Six Feet Left To Go!

Ice Storms will not stop us from progress on our fleet! OK, so we get a little more creative with how long we stay in the Airstreams. Just a little taste of what our back yard looks like! Brr! The back end of the floor is finished. We just have one last section of floor, about 6 feet long to finish putting in. As my husband has been taking up the old floor, he has used a wire brush on the frame, primed, and then paint the frame. After painting, he used the construction adhesive and finally the elevator bolts to attach the floor.

My oldest son figured out that the leak in the back was coming from where the lights are, so now they know what to do to fix it. That may wait for a warmer day, as it was 12 degrees out today! With the windshield, it was below zero!

Welding the Frame & On to the floor!

First, we wanted to show you how well that back dent came out looking. It will show up when we start to buff, but it looks a lot better than when we got the Airstream.

Thanks to our friend Don, that loaned us the welder! You can see it pictured here. We had a few places that the frame had rusted and seemed weak, and then a few places where we added extra framing to make it stronger for the grey and black water tanks that we are adding.

You can see here what the frame looks like after it has been put back together and reinforced. This is the back, my husband also got the back piece of plywood down using the truck floor self-sinking screws along with construction glue to adhere the plywood. Only a few more sections and we will be onto bigger and better things, like getting the last of the sidewalls back in and then painting!

Unfortunately, we still have some leaks around the back window and in a few places. I have to say "I told you so" to my husband, because I didn't think that he should close up the seams until he had found the leaks and fix them around the windows. But he insisted that they would be fine. Well, marital bliss continues as well as chasing down leaks!

Work on the Frame

My husband said he would be mad if I put up this picture, but I couldn't resist, so enjoy it while it lasts! This is what he looked like after he came in from a couple of hours of wire brushing the frame of all the rust and old paint.

Here is the frame he was working on. There are a couple of spots that have rusted through, so my husband will be welding in some extra support to make sure it is sturdy for another 50 years! He then coated the entire frame after it was brushed down!

My husband made a trip to Fastenal to pick up truck bolts to sink into the floor for as soon as the flooring starts to go back in. He also plans to add some extra support into places that he will be adding in grey and black water tanks so they can support the weight.

The Instamatic Refrigerator Works!

Our biggest fear was that the refrigerator would not work at all. We have some good news! It works. The refrigerator cooled to 26 degrees today! We've heard so many bad things about RV refrigerators, that we just were not look forward to spending over $1000 for one and then have it need to be replaced in a few years. My husband brought the refrigerator into the house (set it up on my kitchen table) and cleaned everything, took it all apart and put it together and voila! it works! Now, we hope to get at least a few years' use out of it before having that expense!

If anyone knows what to do about the racks inside the frig, please leave us a comment here. The coating on all the racks are peeling off just touching it. We are finding many places that are rusted. It would be nice to figure out a replacement or a re-coating if anyone has any ideas.

Now the Floor

Now that the ceiling is back in and the leaks have stopped it's onto the floor. Because the old flooring was so bad it came out easy only a few select cut with the circuilar saw and out it came. Our four year old helped clean out all the junk from the years and now it is time to wire brush and sand the frame before painting.