Taking apart the stove!

One of the things I brought home with me to work on was the Tappan stove.  About a month aga I saw that one my fellow airstreamers on the Airstream Forums was doing a restoration on a very special Airstream.  He has a 63 Safari that was actually part of the infamous caravan that went from Capetown to Cairo!   I believe that only three of these trailers still survive in the US.  If you'd like to read her restoration story go here.  But I warn you it's 66 pages long, so settle in with a glass of wine (or two!)  and  read the whole scoop.  Here a teaser picture of the trailer being loaded on a boat.  

Anyway, the Tappan stove, as far as I can tell, was only used in 1963, so when I saw Scott's post about needing one,  I contacted him with the good news and the bad.   I had the stove but it was 4 hours away from me and he was going to have to be patient!   Not only that but we are at opposite ends of the US.  So these parts are way overdue to being sent out and were my number one priority!   Note to self..... next time someone offers to walk me thru the removal of something (in this case the oven door) I will  take them up on it!  I spent way too much time taking screws off and removing the back when a couple of screws on the front door would have accomplished my mission in a quarter of the time...... sigh.   And then I forgot exactly how allergic I am to insulation....grrr I barely touched it :(  and my arm is covered in hives.  Lesson number two. wear long sleeves when near insulation.   I remembers a neat trick though...if you rub a pair of nylons on your skin it will pick out all the little glass bits....and frankly its a better use for nylons then wearing them! 

Anyway the parts are off and ready to go..

I don't know if I'll ever get to see the 63 Safari trailer in person, but there's something really neat about knowing that my Airstream (that's never been on a caravan) has a part in such a historic trailer.  How cool is that?

I was planning on putting a new oven in, I like to cook and don't want to fool with a half century old stove!   Unless of course I could find one of these babies.  I LOVE the aqua stove - darn near pulled the trigger on a 68 Tradewind just to get my hands on the stove :)

Next up lights!   One of the forum members stripped his ceiling lights back to bare aluminum and I loved the  look -  kudos to Mello Mike I'm stealing your idea!