Shiny, sort of.

Polishing is kicking my butt!  I try to keep posts to this blog light hearted but it turns that polishing may be a dark art, disturbing and unsettling in it's very nature.  I have tried a variety of polishing methods but I'm sorry to report that shortcuts don't exist. 

I finally settled on the Jestco method that I saw demonstrated by Levon at the Restoration Rally in New Mexico.  See here for the instructions.   Jestco actually makes an Airstream polishing kit.

Levon's a funny guy and I'm starting to think that a sense of humor is necessary.   At the very least it helps.  

 I started with the grey rouge bar but had to drop down to the more aggressive black black bar that I got from Caswells.  The grey just wasn't cutting it...... literally.   I'm about 25 hours into it and still learning.  That's a heck of a learning curve!  There's an optimum speed, amount of polish, even a temperature of the metal and air.  I'd share with you what they are but I haven't figured it out yet!   All I know is that some days it goes great and other days I feel like I'm going backwards.    Every single panel seems to have a "sweet spot"  and none are exactly alike.

Today, I started getting little tails of dried polish under where I was working.  What's up with that!  I had to keep stopping and removing them.  Maybe because it was too cold?   I use the rouge pretty sparingly. 

I also  find myself going through something like the five stages of grief  errr  polishing: 

Denial - I know everyone says polishing is bad, but it won't be for me.. after all.I like the detail stuff, some Itunes and the right tools and it'll be great!

Anger - Four hours  today and that's all I have to show for it!! A cloudy mess!!

Bargaining - One more pass, just one more pass and I'll be able to move on. 

Depression -  Okay, it  took me 20 Hours to do this one section, if I continue at the same rate I'll be done uh uh uh   next year?

Acceptance  - Looks pretty good..........from 25 feet away!

I just got a phone call from my sister,  turns out my daughter called her and said " You have to talk my mom down from the polishing tree."    Ha Ha Ha     Sis tried to commiserate with me but since her husband has done all the polishing to date, I'm not buying it.  Hey sis, call me back after you've put in your first 25 hours.

Tomorrows another day and no,  I'm not posting pictures.   I'll post pictures when I'm happy with how it looks,  maybe never.

Sealing the rivets and more!

Well,  I've been detoured by getting the gardens ready for planting.  The weather has been dreary, 30-40's and wet.  I think the yellow spotted salamander is going to take up permanent residence!  Not great weather for working outside but once it warms up I would rather be working on the Airstream!

 During a heavy rainstorm I started to count  the leaks....I stopped counting at 28 separate leaks, it was just too depressing and the leaks were starting to  flow as one.   Both fan locations, the astrodome and the PO repair made to the refrigerator vent all poured water onto the floor.  Three windows have bad leaks as does the fan over stove.  Those I have covered in plastic and aluminum tape from the outside  and I'll deal with them one at a time.  Oh and two out of three of the access/baggage doors leaked.   There really wasn't much that didn't leak!!!!!  I had buckets everywhere. 

 I am continuing to seal seams and individual rivets from the inside. It's raining right now and so far it's dry on the inside.   It's messy work....  I completely covered my putty knife with masking tape and when I'm done for the day I peel it off!  No messy residue to clean up.

My arms are killing me from the caulking gun.  I think I screamed a little this morning when I depressed the pump on my shampoo container! 

I also stripped the paint off the door and all the flanges where the old gaskets were. There was lots of sealant and crumbling foam.  The Citrastrip did a good job at removing all of it overnight.

I put the new gaskets on with the black 3m adhesive. That stuff is stickier than a gecko's feet ! I stretched the gasket out on a table and clamped it down so it wouldn't twist, took off the self-stick liner and painted on a strip of this stuff.  Did the same thing to the door, waited a minute for them to get tacky and carefully pressed it in place.  I really could have used a second set of hands but I got it done.

 I used the new medium "D" seal on the door within the door and it was perfect.    I did not use it on the door like VTS recommends.  I found their Gasket seal for the overlay doors for the earlier trailers to work better.  Maybe my 63 Overlander is different?  It's a tight fit but I  can close it and it,s getting easier every time!

I did have to move the gasket out to the edge  near the door latch because it was too tight a fit but other than that all went well and so far is leak free.  Yippee

Then I followed the forums advice and sprayed all the gaskets in silicone so they wouldn't stick.... and it left a white streaky residue on the gasket.   Grrrr.




I also completely sanded the floor with 80 grit and will be fairing with the West system epoxy, filling all holes and sealing all the seams, hopefully later this week as the weather warms up.

In the meantime I have a couple of questions.....

I initially thought that one of the panels had been replaced.   It was an area right below a broken window,  but what I thought were Olympic rivets aren't.   They look like a buck rivet with a hollow stem.

So what are they?  Are they original or a repair.... and more importantly should I drill them out and buck new  rivets??  They are all along the bottom of the window, the ribs on one side and on the stringer.   And they leak, of course.

And speaking of the horizontal stringers, what metal are they fabricated from?

All the time I was working, I had a faithful companion hanging out with me.I think he likes to look at his reflection in the shiny belly pan!  LOL

Two containers and 6 cans of Citrastrip later.

I keep joking that I need to buy stock in citrastrip, but it's the truth!

2 large containers of citrastrip,
umpteen paper towel,
6 spray cans of Citrastrip later and I have finally cleaned all the tar/adhesive off!

