - we were hoping that the shell would ease around the entire circumference of the trailer in order to make the door the proper width. We were able to gain MOST of it! We're probably still out about 1/4". With it that close, we're pretty sure we can make the door work properly by making adjustments to the hinges and to the locking mechanism. So, as usual, we celebrated our win with a backyard campfire to relax and admire our work!
Our next steps are to put the decorative trim back on Maude, where the shell meets the frame and belly pan. We also need to retrim the wheel wells (somehow we were off by about an inch - c'est la vie!) so that they match the curve of the shell. We also need to fix the stairs - somehow they're not centered underneath the door! LOL! But other than that and polishing, we're about ready to move inside and get her ready for you all!! Next on our to do list is the electrical systems, the plumbing and figuring out the A/C unit! Super exciting stuff! Until next time, you guys! <3 Becca We've been anxious to get the aluminum shell set back down onto the frame, so we've been putting in a ton of hours' work to get that piece of the project done! This post will be 4 weekends' worth of work to get us brought up to current :) Here's where we left off after the last blog post - the subfloor, wheel wells and stairs are all installed. With all of the rain that we were having, we decided we had better protect the new subfloor, so we gave Maude a really ugly skirt ;) Next step was to install what's called the C-Channel. This is the C-Channel from the rear of the trailer. As you can see, there are 3 surfaces - the surface that gets screwed down to the subfloor, the inner surface that will get riveted to the inner skin, and the outer surface which will have both the underbelly and the outer skin riveted to it. And here it is, roughly in place! Some of the C-Channel was horribly corroded, which made it so we couldn't re-use it. We used pieces of the old underbelly to make new sections! Yay for reusing materials and reducing waste! The picture above was of Mike practicing making a small section of C-Channel using our metal brake! It worked extremely well! C-Channel getting installed! The last step before being able to set the shell back down onto the frame is to get the underbelly replaced. Airstream trailers have an aluminum underbelly that encloses and protects the steel frame. Several weeks ago we purchased the new aluminum sheets for the underbelly. The old underbelly was so damaged that we couldn't put it back in place. LUCKILY, it was in good enough shape to be able to use as a rough template for the new aluminum sheets so we had a starting point, and as mentioned above, as material to make replacement C-Channel! I forgot to get a picture of us using the old underbelly as a template to trace onto the new aluminum, sorry! Just imagine really corroded aluminum with rust marks and tears and holes all throughout ;) Above is the new aluminum traced and cut to shape! Mike built a wooden frame to set the aluminum sheets on while we installed it. We used a floor jack to lift the whole thing up into place. Each sheet got screwed to the bottom of the frame and riveted to adjacent sheets. Poor Mike spent WAYYYY too many hours under the trailer ;) And this is what two whole weekends' of work looked like - clamping the aluminum into place (after MANY adjustments to make sure we had it in the right place!) and riveting it to the C-Channel. Oh man, getting these curves right was rough! But even more difficult was getting the angle right along the bottom of the frame! You see, the belly pan slants up at the front and rear of the trailer. There was a LOT of trial and error to get it to look just right! It took us 20.5 hours over 2 weekends just to get the aluminum belly pan into place. It was a TON of work, many mistakes, LOTS of redos, but I think we did a reasonably good job! Working with that much aluminum came with a fair share of blood sacrifices (our arms and hands ;) ) as well as a NASTY bruise that I got while working on the very last piece of belly pan! I got hit with a falling steel bar on my wrist, right across my watchband - those bruises are the holes in the strap! The deep bruising isn't visible yet, but I assure you, it's going to be a dooooozy!
