Final step to the serial number plate!

The last step of the process is to add the words "International Land Yacht" in a darker blue.   I've been terrified to do this because if I mess up I will have to do this plate over and that is not an option.  I'd rather sell the trailer (just kidding). 

This is how the serial plate originally looked.  

It differs from the reproductions at VTS in that the "International Land Yacht"  are not silver.  

                                                                                                                                                                                                        

First, I took a photocopy of the plate so I'd have a visual record.   

Then because none of the fonts in Microsoft word even came close I searched Identifont.com until I found one that was very similar.   The spacing and shape wasn't correct so I copied it into Paint shop and stretched and shrank it like a gumby until it matched the original!   I compared them by taping the original photocopy of the plate on my very fancy lightbox (the window !)       Please don't ask me the name of the lettering because I have a short term memory problem ... I blame the diet coke!

I scanned the image into our printer.....      

 

I really wanted to keep using the green automotive tape (I gotta buy stock in that company!), so I taped a couple of pieces on to a transparency (so I could remove it easily)  and printed the font directly on the tape.


Yeah I made that sound easy didn't I... well the secrets out, my trash can is full of botched copies!   I'm just lucky the green tape didn't ball up and clog the printer.  I would have had a hard time explaining that given that the printer is brand new!

 Here they are attached to the plate.  And my handy dandy razor
blade got a brand new blade!

 See which letters I'm avoiding again!

 All taped up and ready for painting...I'm hyperventilating already!!!!   One shot at this.....

I used the Duplicolor Dark Ford Blue.   I really like this paint, it goes on smooth.  Makes Rustolem a bad name.

Well, Serendipity is my stripper name (no mom, not really LOL) and VOILA!!!!!!

 Success!!   The process itself was a success anyway,  the lettering is a little darker than I expected but acceptable.  They've photographed darker than they are in person.      A few coats of clearcoat and I can check this off my list!   

I showed it proudly to my husband and he said "So what's different?"   Sigh...... is there a secret virus that I can infect him with so he comes down with a severe case of aluminitus?????

What's next?   The license plate holder and light!  Stay tuned!

A little more progress...

Today I started the serial number plate. I used the same green tape on the larger letters. I coated the smaller ones and the man on the bicycle with Vaseline with a very small paintbrush. I used a tiny eyeglass screwdriver to scrape off the paint when it was dry. I'm pretty happy with the outcome. Now I have to wait a few days for it to cure before I add "International Overlander Landyacht". The close up shows the precision you can get with the automotive green tape!

Long time coming...

A year ago I was buying my Overlander!  Happy Anniversary Moonraker!   Now I'd be happier if I had a little more to show for it but... it is what it is.   There has been no progress, it's a little like watching grass grow.  Scratch that, it's A LOT like watching grass grow!  She still languishes in Colin's parking lot.  Every once and a while my BIL takes pity on me and if he's driving by will send me a picture of her.   So sad.  Pity party over.

 In an effort to console myself,  I started work on my nameplates, something I've been promising to work on since,  well.... forever.
 

I had already stripped most of the paint off the nameplates,but even Citristrip couldn't budge some of it. 

Out came the dremel with a wire brush.  WEAR GLOVES!!!!!  Little pieces of the wire brush come flying off and embed them selves under your skin (Ask me how I know!)   Ouch Ouch.

 I was careful to keep it off the actual letters because I didn't want to spend a lifetime polishing them!

 Before

 and after.  You'll notice I have started to polish the letters up here, but that required rounding up the usual suspects.

 The suspects!!!!!!!
I grabbed every metal polish in the house to do a little comparison test.  The top one is called Top Brite.  The one on the left has recently become a star on Youtube as the polish of choice for Rob Baker (of The Vap fame - see http://thevap.com/)

 Polishing is dirty work!  I got out my trusty dremel and chucked in a felt tip.  The truck box polish is a liquid and has a little grit in it, the other three are a pink creamy consistency.  I used Windex and paper towels to clean up the black crud.  Worked well enough.  I was going to try to catch the differences in each polish but it was like trying to take pictures of a Yeti.  Just didn't show up on film!

I must concur with Rob though, the truck box polish worked the best.  It was however, also the messiest, the dremel flung spots of it in wild abandon all over me, the table, the floor...  Note to self, this is a good time to wear black!

