Heavy Metal Poisoning

Okay, enough about food and weather, how 'bout some Airstream stuff...

I continue on with my sheet metal work. I knew this was going to be tough, since this is the area where I had absolutely no experience. I must say that I enjoy riveting quite a bit, but this work is still very time-consuming.

I was able to get the curbside banana wrap (NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH RUB RAIL TRIM, ROB!), drilled and clecoed in on my own, but then I needed a bucking partner to help with the riveting. Thank goodness my brother was able to stop by and help.

First we had to practice on a sheet of scrap:


We figured one pilot rivet was good enough, and moved on to the real thing. I ran the rivet gun on the outside:


While my brother operated his Methodist bucking bar on the inside:

And we got about half of the curbside wrap done before we had to call it quits and eat some barbeque.

Later, with the help of my daughter, I was able to finish:


No, not really. That's her helping me with some quick polishing to take the gold off the rivets, and check to see if some of the worst corrosion on the exterior skin would come off. It will, but it will take a ton of work. Oh well, that's for another time.

In reality, my wife helped me buck in the rest of the curbside rivets for the banana wrap. But we don't have any pictures of that in action, since my daughter is not yet much of a photographer...



Now I just need to pin up the bottom of the wrap by riveting to the frame, and this side will be done.

On the streetside, I need to replace the old patch around the water heater with a buck-riveted one, since I have access to the backside for now. Sadly, I can't find a true "before" picture of this area, but here it is with water heater and old patch removed:


I cleaned up the old sealant by using a heat gun and a combination of MEK and gasoline. Well, I didn't actually combine the MEK and gasoline, nor did I apply the heat gun to either one, because who knows what kind of reaction THAT might set off. But at different times, I used some MEK, and then some gasoline, and then the heat gun, to remove as much of the old sealant as possible. Then I measured and cut a new patch out of .032 2024 T3 Alclad aluminum, and drilled and clecoed into place.


Then, once again, my wife helped me buck rivets into place.


And, the weekend was over. Where does the time go?

I'm getting close to completing this heavy metal work, and then it will finally be time to move inside for furniture building, plumbing, a little bit of electrical, and finishing work. It's about to get really exciting!