This Thing Was a Piece of Junk || Vintage Airstream Renovation

28 Replies to “This Thing Was a Piece of Junk || Vintage Airstream Renovation”

1. How do you know where you can screw or nail without hitting something important? Did they send a diagram or picture of where stuff is in the walls? Good luck looking forward to the series.

2. As a long time (42 years) trucker, I thought I might make a little suggestion.
   Please keep in mind your distribution of weight, both with cabinetry and whatever you plan to take with you. Whatever you design to do in the rear (under the bed) just make sure it’s not heavier back there then the space forward of your axles.
   Also, if it were me, I’d consider splitting the under bed space, front half interior access and rear half with a drawer (or two).

3. U should make a pull out huge drawer under bed to access in back outside. Digging way inside gets old.

4. Nope gotta have an inside shower. Wife will not go for just an outside shower trust me on this! Yeah ur just camping but what if you have to drive 2 days and stay at a RV Spot? They will have showers but walking to and from the restroom will get real old, real quick. Some restrooms are real nice others are well let’s just say rustic like many state parks. Looking forward to seeing ur progress.

5. Beginning skit was pretty funny ????. Kinda scary too.

6. I have EXTREMELY high expectations for this build.

7. Not putting an indoor shower is a mistake.

8. I am going to suggest a pull out drawer in the back under the bed. Full extension storage drawer to make storing things and retrieving them easier.

9. I mean, you did give the disclaimer that it could've been a stupid choice right at the beginning, so you're good.

10. Camping Schmamping, , , , , , , , ! !
    Buy the wife a one man tent and convert the Airstream to a mobile workshop! You could sleep under the table saw out feed and the Bourbon Moth could go on migration! ! ! ( it would also make life easier when you visit English towns to build beds )!
    Joking aside, can’t wait for this journey- you really are fulfilling my ambitions for me Jason ????

11. Jason, I restored an airstream exactly like yours from 2007 to 2011. Sadly, I lost it and my photography of the process in a major tornado. I've lived half my life in trailers, manufactured homes, campers, and sailboats. I have tons of woodworking, plumbing, and electrical experience with restoration and repair of such campers/homes. I used to be a junior engineer for a German manufactured home company and a handyman here in the US. I welcome you to ask me anything on the process. I'm disabled, now, but I have restored and renovated dozens of campers, love your content, and would happily help you with my experience online. I love watching other folks tackle what I did as a hobby for 20 years.
    Let me give you a few notes to help you out.

    1. You have a propane fridge, and they are a maintenance nightmare, if you don't keep them level. Don't run it, when you're moving the trailer, either. It can mess up the valves on the condenser, and your propane should always be shut off at the tank before traveling, anyway.
    2. Always carry a spray bottle of dish soap to check your propane lines for leaks whenever you setup your camper. You just never know when a forgotten pothole could be the factor that damages your propane lines, so just spray the lines, especially at joints and stress points and check for bubbling, like you might check a tire for a leak.
    3. Make and follow a checklist for setup and teardown when you're traveling. Budget yourself half an hour for each. Include checking lines and tanks, valves and switches, leveling, awnings or any other equipment that has to be retracted before moving.
    4. Scribe, scribe, scribe…. Any woodworking you do in an airstream isn't going to be square to the surface, and you cannot telegraph the curves, either. They aren't symmetrical. The only way to cut accurate curves for flush fitting in an airstream is to scribe on the same plane the finished piece will rest. Personally, I clamp cardboard as close to the surface I need to make the flush piece of cabinetry, squaring the cardboard as I would the finished board for plumb, then I scribe the curve onto the cardboard and use it to template my board, but I do this for every board that has to fit a curve in the camper. Rarely do curved profiles actually match, and scribing each board for its final point of contact just saves time in the final fit.
    5. Relief cutting plywood doesn't work well in the corners. I wasted 4 sheets of curffed plywood learning this, the hard way. My final solution was to use scribing to make a pair of clamping calls to fit the corner curvature, and laminate together thin sheets of wood with Tightbond II or III to create a curved plywood that I could tab joint to the rest of my curved plywood for the walls and ceiling. I reused my corner mold jigs for my upper cabinets, and gave them a reverse profile to the curve of the camper roof, so none of my upper cabinets had any sharp profiles to hit my head. I highly recommend this method.
    5. Use marine equipment, not RV equipment whenever possible, especially for latches. They hold up much better over time, and they are made tougher.

12. Looking forward to seeing a lot of CAD work. Cardboard Aided Design.

    Good point someone made about not always being allowed to use an outdoor shower, but also think about the cold unless you only intend to use it in the summer.

    As you build it, don't forget to plan your weights.

    Not only maximum weight limits, but also the balance of where it is.

    And you need to plan not only the static load, ie what you build, but also the dynamic load of all the stuff your wife and foreman want to load up.

    Too much weight at one end and you'll crash the first time you hit the highway.

13. This looks a little suspect, I can't wait for ave to prove that you faked the conversation with your 'wife'

14. Good luck you got this.

15. I completely feel your pain unfortunately mine is a south wind and it had a lot of damage. Love hate relationship but excited for the finished product

16. I'm surprised it didn't "spontaneously catch fire" and burn your shop down

17. Sounds like you know more than you think you do. You'll figure it out. Think of it as a second home that you could vacation in the driveway if you want to.

18. You look like Chewbacca as a woman

19. This build series is gonna be epic

20. Make sure your exterior storage compartments are sealed to ants and rodents. They can destroy a camper over a winter.

21. Just to add to the rest of the people who've said the same thing. You need an inside shower. You will %100 regret not having one. Spring and fall camping can be chilly outside and some places don't allow you to shower outside. A wet bath doesn't add much more space.

22. Boatbuilders work with curves constantly. There are lots of techniques for this shown on the wooden boat build YouTube channels AcorntoArabella and Sampsonboatco. I look forward to following your progress.

23. "What did I get myself into?" Well, according to the sequence at the start of your video, it wasn't you who got you into this.

24. weight!!! Weight!!! WEIGHT!!! do your best to balance the weight from side to side AND end-to-end. no 2 by 4 or heavy hardwoods, it's on Wheels not foundations, looking forward to seeing you build. I've done more trailer, caravan, motorhome builds and rebuilds id like to count. Don't use off-the-shelf kitchen cabinets and alike they're way too heavy, think egg box door style panels. they don't split they don't crack they don't warp and significant keeps the weight down. only use a plywood for floor base, this will stop the cracking and splitting that your friends got with his but I guess your floor already done. Remember WEIGHT is your enemy, all those little touches of saving weight add up.

25. The whole first half of the video I was just thinking "And then I reached out to Andy Rawls cause he's done all of this before"

26. I'm sure you've thought of this, but…

    Everything you build for the inside needs to fit through one of the doors. So, you may want to hold off on the rear entry for a bit, as it looks like it would be easier to bring things in through that large horizontal hatch than the side door. That's why I'd suggest working on the front area first, and work your way back. Either way, good luck!

27. Good luck, brother! Most importantly, have fun!

28. Another vote for rethinking the inside shower. Especially if you use a wet bath design, the additional space used by a shower and toilet vs just a toilet is minimal. Maybe 6-10” on a side…

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