Category Archives: polishing

Aluminum Envy – A Vintage Airstream Moterhome

Mary noticed that the shiny Airstream as we drove down our loop at the state park, and I nearly hit a post gawking at it. Not only was it an antique, it was self-propelled and towing a Jeep. Here’s what we saw:

I walked Penny past it yesterday morning and later at our rig a voice asked, “Did you polish that yourself?” Steve and Ann were out for a walk so, after asking, we heard some of the story of the vintage Airstream.

Steve told me that he bought the 28 foot unit for $5,000 and it was a wreck. “The windshield was so cracked and crazed that I had to drive it home with my head out the window,” he said demonstrating the technique. “It leaked so much gas that I had to carry gas cans and stop and fill it every few miles. people thought I was crazy.” His partner Ann just grinned and certainly didn’t disagree.

It went into his garage and didn’t emerge for four and a half years, as he worked on it in his spare time. By then, he’d replaced the engine and complete drivetrain (did I mention that he was a GM mechanic?), replaced the dashboard and much of the interior, and spent neTly five months polishing it.

I have had enough experience stripping and polishing an Airstream that I could relate to that. The rest of the work is well beyond my ability or life expectancy.

To top it of, he even has a cool license plate.

And is an angler and free spirit as reflected on his spare tire cover:

Airstream are rather rare out here – we often are the only one in a park. To have one arrive that is so unique and beautiful is a treat. Happy “stremin.”

Getting Buff

One of the things I’ve noticed in the Southwest is the amount of car washing that goes on — cars and trucks are washed continually. There are small setups everywhere – no do it yourself but rather guys who tackle the job as a team. Here in the RV park, roving entrepreneurs will wash your rig or your vehicle for very reasonable prices. Needless to say, they are hard-working Hispanics. When I got a haircut the other day, the young barber said that next time, I could get my truck detailed while I got my hair cut — they had a guy to do that.

So when we arrived, we had by far the filthiest RV unit in the park. We had hit a lot of slush and grubby roads on our trip down from Vermont and the first time I had a chance to tackle the job was when we got settled here at Americana RV Park. You can’t use the potable water system for vehicle/RV washing but there’s an abandoned water system here that available. The water has a lot of minerals but it gets the caked mud and salt off leaving lots of spots and cloudy areas. That prompted me to start working again on polishing, not just for aesthetics but more for protection of the aluminum.

So far, so good.

So far, so good.

I brought my polishing supplies and equipment with me so for the last several days, I have spent an hour or two dabbing on polishing compound and buffing it out. The system I use has a coarse grit, a medium one, and a final polish. I’m working with only the medium stuff and it is slow going, and pretty dirty. I have to wait until people are up and about since the buffer is noisy, and need to finish before the sun gets too high and the temperature too hot — and a morning when I’m not birding or otherwise engaged — so it will be a slow process. It’s a pretty good upper body workout to wrestle with the buffer while balancing on a stepladder.

I’ve got about a quarter of the rig done and will do a little more here before we leave. It’s good to see the unit shine — just to know that it’s better protected. It also sets it off from the SOBs (Some Other Brand) that fill these parks — Airstreams are few and far between.

Getting Ready For Winter Traveling

With the exterior polishing project shut down due to my knee operation, there’s been a hiatus of sorts on Airstream work until the last few weeks, when I started to get serious about readying the rig for our upcoming trip.  Last week, with cold weather forecast, I drained the water system and winterized it with RV anti-freeze.  There is a sequence of isolating and draining the hot water tank, switching a valve so that the water pump pulls from a gallon jug, and then the pumping until pink liquid comes out the fixture.  I think everything is set — we will find out in late December when we hit warmer weather and get the water running (and hopefully not spraying through cracked pipes or joints) again.

In spite of only getting about 1/2 of the polishing process, the old girl looks ok. I'll bring the polishing gear and perhaps work on it in the SW -- otherwise next summer.

In spite of only getting about 1/2 of the polishing process, the old girl looks ok. I’ll bring the polishing gear and perhaps work on it in the SW — otherwise next summer.

