‘Mama Always Said, Life Was Like a Box of Chocolates. You Never Know What You’re Gonna Get.’

Forest Gump

Or in this case it would’ve been more useful if Mama said . . . “Refurbishing a 57 year-old Airstream is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get, or what critters used to live in the walls, or under the frame, or how it was put together, or how it should come apart.”

Those of you who like puzzles and surprises would’ve definitely like this. On a positive surprise standpoint, my son, Tim, surprised us with an unexpected father’s day visit and helped rip some stuff apart!

Windows and Window Frames

The windows were a definite challenge. Each window was framed by an aluminum frame that was glued in place with paint or some sort of sealant. They also had painted in locks and hand cranks which were fastened with stripped out screws. Long story short, it took a while to get the window frames out.

Note: The windows themselves were easily removed (sorry no photo) from the exterior. There is a tongue-in-groove assembly on the outside and they came out with a quick shot of WD-40.

The photo on the left also shows what the long center overhead panels looked like right after we pulled them down.

Panel Removal

Once we got the windows out, the panels came out pretty easily. We went through a ton of drill bits drilling out pop rivets and had some challenges when some rivets were glued in place with sealant. The big surprise here (for me anyway) is that all of the curved aluminum pieces flattened out once we got them removed. This means that we don’t have to shape them when we reinstall.

As we removed the aluminum panels, we came to note that there were tons of aluminum “C Channel” spacers in between the inner and outer walls. They were not connected to anything and fell out during disassembly. My best guess is that they were used to keep the space between the two walls at the correct gap.

Another surprise was that the two upper end pieces were actually fiberglass (we actually figured this out while we were stripping paint). We removed them intact with the hopes of reinstalling them later.

Wildlife Refuge

This is where the surprise part comes in. As my wife will happily tell you, our family house in New Mexico is attractive to rodents. As it turns out, so are 57 year old Airstreams. As we disassembled the walls, we found evidence of spacious multi-level rodent living accommodations complete with food storage. I’m so glad we decided to pull the panels and clean this space out.

Fiberglass Itches

I’ve known for quite a long time that fiberglass itches. I would, however, be remiss as a parent if I didn’t pass that knowledge on to my kids :). The fiberglass came off very quickly (matter of minutes) to expose the power distribution wiring, controls (i.e. brakes and lights) wiring, mastic and outer shell.

There was tons of mastic at the inside of every seam. Presumably for water tightness.

Before and After insulation interior videos.

360 View Before Stripping Insulation