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.

VintageAirstream.com

Published by Permission from one of the foremost Vintage Airstream Enthusiasts -
Your Flying Cloud is a 100% custom layout and features by the the original buyer – I really like the layout they chose, too bad time beat the crap out of the trailer. Only thing missing is a shower, but it has a full aft twin bedroom and front dinette. Ideal travel layout. They really thought through want they wanted.

The wood species (Elm) is in line with the other options in the trailer, and was probably custom specified (upgrade). Same with the front Jalousie. If you peruse the archives, you will come across similar early-mid fifties trailers with the option as it allowed from ventilation.

Best of luck!
RJ
VintageAirstream.com
'65 Caravel
'56 Flying Cloud

Shiny New Sink Plan

We continue to work on the bathroom plan.  It must and will be functional and therefore is the area with change.  This street-side bathroom will have a wall toward the front of the Airstream.  

The above temporary mock-up is made Lauan which is a thin inexpensive material to use for figuring out the layout.  The final wall material is not yet decided. 

The top paper circle will be where the mirror is attached.
The bottom shows the lavatory sink mock-up - it is 3/4 of a sphere. Made in stainless steel, the bottom quarter of the sink protrudes from the wall, while drain will be hidden in the wall. The back splash will be the top quarter of the sphere - here the layout mock-up is only half of a discount store bowl. The faucet is hidden just behind the wall. A quick disconnect will be also part of the faucet spout, so that we can attach the hand-held shower hose with shower head. We are checking with our local metal fabricator/guru/artist, to get the possibility and details worked out.

To the left is the promised drawing of the wall's layout.