Last trip, I built some shelving for the shower — which we seldom  use — and we found it handy for storing clean and dirty laundry.  This trip, we decided we might want to use the shower (rather than always relying on public facilities) so out the carefully-built wood came and I stored it overhead in the garage in case we change our mind after this jaunt.

I ordered a new latch, and a new air-relief valve for the shower from Out-of-Doors Mart, a fine mail order place for Airstream gear, and after those little tasks were done, I tackled some of the safety systems.

Checking fire extinguishers, smoke alarms, and LP detectors, I found that our aged LP unit was intermittent.  It was also too close to the door so I bought a new one and installed it in a better place — after quite a time finding 12v lines available to extend.  Now we need to look at CO monitors and buy a new smoke alarm.  (A lot of the gear is original which means it is 14 years old.)

LPDetectorW

We stopped using the gas furnace system several years ago because the electric blower was a real energy hog and drained the battery quite fast.  We installed a catalytic heater to take its place and it works quite well.  However, as we found in 2012, the first few nights in Walmart lots can be pretty cold — so I decided to see if we could resurrect the old furnace.

I’ve had really good success getting repair work done at Mekkelsen RV, a local dealer who seldom services an Airstream.  Systems are systems though and they are pros so next week, off we go to get furnace work done.  I also thought, “You know, I don’t want to be driving in West Texas thinking, ‘I wonder if I should have gotten those bearings greased?’ so that’s on the list as well.  They tuned up the rest of the gas system this spring so with this, we should be all set.

The game plan is to move the ‘stream to Merrimac, MA at Thanksgiving and launch from there right after Christmas.  Stay tuned, it’s always an adventure.

One-legged Polishing

My knee, injured on August 2nd, is bothersome but as I await surgery next week, I can do some polishing.  I pretty much have finished the top half of the Airstream and now can work, sitting in a chair, on the lower panels.  I take it 45 minutes at a time and rest a lot — but it’s good to see some continued progress.

I know I’ll be disabled again after next Tuesday’s arthroscopic procedure and lose a few weeks while I recover so I’ve been pecking away, keeping the weight and pressure off my bad leg.

It’s still very slow going.  There is a lot of residual flecks of clearcoat that have to be removed, slowing the process a lot.  Some are really stubborn — but I’ve learned to use solvent, even fine steel wool.  What I’m finding is that the lower sections are pretty dinged up — lots of road rash — but they polish up pretty well.  I have taken off the one protective panel on the front since the other is long gone on the roads outside Houston, and replacements are very pricey.

The squiggles are reflections in the morning sun — it looks ok with just the first pass of polishing. 

I’ll work on it a few hours more before surgery and then see how things go.  I can always head out this winter with work to do and polish the rest down south.  There are times where I question why I ever started this but all in all, it was a good move.  The injury has put a crimp in the schedule but the worst is over.

I have started to do some preliminary planning for our trip this year — reviewing places we like and places we’ll never visit again.  Now we have to get both of us tuned up and ready to travel.  We are keeping our doctors’ cash flow flowing — they’ll likely all take great winter vacations.  Safe traveling.

Slow Going

Between the weather, which has continued hot and humid with afternoon showers, and the persistent flecks and patches of clearcoat (which have to be removed with dabs of Strypeeze), the polishing is quite a project. As you can see, the top areas I have completed look pretty good. They will next get a pass with a finer polish which should remove most of the swirls and cloudy areas. Of course, I realized the other day that the two replaced panels in back did not have clearcoat, and seem to be a slightly different aluminum. They will polish up but not as shiny but who really cares?

You can see the contrast between the polished and unpolished areas here on the panel just above the buffer.

One thing this project has stimulated is my planning for this winter’s trip. I’m reviewing the dozens of campground where we have stayed and lidting the good ones, with sites we like, and also have a “never again list by states.

We’ve had a cold front come through so polishing should be a bit more bearable. It’s fun to chalk off one more section, but there’s always more ahead. Fortunately, we are in no big hurry.

