1963 Overlander Project

mardi 30 septembre 2014

I wanted to share photos of my new (to me) Airstream project. It's a 1963 26 foot Airstream Overlander. I also wanted to start a thread because I'm a newbie and have a few questions.



The story so far is...

I'm a forestry student at U of M and have been looking to build a tiny house, or live in a trailer or something to save myself a bit of money. I ended up looking for an Airstream because I figured it would hold its value if I fixed it up.



Three weeks ago I saw an ad for a trailer for sale in north Washington. So i saddled up my little Nissan Exterra with 215,000 miles on it, drove out, and pulled this guy 300 miles back to Montana.









I've broken down the restoration down into "phases" as I get the money to finish each one. The first phase was to gut the trailer, tear out the floor, clean it, and get it in good enough shape to sleep in. My plan is to live in the trailer as I finish it.



Phase 1



The inside was in pretty bad shape, plus the floor was rotten and probably had some asbestos and other nastiness in it.









I started gutting the trailer, keeping a few pieces to use as a pattern for when I make new cabinetry ect.







I ended up pulling out about 4 pickup loads of guts out.







Once it was empty I started on the floor







The floor was in bad shape! Everything was rotten, the installation was all shredded and chewed up. I found a couple mouse nests, and a few hundred pine cones!:huh:











Clean floor! I didn't want to drop the belly pan, so I just wore a respirator and pulled everything out by hand into garbage bags.







At about 1AM, finally down to the frame. Shop vaced out the last bits. I used a TPS solution to clean the walls, floors, everything. Then sprayed bleach to kill any hantavirus, then washed it out again.







I grabbed some cheap plywood from our used home resource store for about 25$. It's going to be a temporary floor until I get the insulation and marine plywood I intend to put in. I'll use it as a pattern when I get the more expensive wood.







Phase 1 took about 4 days, I was tired!







Ive been sleeping there the last couple weeks. I'm getting ready to start Phase 2.

Reattaching the belly pan where its starting to fall off, patching any holes or leaks with Vulkem polyurethane sealant. Laying down reflective polyurethane on top of the belly pan, then putting an R30 basement insulation between the frame. Over that I'm bolting down marine grade plywood from a local lumber yard. Its about 70$ per 4x8, but i'm never pulling out that floor again!

Over the plywood I'm putting down laminate underlayment and I have some old hickory flooring that's going in on top.



Anyway that's my project. Advice would be appreciated, and also any tips on the best way to attach the belly pan to the steel frame.




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