Oct 07 2012

Airstream floors

Since this is our “off season” for Airstream travel, we’re getting on to maintenance projects in the Airstreams. The 1968 Caravel has taken precedence, by virtue of springing a leak.

A few years ago we replaced the subfloor in the Caravel and put a Marmoleum floor atop it, which I figured would last a long time. Marmoleum is great stuff, although hard to install in a trailer. Stored under cover, in the desert, it seemed unlikely that the floor would be water-damaged, but that’s what happened, right here in our carport. The original plastic water tank began seeping water at a brass fitting (a fitting which has no purpose that I could glean). The seepage was so minor that it was unnoticeable until it had leaked for a few weeks. I went into the Caravel for a quick inspection and stepped into a puddle of water right at the entry door.

By then the wood subfloor was saturated with water, which caused the floor adhesive to fail, and allowed the Marmoleum to lift off and warp. Most annoyingly, the water puddled entirely at the entry door where the damage would be most visible.

We had quickly disassemble the dinette, and lift the Marmoleum an inch at the edge in order to dry out the subfloor. Even in our dry season, with outdoor humidity running about 15-20% during the day, it took over two weeks to fully dry out the wood. In the meantime I consulted Colin Hyde and he warned me not to try to fix the water tank, as it was likely to fail again due to age. I didn’t need much convincing. The old tank was riddled with various plugged holes for tank monitors (unused), drains, and who-knows-what. In the photo you can see the the old brass fitting that was the cause of our problem. The white crusty stuff around the edges is probably dried minerals, and you can also see a split forming in the tank itself (barely visible at the 5 o’clock position).

So I bought a new tank from Vintage Trailer Supply with custom inlet and drain threads “spin welded” in place exactly where I wanted them. The new tank is a little larger than the original, with a 28 gallon capacity, but it fit into the same space with just a little modification to the wood dinette that surrounds it. I had to trim one edge of the lower storage compartment’s face frame, and fabricate a new wood piece to hold the tank in place.

Once installed, the new tank will be much easier to service because it can be positioned to avoid the outside water fill tube, and thus plumbing access will be straightforward. The other one partially blocked the water fill tube, so it was a real pain to connect. I’ve had to take that connection apart three or four times in the past because the water fill kept leaking, so I’m glad to see it go. The new tank will have much cleaner connections that are under less stress, and the tank itself is less likely to leak since it has only two openings (fill and drain) and I’m using all new plumbing. The threads will get Teflon tape, too.

I’m not so sure about the Marmoleum. It got pretty warped in the drying process, and a tear formed at one point. We have attempted to re-attach it to the floor using tan silicon caulk. To flatten it, we’ve stacked a few hundred pounds of leftover slate tiles and flagstone, with a base layer of corrugated cardboard. I’ll let it sit that way for a few days while the fall desert heat bakes it, and then see if we’ve had any luck. If not, we’ll have to scab in a patch.

We can’t do much else inside the Caravel until the floor is fixed, so our attention is turned to the Safari. A few weeks back I had announced an ambitious plan to face-lift the interior, but reality (meaning budget) has prevailed. So we’re going to stretch out the work, and just start with the flooring. John Irwin wrote an article about flooring replacement options, which will appear in the Winter 2012 issue of Airstream Life. Inspired by this, I began to look at quality vinyl planks and discovered that there are some really nice options, and they are cheap, easy to install, and will go right over the existing vinyl floor. We’ll remove the dingy old carpet in the bedroom and put the vinyl planks there, too.

Eleanor and I bought some of the flooring today to do a test layout in the Safari, and it looks good. I expect we’ll take a few days to complete the job, including time to pull out the furniture, prep the existing floor, cut around obstacles, and reinstall the furniture. We will get on that job after the Caravel is done and back in its off-site storage spot. We need extra space in the carport for all the furniture that we’ll be removing from the Safari.

I really don’t have any particular love for flooring work but, like painting, it is gratifying when it’s done and everything looks great. And we’re entering the season of perfect daytime temperatures for outdoor work, so I’m looking forward to tackling the Safari floor soon.

Oct 02 2012

What happens when the dog catches the car?

The Hunt is done once again.