 

Let The Polishing Fun Begin

After over 30 hours of prep (But who’s counting? I am.) I’m starting in on the polishing. I’m starting with F7 Nuvite, a rather coarse polish from Vintage Trailer Supply here in Montpelier. I’ll run a finer polish later if and when I finish this set of sessions, which will likely be 20-25 hours. The weather, hot and muggy, is not conducive to long periods of work. So I sit down inside with iced coffee and write about it.
Here’s how the front looked at the start – lots of oxidation from the peeled clearcoat.

Polishing involves smearing very small strips of polish on an area and using a slow-speed polisher to allow the particles in the F7 to strip off a minute layer of aluminum. You let the electric polisher do the work but it still takes a lot of energy to control it.

Building arm strength controlling polisher. It looks cooler out than it was – 80 degrees with high humidity.

It is a messy process – lots of small black bits of polish and I always wear a mask – even though it is tough in the heat. I decided to keep the initial session on the top front panel and will perhaps tackle another section this evening. If you are inclined to polish an Airstrteam or an airplane, Steve from VTS has a nice primer you can download here.

The polished area looks very bright, with swirl marks from the coarse polish. So far, so good.

Meeting Mr. Filiform

I have decided to tackle the peeling clearcoat on the Airstream on a casual basis – a panel or two at a time. So today I continued to use up the Stypeeze on some lower panels. I found that the top half came off fast – I could hear the covering crinkling up as I applied stripper below. The lower half was much tougher- I wonder if they put two layers down nearer the road.

stripped clearcoat
The clearcoat comes off pretty well after 15-20 minutes using water and a rag (and protective gloves.)

As I have cleared off areas, I am noting areas of so-called filiform. Filiform corrosion on Airstream happens at the cut edges, rivet holes, scratches, and fittings from moisture and ocean or winter road salt begins at the unprotected aluminum at those areas and spreads under the clear coat finish, where it flourishes because it cannot dry out easily. Various owners handle it differently – some ignore it, some try to recover it with clear lacquer, others wax the heck out of it.

filiform on edge
Here is some filiform along a seam.
filiform along rivet holes
filiform forms around rivets as well.

In doing some online research, I found that a combination of wet sandpaper and then polishing is the way to go. I only had 400 grit sandpaper (I need 800, 1000 as well) so I tried a couple of test spots. Here’s how it looks — not sure it is better but it is nearly gone.

I purchased a gallon of stripper from Steve at Vintage Trailer Supply and will start using that next week. It promises to be easier on the user.

I read somewhere that it takes 200 hours to polish an Airstream the first time. I may do half this year and the rest next. So it might look a little strange – hey, get over it!

 

Renovation Project About There

After pulling off the mouse fur, ripping up the carpet, removing the couch for recovering, cleaning off the glue from the walls, polishing the interior wall (for what seemed like ages, and cleaning up all the dirt and powder from polishing, I have spent the last week laying the new floor, installing the fittings for the curtains, installing the couch and side table, and hanging the curtains. The project is nearly done — and looks pretty nice. Here’s a shot of the couch area:
We hooked up a flat screen TV to replace the decade-old unit that came with the Airstream.


Now it’s time to hook up and head out for a short stay up at Lake Carmi State Park this weekend.

Renovation Going Slowly

Having removed the carpet and much of the “mouse fur” from the walls in the dining/living area, I fried a few brain cells removing the glue backing with a solvent. Then, I began polishing the interior aluminum with mixed results. Have to get some more aggressive Nuvite polishing cream to work on the roughest areas but getting there slowly. Here’s a progress photo.

I took a break from polishing and worked on tapping into the propane system and connecting up a catalytic heater to use when we are boondocking. My brother Barry had advised me on fittings and a general scheme and with patience and some “measure twice/cut once” technique, I got it installed on the front of the gas stove with a swinging door so that we can aim it rearward as well. Leak checks with soapy water and we’re good to go.

The couch has been delivered to an upholsterer for recovering and should be ready by late June. Camping season is here — time to get these projects buttoned up.