November 15, 2024

Where to go for Airstream stuff

One of the wonderful things about owning an Airstream of any vintage is that you immediately become part of a larger club – the Airstream club. Sure, it’s a little corny, but I always enjoy flashing my headlights or giving a wave when I cross paths with another Airstream

Part of being in the club is that you have access to an unusually high number of resources either specifically aimed at Airstreams, or heavily committed to them. This can be of tremendous help when embarking on an upgrade, renovation, retrofit – or when just trying to figure things out. From advice to tools to materials, it’s all out there for you. Here are my favorites:

• Air Forums. With thousands of Airstream owners registered, Air Forums is one of the largest and most active Airstream communities on the Internet. It’s a place where you can ask questions of expert Airstreamers, check out renovation work by others, buy or sell an Airstream, and much more. Registration is required, but the site is free.

• Vintage Trailer Supply. As the name implies, Vintage Trailer Supply offers parts and accessories for all vintage trailers, not just Airstreams. But they have a big supply of things for aircraft-style trailers – polishes and polishing equipment, door and window hardware, period-appropriate lighting and much more. Plus, I love the little Vintage Trailer Supply postcards that come with each box, offering a “thank you” for a purchase. Nice!

• Airparts Inc. Once you get serious about renovating an Airstream, Spartan, Streamline or any other aluminum trailer, put this place on your list. Airparts caters primarily to the small aircraft and Airstream market, with a wide range of aluminum sheeting in various alloys (such as belly pan material and interior/exterior panels), rivets and riveting tools, Cleco fasteners, and more. Plus, they have some of the nicest people I have ever met or spoken with.

• Blue Compass RV.  Formerly called Out of Doors Mart, Blue Compass bills itself as the “longest running Airstream dealership in the world!” Out-of-Doors Mart has, as you can imagine, an impressive array of often obscure Airstream parts. The website looks like it came from 1995, but it’s well worth a visit.

• Airstream Trailer Parts. An authorized dealer offering a wide range of new, used, vintage, and NOS  (new old stock) parts for Airstream and Argosy trailers and motorhomes. Among other things, they sell reprints of original Airstream service manuals, which can be extremely useful when trying to figure out how Airstream assembled a dinette or cabinet to rebuild or demolish it.

• Woodland Airstream. These folks carry a terrific assortment of parts and accessories for new and old Airstreams. From steps to vents to fasteners, they have you covered. I’m working on a ’68 Globetrotter for a customer that has a broken drip rail above the door. Woodland has them.

Of course, if you have a good local hardware store – a Tru-Value, Do-it-Best, or Ace – be sure to throw whatever business you can at them. They’re an invaluable aid when it comes to renovating trailers. I wouldn’t trade our local Do-it-Best for one hundred Home Depots. Not only do they usually have what I need, I’m also often able to get accurate advice. Try that at a big-box hardware store.

Did I leave anything out here? Let me know and I’ll amend it!

March 15, 2024

The biggest obstacle to renovation

When I first acquired my 1979 Airstream in 2018, I had a problem. My intention was to renovate it extensively. But everything in it worked, so for two years my wife Jane and I used it for various trips to Montana, the Oregon Coast, and elsewhere.

I’d tell people, “Yeah, I’m gonna start work on it soon.” But it never happened for one simple reason: I was terrified of making a mistake.

This wasn’t just me. Several years ago, I was in Hollister, California at what was then referred to as “Vintage Trailer Bootcamp” (now called Campnation Expo – next one will be in 2025). One of the sessions I attended was on trailer design, hosted by Denny Stone of So Cal Vintage Trailer. Denny talked about the biggest obstacle to tackling a vintage trailer renovation. This was it: The “fear factor.”

Part of that is what I suffered from: FODSS, or as I call it, “Fear of Doing Something Stupid.” But then there are all the questions that need to be answered. Where to start? What will it cost? Do I have the right tools for the job? Where do I go for inspiration? How long will it take? And on and on.

As I add blog entries, I’ll cover those topics and more (next up: tools). For now, here’s my advice: Start small. The first job I took on was replacing the interior cabinet hinges after a wash-board Montana road caused all of them to bend. This involved sourcing hinges, drilling out the rivets holding the old ones, and slightly modifying the doors to accommodate the new hardware. Not much, but I started to get familiar with how Airstreams are put together.

Next, I replaced the exterior running lights with LED bulbs. For this I needed to find the right bulbs, recover my grade school shop-class soldering skills, and ensure everything was watertight (one light was not, which led to a series of shorts before I got it sorted). Again, along with brighter lights came a little more knowledge and courage.

It went on from there. Fortunately, once I got going, I could draw on experience remodeling and painting houses and apply that to the Airstream. Fortunately, as well I already had an extensive collection of hand and power tools.

Still, it was an evolution. I’ve since added to my tool collection with a range of metalworking tools – welding machine, plasma cutter, English Wheel (for shaping/repairing panels) and more.

But the most important step was learning to give just about anything a try, with the knowledge that if I make a mistake that can’t be undone, I figure it can be fixed one way or another. Because mistakes are inevitable. What’s important is how to recover from that.

That realization has been incredibly liberating. Over the course of six years I’ve gone from, “Wow, I’m nervous about drilling out this rivet,” to “I don’t like the bathroom. I think I’ll tear it out.” And then doing so without a second of hesitation.

So, whether you decide to take on your own renovation (and I can help!) or have the work done by a professional (again, I can help!), be bold. You’ll be glad you were.

Reach out to me with thoughts or comments on the Contacts page!