I had mentioned on September 14th that I was looking for another Mercedes 300D (a diesel car from the early 1980s), to replace the one that I sold two years ago. After I’d sold it in a moment of weakness to a buyer from Connecticut who wanted a rust-free southern car, that black Mercedes stuck in my memory. I began to miss the way it elegantly glided over the cracked urban roads of Tucson. I missed the reassuring soft clatter of the engine (which is not loud when the car is properly tuned and the sound-dampening hood pad is intact). I missed the simplicity of it. And so I started a quest, a hunt, to find a fine example that—this time—I would keep.

It’s hard to explain why this particular car appeals to me. I think that if you are the sort of person who is inclined to be interested in old cars, you naturally gravitate to something you remember from childhood. I know I get a lot of letters from people who tell me that their interest in Airstreams started when they saw one on a family roadtrip. I know a friend’s family had one of these when I was a teenager, but it was blue inside (my least favorite interior color) and decaying with Vermont rust, so it wasn’t a particularly attractive memory.

It’s a car that defies contemporary values. It’s not fast and it’s not powerful. The turbo engine produced a mere 120 horsepower when it was new, and worn ones undoubtedly produce quite a lot less. It was well equipped for the time, with power windows, automatic transmission, automatic climate control, central locking, cruise control, and many other features for the US market, but by today’s standards it is virtually gadget-free. Our economy car, a 2007 Honda Fit, has almost all the same features and nobody thinks that’s any great accomplishment. Where’s the 220-watt stereo with MP3 input? Where’s the trip computer? Where’s the sleek tapered nose?

I don’t care about any of that stuff. The upright and sturdy look of the old Mercedes W123 chassis has an indefinable appeal, for me and a few other fans. The lines are clean without being the same boring aero shape of virtually every modern car today. The interior is comfortable without being plush, and the appointments are restrained and dignified without being pretentious or Spartan. And the body, despite lacking airbags and anti-lock brakes, is safer than many cars that came after it.

This car comes from an era where engineers ruled Mercedes. Everything about it yields a sense of mechanical durability, thoughtfulness, and quality. Even a little thing like the sound of the door closing: a muted, brief, THUNK. I’ve seen guys at car shows demonstrate the door sound to their friends. Nobody ever does that with a Porsche or Jaguar. You might say that nobody buys a car because of the way the door sounds, and that’s probably true, but it’s just an audible hint of the level of detail that a bunch of German engineers thought about, in every tiny aspect.

I think the big “aha” moment for me was a day when I was replacing a burned-out turn signal bulb. I’ve done this job on two other (modern) cars I’ve owned, and it usually involves a socket or two, or a Torx driver, and a lot of fishing around inside tiny cavities. On this car, you reach inside the engine compartment, unscrew a knurled plastic knob with your fingers, and the entire lamp assembly slides out for easy access. Another time I needed to access the fuel sender. It was easily removed with only two tools, and when I got it apart I was amazed to find it was constructed of stainless steel with delicate gold wires, still accurate after nearly three decades. (The tank level monitors on my Airstream have never been accurate.) Everything in these old Mercs is like that; finely engineered, built to last, and yet repairable when necessary.

In 1984, this car would cost you $31,940. For comparison, I was still in college in 1984, and my landlord offered to sell me the condo I was renting for $32,000. The year after that my greatest aspiration was to buy a Nissan Sentra with optional air conditioning that cost about $7,000. It was a mighty sum to me, something that required signing my first finance contract. The price of a Mercedes 300D was unfathomable, and the car was intimidating in its vast superiority to the econobox I hoped to drive. It tickles me to ride in one today, finally getting my chance at the sweet and soft ride that somebody with eager anticipation plunked down a small ransom to get in 1984.

My hunt this time took a bit over two weeks, since I started before I mentioned it on the blog. The process is occasionally tedious and requires diligence in searching online sources like Craigslist, Autotrader, Cars.com, eBay; in other words, it’s absorbing. Blink for a moment and you may miss out on the car you’ve been looking for, after all hundreds of other people are likely looking for it too. I drove to every local European car repair shop and put in a word about what I was seeking, I told my friends, I studied reviews and forums, and I stayed up late browsing. The rest is just a matter of perseverance.

