What's new?

I'm FINALLY gearing up to resume work on the Overlander. I had to wait for cooler weather (it's no fun working in triple digit weather) but once it arrived I lost my job, so I've been busy looking for work. Sometimes, even working on the Airstream has to be put on hold. I'm still looking for work, but things are looking up.

This past week I finally got the garage cleared out enough to empty out all of the stuff I had stored in the Overlander for the move. With that done, I can now resume the restoration. Here's what needs to be done:

1. Remove kitchen and bedroom
2. Prep wood floor for tiling
3. Install new floor tiles
4. Install new water heater (this will involve cutting the skin)
5. Repair kitchen/bedroom cabinets and install new kitchen counter top
6. Reinstall kitchen and bedroom
7. Install new PEX plumbing and fresh water tank
8. Build dinette
9. Install bathroom

That should keep me busy for awhile, I would think.

In the meantime, I decided to refocus the content of my two blogs. This blog will be dedicated to the restoration of the Overlander while my other blog will focus on my travels in my Wolf Creek truck camper (and the Overlander when it's done), and in RVing general. That's why I removed the three travel articles I recently posted here. I already had them on the other blog and felt I was simply duplicating my efforts.

Saying Goodbye to a Couple Friends

After seven years of ownership, I've decided to sell the Sovereign. I have neither the room nor the need to have two Airstreams in my life now. As a working man spare time is short and I'd rather spend what little maintenance and restoration time I have on the Overlander. In the meantime, we decided to buy a truck camper while work continues on the Overlander. It won't be usable for another year or two anyways so having a truck camper fits our immediate needs and gives us more RV versatility for the future--boondocking is a love of mine and there are simply too many places I want to go where I would never take the Overlander.

After looking at several new and used campers, we decided on a 2011 Wolf Creek 850N by Northwood Manufacturing. Northwood is the same company that makes Arctic Fox campers which are known for their quality. We like the lighter weight and smaller price of the Wolf Creek and we got a stinking great deal on it as a nearby dealership was liquidating their entire stock of new RVs.

Campers require a beefy truck so it was also time to say goodbye to our Ford F150. We love the F150, but it had a mini-short bed of only 5.6 ft and simply didn't have the payload nor the suspension for the camper we wanted. With the improvements Ford continues to make with their trucks we decided to buy another, this time an F-250 with the 6.2L gas engine. Big enough to carry our camper and tow our Overlander to Airstream rallies while we continue to work on it.

My 2011 Ford F250

If you are interested, I've started a new blog chronicling ownership of my new Wolf Creek 850N Camper and my love for Boondocking. You can find the blog here: http://mellomikeswolfcreekcamper.blogspot.com/

New Digs

I haven't posted much on the blog or made much progress on the Overlander lately due to our recent move from Phoenix to Mesa here in Arizona. I hate moving. I did enough of it in the Navy to never want to do it again. One thing we discovered in this move is that we have too much stuff. It's truly time to downsize our household. The nice thing about the new location is that I'm closer to work, much closer, and live just a few miles from my dad. The new house has a pool, too, which is great for this climate. As the pic shows, the property has a large concrete pad, more than large enough for both Airstreams.

In addition to the move, the other thing impacting on our progress is the heat. Temperatures have once again reached the 100s and the temps will stay this way until late September. So most, if not all, of the posts between now and then will relate to our camping excursions to the mountains where it's much cooler.

International Globe Emblem Restoration

I've restored Airstream emblems before, but nothing like this one. This emblem, used from 1958 to 1961, has some very detailed etchings and I had no idea how to go about restoring it until I came across a post by Shari on AIR FORUMS. She had restored a Safari name plate and serial number plate using Sanding Sticks. I had never seen these before and decided to buy some and try them out. As you can see from the pic I think they did a pretty good job.