 Here's the felt tip I used, I also tried a felt wheel but it kept coming off the mount, I didn't like it as much as this one   It's model number 422  It's as elusive as snow in NH this winter ....  sorry, not found in the usual box stores.   I am lucky to have a local hardware store that is superb, this is one of those stores that if THEY don't have it, YOU don't need it.  And
**** Gasp**** the employees are so knowledgeable that I often play "What the $%^& is this part??"  with them and they rarely disappoint!  Pure candy for someone like me.  They greet me with "Watcha got today?"   I'm quite sure I've been the hot topic in the break room more than once! LOL    I 'm wandering off the subject again huh?

 

 Next up, I used automotive green tape to mask off the letters and a sharp razor blade to trim.  I like this green tape way more than the usual blue painting tape. IMHO it makes a much cleaner edge.   I used a plastic orange razor blades to "score the edges"  before using the exacto blade.  I picked some of the plastic razor blades on Amazon after a forum member recommended them and find my self constantly reaching for them.   A belated thanks to DKB SATX!

Notice what letter I am avoiding?????  Straight lines are easy with a razor blade, curves, not so much.

A new group of suspects!  Time to pick paint.  From right to left

 Sail Blue
Brillant blue
Royal blue
Indigo
Navy

Why so many?  Well, my serial number plate (which is next up)  actually incorporates 2 different blues a bright and a dark, so I wanted to make sure I had enough contrast.  For these nameplates,  I just had to make a decision between the first three.  I liked the sail blue but felt it was a little bright, ultimately I opted for the one in the middle, the royal blue.

First I primed with bare metal primer followed by two coats of Royal Blue.   To get the smoothest coat you lay on a thin coat followed by a flood coat.  I won't say I'm the queen of spray painting but there is a permanent divot in my right forefinger!

  I waited a couple hours and stripped the green tape off and Voila!

*cue copious sobbing*      I LOATHED it!  

The blue was too dark,  the spray paint had an orange peel texture that was blech and in certain areas the gray primer showed on the edges of the letters.  I know it looks okay in the picture.  I should have taken a close up,  but quite frankly, I was having a hissy fit thinking of re-taping all those letters!  I got back on the Airforums because I could have sworn I read that Royal Blue was the closest to the factory color and ... double darn.... nope it was FORD blue.  

Okay...... Okay, I can do this.  Waaaahhhhhh
Citristrip to the rescue.

I think I've been here before, no REALLY , pretty sure.

To make a long story short I redid everything using Duplicolor Ford Blue.  Actually the paint was FAR superior. I used the Duplicolor clear etching primer first and then three coats of color, two thin and one flood coat.  It went on much smoother and thinner than the Rustoleum.  Phew.


The skies opened up, the angels sang and my life was right again.

For a comparison the one on top is Rustoleum Royal Blue and Ford Blue is on the bottom.



Next up -  the serial number plate.  It's going to pose some additional problems with the two tone blue finish so all this practice might be a good thing!  At least that's what I'm going to tell myself. 

My goodness - if I write this long of a post about 2 little nameplates what's going to happen when I get to the really hard stuff! 

Guess where I was yesterday?

This post is coming a week late because I have been out of power for 6 days due to a FREAK October snowstorm that cancelled Halloween!!!


Headed up to Vermont last Friday night to stay at my sister's.  The plan was for my brother in law and I to wake up early on Saturday (to avoid traffic)  and deliver Moonraker to Colin Hyde's Trailer Restorations for the beginning of her restoration. 

The ferry ride over...

Colin recently moved to a new shop and he definitely has upgraded his digs!  His front door is particularly impressive!!! 


Nice and shiny!  Wonder if that was polished by his secret recipe? LOL


Not only does he have heaters..... he has a parts room, a wood working shop and a shower!!!  Living the life of luxury!








Some pictures of the shop!

To the right are Colin's two gantrys that he uses to lift of the trailer body.  Nice setup.

 

His parking lot has some nice Airstreams!  I'm kicking myself because I didn't get any pictures of Colin's '57 Sovereign...    no wait ....that would be "'57 SOVEREIGN OF THE ROAD"  emphasis added of course. :)!

Seriously, sweet sweet trailer.

Tub woes and a few successes...

Today was a typical "airstreamin'" day.   Some ups, some downs but when the successes outnumber the failures I count it as a plus! 

