I work best having a project, that I can do in a couple days with no other tasks to tend to. I set out to remove the subfloor, which hid the last of the godforsaken insulation. My strategies removing floorboards were sequentially as follows:
1)Beat the shit out of the floor with a hammer then remove the bolts with the edge of said hammer
2)Chisel blindly at where I believed the rusty bolts were hiding, then vicegrip them out
3)Ask my dad for proper tools
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| First casualty of the weekend. Replaced with a fiberglass handle. |
Lyss worked on the tar-wrought walls, using enough Goof-Off to leave the average train completely graffiti-free. It mostly liquified the tar, which then smeared, then dremeled off.
The new plan of action is to use truck-bed liner on the entire inside, leaving it airtight and waterproof for years to come. We're not too bent on leaving the inside of the shell gleaming, just flat and ready for some plastique applications.
Before. The tape has dried to a rock over the years.
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| After. Still remnants of tar but flat enough to primer and seal. |
We had been entertaining the idea of a completely new underbelly/pan. When the subfloor was off, the need for a new pan was justified. Many places were rusted out, and what were not had rat and mice nests littered everywhere. There were cactus bits that they made nests with, which was pretty cool. There were mummified or completely bones corpses of mice and rats. We wondered it they lived in harmony. We highly doubted it.
Taking off the underbelly was tricky. There are different layers of rivets on an Airstream, let alone one that has been repaired multiple times. Crawling underneath to de-rivet while insulation and dirt are falling on you from the aluminum panels you're unhinging is pretty fun. I had wood in the corners of my eyes. I'm still wondering if petrified mouse poop can give you pink eye.
Next up is to powerwash its entirety. Then it'll be ready to be truck-bed lined on the inside and a new underbelly fitted to it. We're not entirely sure if the frame and shell are still attached. Before we move it next weekend we're going to fasten it in places so it doesn't morph into a kite on the road.
Looked okay in the back.
 Party was up front/ |
All off. Now the game is not to rack yourself.
Never paint the outside of an Airstream.
Prevent this tragedy.
Frame has a lot of rust. Going to be sealed again after it's cleaned.
Finding out what attaches the frame to the shell is surprisingly obscure. We were in this pose a lot.
The floor and pan cut into 3x3 pieces, last truckload of stuff to bring to the dump.
Life's hard.