The process of restoring the emblem was pretty easy, just time consuming. For the job you'll need a good magnifying glass and the aforementioned sanding sticks. First, I applied three coats of dark blue Rustoleum spray paint over the entire emblem. Then I used the sanding sticks using the heaviest grit first to remove the paint from the continents and grid lines. Then I went over these surfaces with finer grit to give the exposed aluminum surfaces a polished look. The International letters were hand painted last. The only obstacle I encountered was removing the numerous scratches that were on the left side of the emblem. Fortunately, aluminum is soft and these came out with some additional sanding.

Now that I've restored one, would I do anything different? I'm not so sure that spray painting the entire emblem was the best course. Perhaps a better approach would have been to lightly sand the continents and name areas first then tape them off before spray painting the oceans.

Byam Hooks - A Cool, Vintage Accessory For Your Airstream

What in the world is a Byam Hook, you might ask? Good question. Byam Hooks were sold in the old Wally Byam Airstream Store in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Wally Byam, Airstream's founder, loved them and according to his cousin, "Pee Wee" Schwamborn, he had a large number of them in his Airstream. Soon they became popular in the Airstream community and were eventually named after Wally himself. Outside the Airstream community, these hooks are known as razor strop hooks and "elephant hooks," the latter because the exaggerated upturned hook resembles the trunk of an elephant and the screw holes look like the eyes.

Pee Wee further explained how these hooks were used by his cousin, "Wally found this one of the most useful items in trailering. They met his many needs. [Inside] he could hang up his Coleman lantern. A wet raincoat. Run a cord from one hook to another and have a clothes line. Just about anything Wally needed to hang up could use these British manufactured hooks. On the outside you normally found two of them to hold up a Army surplus canvas water funnel. Using his jeri cans Wally poured his water into this large funnel into the water fill. Wally had many inside his Airstreams. How many? Ten? Twelve? I never counted them, but there was adequate coverage through out his Airstreams."

Byam Hooks were either screwed into wood cabinets or riveted to the aluminum walls inside or outside the trailer. The big appeal of these hooks is that the extended hook is very effective in preventing items from falling off while in transit. I like these hooks not only because of their history, but because they look cool and are much smaller than the hooks you typically find at the "big box" stores. If you have a vintage Airstream, you gotta have a few Byam Hooks to add an authentic vintage touch.

This is the product description found the Wally Byam catalog: "These uniquely designed hooks are commonly known in the trailer field as Byam Hooks simply because Wally had them all over his trailer inside and out. Install several in your bedroom so that you have a place to hang those clothes at night which you normally wouldn't put on a hanger. Utensils can be hung on them, stretch your clothes line -- there are literally dozens of uses for this sturdy aluminum Byam Hook. As simple as they are, they are difficult to find."

Unfortunately, the last sentence of the description is even more correct in this the 21st Century. The original style Byam Hooks are no longer being made, and are becoming increasingly rare and valuable. If you have one or more, hold on to them and take care of them. My 1958 Overlander had three Byam Hooks, though one was slightly damaged. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that when I picked up that old Airstream drop-leaf table last summer, a Byam Hook was attached underneath which I assume was used to latch the table to a cabinet for travel.

Fortunately, you can purchase a close reproduction of the Byam Hook though they are currently out of stock at Vintage Trailer Supply. Sailboatstuff.com offers them, however, they can't keep the silver chrome version in stock--Airstreamers gobble them up. After waiting one year I finally received the five I ordered. The pic below shows a comparison between the slightly smaller reproduction of the hook offered by Sailboatstuff.com (on the left) and the original British-made hook favored by Wally.

Airstream California Plant History Lesson

Did you know that Airstream had two California plants in operation in the 1950s each producing their own separate Airstreams? One plant was located at 1755 N. Main St. in Los Angeles while the other was located at 12804 E. Firestone Blvd. When the E. Firestone plant first opened in 1956 it was located in an unincorporated section of the county. The nearest post office at that time was in Norwalk, so that was the city used in the plant's address. In 1958 the area surrounding and including the plant was incorporated into Santa Fe Springs. This is why you see California serial number plates with three different city locations in the 1950s, though the Norwalk plant never actually moved.

