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o scratch the hell out of your frames but they re fast and they get all the oxidation and corrosion off that you re going to get off you might want to buy a few 1 bristle discs too for tight spots do not use the 3m radial bristle discs they gouge 2 after you ve scratched all the severe oxidation and corrosion off you need to fix the scratches get some 320 grit and 400 grit wet sandpapers and hand sand everything you just took the grinder to you have to go over it a lot to get out all the swirls from the bristle discs don t hurry this step clean frequently make sure the swirls are gone now instead of swirls you will be left with finer scratches going the length of the frames the second photo below shows the before and after of the hand sanding 3 from here on you ll be back to the power tools place a cotton 1 5 cylindrical or goblet shaped buff in your grinder use nuvite f9 polish and slowly polish everything that has been sanded 4 use a different buff to do it again with nuvite c polish 5 at this point it looks pretty good if you would like do it again with nuvite s and a third buff but i d recommend waiting until it is installed back in the trailer before worrying about grade s a note about what to polish and what not to polish while you want to get all the oxidation and corrosion off all the parts some parts of the frame don t need to be polished through all 5 steps above obviously the exterior of the front frame should be a mirror but the backs of the back frames will basically not show at all and can be left in a clean but unpolished state october 01 2008 47 proper window restoration to begin a window restoration the window needs to be disassembled front frame and back frame are separated at the hinge then the vertical center channels are removed from the frames take care with the extruded aluminum front frame channels the 4 rusty mild steel screws that hold them in place easily break off inside the channels after the channels are off the old screen is removed from the back frame and the glass is removed from the front frame to get the glass out you ll be removing lots of little rusty fasteners that secure the l shaped aluminum glass holders behind the glass throw the screws and nuts away you can get new screws and tension nuts from vintage trailer supply all the dismantling is necessary so you can de rust and repaint the steel back frame channels you re also going to replace the old screen material get new glass and then spend hours and hours removing corrosion and polishing the aluminum frames the photo below shows a pile of back frames the first two frames show what they look like when the oxidation and corrosion have been mostly removed but before detailing the rest show the extremely heavy oxidation and significant corrosion you ll encounter if you ve polished an airstream you know about oxidation it s not quick to remove but on a trailer skin it isn t really that big a deal because the oxidation is generally even and rather thin you can read my article on polishing an airstream if you don t know the basics polishing 53 year old window frames is nothing like polishing an airstream repeat nothing rub your finger across the back frame s sill feel how rough that is that s extreme oxidation and corrosion the oxidation builds up into little craggy mountains of oxide it cannot be polished off with aluminum polish don t even try you re going to be grinding it or sanding it off after you get it off you re going to see little pits and valleys in the aluminum that s corrosion and you can t entirely fix it you can minimize it by continuing to grind and sand but some of it is going to be there when you re finished fortunately the only place the corrosion will be especially noticeable after you reassemble everything is in that exterior sill area and that s not visible when the windows are closed in my next post i ll detail how to remove the severe oxidation september 21 2008 46 back in the saddle my daughter is now 17 months old my excuse has grown old with a wet new england winter approaching again my trailer must have its windows soon the plastic sheets taped over the rough openings in the trailer are tattered they won t last another winter inspired by cold weather i retrieved the large box of windows in my basement where i stashed them nearly two years ago there are 6 large windows 4 make up the caravanner s trademark panoram on the street side and 3 smaller windows on the curb side all 9 windows are hehr standard windows with gear type operators as was the norm on 1956 airstreams hehr brand name standard model name windows were the most commonly used windows in the vintage trailer world for all types of trailers built in the 1950s and well into the 1960s they were used on airstreams starting in 1952 and used as late as 1960 on a few models they were used by canned ham trailer makers throughout the 1960s they are now obsolete and the only parts available are those we ve had reproduced hehr standard windows are awning style windows with a hinge on top they have two primary parts the front frame and the back frame the front frame is the part that swings and holds the glass the back frame is the part that is stationary and mounted in the wall of the trailer it holds the insect screen after 50 years of neglect my windows were in desperate need of restoration rusty steel fasteners latches operators and channels all needed replacing or de rusting the aluminum was at best heavily oxidized at worst it was heavily corroded the glass was scratched the vinyl rubber gaskets dried and shrunk the galvanized steel insect screen was heavily corroded to the point of reducing visibility the only way to restore a standard window correctly is to remove it entirely from the trailer body that s because you have to do a lot of work to the back frame including replacing the back frame gasket that is mounted by slipping part of the gasket between the back frame and the trailer skin with the rivets holding the back frame to the trailer going through the gasket there s an early 1950s variation on the window that is mounted slightly differently in subsequent posts i ll talk in detail about how to properly and completely restore the back frames and the front frames november 11 2007 45 why aistream restorations are so slow i ve noticed that many many airstream restorations stretch on for years for most people a lack of money and time are the two biggest culprits here s my excuse click on her picture and you ll see my point her name is sadie and she s now 7 months old you ll notice my last post is about the same age i m supposed to be polishing window frames so they can be reinstalled in the rough openings in my trailer walls it s hard to justify time in a garage with an air compressor when i can be bouncing sadie on my knee but i m motivated by camping next summer with my wife michele and sadie so i expect to get back in the saddle soon may 19 2007 44 how to make an astradome with new fan tastic fans installed in 2 out of 3 of my 14 roof vents i decided to get creative with the third opening starting in either 1957 or 1958 airstream offered an extra large unpowered roof vent called an astradome it was the standard 14 wide but 25 long it s a neat 50s airstream feature that i decided to add to my trailer the hardware is all the same as a standard 14 square opening so all i needed to do was stretch the opening and mount a reproduction lid the only thing left undone is