All in all, the belly pan has been the hardest part of the project so far. We had to do a LOT of reverse-engineering to get it all figured out. We are super tired both mentally and physically, but we did it! And we're INSANELY excited to move onto the next step which is lowering the shell back down onto the frame!! Until next time, you guys! <3 Becca Hey Guys! I'm finally getting a chance to get you caught up on Maude's progress! With all of the COVID19 craziness, I haven't been able to arrange my thoughts about it. Lots of recreational reading happening around here ;) We had been planning on going camping for the week of Spring Break, but all of the campgrounds got shut down right before we were to leave. Major BUMMER! We had been looking forward to this trip since Christmas time! (Our little family LOVES being out in the dirt and the trees :) ) But we decided to make the best of it and put in a bunch of hours working on Maude! It has been a WHILE since I've updated you! In the last update, we had painted the new frame to protect it from rusting. The next step was to get the subflooring attached to the frame. We bought Marine-Grade plywood to prevent water damage to the subfloor in the future. It's a high-quality plywood made with waterproof glue that holds up a bit better than regular plywood. Here, we have the original pieces of plywood from the curved ends of the trailer. You can see just how bad the damage was at the front of the trailer. The curve is completely rotted out! Luckily, the front and back have the same curve, and the rear curve was in good enough shape to use as a template! Note: I told you we were bummed about not getting to go camping! So we set up the tent for the girls to play in. They had threatened to sleep out there as well, but it was too cold every night during spring break! They still had fun hanging out and playing games in there during the day :) Tracing and cutting the curves! This shiny spacesuit-looking stuff is Reflectix! It's a thin, light-weight insulation that we glued onto the bottom of each sheet of plywood. I don't want anyone experiencing a freezing-cold floor during the winter! We had to guess a bit as to the exact location of the plywood on the frame. How far toward the back does it go? We made an educated guess, but we won't really know for sure until we go to lower the shell back down onto the frame! We're crossing fingers SOOOO tightly, hoping that we've got it at least close enough! Aaaaand that's about as far as we got before we remembered that we still needed to attach some things to the frame before the flooring! LOL! Wheel wells got installed next! Aaaaand that's how far we got with the flooring when we remembered that we still needed to attach the stairs to the frame! LOL! I want you guys to be able to get INTO the trailer! Have I mentioned we haven't ever worked on a trailer before? We're definitely learning a LOT as we go :) Step right up! Yay! We got the subfloor completely installed! Note: You'll see in the picture with the finished subfloor that the wheel wells aren't installed yet, we did some dry fitting of all of the pieces before attaching anything permanently. I forgot to take ALLL the pictures ;) We finished most evenings with looking at our handiwork and problem-solving for the next step(s)! A backyard campfire is the perfect setting for such things :)
And that is how we spent our spring break! It was super exciting to take such a huge leap forward! We've been super motivated by this progress that we've been putting in a lot of hours on the weekends since, which I look forward to sharing with you soon!! Everyone stay healthy! <3 Becca Maude's frame came home this past weekend! It was a really short 3 weeks for Tim Moore at AHK Fabrication to get her done! I can't say enough good things about working with Tim. He was super patient with all of my questions and helping us to figure out all of the different options that we had to choose from. Thanks so much, Tim!! Maude has been parked behind our personal camping trailer (Harvey is his name ;) ). In order to get Maude's frame back into place, we had to move Harvey out of the way - making room for me to get a rare from-the-front photo of her! Mike's backing in Maude's beautiful new frame. He's freakin' good at it :) I suppose this was pretty easy since he's had lots of practice backing Harvey in! Maude's frame back in place!
We have some painting to do on the frame to keep it safe from moisture. You can see a small bit of rust already forming. We'll wire brush it then paint it. The cross members are all galvanized steel, so we don't need to worry about them! We have also been spending a bit of time this week researching the water systems for Maude. We'll need fresh water, grey water and black water tanks as well as a toilet and two sinks! We started to feel overwhelmed by the amount of work to be done before we can lower her aluminum shell back into place. We've got to figure out all of the plumbing, electrical and propane systems, which go under the flooring. But no worries, we'll get it all figured out! Thanks for keeping up with us on Maude's progress! Until next time <3 Becca You guys! This has been a super exciting week for me, mentally, with Maude! All of our progress so far has felt like we were going backwards - demolition, removing her inner aluminum skin, removing all of the old insulation and wires and then lifting her shell off the frame so we could remove the rotten flooring. But I'm starting to get progress pictures from Tim of AHK Fabrication! Her frame being welded! Her wheels were salvageable, so they were sandblasted and powder-coated white - we'll be able to put the iconic aluminum hubcaps back on her! Her original bumper was also in good condition! Here it is sand-blasted and attached to the new frame :)
So it's a super short update for you guys today, but I'm sooooo excited to share her progress after a rough winter break working on her ;) Until next time! <3 Becca Sooooo.... apparently, having a vintage Airstream trailer frame fabricated is a niche market ;) I spent a HUGE amount of time this week emailing and calling around trying to find someone who could make a new one for us. I got a LOT of, "I'm sorry, we don't do that. You might try this guy over here." I did find one guy early on, be he couldn't get to it until at least June! Ack! That would totally cut into our hoped-for time frame! So I continued emailing and finally found a guy who can do it :) This is a sketch of the frame that I sent him (along with real-life pictures) to get an idea of what we were looking for. Sunday was the day to take the old frame to him to use as a template to build the new one! We simply hitched up to the trailer frame and towed it out from under Maude's shell! Easy peasy! Here's Maude's shell minus the frame! My next project is getting the last of the nasty (and now sopping wet from all of the rain we've been having!) insulation, walnut shells and mouse poop cleaned up! You can't really tell from these pictures, but we had to cut the belly pan in half in order to get the frame out. Later, we'll need to either patch it with more rivets (yay! ;) ) or replace it completely. We'll see! Our frame guy thinks he should have the new trailer frame fabricated and all ready for us in 5-6 weeks! SOOOOO much better than probably July!