First off  I have a new acronym for the bathtub;

SBT   - Stupid blasted tub          

or maybe this is just a chance to use one of my favorite acronyms of late:

AFLO - Another flipping learning opportunity   

That tub drain won't budge,  we gave it our best shot, but short of cutting a hole in the floor and lifting it out it's not surrendering ....  SBT and AFLO..... there ... I feel better!    I REALLY didn't want to damage the tub so I guess I'm leaving it for Colin Hyde to deal with!     I wanted to give it a good swift kick but you all will be happy to know I restrained myself.  Grrrrr   Its not really a big deal as I'm planning on having it professionally painted (aqua of course!) so it would have ended up at Colin's anyway.   

On to other tasks.... I removed the decals on the windows and the back of the trailer.   

I used this.  My sis had it and said it worked and it definitely did!  I used the regular blue rubber gloves...BAD idea... It dissolved the gloves and then proceeded to dissolve the plastic scraper too!   I'm pretty sure it took a bit of my skin and a few brain cells too.... nasty.

Unfortunately because the previous owner hadn't limited himself to the windows there's ghosting on the aluminum.  I'm hoping it will polish out but we'll see.

See the one in the center?  Guess what it covered?  Yep,  a big old dent ..... *sigh*

The airstream nameplates had to come off to be restored.  Restoring on the trailer was not an option, they were BURIED in various  sealants, The PO obviously believed  in the saying that "more is better".   As I had the interior out I figured it would be as easy as using a chisel, shearing off the buck rivets from the back and popping the nameplates off.      Well, popping was not the right terminology, it was more along the lines of " I'd have better luck prying the xbox controller out of my sons hands on the day Portal 2 released".

PS if you are too old to understand the context ...it was REALLY REALLY REALLY hard!   I think some dark magic was involved....

Before picture

   

Guess what was lurking behind the nameplate????  Dirt , mud, pine needles, bugs.... you name it!  No wonder the PO couldn't get it sealed.

I did clean it up with a spray of water from the hose and decided to use some more of the adhesive remover.  It was resisting so I used the scrubby side of a kitchen sponge and for cripe's sake ....

AFLO (see above)

 It scratched the aluminum  *sigh sigh sigh*

Hard to see in this picture but trust me it's there.  Hopefully it will polish out but geesh ...Is there anything you can use to remove crud that WON'T scratch aluminum????????

On a happy note the adhesive remover did a nice job on the first 2 numbers (at which point I realized I was scratching the aluminum.

Time to prime my sisters trailer..... http://1960airstreamtradewind.blogspot.com




More on restoring the nameplates soon I promise!!!

The belly of the beast exposed!

Well today was the day!   Time to find out how bad the frame is.... and banish the bellypan.

If you have read my previous posts you know that I'm "not fond" of pink insulation.  I look at the stuff, I itch.... to touch it .... shudder...... I'd rather babysit Sarah Palins children than touch insulation.  Seriously,  I don't know if its the formaldehyde in it or what, but I can't be around it.

My husband of course thinks this is just an excuse to get out of  detaching the bellypan!   Good thing he married me for better or worse cause this counts for the latter.   When we got this Overlander the one thing he said is "I don't mind paying the bills for paying someone to do something you can't... but I REALLY don't want to spend my weekends working on the trailer"

 Guess what he did this weekend?  
 

And he has never looked sexier to me, Yep, love a man who can get his hands dirty ! 

It actually went surprisingly well (for me anyway!) Probably five hours from beginning to end, including cleaning up and a lunch break. 

We used one of these bad boys - an 18 gauge electric sheet metal shears from Harbor Freight Tools.   Getting them at the right angle to cut smoothly took some adjusting... but when they worked, they worked like "Butta"  I'm channeling Paula Dean here, LOL

We had to cut a little lower on the belly pan because otherwise we kept running into the outriggers that were too tight to the belly pan to get the shears to fit.  So after we were done,  we went back and trimmed a little higher. 

Wow,  I keep saying "we" which is totally inaccurate, my DH did it all!  And much of it flat on his back with the shears inches away from his face!  Did I mention how sexy he looked???  Tyvek suit, goggles and gloves,  it's a classic look!   The electric shears were soooo worth it, I think I picked them up on a 40 percent off the $40 price.   My sister and her husband did their Tradewind with hand shears and while it can be done, I'm sure it wasn't a rockin' good time!  I sure love learning from their experiences (sorry sis!).

