sunnywater
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1959 Shasta Airflyte (Connie)
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Post by sunnywater on Jun 17, 2020 20:20:49 GMT -8
Well a bit of catch up. We bought our 1959 Shasta Airflyte in October 2018 admittedly on a whim. We fell in love the first night even though we were a little shocked at our what we had just done.  Our first morning with Connie (Posted from Flickr) We had some fun for the next year but knew from the beginning that there was work to do. We spent that year lurking on VTT and watching Mobiltec videos. In October 2019 we began the disassembley and discovery. We both took a week off and a week later we had a garage full of Shasta parts and a chassis on the driveway.  We had goop and more goop.(Posted from Flickr)  We had screws every which way. (Posted from Flickr)  We had mouse houses. (Posted from Flickr)  by We had rot. And more rot. (Posted from Flickr) So this spring we have jumped into the restoration. First we had the chassis sandblasted and had a new axle and trailer brakes installed. We have the wheel wells being fabricated now. Should be ready in 2 weeks. I ordered laminate for the kitchen cabinet and table. We found an upholsterer and the fabric should arrive in about a month.  Original dinette seat. (Posted from Flickr) In the mean time, we are sanding all the cabinets doors and drawers. We will repair the kitchen cabinet and rebuild the floor to ceiling cabinet (there was just too much rotten wood for a such a structurally important cabinet). The curb side dinette will need to be refinished but the street side fell apart completely. And we will rebuild the gaucho bed.  Lots of sanding and then more sanding (Posted from Flickr) Once we get the sanding done and start with shellac, we will get the wood for the framing and start rebuilding the walls. We have notebooks and a big calendar to help us track all the pieces. Here we go! |
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shastatom
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I can chase women or fix campers, I choose to fix what I understand........... campers.
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Shasta 54,57 1500 58 Airflyte
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Post by shastatom on Jun 18, 2020 4:52:02 GMT -8
Have fun. It sounds like you did your homework and know what you're getting in to. It will be fun to watch your thread as you go. I have links in my signature to the ones I have done I hope they will help if needed.
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nccamper
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1962 Forester- 1956 Shasta
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Post by nccamper on Jun 18, 2020 7:13:03 GMT -8
Looks like an excellent project.
On my last camper I had it disassembled with pieces everywhere. A friend's 4 year old daughter walked up the driveway, put her hands on her hips and with a sigh said..."This will take all week to fix!"
Enjoy your week long project.  |
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sunnywater
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1959 Shasta Airflyte (Connie)
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Post by sunnywater on Jun 19, 2020 10:29:47 GMT -8
Looks like an excellent project.
On my last camper I had it disassembled with pieces everywhere. A friend's 4 year old daughter walked up the driveway, put her hands on her hips and with a sigh said..."This will take all week to fix!"
Enjoy your week long project. That is great, we have had so many friends ask, "You are still working on the trailer??" I will admit when we got Connie we were the classic couple who thought it would be a matter of replacing a few panels and putting down some new tile. We thought one month tops and she would be right as rain. I called a vintage trailer restoral place in Wisconsin to ask if they could replace the one ceiling panel by the vent which was the worst. And then the education began, "Oh, you can't replace the panels from the inside, you have to build the trailer from the outside in." Luckily, we were already smitten. So a full frame off restore in our 8 foot wide driveway it is. |
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sunnywater
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1959 Shasta Airflyte (Connie)
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Post by sunnywater on Jun 19, 2020 10:35:29 GMT -8
Today I received the kit I bought on Ebay to replace the cylinder and light cover on our Bargman Trail Lite. I really like the way it looks. The cylinder around the bulb was originally glass but it was broken. This kit comes with a plastic tube that fit perfectly (and won't shatter if hit with a stone thrown up from the truck). The kit also included a new LED light.  Bargman Trail Lite posted from Flickr |
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idaho211
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Post by idaho211 on Jun 20, 2020 6:26:43 GMT -8
Nice Shasta!
Did you find the original dinette seat fabric? I like the stripes.