 This picture is just one endcap but it took me the better part of 4 days to do the entire trailer. I actually think there were two types of black gunk . The spray adhesive removed really easily, but the black goo that they painted on the seams was tougher.


Initially, I painted on citrastip and just started scrubbing with a green scotchbrite. Took forever and made a real mess.  I felt like a creature from the Black Lagoon, but I had a respirator instead of gills!

Time to rethink the approach.

I painted the citristip on , covered it with the thinnest plastic sheeting I could find from the big orange box store. The next day I was able to wipe it off with paper towels. Way easier and not quite as messy.

I can actually see the rivets and seams now.





 One of the coolest discoveries was that Citrastrip now comes in spray cans. These were excellent for doing the overhead panels because painting Citristrip on the ceiling was like painting with jello... best left for Kindergartners

Isn't she pretty? Eh. maybe you should squint a little.

While I didn't enjoy the process I am glad I did it because I discovered one of my panels  must have been replaced at some point - it was all Olympic rivets! The tar had covered up the hollow stems.  I'll have to drill these out and buck rivet them properly later.


Other things I discovered along the way:

Four days in rubber gloves does a number on your hands,  mine are still peeling!

The Airstream workers were sloppy about quality control = big surprise! NOT


Rivets too close to the edge  - think these leaked?

Rivets way away from the edge (plus large gaps as a bonus).

Don't put Citrastrip in plastic cups, and especially don't leave it overnight!

Lastly, don't use Citrastrip in the presence of bees, it confuses them and they persist in looking for the citrusy smelling flowers.   No pictures cause I'm allergic and I was too busy running away!

Next I need to strip the door and get the weather seals on before it rains and start sealing all the interior seams and rivets.

This little guy greeted me as I left the house actually he wasn't little -, he was kinda big, that's a full size brick he's on!

I've never sen one of these before. Its a yellow spotted newt that lives underground, evidently they only come out in the Spring to lay their eggs.

 I'm glad my daughter is grown cause this is the kinda thing she would stick in her pocket to bring home when she was younger. Imagine finding that!

I scored!

Today was my birthday and it was an awesome day! My daughter and I went to a bunch of antique/consignment stores and what do I find but this......



Yep, a 1950's Walter of Wabash formica table!!!! Gold sparkles no less! What an awesome find and a steal ! The legs slide out to support the sides.



and i also got a rivet gun kit. Gosh I love new tools

Now if the weather would just cooperate!

 Before this last set of storms we actually had a  few nice days where I got a few things done. First was drilling out all the rivet remnants.  When I initially removed the skin I just drilled the head and snapped it off.  I thought that it was fast and efficient (it was!) but I didn't factor in the time needed to remove these remainders! Ah well, good thing I recently discovered Pandora Radio.  It's a cool app that you can type in an artist or song/genre  and it creates a station with similar music. Pretty cool.

  Next was stripping the refrigerator access doors.  These had tones of paint and goo. Go ahead and click on it and make it  larger....  I dare you!  The keys, alas, are long gone so I'll be replacing them with new ones from VTS.    

First time this door has been open in a really really long time . Probably Carter was President!

 Something serendipitous happened though!  As I was slathering on the Citrastrip,  I was eyeing the black residue on the skins. Now I have previously tried physically removing it by scraping and used nasty chemicals like adhesive remover.   Nothing budged it.    I wonder......

Along the lines of "well, it won't hurt"  I gave it a quick swab with the brush.    The stuff started to dissolve in SECONDS, nanoseconds even!!!! I little scrub with a 3m green scrubby and a swipe with some paper towels and it was gone!  Yippee!

 I did a couple of panels, but even though Citrastrip is pretty friendly, the fumes were getting toxic in an enclosed trailer.  I'll do more removal when I can crank the windows open and run a fan.


I know some of you are probably  thinking I'm nuttier than a squirrel turd for even bothering,  but I'm planning on sealing everything with Tempro from the inside and I'd rather give it a good surface to adhere to! Yes, I'm planning on sealing each and every rivet.....

 I'm really excited though.  I thought it was going to take a bipartisan act of Congress to get that stuff  off!

And I have plenty to go!

Now if the weather would just cooperate!

She's still standing, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!

TubeChop - Elton John - I'm Still Standing (00:23)

We made it thru, at least 2 feet of snow, its difficult to tell due to the wind, our back deck had close to 4 feet as it blew off the roof.

The wind actually did us a favor and kept most of the snow off the airstream.

How she looked this morning, good thing I ordered the axles with the higher angle!



Middle of the night

  Felt like we dodged a bullet! We are all shoveled out now, i actually was surprised by how little snow accumulated on Moonraker.  Peter cleared about a foot off last night and that first picture was how we found her this morning. Maybe the wind coupled with aerodynamic shape????

Unlike our cars. 

 Thanks everyone for the well wishes!  

Yikes! Blizzard warning.....

I got this note from Colin about the upcoming storm!

 Shelly, make sure you exercise the roof rake! Without interior skins & bulkheads, the roof can cave in due to snow load. One of my clients had this happen to him after extensive chassis & floor work. He managed to push it out pretty well, but the reminder is there every time he looks at the trailer.
Colin


SAY WHATTTT???????   

The forecast is for up to three feet of snow!  So guess what I did this afternoon?  

I decided I needed a little extra insurance! We will still have to shovel the roof but this should help. My fingers however are frozen  

I'll be awake for much of the night, I'm prepared to hold up the roof myself if necessary!