to make a long screen for it now my living room area will have a large opening in the ceiling and my galley and rear bedroom will have powered fans april 11 2007 43 new roof vents my caravanner has 3 roof vents originally all three were standard 14 x14 aluminum hehr vents they were in poor condition with missing and seized cranks and dented and missing lids the first photo shows a giant tupperware lid being used as a temporary lid on one of them between my two trailers and parts i ve accumulated on ebay and elsewhere i have plenty of good spare parts to make all 3 open and close almost like new again the only problem was the old fans in them even if i could get those working the old hehr aluminum blade fans were just too noisy and inefficient i decided that i would like to have 2 of the 3 vents outfitted with modern powered fans by far the best powered fans on the market today are made by fan tastic vent recently my company vintage trailer supply started selling gray fantastic units with gray flat lids i worked with fantastic to develop this special style unit specifically for vintage airstreams to demonstrate how great they look on vintage trailers i put them in the rear two locations on my trailer march 21 2007 42 scary old wiring once the insulation is out we really got a good look at the ratty old wiring circa 1956 instead of using boxes at junctions and around outlets they simply wrapped wire connections with electrical tape the black stuff on the aluminum is seam and rivet sealant the masking tape was used to hold the wiring in place the writings in black sharpie are new notes to remember where everything goes 41 removing the remaining interior chris is removing the remaining inside walls by simply drilling out the rivets the bottom wall segments were removed earlier so the shell could be attached to the floor but we waited on the upper segments to give the shell structural stability until after the shell was firmly attached to the floor march 05 2007 40 buried in snow jaime martorano sent me this photo today showing his and my trailers somewhat buried in the snows we ve been getting here in the northeast i will use this as this week s excuse for no progress on my airstream project my trailer is the second one jaime s is the third january 09 2007 39 i want a rear hatch the photo below shows the rear panel on my 2 shell the good shell all taped up for the winter with aluminum foil tape you can see that the panel below the window is just a plain panel with no storage compartment access door with a rear bedroom trailer a rear storage compartment seems like a must have to get access to all that great storage space you will also notice there s a round vent in the panel that vent may have been for the bathroom but it is no longer necessary the next photo shows the rear panel on my 1 shell the junker shell the panel is in great condition and even has a hatch with a good door and drip cap the rusty handle is bad but that part is on my list of parts to find and add to the inventory at vintage trailer supply are you thinking what i m thinking apparently santo is what an easy way to add a hatch just a few rivets and it will be finished gotta love having a parts trailer i know santo looks miffed but that s just because colin is taking his photo and micro managing him at the same time the demise of the 1 shell continues but now i ll have a rear hatch and a perfectly good panel on my trailer here s the hatch being installed on my good shell the framing in the wall will need to be modified to fit the opening notice that using buck rivets is a two person job with one person inside holding the bucking bar behind each rivet as it is installed if the inside wall was already in place buck rivets couldn t be used that s why olympic shave head blind rivets were invented december 23 2006 38 pardon the interruption i m too busy right now to do much on my caravanner project big changes are happening at my company vintage trailer supply in january we re moving to a new facility dramatically upgrading our technology again adding even more new items and then hiring more help although i m excited to grow and improve customer service for our super loyal customers the investments keep money and time very tight in january i hope to spend many hours polishing and rebuilding all my window frames all the windows have been removed from the trailer they were riveted in at the factory so all the rivets hundreds of them had to be drilled out the trailer is left with rough openings where the windows were they re covered with plastic for the winter the windows are in my basement waiting for me to get to work december 06 2006 37 finishing the floor today s project was to finish installing the floor and then securely attach the shell to the floor for an airstream to be structurally sound the floor must be solid but i m not talking about the part of the floor you walk on i m talking about the part of the floor under the walls when an airstream is built the plywood is installed first and the shell is put on top so when the plywood around the edges softens and disintegrates it leaves a 5 8 gap between the bottom of the wall and the top of the chassis to make matters worse wally s crews usually screwed the bottom of the wall into the plywood but not all the way through the plywood and then into the chassis so if your floor is soft under the walls you have nothing holding the shell to the chassis in the area of the weak floor the shell must be bolted or screwed through solid floor and into the chassis that s why floor repair is so hard on an airstream and is so often done insufficiently floor repair shortcuts that put new pieces of floor up to the wall but not under it may give you a firm floor but they will not fix the underlying problem of a shell and chassis that are not fully secured before the plywood and chassis are fastened securely together the chassis will have a tendency to sag at the rear end working on a solid level surface and using temporary jacks to hold everything straight is essential until the floor is fully fastened down notice also the extra long chassis rails caravanner 1 came with a 1960s style trunk bumper for the sewer hose rather than a simple 1950s bumper i m going to replicate that feature the photo above shows the new plywood floor spanning the restored chassis for extra stability construction adhesive is used where the floor touches the chassis back in the day wally s crews layed fiberglass insulation across the chassis before the plywood was layed we aren t doing it that way we ll be insulating from below before the belly pan is closed up notice the odd plywood seam pattern above the edges of each piece of plywood need to all end up on frame members so they are supported my chassis is modified to create a trapezoidal spare tire storage area under the floor you can see it in post 25 this is also a good shot of how all plywood edges and all undersides are treated with wood preservative the fasteners of choice for the floor are elevator bolts and countersunk self tapping machine screws the elevator bolts are great because their wide flat heads are easy to countersink and could never pull through the plywood they re secured with a hex nut underneath the special self tapping machine screws are almost as good they have threads like bolts they re used only where it would be impossible to reach the bottom end of a bolt to put on a hex nut with the screws the frame member is tapped so it acts like a nu...