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sunnywater
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1959 Shasta Airflyte (Connie)
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Post by sunnywater on Jun 20, 2020 6:59:39 GMT -8
Nice Shasta! Did you find the original dinette seat fabric? I like the stripes. I like the stripes too but the fabric is one of the places we are going to allow ourselves to get a bit creative. But we are going with the same style with the vinyl/leather and fabric look. We are waiting on some fabric samples in the mail. |
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sunnywater
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1959 Shasta Airflyte (Connie)
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Post by sunnywater on Jun 20, 2020 20:01:59 GMT -8
Today was another day of sanding. We have all the drawers, upper cabinets, and door faces sanded. The storage cabinet that sits at the end of the goucho bed had a broken piece of wood, we we repaired that cabinet and were even able to re-use the original twisty nails which was good, because the heads were much bigger than the other twisties.  Goucho storage cabinet getting a repair (Posted on Flickr) We also worked on the bargman lock. It was really dirty and parts were starting to rust, so I took it apart and started to clean all the parts. I removed the cylinder by drilling out the old one (we don't have keys). I have one of the new cylinders from VTS. My plan is to sand down the pitting. Just some charm of a 1959 trailer. I think re-chroming these parts would be $$$$$. Anyone know if once I polish the metal, does it need a coating of some sort?  Bargman Lock innards, posted on Flickr  Bargman Lock getting a make over, posted on Flickr Finally, we bought the fabric for the seats and goucho and some samples for the VCT tiles. Tomorrow starts operation shellac and we will start the restoral of the kitchen cabinet. |
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sunnywater
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1959 Shasta Airflyte (Connie)
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Post by sunnywater on Jul 5, 2020 14:42:25 GMT -8
We have been getting a lot done behind the scenes. Wheel wells will be done by the end of next week. We bought all the plywood for the subfloor and Kilz to paint the top. The tiles came in, now we just have to figure out the best way to cut them (we are doing a pattern). But this is what has taken up most of the past two weeks. When we tried to refinish the old cabinet, it just became clear that there was too much water damage (when built originally, someone put in a screw meant to go into the rafter, but it missed and put a pin hole in the roof, 60 years of drip drip does a lot of damage.) Since it so important structurally, we built this one entirely from scratch. We were able to save the doors though.  New floor to ceiling cabinet. (Posted from Flickr) |
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Post by danrhodes on Jul 5, 2020 17:39:02 GMT -8
We have been getting a lot done behind the scenes. Wheel wells will be done by the end of next week. We bought all the plywood for the subfloor and Kilz to paint the top. The tiles came in, now we just have to figure out the best way to cut them (we are doing a pattern). But this is what has taken up most of the past two weeks. When we tried to refinish the old cabinet, it just became clear that there was too much water damage (when built originally, someone put in a screw meant to go into the rafter, but it missed and put a pin hole in the roof, 60 years of drip drip does a lot of damage.) Since it so important structurally, we built this one entirely from scratch. We were able to save the doors though. New floor to ceiling cabinet. (Posted from Flickr) Gorgeous... What technique did you use to make the corner radius bend? Hoping my next camper has those details. |
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sunnywater
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1959 Shasta Airflyte (Connie)
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Post by sunnywater on Jul 5, 2020 18:10:41 GMT -8
Gorgeous... What technique did you use to make the corner radius bend? Hoping my next camper has those details. We drew out the cross section and had it made at a mill shop. The flatter front of the curve was a bit beyond our tools or woodworking skills  |
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sunnywater
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1959 Shasta Airflyte (Connie)
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Post by sunnywater on Jul 6, 2020 4:14:55 GMT -8
Hello and welcome. I am enjoying watching your progress and you are doing great work, even if you hire out for the hard stuff. Just want to mention one thing. In one of your images you are sanding. I highly recommend wearing a dust mask of a respirator to filter the dust. That dust is often not visible to us, but its there floating in the air. Hi, Rod! Agree and we do wear respirators, in that pic we had just gone back to hit a few missed spots but good reminder to wear them all the time. So far we have hired out for repainting the frame/new axle, wheel wells, chroming the Bargman L-66, making the curved corner pole for the cabinet, and we will have the old seats reupholstered locally. But the rest is all us. We really enjoyed making the cabinet and it has given us an appreciation for why Shasta did some things even when it seemed ridiculous when we first saw it. Such as the support backing in the corner. Why would they do that? Then when we rebuit it we realized that the corner really does need reinforcement given all the forces on it sooooo...  Original inside corder of the floor/ceiling cabinet (Posted from Flickr)  Now I get it, Shasta, well played.(Posted from Flickr) |
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sunnywater
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1959 Shasta Airflyte (Connie)
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Post by sunnywater on Jul 10, 2020 12:09:34 GMT -8
This small bedroom (window open for ventilation) is just about the only place we can make relatively dust, dog hair, and pollen free. Joys of an open air frame off restore. I love how the color just gets richer and richer with each coat of shellac.  Kirk's shellac party. (Posted from Flickr) |
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sunnywater
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1959 Shasta Airflyte (Connie)
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Post by sunnywater on Jul 12, 2020 15:57:50 GMT -8
This weekend we finished the left hand shelf and center divider of the floor to ceiling cabinet (we decided to take the plywood center to the top). We are going to wait until we decide on ice box vs fridge to do the shelf on the right side.  Floor to Ceiling Cabinet (Posted from Flickr) We also cut all our VCT tile for the basketweave pattern. We bought a new finishing blade for our table saw and it worked out really well even if it was a dusty mess. Thank goodness we were able to be outdoors.  The table saw was a freebie, so we can splurge on new blade. (Posted from Flickr)  414 cuts later and we are ready to basketweave! (Posted from Flickr)  VCT bits here, there, everywhere! (Posted from Flickr) |
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Post by vikx on Jul 12, 2020 20:28:15 GMT -8
Table saws are never fun but I can't live without it...
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