Door-in-a-Door Rebuild - Part 3

Boss!  Da Door!  Da Door!
I don't know why I'm in a mood to think about the old TV show "Fantasy Island", as I never watched it.

Work is done on the Door-in-a-Door!

The inner door rivets were removed to separate the back and frame from the damaged front aluminum.










Prodex insulation is added to each section in the frame.

Using new aluminum, the new outer door is cut and formed.

The two doors are attached together with the hinges.  Then the door hinges are securely attached to the new thick hinge patch also made from aluminum.
LINK to 2/13

Raised Eybrow! - Drip Edge for the Door

Back in the 1955 Airstream trailers had people-like personalities.  The straightend and polished door's eyebrow gutter was installed.

Vent-A-Lation

After removing our original vents, Colin called to check on where we wanted our vent and fan placements.  We are keeping the same vent hole locations on the roof, yet one of our vent covers is very special.  We've decided to place the solid vent covers at the front and back of our 1955 Flying Cloud.  And we are terribly lucky to have a Hehr.

The exterior of the skylight vent cover is polished and ready to install near the center adding light to our kitchen while we are boondocking.

Door-in-a-Door Rebuild - Part 2 - New Aluminum Skin

The main door exterior is restored with all new Alclad aluminum.

Interesting to see the frame of the main door.

 
The main door was insulated.

Inside the main door, the top and bottom aluminum panels were replaced.

Door-in-a-Door Rebuild - Part 1

Airstream's door in a door is such a cool feature of our 1955 Flying Cloud.  When we first started looking to buy a travel trailer, we were quick to choose an Airstream.  The streamlined beauty of all Airstream trailers and the silver motorhomes is classic, iconic, and appealing.  Made in the mid-west (Jackson Center Ohio) the durability and long life of Airstream made our decision an easy one!

When researching vintage Airstream trailers, one feature that I wished to have was the door in a door.  Got it!!!
Like many things that 59 year old, our door needed a bit of work.

The inner door within the door was removed.

The rivets were drilled out and the outer skin was removed from our main door.

The original deadbolts that hold the smaller door will be sandblasted and painted.

Galvanic Corrosion - Hinge Patch Solution

To work on our door, it was removed from the shell, exposing hidden galvanic corrosion.  The aluminum and steel support behind the upper hinge were both badly damaged.  Repairs will be done in place as we are not replacing the upper curb side panel, and there is no other reason to remove the aluminum skin.

A patch was cut and laid inside the wall, positioned with cleco fasteners.

 

Inside the wall, a thick aluminum patch is bent on one side and is securely attached to the supporting aluminum wall stud.

The hinge is positioned onto the new aluminum patch before it is riveted.

Handle This!

 Our Vintage Airstream handle is broken.
The repair is functional, and quite interesting.

Door in-a-Door Inside Details

In contrast to the hinges, the inside latches are simple.
It's all in the details, and they all need work.

Door-in-a-Door Details

Such a cool detail!

Same double-pin-hinge closes both doors!

What is it?

What is it?
It is shipping today to Colin

Coveted Door-in-a-Door

The exterior door handle is broken, fixed with a steel plate. Perhaps caused by lifting the handle and not turning it.  It is not uncommon.  But as it would make me sad that such an ugly fix was the final solution, so I prefer to think it was a temporary .
So we are looking for a new handle and a new bezel aka escutcheon plate that is less pitted. Looks like during use, the door-in-a-door was not completely closed, and the repaired handle dented the door itself.

Our door hinges are stainless steel, which won't rust and stain the aluminum trailer.  But the pins are plain and rust-prone steel. Time to pretty this up!  We love our whale tail Airstream, sometimes called a Dutchmans Cap, which was a California factory design.  Unfortunately, the California factory used the steel pins, but the Ohio factory used stainless steel pins from the start!

Another previous owner solution to keep the door closed in travel is this hasp lock. The aluminum panel is already damaged, so the lock-stile will be replaced and returned to beautiful.  And the extra bonus will be that then we can't be "accidentally" locked into the trailer by our friends!

Below the bottom hinge the door-in-a-door is damaged, another area to fix.