elewayne
Active Member
Posts: 155
Likes: 26
Currently Offline
|
Post by elewayne on Feb 4, 2016 21:36:12 GMT -8
Hopefully. It's been in the seventy's, some days in the high seventy's, even, for about a week. but this morning was in the mid thirty's. I stayed in for a while and watched the latest episode of Flyte Camp, which I fell asleep trying to watch last night. I was pretending I had a whole crew to help with the tear out. but yes winter is pretty nice here. It's been so warm the trees are confused and flowering trees are starting to bloom on the boulevard. We could get a freeze, oh, clear up till March, though some years we never get one at all, here in down town Houston, anyway.
|
|
elewayne
Active Member
Posts: 155
Likes: 26
Currently Offline
|
Post by elewayne on Feb 4, 2016 15:01:41 GMT -8
So January has passed and I have the whole interior removed, with the exception of the black tank which I am having trouble getting apart for removal. Also the Fiberglass shower stall will not go out the door. I thought SS prided itself in the fact that everything fit through the door. Supposedly a big plus over Airstream, along with better access to systems than Airstream.So, unless I decide to cut the top off and then rework the fiberglass and repaint, inside the trailer, when it's ready to go back in, I'll have to work around it while I take the whole floor out and replace it.IT may have to be cut.The thing is huge and will indeed be a large problem in the trailer. I'm starting to drill out rivets in the interior skin tomorrow. The skin has to be removed to get to the bolts going through the sill channel and the floor. All this so I can remove the floor from under the sill channel. I also removed a vent that went to the old wall heater that was missing when I bought the trailer. I will buy another type of heater and install in under the oven. The vent went through the ceiling and the roof and was capped off by a very ugly rusty steel cap. The pipe was hanging down in the trailer about 24 inches and I have bumped my head on it a number of times. So it had to go today.So I meet my old friend, the PO, again, we'll call him "Mr Silicon" for his liberal use of the evil substance.Now of course I have a big gaping hole to repair, in the roof, before it rains. During February I hope to get the wall skins off and remove and replace the floor. Means I have to get work done out here every day.I'll put up a few pictures on my site. A link is above in this thread.For now wayne
|
|
elewayne
Active Member
Posts: 155
Likes: 26
Currently Offline
|
Post by elewayne on Jan 20, 2016 9:28:58 GMT -8
Could you sort of explain how the covers on the beds are made. Is the flowered top sewn to the black and white base and slipped down over the mattress? I'm restoring a Silver Steak with twin beds too. I'd like the beds to look finished like a sofa when not in use. So we could sit on them comfortably. Also not so messy as having blankets on them all the time. wayne
|
|
elewayne
Active Member
Posts: 155
Likes: 26
Currently Offline
|
Post by elewayne on Jan 17, 2016 14:29:19 GMT -8
One of my very favorite trailers. wish I could find one to redo. As a 40 year high end woodworker I can see that you know what your are doing. Very nice job, by the way. The only problem with the "really cool" round windows is that they don't open, so an air conditioner is a requirement. But what a cool trailer. I would, very defiantly, build a new frame. They were build too weak anyway. Ones might go straight axles and raise it up a little too so it didn't need the drop tongue and those braces. (That might not look good though). I don't know what they were thinking on that anyway. I didn't work, they all take damage in the front.
|
|
elewayne
Active Member
Posts: 155
Likes: 26
Currently Offline
|
Post by elewayne on Jan 15, 2016 7:52:48 GMT -8
I haven't checked in on this thread for a while but Nice Job!!!! Really.
|
|
elewayne
Active Member
Posts: 155
Likes: 26
Currently Offline
|
Post by elewayne on Jan 15, 2016 7:50:00 GMT -8
Silver Streak trailers are just as good and a better buy, price wise, than an Airstream.
|
|
elewayne
Active Member
Posts: 155
Likes: 26
Currently Offline
|
Post by elewayne on Jan 15, 2016 7:47:30 GMT -8
This is a terrible addition. I'm at the beginning of a 67 23ft Silver Streak redo but I have my eye on a Airstream Avalon that is just sitting in a back yard near me. The guy who owns it is literally a Rocket scientist at NASA. He is the designer of the new Cricket trailers that are made from ultra light weight materials like they use at NASA.Maybe when I get the Streak finished I'll ask him if he is interested in selling. My son could use a personal trailer so us and all the grand kids could go camping.
|
|
elewayne
Active Member
Posts: 155
Likes: 26
Currently Offline
|
Post by elewayne on Jan 15, 2016 7:38:19 GMT -8
It is a cool shape, but it looks like they were just trying to design in places fora it to leak.
|
|
elewayne
Active Member
Posts: 155
Likes: 26
Currently Offline
|
Post by elewayne on Jan 15, 2016 7:36:34 GMT -8
It's got a mahogany interior too, and that's rare. Cute trailer. I like the stove. I wish I could get my wife into participating in our rebuild. Maybe when I get all the dirt out. She won't go in there now.Yet.