My 1958 Overlander has a Norwalk serial number plate. Apparently, Airstream had an excess supply of Norwalk serial number plates until at least August of 1958 (I located a Flying Cloud built in August that displayed a Norwalk plate http://www.vintageairstream.com/archives1/58FC/1958FlyingCloud_228604/index.html) when they started installing the Santa Fe Springs serial number plates. As you can see this difference in city names is one way to distingquish early from late 1958 Airstreams built at the E. Firestone plant. In addition, the Sante Fe Springs serial number plate looks identical to the Norwalk plate, at least they did in late 1958 and in 1959.

Fast forward to 2011. Vintage Trailer Supply didn't stock the proper 1950s Norwalk serial number plate--until now. Steve Hingtgen, owner of Vintage Trailer Supply, contacted me on AIR FORUMS about making a new serial number plate with the Norwalk street address. Based on the images I've provided, he is currently working on producing this serial number plate for the Airstream community. Way to go, Steve!

The bottom line is that if you have a California built 1950s Airstream and you need a new serial number plate make sure that the city and address match the original. This is a vitally important part of your Airstream's history.

Oh yeah. You may have wondered what happened to the Airstream plants in California. The Los Angeles plant at 1755 N. Main St. closed in 1960 (Pee Wee Schwamborn said he could still see the faint outline of an Airstream on the old brick building in 1990) and in December 1967 Airstream opened a new plant in Cerritos, CA at 15949 Puima Ave. After Airstream moved into the Cerritos plant, the Norwalk/Sante Fe Springs plant was sold to a pipe company with the building used as a warehouse. Several years later, the building was leveled to construct an auto mall. The Cerritos plant remained in operation until 1979 when the plant was closed for good. Today all Airstreams are made in Jackson Center, Ohio.

Take Two - Hehr Standard Window Restoration

Yesterday was spent working on the Overlander's two street side Hehr Standard windows. Don't let anyone fool you. Working on these windows is time consuming. It wouldn't be so bad if there was no corrosion present on the back frames. I spent a good four hours sanding and brushing them down to remove this corrosion.

The front window assemblies were already restored for these two windows, so I only needed to work on the back frames. Removing the front window assembly and back frame is pretty simple and takes about an hour. I detailed the removal process in an earlier thread posted on March 19th. You'll need to bend the drip cap up (if you didn't already remove it) to get at the top row of rivets holding the back frame in. There are lots of rivets along the top so be prepared for lots of drilling. When removing rivets it's best to drill pilot holes in each before drilling them out with a larger drill bit. The pilot holes help prevent the drill bit from walking off the rivet head and scratching or damaging the skin.

The main reason for removing these windows, of course, is to allow replacement of the infamous backframe gasket and to facilitate easy replacement of the galvanized metal screen. If you're lucky, you'll have little or no corrosion on the back frame. Unfortunately, I wasn't. One frame was badly pitted and it took three hours of sanding and wire brushing to get it to look good.

Installing the galvanized metal screen (from Vintage Trailer Supply) is fairly easy and is different from a regular screen window as there is no spline. You'll need the special roller from Vintage Trailer Supply to properly install it in the frame. Make sure you cut the screen a good 1/2 inch larger on each side. This gives you enough "slop" to properly install the screen. When installing it, I recommend that you crimp the sides first before crimping the longer top and bottom portions. After all four sides are crimped, I pushed the excess screen material under the frame. The installed screen looks terrific.

Cutting and fitting the back frame gasket is pretty straightforward. I glued the gasket to the frame using black 3M Gasket Adhesive but I wasn't entirely happy with its performance for this application. I suspect the reason for this is because this gasket is made of silicone rather than rubber. A black silicone adhesive would have probably worked much better.

Reinstalling the back frame is pretty easy. I prefer to use Olympic rivets because with a dab of Vulkem I think they provide a better seal against water, though Airstream in some years before 1958 used pop rivets (some present Airstream restorers use them as well). To each their own.