Polishing the Bullet - Day 1

This is 'Maxine', our 1963 Safari Airstream Trailer. We've owned her since July 4th, 2006. During the past 4 years we have been working on restoring her, both inside and out. She's a great trailer, and we've made some great family memories thus far, and are planning a 11-day road trip this summer to Calif. - Disneyland. Along the way, we will be camping at various Nat'l. Parks: Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde, Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, Zion, and Arches.

With spring in full bloom here in CO, we are getting Maxine ready for the trip. One of the things on our "to-do" list is to get her polished up. Chances are that the trailer has never been polished. Even if it has, it definitely has not been touched in over 20 years.


This weekend we finally had all the parts necessary to polish our Airstream:
- Random Orbital Polisher
- Truck Polish
- Cloth Pads
- Mineral Spirits
- Time + Elbow Grease!

Our first task was simple: figure out how to do it! This was our test patch, on the rear panel. To keep the tasks managable, we are limiting the area of polish to 24"x24" square sections.


May.2.2010
It was actually a bit cloudy when we were doing this on Sunday afternoon. But clouds are welcomed! With a mirror-like shine, the sun can be a bit too much to handle for polishing. In this image, you can see the finished panel to the left, and the black box near the door is a section that has been buffed, and is awaiting for Kathy to remove the polish (by hand, with a cloth).

This is a picture I took, standing in front of the unpolished door. Notice my vague reflection in the oxidized aluminum.















This is the panel just left of the door. Notice the difference? It took us 5 to 6 passes to get the skin this polished.

Tonight we will polish the door...can't wait to post an updated picture!














Here is an image of the trailer after 2 hours of polishing. She's looking GREAT! Still have quite a bit left, but closer than we were last week! ;-)

Polishing the Bullet - Day 2

Day 2 - May.3.2010
Kathy had a tough day teaching, so she wasn't as "into" polishing today. But when I showed our work to my mother-in-law, she became very excited about the project, and insisted on helping.

"Well, go change your clothes then!"


Let me tell you, she's such a good, hard little worker. She has that attention to detail that I need in an assistant. I ran the polisher, and she came by afterwards to remove the grit and grime, and hand polish the areas I could not get with the machine.

Oma and I kept busy, repolishing the areas Kathy and I had previously worked. I decided a second round was necessary, as I knew I could get a brighter, more mirror-like shine. If you compare this image to the previous one, you can see (if you have a trained eye with an affinity for detail) that the skin is beginning to shine brightly.

Meanwhile, Kathy enjoyed watching us work while relaxing on the front porch stoop. Trust me, it was a perfect option. Oma was able to get into the little nooks and crannies while I was able to buff the larger portions. She never rested, but kept herself busy looking for odd-shaped pieces to focus on.
Here is the front door, from the day before.



















And the front door, with 4 rounds of polishing. Another 3 or 4 rounds, and it will be mirror-bright like the other panels.




So far we have logged 8 man-hrs. on the project (2 days, 2 hrs/day, 2 persons).

Day 3 & 4

This weekend was EXHAUSTING! I spent the better part of Saturday and Monday (my day off) working on the front elevation of the Airstream. Running the orbital polisher isn't so bad, but working each 24"x24" section with at least 6 passes...it gets quite tiring. Especially the higher ones, where my arms are over my head. One 24"x24" section takes about an hour to complete. But it'll all be worth it in the end!

I had to get into some tighter, higher spaces this time. So I set up a makeshift scaffolding, which worked pretty well. The canopy was in my way for a bit, but we worked around it.


My mother-in-law was a trooper this weekend! She was a great help, but worked sooooo hard that she injured her shoulder (it's tough work, trust me!) She came over on Saturday and put in a good 2-hrs of work, and then Kathy took over for another 2 hours. Basically, while I'm running the polisher on one area, they are wiping off the residue in a worked area with a soft cloth and mineral spirits. After about 4 passes on one of the areas, my reflection starts to show. After the next pass, the image is bright, almost mirror like. Then I give it one more pass to make it 'shine'! I keep telling myself that next spring will be great. One or two passes at the most! But this year...well, I'm getting rid of over 40 years of oxidation.
















It's always fun to watch my image slowly appear on the 2nd or 3rd pass. That's when I know my hard work is paying off! In this image, my reflection is still a bit hazy. I have 2 0r 3 more passes left to polish until I get that nice, mirror-like shine.
















