The 'New' 1963 Airstream Safari

My friends, at this time, I'd like to introduce you to our newly restored, VINTAGE, 1963 Airstream Safari:

















The Zimmer family is making the preparations to head west:
......to CAL-I-FORN-I-A!!

We leave on Friday, and are very excited about our trip. Along our journey we will be visiting and camping at National Parks: Mesa Verde (the Anasazi Cliff Dwellings), Four Corners, Grand Canyon (South Rim), Joshua Tree, Zion, and Arches (Moab).

We'll be camping on SoCal for 3 days, with one of the days spent at....


wait for it....



DISNEYLAND!!!!

Yes, we are heading to Anaheim to visit the Disneyland Park. Our kids volunteered this winter and earned free tickets to the park. So we will spend an entire day (8am-midnight!) enjoying the Magic Kingdom. Kim is very, very excited to see all of the princesses. She's not sure which dress she's going to wear -- she has about 6 to choose from.

If you've been visiting the blog lately, you've seen that I've been working on restoring our Airstream. Most of what I've been blogging about is polishing the exterior. But what I haven't been sharing is the restoration of the interiors. I figure I've spent over 200+ hours this spring working on getting the bullet ready for the road.


It all started with this:

A stock, 1963 twin-bed configuration. For whatever reason, I guess it was taboo for mom and dad to sleep in the same bed in the '60's. Hmmm? So when we bought the trailer, I immediately recognized a critical design flaw: my snuggle partner and I were separated at night! Had the original sleeping configuration allowed for the two beds to meet and turn into one, I would have saved myself a TON of trouble. But nope. Instead...I got busy with my hammer and power drill!



This is a stock photo from the summer of 2006. Ahhh, that young man is only 32 years old *sigh*.

Here you can see the young pup removing the drawers and framework for the benches. All this CRAP would be stored in various areas of my back porch and garage throughout the next four years....patiently waiting to be brought back to life!



Let me put this timeframe into perspective for you. This young man is 4 YEARS OLD!!!












This is the same young man (and the same haircut!), but he's now 8-years old, and just got baptized at church this past weekend!

By his "earthly father" and "spiritual brother"





So after the dust had settled, and the asbestos tiles had been removed, I laid down a masonite floor and began my plans for the interior restoration.



Ummm....then life got in the way. I could blame a whole list of reasons why I left the interiors alone for so long: the economy, the house addition, the kid addition, bad weather, good weather, fishing, etc. Truth is, we were fine sleeping on the floor and not in a hurry to get it done. In fact, because of my need for perfection, I knew that I had to have certain factors lineup before I could rebuild the interiors correctly: time, money, material, tools, skills, help -- I needed the stars to align before I could begin my project.


Since the fall of 2006, this is how my interiors sat. A big, open storage space. Sure, we would move the stuff around as needed. And we would inflate our airmatress at night and sleep on the ground. It was great! No hurries. No worries.
p.s. This picture was taken less than 2 weeks ago.




And this picture was taken 2 nights ago:
















Certain things began lining up for us. We had set aside some money to begin the restoration. I found a friend with a HUGE wood shop. His shop is closed on Fridays (my day off), so he let me use the shop for my construction needs. He also taught me several useful woodworking skills: joining, doweling, gluing (who knew there was a technique for this?!), mitering. And he gave me helpful advice and tips from years of experience.

You can see in the picture that the plain surfaces are custom White Oak 1/2" veneer that I had fabricated (less $$ than buying it at the store). And the marbleized darker pieces are walnut benchtops that I built. The picture doesn't do much justice. You'll have to swing by our place and check out the interiors in person. We can share a pint of homemade root beer while kicking back!


For the past 5 weeks my garage has been transformed into a makeshift woodshop.








I've been cutting, planing, sanding, doweling, squaring, sanding (again), shootin' squirrels, gluing, staining, and finishing the various pieces.

It's been a fun and highly rewarding experience.

Plus my little 5-tap buddy (pictured there in the background) has been keeping me company during the long working hours.

Custom wood-working is a meticulous trade when you're dealing with the nearest 32nd of an inch -- and sometimes smaller.






It takes a great deal of patience and devotion to make it all work.

Fortunately my family has been very supportive and understanding these past few months. In turn, I plan on completely spoiling them with my time and attention during our Cali trip!


One of the coolest toys I was introduced to was an antique doweling jig. Okay, so it was only 20 yrs. old, but they don't make them like this any more!



It was a fun little tool that was indispensable for helping me piece together my project.

Just another way that the stars aligned to help us get the interiors done. Correctly, that is. Like I've said to Kathy numerous times -- I could have done this on a weekend for a couple hundred bucks. But I didn't want a quick, cheap fix. I wanted a vintage-looking installation.


Yea! Me, my box, and my lucky shirt!



...and a GREAT lookin' kegerator in the background!



I'm not naming names, but let's just say that some of the holiest of holies has partaken in my homemade rootbeer and specialty beers, and have blessed the sacred spirits. :-)

Okay...now I'm bragging ;-)

Interior Update: Just took this panoramic shot during lunch. Trying to get a better picture for ya. One good question is how this new configuration turns into a bed. What's missing in the picture is the custom table that I have yet to build. It lowers to fill the gap between the two benches, and then the cushions (not sewn yet) fold down to create the bed. These will be summer or fall projects. But building/installing the benches was a starting point.

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.