|
|
elewayne
Active Member
Posts: 155
Likes: 26
Currently Offline
|
Post by elewayne on Jan 14, 2016 22:33:04 GMT -8
I have a barn, but it is my wood shop so I had to rent a storage space to do some of the work on the trailer. I'll bring it back to my driveway soon so I can use the shop for building things. My barn, which I built, house and drive are all on a 130 x 50 lot. Everything is a bit tight for trailer work but I'll manage. I wish I had a place out in the hill country, but I do live in about the coolest neighborhood in Houston. The Houston Heights. Just north of down town. Walking distance really.
|
|
elewayne
Active Member
Posts: 155
Likes: 26
Currently Offline
|
Post by elewayne on Jan 14, 2016 14:24:33 GMT -8
On January 11, 2016 I got back to work on the trailer having finished almost all of the house remodeling projects.I have added some house photos to the "house page" on my trailer site. I am in the process of removing the whole interior of the trailer for a total rebuild. I have the booths and the kitchen removed along with the bed area. I will remove the bathroom in a couple days.The floor has to come up because of rotted areas and I want to install a gray water tank ,which it never had. I want to redo the wiring then install new finished flooring, paint the walls and start rebuilding cabinets.I am planning on working pretty much full time on this and trying to finish it by fall, so I can make a vintage rally here in Texas.I will be posting new pictures as I do the work. I have some new pictures of the house remodel up now. The site is Silverlodger.com The bottom two buttons on the menu are for the Houston House and the Silverstreak.There is an easy way in near the top of this string.
|
|
elewayne
Active Member
Posts: 155
Likes: 26
Currently Offline
|
Post by elewayne on Oct 6, 2015 14:38:03 GMT -8
Now see, I registered a scrapped trailer in Co. and had no problem at all. The inspection consisted of an special officer walking around it once and taking my $20 then he attached the new vin plate.No questions were asked, no lights checked, nothing. Had to make an appointment, so it only took about 15 min. Of course it was an hour drive to get there from my house. I once bought an old Vespa scooter to restore and it had no paperwork. I was here in Texas then, so I registered it in Maine, all by mail, I got the paper work off the internet somehow. They sent me a tag which I used for a year then re did it in Texas. Easy Pezy. I would try that approach, as the cost is very low. Good luck, Wayne
|
|
elewayne
Active Member
Posts: 155
Likes: 26
Currently Offline
|
Post by elewayne on Sept 26, 2015 20:40:49 GMT -8
As an update, I've just spent a full three weeks very deep cleaning the Streak. About half of that time went into cleaning up the massive amount of silicone the PO put around everything that penetrated the skin.What a miserable job. I have gone over the aluminum with a clear coat called Everbright. It has really improved the look of the 50 year old trailer, that and just getting rid of all the rusty bits, brackets and screws, all replaced with stainless. I have a project or two for the wife then I will strip out the whole interior and replace the floor, do a little rewiring, and build a whole new interior. sounds easy, right? I hope to camp late next summer. Wayne
|
|
elewayne
Active Member
Posts: 155
Likes: 26
Currently Offline
|
Post by elewayne on Sept 7, 2015 7:40:59 GMT -8
Why would they make anything easy there. Back in 1974 I just decided to leave California. Probably not what you were looking for. What did Gallagher say? California was like a bowl of granola, what aint nuts and fruits, is flakes.
|
|
elewayne
Active Member
Posts: 155
Likes: 26
Currently Offline
|
Post by elewayne on Sept 6, 2015 20:53:52 GMT -8
Often it is hard to find the floor rot. These trailers aren't like a Shasta or some other less expensive trailer where you can easily see the water damage to the wall paneling and know the water would have traveled to the floor too. Air streams, Silver Streaks, and Streamlines all have a full belly pan so it's not easy to see anything from below either.They also have an aluminum skin on the inside of the framing for walls, which are painted. Mine had some rot under the booth when I removed it.(I haven't removed anything else yet) I've seen rebuilds where there was rot under the sink cabinet, the toilet, the vanity and under the refrigerator and hot water heater. All of this is usually near the edges of the wall where the shell is mounted. So all the cabinets have to be removed to pull up the flooring. all the finish flooring material has to be pulled to see the screws which hold the 5/8" plywood floor to the frame.It's a big job. Worth it? I think so, but I would feel pretty lucky if I get out of this thing under $7000 to redo the interior. I'm only a 19 foot long box too. Your add was interesting. I'm in Houston and every time I found a good likely trailer anywhere close it was way more than $1500. 800 miles or so up north of here they seem to be much cheaper to get into. I have no idea why. Of course it would cost me a couple thousand to travel that far to get one home. Good luck with what ever you decide to do. wayne
|
|