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

Saturday was nice and dry, so we got the chance to paint Maude's brand spankin' new frame! We started by sanding off the little bit of rust that had started to form on the untreated steel. Then we sprayed it with a galvanizing spray paint so that she'll be nice and protected from moisture from here on out! You can see I protected Maude's pretty new wheels from over spray using trash bags to cover them. Thank goodness I did! We ended up with spray paint all over the driveway, all over our arms and hands, I even had some on my glasses! Luckily it all came off easily enough ;)

The whole process only took a couple of hours! Even though it didn't take very long, it was PLENTY enough time to develop "The Claw." Our hands were stuck in holding-a-spray-paint-can position for longer than was comfortable ;)

I hadn't gotten a picture of Maude's Ghost Numbers yet, so here ya go! If you're not aware, there is a club for Airstreamers. Everyone in the club gets an identification number. You may have seen trailers with big, red numbers on them - this is why! This club allows you into exclusive rallies and camping trips, but it also allows for people to identify you in Airstream groups! Often on older trailers the numbers have been peeled off or have worn off, leaving a "Ghost Number."  Maude was #2567 at one point in time :)

Until next time! <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 ;)

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