After a couple of weeks I was tired of looking at the junk cars that comprise 95% of the market, but I also didn’t want to end the search too early. The problem, as I told Eleanor, is that it’s like a dog chasing a car. What happens when the dog catches one?

There were a few near-misses. I spotted a car in California that looked great, but upon digging into it I discovered that it had failed emissions four times in recent years, and that the seller had repainted it and bought a lot of used parts to make it look like new. Those are all red flags. Many others featured things like “good A/C but needs a charge” (which means bad A/C), and “fresh repaint” (which means cheezy repaint), and “no visible rust” (which means rust in inaccessible spots), and my personal favorite: problems excused with the explanation that “all these cars do that.” No, I found myself mumbling to myself after a long evening of browsing online ads, only the neglected ones do that.

My ideal prize would be as unmolested as I could get, original paint, unrestored, just as it was was left by a loving owner who regretfully was letting it go after many years of gentle use. This might seem to be a fantasy, but if you are willing to pay market rates and be patient, there are a lot of such cars coming up for sale. The owners who bought them in the mid-1980s and never drove them in the winter are now reaching an age where owning an old Mercedes no longer makes sense. One by one, these cars are coming out of storage barns and garages all over the US. That’s what I was waiting for.

I finally found it, or something close enough. It’s a 1984 Mercedes 300D, in Thistle Green Metallic paint with a Palomino interior. Two owners, 101,000 miles (anything under 150k is considered low mileage for a car of that age), everything works, everything original except the radio, and no rust. That’s just 3,600 miles per year, a good indication that the owner stored it in the winter. The car was in Maryland, so I had some long conversations with the seller, studied his photos carefully, checked his references, and ordered a pre-purchase inspection at the local European car specialist. Everything checked out.

The ultimate would have been to fly out there to get the car. This is always a great adventure and an opportunity to bond (and learn the car’s quirks), but the trip would be at least 2,300 miles and my schedule didn’t allow the time. So I’m having it shipped to home base.

I have something to savor while I’m waiting: the seller sent the car’s documents ahead via FedEx. Getting this package was like Christmas in July. Typically, the owners of these cars save all the crucial historic documents, and this one was no exception. I have the original window sticker, the dealer’s pre-purchase inspection sheet, the owner’s manual, maintenance booklet, warranty documents, and receipts for services. From this the low mileage on the odometer can be confirmed as actual mileage, and I know what maintenance services have been left undone.

Even a pristine-appearing specimen has issues. There are no perfect cars from 1984. You have to expect some amount of “sorting out” to be done in the first year. It’s process in which the car gradually gets brought up to spec until it works as it did when it rolled off the showroom floor. Of course you want to start with a car that’s worth the investment and doesn’t have too many expensive problems. For this car, the sorting-out process will begin right after it comes off the truck next week, starting with safety-related items and replacement of all the old fluids.

I guess that’s what happens when the dog catches the car. He sits down and begins to gnaw on it like a bone. Or else maybe the dog gets a driver’s license and starts enjoying his new ride. Either way, the game may have only just begun.

Sep 26 2012

Classification: kittens for sale

A friend called Eleanor the other day and noted that the blog was quiet. When that happens, she said, either Rich is working on projects he can’t talk about (yet) or there’s not much happening. Turns out that it’s a little bit of both lately.

Home life has been quiet … so quiet in fact that our major form of entertainment has been the foster kittens. They have kept us entertained day and night, even at times when we’d prefer they were sleeping. They arrived here underweight and left today, three weeks later, each nearly a pound heavier and in peak form to be adopted.

It’s a shame to let them go back to the Humane Society when they are so darned adorable, but they need homes. We’ve done what we can to bring out their natural irresistible cuteness, and make them completely comfortable with people and typical household life. As I told them at today’s graduation ceremony, “Boys, the rest is up to you.” They seemed prepared for the task. We’ll get a new kitten or two shortly, and begin the process anew.

Meanwhile I have fulfilled my pledge to do something about the spare tire issue. This turned out to be fairly easy. I ordered a fifth tire from Discount Tire to match the four new Bridgestones that are on the car, and they mounted it up last week. The only catch was that the tires for the Mercedes are a lot bigger than the ones for the Airstream, so it wouldn’t fit in the spare carrier on the Airstream without some modification. The Merc tire is about two inches wider and 2-3 inches larger in diameter.