We are super stoked to be progressing forward! We're also really excited to be almost ready to put things back together instead of breaking it all apart ;) Until next time! <3 Becca Welcome back! This is part two of what happened with our progress on Maude over our winter break! :) After we got the shell lifted off, we were super excited about the progress we'd made! This was the biggest barrier to getting her done in terms of scariness ;) So we were super excited to get the rotten subfloor ripped up so we could continue moving forward with getting her frame sandblasted, repaired and painted! Some sections were more difficult than others. Areas around the front and back curves were pretty rotten, so popped right off! Sections in the middle that had been a bit more protected from the water damage were MUCH more difficult. What didn't help is that we were fighting the "jungle gym" support structure - it was difficult to get the pry bar in the proper position, let alone get much leverage, because we kept hitting the end of the bar on the structure! But we persevered! Have I mentioned how stubborn we both are? ;) Unfortunately, as we were working along, we started seeing just what sort of shape her frame was in. And even though we have little experience, we could see that it was NOT good. TONS of rust! And not just rust, but rusted out completely in multiple spots on every single piece of metal. Dang it! So I started calling around to different businesses trying to find someone who could help us. At one point, we were told that "He'd seen very few frames that were beyond salvaging, send over some pictures and we'll take a look!" We were excited that maybe it wasn't as bad as we thought! Woohoo! Then we were told, "Nope, can't repair that, it's too far gone!" Hopes dashed again! ;) The good news is that we knew she was going to be a huge project and that a ruined frame was a possibility - we were just hopeful that it wouldn't be our reality. Turns out Maude is a roller coaster, not a trailer ;) The great new is that we've found someone who can build a new frame for us! The bad news is that they're backed up until June. So we're still on the lookout for someone who can get it done sooner, but at least we've got someone who can eventually! In the meantime, we adopted this lovely lady to help us heal our emotional wounds ;) Meet Ann Purrkins! She's a great conversationalist and snuggler and we couldn't have asked for a better fit for our family :)
Thanks again for following along on the roller coaster ride that is renovating Maude the Trailer! <3 Becca I know it's been a while since I've posted a Maude update - sorry 'bout that! We knew we were going to need a big chunk of time to get her shell lifted off, so we waited until our holiday vacation to do it. In the meantime, we were still doing little piddly things to get ready, but I didn't think a whole blog post of me vacuuming would be that exciting ;) Note: This is the first of two posts about what took place during the holiday break, so stay tuned next week for the follow up :) Reminder: last update, we had gotten the scaffolding completed on the inside of Maude. Oooooh, Ahhhhhh! Next came the piddly stuff. One weekend I vacuumed out any remaining crud - I know the picture is of Mike, but I swear I did most of it!! ;) Trying to muscle the shopvac in and around the "jungle gym" was NOT easy! On that day, Mike went around and made sure that any remaining hidden rivets holding on the belly pan were popped loose so that the lifting of her shell would go more smoothly. Another weekend, we got cinder blocks to make posts for the lifted trailer to rest on. We sure got our work outs in on those days! See, those two pictures do NOT make a blog post ;) Finally, the holidays rolled around and it was time to get Maude's top lifted off! We borrowed a floor jack and jack stands from our neighbor - Thanks, David!! We broke off any bolts that were holding the shell to the floor. Most of them were already rusted out, so this wasn't too tough of a job ;) We placed the jack stands at each of the 4 corners and got her lifted enough to let the belly pan loose. Daylight!! It's the last of the nasty mouse bits!!! SOO glad to get this far! Note: I know that looks like a freaked out rat in the picture below. It's not. Maybe it's a GHOST?! We only had the one floor jack, so we would start on one end, lift up the trailer a couple of inches, raise the jack stands, set it back down on the jack stands, then move to the other end - rinse and repeat! It was a pretty terrifying balancing act! Pretty sure all of the curse words were uttered ;) Once we got Maude lifted up high enough, we were able to slide 4"x6" beams under each end to set her back down on. Then we could remove the jack stands, allowing us to pull the steel trailer frame out to have it worked on! After this, we were able to breathe again ;) WE DID IT!!! This was the biggest obstacle to getting Maude done! We were the most nervous about this part and ensuring that her shell was kept stable so that it didn't crumple and we did it! I love how the next picture looks like an exploded diagram :) All in all, the lifting took us about 4 hours. We had really expected it to take longer, so that's a WIN!
Next week, I'll get you all caught up on Maude's Holiday Vacation! ;) <3 Becca So, I've talked and talked and talked about lifting the shell off Maude in order to replace the rotten subflooring. We're nearly there! This week we got started on the interior supports to make sure that Maude's shell doesn't shift out of shape while we've got it lifted off. What normally gives Maude all of her stability is the shell being attached to the trailer frame and her inner skin. Without those, she's a bit wobbly! We started with a frame of 8-foot 2"x4" boards around the perimeter. The boards are screwed directly to Maude's ribs. Next, we added boards attaching the two sides and diagonals to support the roof.
Aaaaaand... This is as far as we made it this week! ;) We'll be adding more diagonals and more boards tying it all together this coming weekend! Then after that - lift off! Have a great week, you guys! <3Becca |