Floor Prep and a Missing Camera

This past weekend I headed down to the Texas State Vintage Rally near San Antonio for the day on Saturday, and naturally I was already well on my way when I realized I had forgotten my camera. My caring wife had even plugged in the battery to charge it before my trip, but I forgot all of it. I stopped at a couple of places on the way down looking for a disposable camera, but couldn't find one. I guess film has just about been replaced by digital. I ran into some Internet Airstream buddies at the rally who had cameras, so hopefully I'll be able to get a post up with some pictures in the near future.

Anyway, I made it down to the Braunig Lake RV Resort around 10 AM, and let me tell you, it was quite a sight from the highway seeing all of those glittering silver Airstreams parked row upon row. That was by far the most Airstreams I've ever seen at one place, around 100 trailers total, and something like 30-40 of them were vintage. It was really impressive.

I made it in time to see the Riveting demonstration/seminar, which was really good, because I'm very close to that phase of my project. I've already done some blind-riveting using pop rivets and Olympics, but I had yet to buck any solid rivets, and in fact had never even seen the equipment used or in person at all (3x rivet gun and a bucking bar to be specific). Pat McDowell kindly brought one of his trailers that is in the midst of restoration, a '54 Flying Cloud I believe, and also had lots of scrap material for the demonstration and to let other people practice. Now I'm not so afraid of this step, and I'm really glad I made it to the rally.

I was also able to meet many Internet Airstream comrades from the AirForums, including TomW and his lovely wife KimW, Steve, Jim, Gayland, Doug, Terry, Andy, and of course the Legendary Dale Peewee Schwamborn, who is the second cousin of Wally Byam and who participated as a scout in the famous Capetown to Cairo Caravan of the late 50s. Meeting each of them was a treat, and many thanks to all of you for your hospitality in letting me "lurk" with you. Next year, I'll be sure to have my trailer ready so I can attend.

I stuck around all afternoon, and then on through Happy Hour and dinner. I got to see the presentation of awards for all of the "best in class" trailers as well as the "best in show" and the
"people's choice" awards too, which was a lot of fun. Peewee sat at our table through dinner and we got to discuss some of this travels which was a real treat. At the end, I had to say goodbye and head back home, but I am sure I will see many of my new friends again.

Consequently, because of the Saturday spent at the Rally, I didn't get to spend much time on my own Airstream this weekend. But I did manage to just about finish my floor prep for final top flooring. I still had some old stick-down vinyl tiles to remove, and some patching/leveling. My new plywood is 3/4", but the old plywood was only 5/8", so there was about a 1/8" drop. However, most of the old VAT tiles were still in place and stuck firmly to the subfloor, as they have been for the past 46 years. Since VCT is approved for laying directly over the old VAT using the proper adhesive, I decided to just leave it in place, so the old flooring is at the proper level already. Then I just filled in the gaps and chips with floor patch/leveler, and once it dries I just need to sand it down smooth and even, and then I'm ready to lay down the new VCT.

Here are a couple of pictures:



I feel like the project is really dragging lately. Some of it is due to the fact that I'm doing a lot of unseen work, work that doesn't translate into pictures of completion of major subprojects. But, some of it is due to the fact that my project is really dragging lately.

It's time to kick it into high gear. I'm almost to the fun stuff, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Bye now.