Now everyone says how disgusting the belly pan debris is but ....well.... I'll let you judge

 Personally I've seen worse in my kids laundry baskets!!!!  Just kidding, but there were no unidentifiable bodies,   no skeletons,  no smell,  no more shotgun shells (exactly how does one dispose of live ammo anyway? It's not as if I can toss it in the trash...?).

There was no real treasure either but hey does a frame that's in pretty good shape count??? You BET!  I'll wait for Colin's final assessment but I thought it looked pretty good?

 

 

Tomorrow we will be removing the tub and the Airstream logos on the trailer for restoration!  Also a plethora of nasty decals from gun and ammo shops. I'm gonna erase every inch of the old hunting cabin!  

Its going to be a busy day as we will also be priming my sister and BIL's Tradewind .  See their blog here:  http://1960airstreamtradewind.blogspot.com

Stay tuned!    

And just for the cuteness factor, my mom's new Jack Russell named Watson.  He's a rescue and a PISTOL! 

I brought him a stuffed rabbit toy and he had all five squeakers out in like 4.5 milliseconds.   He reminds me of Tigger (of the Winnie the Pooh fame)....  Their bottoms are made out of springs. They're bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy fun, fun, fun fun, FUN!

Putting the end cap back in!

Okay, before you all get excited at the progress I'm making ...these are not MY endcaps.  As some of you know, I have a twin sister that is restoring a 1960 Tradewind .  She and her husband are at the point of putting their endcaps back in and we promised to help them.  Lets just say they OWE us.  And the beers don't count!     I know this post is long and not so many pretty pictures but stick with it - there's a cautionary tale at the end...No NO NO...don't skip to the end.  Stick with me folks!

First off the cast of characters:

Peter (my BIL) :  Peter is the Mr.  "I'm going to figure out the worst case scenario for everything and have a plan in place for everything that could go wrong, so that if it does, we will be able to fix it!"

Susan (my twin):  Mrs " Why did you do that? What did you just do?  I can't believe you just did that.  Do you realize what you just did?  Can we just get this DONE!" 

Peter (my husband):   Mr Stoic,  He doesn't say much and at one point abandoned us to go read a book cause we were spending too much time talking about how we were going to do something.

Me :  I'm perfect ........enuf said

  First of all, having both of our husbands' named Peter was a bit of a pickle.    Sometimes that works to my  my advantage, but in this case it didn't.  It was very confusing ....  I'd say something like "Peter, lower your edge" and they both would do it.  Sheesh. 

First attempt!

Following Colin Hyde's advice we clecoed the front window in (took literally five minutes and I thought piece of cake!     Then we tried to work the skin back into its old position by pushing and shoving at it....  or as my BIL put it "massaging it".  HA! It was massaging us a heck of a lot more and I've got the bruises to prove it!  The best we were able to get was 2 inches away from the original rivet holes on the center line.  No way, no how.

So we stood back and discussed it a bit.....and a bit more....
and finally decided that it looked like it would be a lot easier if the center line clecoes were in (see picture below) , and we just had to push the end cap out far enough to get the window clecoed.   So out comes the first clecos and we start over.

Airstream: 1

Us : Zilch


But we did learn from the attempt and decided to cut a piece of plywood to use as a brace so every time we pushed we didn't lose ground, so to speak..   I bet it took us an hour to get that center line of clecoes in.  We were pretty pleased though and certain we were headed in the right direction.   Over the next hour,  we realized that just because we had 90% of the clecoes in doesn't mean that the other 10 % are going to follow suit.

No sirree!   No matter how much we "massaged it"  we couldn't get it done.  We blamed it on having too much insulation in the walls,  but I don't think that was it.  Now imagine how we felt when we realized that we were going to have to take all of our beautiful &*%$# work out and start all over again.  We had planned to put both endcaps in the same day and here it was rounding up the end of day one, and we were no farther ahead then when we started!  This sucked.  Out came the clecoes...Third times the charm right???? (Or for those of you in the UK...Third times lucky!!)


Airstream: 2
Us : Zilch - and starting to feel like the Red Sox when Lackey's pitching......