These are the cotton pads that I use on the buffer. The pad on the right is a new, unused pad. The one in the middle has been used and washed (once). The pad on the right has been used and washed twice, turned in-side-out, and has reached the end of it's usefulness. It will be thrown away now.
















This weekend we nearly wrapped up the front side. As you can see, I'm turning the corner. Yeah! This side is definitely the toughest, as it has all the tight areas to work around. The other 3 sides should be relatively easy going from here. I'm not sure how far up I'll take it. I'd love to do the roof, if nothing more than a few passes. But I may run out of time b/4 our trip. We'll see ;-) So far I have 24 hours into it.
















Gwen enjoyed watching me work from the comfort of the shade tree. Ah, to be a dog!

I would have finished the door Monday evening, but the rain started to come, and I had to get Jade shuttled off to soccer practice and feed the other two kiddos. Oh well. It's almost there!































I took a break on Monday to take my mother-in-law to pick up her new car. This is only her FOURTH car ever. A nice and sporty "fun" car for her to drive in her retirement. She had her old car, a 1995 Neon for 16 years. Hopefully this one will last her as long....Good for her!
















I took this image this morning (it was overcast, bad light). You can see that I've got almost everything on this side done except for the main door. I worked to get the smaller, inner door done, but then the rain hit. There was a lot of hand-polishing done around the door and in-between the little nooks and crannies. Attention to detail!

Here is our mapped vacation route (Jun 18th-26th).
















Day 1 - Denver to Sand Dunes Nat'l. Park (Hooper Hot Springs)
Day 2 - to Mesa Verde N.P. (CO)
Day 3 - to Grand Canyon N.P. (AZ)
Day 4 - to Mesa, AZ. (Stay with Mom and Dad!)
Day 5 - to Joshua Tree N.P. (CA)
Day 6 - to Anaheim, CA.
Day 7 - to DISNEYLAND!!
Day 8 - to Zion N.P. (UT)
Day 9 - to Moab, (UT).
Day 10 - home. Phew. 2,500 miles.

Days 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10!!

Phew! Sorry for the delay in posting an update, but I've been very, very busy with getting the Airstream ready for our trip. We leave in less than 2 weeks, and while I'm getting close to wrapping up the loose ends, I still have SO MUCH left to do!

BUT - I did finish the polish job. YEAH! After it was all said and done, I logged roughly 60 hours into the project. Fortunately I had help for about 20 of those hours. And a BIG help from my friends for donating spare shirts for my project. I couldn't have done this without the shirts of off their backs! (I needed extra cotton rags, and some good friends were willing to donate. Thanks!)


So you can see my homemade scaffolding here in this shot.

It was pretty safe, but I still nearly fell of twice :-)





It wasn't exactly OSHA-approved, but it enabled me to get to the higher places. It was really, really tough to get the top areas.


This is what it looked like pre-polishing. You can see the remnants of the original Wally Bynam number (9318). The number goes with the owner, not the trailer. I was able to track down the original owner, a man from Ft. Dodge, Iowa who bought the trailer in 1964 and sold it in 1980. I know that the next owner lived and kept the trailer in South Dakota from 1980-2006, when I bought the trailer and moved it here to Denver. You can see the 50-year old nameplate there on the front. It used to be a nice, royal blue color.



Once I had all of the top portion polished, I began work on restoring the nameplate.








Using a technique I use for pinewood derby cars, I masked the letters with painters tape.

She's ready for paintin'!


I found a very nice deep blue spray paint at Home Depot. It was the closest I could get to the original Airstream Blue. I figured 2-coats should hold up fine for a few years at least!




The final product, with the tape removed. You can see in this shot that I'm not quite done with the bottom portion. I decided to keep moving around the backside to focus on getting the highest spots done.

















Then for fun, I went out and got some "Glass Chalk" to customize my own Bynam numbers and add a quick little graphic to show everyone where we come from: 5280' - the Mile High City.

















It was a daunting task...and I'm glad I'm done!

















On a bit of a sad note, I found out that my Uncle Grady passed away over Memorial Weekend. This was my last weekend for polishing. I found myself reflecting on his life during my alone time, working on the trailer. He taught me many things in my life, and I always enjoyed catching up with him at family functions. He will be sadly missed. But I thank him for the time he spent with us, and for providing happy memories to keep me focused and directed during my last push. Thank you, Grady, for all that you were to us. I promise to do my part to allow your legacy to live on! a.Z.