Monday, June 30, 2014

Its not that I haven't been working on her.....

Its been awhile!

I have slowly started to put things back on the Airstream, lights, badges, vents and so on, so I can finish with the insulation and move on to wiring. 

I'll post more about the progress, with the obligatory photos to prove it, but for now I need a little help!

One of the things I've been doing is putting back on the chimney vent that some previous owner took off.  They did a really awful patch job on it, using huge pop rivets. Don't worry,  they compensated for the pop rivets by using plenty of sealant. Ugh

How bad you say?  This bad....                       think it leaked? Yep.


This is AFTER all the sealant has been removed (at least 4 different types because one  is never enough). There's a boatload of discoloration.


I haven't tried to polish it yet (because we are in the midst of our one week a year that we get 90 degree weather)  but even assuming I can get a decent enough finish on it, there are still about 30 holes from the previous job .

The holes aren't your standard 1/8 inch or 5/32.  They are just a hair under 1/4 inch, and in two places (bottom right and left) they are two holes really close together. The only thing I can think of to do there would be to put one flush rivet in and a normal one.  Of course I don't have what I need to do a flush rivet either. 

So my choices are to try and fill the holes with something, or put another patch up there.   I was leaning toward a patch but the thought of having to make it even bigger and put a whole bunch more holes up there is making me hyperventilate. Plus call me vain but I want a patch free trailer! Sheepishly, yes I know it's on the roof.....

The inside skins are off so I could probably use 1/4 inch olympics and seal from the back.....

Any other idea's/opinions?

The good news is I've cleaned up an old vent collar and cut down an aluminum vent cover for this.  I'm excited to get this looking the way it should!