Wow!! Back to work on the Avion!!

The weather has kept us housebound.....so we decided to work a little on the Avion!

The work for the foreseeable future is not terribly interesting.....lots of re-assembly of "systems".

For example....this is the "blackwater" tank.....ummmm.....the poop tank.  It was removed long ago when we needed to treat all the underlying framework rust issues.  Now it's time to re-install.

This is the interior shot in the bathroom  - new hole in the new flooring...

And here's the underside.... the tank is up above this - nicely supported and insulated.

I know....not real interesting... eventually, there will be a new sheet of aluminum riveted in place to protect this from the elements.  That's it for now!

Rock Guard Decal and Re-installation

Finally gotten off my lazy butt and did a little work on the Avion today.

Since I've been away from the blog so long, I thought I'd remind you where we started with the faded/cracked rock guard....

Note the very faint faded "Avion" decal in the middle of the rock guard.

But now it's all  repaired and ready to be reinstalled.

I thought for sure I had already blogged about this, but I couldn't find it on the blog - so if this is a repeat, forgive me.

Before all the fiberglass repair, sanding and painting,  I made a tracing of the "Avion" emblem because I knew it would be sanded away.

Just taped plastic wrap tightly and traced with a Sharpie.

Then I taped it to a white posterboard.  This was for Robert to use as a background - he took a photo of this and transformed into a "vector drawing" on the computer.  This was for the local sign shop to use to make me a new decal.  Aren't the kiddo's clever these days??

And a couple of days later, the sign shop had made me a new decal!

Simple process to stick it on the newly repaired rock guard!

I had measured and recorded the exact position earlier, so I just taped it lightly in place using those dimensions so it would be exactly like it was originally.

Half of the decal  in place.

All of the decal in place with backing material to be peeled.

Carefully peeling the backing away, making sure there are no air bubbles.

All done - I'm very pleased with the results!

And now we have a re-installed, re-enforced, pretty rock guard!

Been too hot!

I know you guys think we must have disappeared.....but really, it's just been too darn hot to work on the Avion!!!  We'll be back to it shortly. 

Avion Emblems

Continuing the "orange" theme, the Avion emblems at the front and rear of the trailer were in need of some attention.

A little sanding, then paint the base coat.

Fill in the blanks  with pretty orange paint.

Here is the back one - 

And here is the front!  

Orange Rub Rail

When we first got the trailer, the "rub rail" (the orange flexible insert around the mid-section of the trailer) was in pretty rough shape.  Faded and some of it twisted.

We cleaned it up, but it really didn't help much.

So, we pulled it all out to see if we could do something with it - maybe repaint it.  But it didn't look like anything was really feasible.

After much searching, we finally found a replacement at a Airstream dealer.

Very happy with the results!

Rock Guard fixup

The rock guard is just a hinged cover to keep rocks from hitting the front windows.

Wouldn't want to have to replace those curved windows!!

Unfortunately,  weather and time has not been kind to the rock guard.  The hinge area was cracked and had been previously patched several times.   So, off it came!  After much sanding....

It's ready for some fiberglass reinforcements!

Fiberglass cloth ready to start the layering.

In process - 5 layers of cloth/resin.

Kindof hard to see, but this is the final product - the rough edges sanded away.  Ready for primer, paint and the "Avion" decal.  Just ran out of weekend!!

Emblem

The emblem on the side of the trailer was weathered and a bit corroded. It's not an item that could be realistically replaced, so we just did the best we could to refurbish.

We cleaned up the corrosion as best we could and dabbed some new black paint around the lettering.  Looks good from 10 feet away!!