So the first step was to do some careful measuring to confirm that the larger tire would fit in the Airstream’s belly recess. It seemed like there was plenty of room in there, almost as if Airstream had foreseen this situation.

The spare carrier comes off easily, with just two bolts toward the rear holding it in place. A 3/4″ socket and a short extension on a ratchet wrench are all you need. Well, that plus a little elbow grease. Once it was off, I loaded it up along with both the Airstream and Mercedes wheels, and took the whole pile to my favorite welding shop.

The modification was fairly simple. The two bolt attachments needed to be extended by about two inches so that the entire carrier would hang lower. This would allow the bigger spare to fit and yet still be pressed tightly up against the belly of the Airstream so it wouldn’t move.

I also asked the welding shop to figure a way that I could go back to carrying the smaller Airstream spare if I wanted to. You can see their solution above. They simply bolted on a pair of height extensions, welded on new outboard “arms” to accommodate the larger diameter, and fabricated a new latch with two holes.

If I wanted to go back to the Airstream spare, it would be just a matter of unbolting the two extensions, and using the lower hole on the latch for the locking pin. The tension of the tire pressed up against the belly of the trailer will keep the tire from shifting much.

The new spare was a tighter fit than I had expected. While there was plenty of room in the recess, I had failed to consider the process of getting the tire under the Airstream. The struts of the Hensley partially block the path, and there’s not quite enough clearance to slide the tire atop the carrier and beneath the battery box. To get it in, I have to wind the Hensley strut jacks up into towing position (not a problem since that’s where they’d be anyway), and I have to use the trailer’s power hitch to lift the nose about 2-3 inches. It’s also a much heavier wheel to deal with, so pulling this thing out on a rainy day by the side of a muddy highway will not be much fun.

Once it’s in place, there’s plenty of ground clearance. The tire still hangs above the height of the hitch weight transfer bars.

This amounts to a very expensive spare tire. I bought the Mercedes 20″ rim from a guy in California for $300 (new ones cost about $900!), the tire was about $250, and the fabrication work ended up at $125, for a grand total of $675. But it will get used, because we need to do a five-wheel tire rotation every 10,000 miles (to keep all five tires evenly worn), so I’ll get my value out of the tire at least.

And it’s nice to know we have it. Now if we have a tire failure on the tow vehicle, we can still drive. If we have a tire failure on the Airstream, we can tow on three wheels or unhitch to go get a replacement Airstream tire. We have better options. If we ever decide to go to Alaska or Newfoundland, we can still throw the (smaller) Airstream spare into the back of the car for added insurance.

OK, enough about that. I hope to not need to write about tires again for quite a long time. I want to talk about another project, the new Airstream Life Classifieds section.

Places to list your Airstream for sale are everywhere on the Internet. I used to maintain a list of them that ran to about thirty different sites, all free. But once in a while I get a call from someone who has a special, rare, or high-value trailer, and they want to see that ad in print, in Airstream Life. We’ve never been able to accommodate this, but I’ve finally set up a site where you can post your ad online and have it appear in the next issue of the magazine.

So it’s in a trial mode right now. (I’m sorry, that’s not cool enough for the Internet. I’d better say it’s “in beta” instead.) You can try it out right now at classified.airstreamlife.com. Online-only ads are free, and print ads cost $75. But here’s the sweetener: since this is the first run, you can actually get a print ad for free. When you fill out the ad form, at the bottom of the page will be an option box that says “Ad Package”. Choose the “Print ad in Airstream Life magazine” option and just below that, enter the coupon code FREE_ASL_AD and your ad will appear in the Winter 2012 issue for free!

Now, I do have to put in a few limitations. Only one free ad per customer, and all ads must be submitted no later than October 5 to receive this deal. If I don’t get enough ads to launch the section, this offer will be void (but your ad will still run online for free).

I’m interested in your feedback. If you’ve tried it out and have some comments that might help improve it, let me know with a comment on this blog post. If it works and people find it valuable, I’ll make it a formal part of the magazine going forward. It’s up to the community. Personally, I think that even in an era of Internet everywhere, there’s a certain credibility that you can only get from print, so I’m hoping that we get some interesting Airstreams in this section.