We decided to start....after even MORE discussion... back with the front window .  I swear when I get home I'm not going to say a single word for a whole day.... I haven't talked this much since I was in middle school and the new hot guy moved into town!

We also cut two more pieces of wood and covered them with rags.   Basically we'd brace them against the floor using our feet as blocks and with a rubber mallet we pound down on them.  This forced the fiberglass to get closer to the wall.  Another hour and we got everything clecoed in except for a few on the left side on the center line. It was now 8:45 PM and the light was gone.  We called it quits and even though none of us said anything (for once!!!!!)  I'm sure we all thought that maybe it wasn't ever going to fit.   Ever heard the expression putting a square peg in a round hole? 

I had brought a chocolate truffle cake and beer with me to celebrate..... we ate and drank them anyway.  Chocolate and beer makes anything better!


Day Two

With lots of coffee on board we started early!  It took plenty of trying but eventually we discovered how we needed to position the boards to get the endcap to move in the right direction.    It really helped to have  my BIL who's over 6 feet to be able to see what the rivet holes were doing. Hopping up and down on a step stool after each blow gets old, fast.

Finally it was in!!!!!!!!

Airstream: 2
Us : 1  Finally on the board :)


But the other one had a palpable evil  presence in the corner.    Onward.

Actually,  this is where it gets interesting...And not in a good way.  

Hey Sis - if you are reading this its time to sit down!    And remember all's well that ends well!

Well, my sister took off to pick up their daughter at a friends house.   The rest of us figured we'd see how far we could get with the second endcap.  We all got in the trailer and picked up the endcap and held it up in place and my BIL started to feed the wires through,   and I saw him fall over to one side and I thought "HUH?"  And then I realized that it wasn't him.  THE TRAILER WAS MOVING!!!!   Yep,  we somehow neglected the fact that the trailer had a pivot point and by putting all that  weight in the rear we had triggered it.  The trailer started to roll backwards and of course fell off its leveling pads. I could see the front of the trailer starting to rise up in the air and all I could think was CRAP CRAP CRAP!  I ran up front and that brought the tongue down far enough that we stopped.  I wish I could say it was my excellent thinking that saved us,  but quite frankly I was thinking more along the lines of....  If we started to roll,  I'm jumping out the door and abandoning ship!  I've got a very good sense of self preservation I guess!


Regardless,  thanks to the chock on the other wheel, I don't think we would have gone very far, but boy did we feel STUPID.  Really all this happened in like 4 seconds, but it had that unreal "my life is flashing before my eyes" feeling. 

So we decided that come hell or high water,  we were going to have that trailer back in place like nothing ever happened before my sister got back. 
BIL ran to get his keys to the truck....
truck wouldn't start....
had a dead battery ...( of course it does)...
backed up our van up to jump start it with ....fastest jump start I've done in my life
backed up to the trailer.....
hooked up the battery to the electric jack....
got the  trailer pulled forward and lined up.... several tries
put the leveling blocks back.....
positioned the trailer back on them.
 leveled the trailer again.
Checked for damage...nothing..... PHEW!

I know some of you could do this with one hand behind your back, but my husband and I have never hitched anything and I don't think my BIL has done it a dozen times yet!  Just backing the trailer in a straight line is a challenge. 


I made my BIL promise  not to tell my sister (She can read about it in my blog!).   So Susie, DON"T BLAME PETER (your husband,  that is)  ....we were all so tired and we didn't want to confess how stupid we were.    And we still had another end cap to put it!!!!!   We had just enough time to look at each other and think "Did that really just happen?"....put a few clecoes in the window,  and my sister came home.   I  think she wondered a bit about how little we got done but now she's knows why!   And yes, as far as I know she's reading about it here with you. 

The last end cap took one try ....still not fun but 3 out of the 4 of us had adrenaline highs going on!  LOL About 3/4 of the way through my BIL started to whistle and we saw the light at the end of the tunnel.  One of the things that really helped was to leave the clecos on the vertical sides of the window undone.  Basically the order we used was:  cleco the top of the window and then start in the center of the end cap and work back and forth. a few clecoes to the rights then a few to the left.  Then finish with the sides of the window.

Airstream: 2
Us : 2   Final score haha 

So now you know the rest of the story!     And the moral of the story is three adults in the back of the trailer is not a good idea!

Can't believe I'm going to have to do this again on my trailer ...sigh