You Light Up My Life

We found this beauty right here in Iowa!

The owner was happy to sell this cool porch light to us.

It needs some work.

TAC

Proud to be TAC IA-4

Proud to be a member of WBCCI Iowa Unit.

Bathroom Drawing in 3D

Toilet will be located about the black tank.

Flying on a Cloud - 1260 Miles Away in Seconds

Even though she is 21 hours and 1260 miles away - it is very cool to be walking through our trailer!
Although if I were there - Plattsburgh is even warmer and drier today!

Troublesome Panel

Well we thought that all the exterior skin was in pretty good shape. Except the rear upper dent, which Colin assures us can be mostly removed. Looks the panel behind the door has been replaced. Perhaps due to damage from the door unexpectedly opening sometime in the past.
The rivet heads are larger, and the panel was not buck riveted. So we will need to have the panel removed and safely riveted on.

Now the question is do we replace the panel? Downside is cost. Upside is the rivets will be the same size as the rest of the trailer. And this is the panel that we will be looking at during every happy hour for years to come!
Decision made. New panel.

Found my sisters!!!

So cool! I was just on Airforums (again) and found Byam's older sister and her younger sister also. Both 7786 and 7788 are listed on the Flying Cloud Registry thread. And I am going to learn how to add our #7787

There is so many people sharing their love of the Airstream - makes me happy!

What is it?

What is it?
It is shipping today to Colin

Birth!

Our vintage trailer was the 37th Flying Cloud built in California in 1955.
This being 2010, Byam's Flying Cloud will soon have her 55th birthday!

We were not at the California factory when our Flying Cloud was born, but here are a couple photos of a new Airstream's birth from our Airstream plant tour at Jackson Center OH. For a tour, please call ahead if you are planning to visit around Wally Byam's birthday, as the plant tour is not available during their inventory day.

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.