Sep 14 2012

Shore excursions

It’s fun to be in “project mode” as long as there aren’t too many projects. Last week I got much of the Winter 2012 magazine in viable condition, enough to at least ship big chunks of it off to my Art Director. I thought it was going to be harder than it was, but surprised myself by having completed a lot of the initial work back in July and early August before we hit the road for Colorado. So things went smoothly. After eight years of being Editor I might actually be getting competent at it.

Having wrestled that job into partial submission, it was time to look at the next round of events. I’m really focused on Alumafiesta, which will be next February, here in Tucson. That event is looking like serious fun. We are doing almost everything differently at this one: full hookup RV resort with all the luxe amenities, numerous off-site excursions and tours, and lots of planned meals (some included, some optional). It will be sort of like being on a cruise ship, except you don’t have to tip anybody.

My job this week has been to research all the events and attractions we want to visit, and make group reservations, plus get all our leaders lined up. So far we are confirmed for two bike rides, one hike and one historical walk, two photo safaris, three visits to Gem Show venues, two breakfasts, one dinner, one concert by Antsy McClain, four exercise sessions, four evening presentations, a swap meet, a guided scenic drive through Saguaro National Park, the Aluminum Chef competition, and three guided tours (Franklin Auto Museum, Tucson Museum of Art, San Xavier Mission). All of that is included in the base price. Of course our usual Happy Hours with lots of door prizes will happen daily too.

We’ve also got optional “shore excursions” (at extra cost) to the Pima Air & Space Museum, Tohono Chul Park, Sonoran Desert Museum, Tin Town, three optional lunches around town, and a chance to blow your own glass at the Sonoran Glass School. My job is to get it all nailed down in the next couple of weeks so participants can make their reservations for those activities that can take only a limited number of people. It’s not easy, but it’s a heck of lot more fun than fighting with electrical infrastructure …

One of my tasks this week is to go over to Lazydays (the venue for Alumafiesta) and verify a few things, like the temperature of the heated pools. (We’re planning an Aqua Fitness program on one of the days.) I’ve got to check out the doggie area, verify that we can get a trailer indoors if we need to (for demos), talk to the front desk staff, etc. I can handle this sort of assignment.

Things went so well the past two weeks that I even found a little time to work on a book project. That’s a long term one for sure, but it’s a great feeling to put even a few hours into a book, and see it advance by increments toward completion. Plus, it’s good to have some variety at work, to keep from getting stale.

At home, we’re still raising orphan kittens for the Humane Society, and that is going well despite numerous feline output-related messes and some initial worry about whether they were gaining weight appropriately. The beasties have gained a few ounces and have warmed to our attention, to the point that they will cuddle in the evening rather than hissing at us. Our house is slowly being kitten-proofed, which is a lot like the change we went through when Emma was a toddler. Except that kittens can get under the couch.

Another project: I have come to face the fact that I really miss my old Mercedes 300D and would like to someday get a similar car. Financially I’ll have to sacrifice something in order to be able to fund another project car, but it seems worth it if I can find the right starting point, meaning a vehicle of proper vintage, condition, and style. You will undoubtedly read more from me on this later. For now, know that The Hunt is back on. I’m simultaneously chasing W123, W124, and W201 chassis diesels all over the USA. Of course, it would be best to find something right here in southern Arizona or southern California, where old cars are plentiful and rust is unknown, so that’s the focus area.

We are still contemplating the Airstream Safari makeover. To spread out the cost, we are considering just re-upholstering the dinette for now (easily removed and replaced) and replacing the floor covering later, or replacing only the bedroom carpet. My elaborate plans to add fancy new electronics, countertops, etc. are likely to be scratched until next year. Upholstery and flooring are terrifyingly expensive, either in terms of cash or labor hours. Slow and steady may be a better approach for us than a full-blown gut & refurb project.

Travel-wise, this is our season to recoup and plan ahead. The GL320 now has been serviced and is sporting a fresh set of Bridgestone tires, for which I have high hopes. The spare is on order. The Airstream could use a few tweaks here and there but is basically ready to go. The fuel bill from the last trip (2,400 miles) has been paid. We could zip out right now, but better to stay put for a while and enjoy home life, take care of business, take a few local “shore excursions”, practice with the Dutch Oven, raise cats, and perhaps even gain some perspective on our travels. There will be new travel coming soon enough.

