WE can rebuild it, we have the enthusiasm, sorta!!

rbh

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A few years back when I was working on the road alot, I bought a very old (1968) 30 +- foot streamline trailer (like an airstream) to live in. the company paid for the pad rent for the extent of the job + $60 dollars a day 7 days a week LOA/trailer rental.

Well time has come to either crush it or rebuild the floor,
I will rebuild the floor!

Stripped it out today, this is not going to be fun.
 

MTboatguy

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All I can say, is I agree with you, it is not going to be fun!

:lol:
 

gm280

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WOW such an ambitious project that HAS to come out perfect. I applaud you for your efforts. Let us know how everything works out...
 

putback

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DON'T crush it. If you must sell it! I do vintage trailers, or did 'till boats caught my interest. Airstreams & Avions. Streamline is harder to come by and fact is probably a better quality. Heads up on floor replacement, they all need it. Unless your S-line is very different than A-streams, avions & Silver streak the body has to come off to replace the deck. Deck on frame, body attached through deck to frame outriggers. You're in good company, John Wayne used a Streamline. They're a classy coach, good luck. When you figure out how to tow a '59 mohawk boat behind a '62 A-stream, w/a F150 let me know!
 

rbh

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Its a streamline Empress, and Ya I would'nt crush the old girl (to many stories made inside those walls and under the awning) I need to replace the full 4x8 piece and the 2x8 +- with the round corners at the rear and the three pieces at the front.

One thing I discovered is if you clean out the old wood and screws and bolts, you can place from the side and slide them forward or back into position.
Then you only have to bolt the hull to the frame.

I looked at the old brochures and the layout was very sparse, I guess I will have to get my interior designer groove on.
 

putback

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Check out Airstream Forums. Lot of restore info, some will apply to your Empress. Is your suspension torsion, leaf or more-ride?
 

64osby

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rbh, We need pictures. Would love to see what you have going.

I have been wanting to do a trailer project for a long time. The Admiral is not so on board with that.

I was second in line for a decent 30' '79 Holiday Rambler trailer last week. Buyer #1 grabbed it for $900.
 
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rbh

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I will try to get some pics posted today.

(side note, ever since we got windows 8/8.1 - I cannot use photo bucket as it will not recognize this software from me for some reason?.)
 

WIMUSKY

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I will try to get some pics posted today.

(side note, ever since we got windows 8/8.1 - I cannot use photo bucket as it will not recognize this software from me for some reason?.)


I have 8.1 and use Photobucket all the time....... Pix please.......:)
 

rbh

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No Title

Finally got some pics uploaded
 

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MTboatguy

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That looks an aweful lot like the Avion trailer from that era, I have helped at my buddies shop quite a bit and have worked on some them aluminum hotdogs, they are NOT fun!
 

rbh

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YUP, not going to be fun-
I bought this from the dealer, it was a trade in. The floor was over sheeted with 5/8s plywood as it was soft. The dealers wife decided she did not like the 1960s cream colour paint so she rolled on white latex and then proceeded to sponge paint/BLOB blue onto it (Must of got her HIPPY on for that one BLAH!!)

I got the dometic fridge rebuilt, but still need to see about fixing the furnace and I need to replace the hot water tank with a smaller one I picked up at a garage sale.

OH and one of the nice things about it it came with a full bug screen for the awning and its still good not dry rotted.
 
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MTboatguy

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One of the biggest differences between the Airstream the Avion and the Streamline was how the interior was finished, the Avion and the Airstream had the finished wood paneling, which restored is quite nice and the Streamline had the painted wood paneling, which over time, goes to hell, I have run into them that had dozens of coats of paint on them, if you are going to put new wall paneling in, I would suggest the local home depot store and get their pre covered paneling and then take it real slow laying it back in around the curves and such.
 

rbh

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Thank god all she painted was the aluminum bits, wood paneling and the doors are all good still.

Is there a special plywood to use on the floor?? or is one side good 5/8 general plywood good enough? Painted /stained both sides before top is covered in lino)
 

MTboatguy

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As long as you have any leaks fixed, and fixing them are about the same as fixing them on an aluminum boat, you can use any construction grade CDX plywood, I am sure you will be either covering with tile or carpet, don't try ceramic in a rig that old, they flex to much, we always cover with a decent quality indoor outdoor or a Burber that can be glued down. If you are going to do padded carpet, then you will have to put tack strips around the edge and use a stretcher to put it in correctly.

Does this unit have an aluminum belly pan on it? If so, before you put the new floor in make sure all of your pluming is working correctly before laying the floor down, it is much easier to work on the plumbing from above, than trying to work on a unit with a belly pan. If you have to cut a belly pan, you will never get it sealed correctly again. I would imagine, that rig probably has copper plumbing in it, be sure and air test the system, pick up a water regulator and set at 45 pounds, then a screw in air valve and fill the system up with air to make sure there is no little pin hole leaks in the system. Double check your holding tanks, all of them, black, gray and fresh, many of them older rigs had galvanized fresh tanks, that after time start leaching solder into the water, which back then had lead in it, if there is any signs of seepage on the fresh water tank, replace it with a new poly fresh water tank.

Helping my buddy, we have done some extensive restores on this type of trailer and if you get it right, they are worth a fortune and will last a lifetime, if it is done wrong, they are worth nothing and become excess baggage, Do it right and you will have something to be proud of, that can be handed down for generations.
 

rbh

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It does have the belly pan, but the copper plumbing for water is attached to the wall and the fresh water tank is under the bed. It looks like the previous owners removed the original tank and replaced it with a glass lined round metal tank, but its old and no way to see what the water level is so I think I might replace it with one that either you can see through or has a gauge.
The black water/grey water tank is accessible through a plate on the bottom.
I might run new pex water pipe, as a few areas where pinched at one time.
As for the flooring I was going to do lino and use throw rugs, just for cleaning convenience.
 

MTboatguy

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If it has one of the old round glass lined, then it needs to go, those things at this age can leach bad stuff into your water supply, they used a release agent on the inside of them that was not good, so pick up a new poly tank that you can see the level on and you will be good to go for decades.

Pex is a good choice for travel trailers, it will expand if froze and it takes a lot of damage to hurt those pipes, if you are going to lay down plywood then put lino on the top of it, then put your plywood down and then put 1/4" luan over the top of it, that will give you a better surface to glue the lino over, luan is a great sub surface for just about any kind of floor you will put down, it is porous, it is flat and it allows it to stick really good.
 

MTboatguy

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Luan is a porous unfinished 1/4 laminated board., it is often used in in subfloors to level things out as well as allow good adhesion of flooring glues. When I put it down, I will use hard rock putty to even seams out, I would not recommend hard rock putty in a trailer, to much movement in the floor. Now if you don't want to use luan, just make sure and use a finish sanded plywood, on one side, that way you get the smoothest surface possible.. If you have ever seen the wall paper covered panels they use in new travel trailers, that is luan with wall paper glued on at the factory. It is inexpensive and can hide a lot of sins. Home depot sells it as underlayment.
 
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