Sep 07 2012

Switching to project mode

We are back at home base. And this time, it’s going to stick, because there’s much to do over the next few months.

The first job is resolving our tire situation. We got back on the road after two days of waiting, and while it was pleasant in Camp Verde and swim in the RV parks’ pool, this isn’t a situation I want to find myself in again. We might have been on a schedule to get somewhere, or in some lonely place where tires aren’t easily located. We need a better solution.

The Discount Tire store in Prescott AZ worked with the Discount Tire store in Tucson to work out our immediate problem. The Prescott store gave us four new Nitto tires (not run-flats) to get us home, and that worked out fine. I’m not wild about them, as the handling is poor and they are noisy, but it was what they had in stock. The Tucson store will take them off tomorrow and exchange them for four new Bridgestone run-flats that I ordered a few days ago.

The really nice part is that they’ll give me 100% credit for the returned Nitto tires, even though I’ve used them for 200 miles. Kudos to Discount for going out of their way to take care of a customer. This is the kind of service that has caused me to buy tires from them exclusively for the past few years.

Since we got the Merc we’ve always had two plugging kits and a tire inflator in the car at all times to handle typical punctures. That’s not good enough for our needs. This episode demonstrates that other things can happen to a tire that you can’t fix by the roadside. We’re hard on our tires, towing many miles in southwestern heat with a heavy trailer, and so I’ve concluded that we need to get back to a full-size spare when we are towing.

The solution I outlined in the previous blog is still the plan. We’ll remove the Airstream’s spare and put a Mercedes spare in the carrier instead. The Michelin tires we put on the Airstream have proved their durability, and the Airstream can be towed on three wheels in a pinch, so I feel pretty confident about going without a spare on the trailer. The car, on the other hand, would be “interesting” to drive with only three wheels.

The challenge is that the car tires are much larger than the Airstream tires. The Airstream tires (with Michelin 235/75 R15) are 28.9″ diameter and 9.3″ wide. The Mercedes tires are about 33″ diameter and 11″ wide, so the spare carrier will have to be modified to allow one to fit. That means I’ve got to find a welder who can either come to the house to work on the Airstream, or has a large lot where I can park the Airstream. I’ll post pics once that job is done.

We’ll also have to do a five-tire rotation pattern from here on, because it’s important to keep all the tires worn evenly (this is an AWD car). It’s a small price to pay for the convenience of a full-size spare. When the car is being driven without the Airstream (and hence no spare tire nearby), it will still have the backup capability provided by the run-flat tires, just like millions of other cars.

We finally pulled into Tucson late Wednesday night. We’re still in that phase where we are living off the remainders of our Airstream supplies, until Eleanor gets a chance to replenish the house food. But we have landed lightly, without too much fuss or inconvenience, and are settling into our home-based life for the next few months. I did a calculation and found that so far this year we have towed the Airstream Safari 7,582 miles, which is about average. The image above shows our approximate route in 2012 (but not every stop).

Since we are going to be at home base for at least a couple of months, this is a good time to take on projects. We still need to get on the Airstream interior renovation, although budget is a challenge. I plan to kick that project into gear fairly soon. I’m also working on Alumafiesta in Tucson. We’ve confirmed that Stevyn Guinnip will be joining us at Alumafiesta to lead morning exercise sessions, and Bert Gildart is likely to lead some photo safaris in the great southwestern outdoors. I’m working on lots of other good things for that event, which will be announced as they get solidified.

E&E have taken on a new project too. To abate Emma’s lust for a pet, they have taken training at the nearby Humane Society and are now official foster parents to a pair of kitten brothers, one orange tabby and one solid black. For the next three or four weeks, their job is to convert these malnourished, underweight, frightened and slightly feral kittens into adoptable, people-loving cuties. The kittens are living in Emma’s bathtub with all sorts of comforting things to assuage their mental anguish, and several times a day they are held and fed. Although already this project has meant lots of cleanup and midnight attention, Emma and Eleanor are having a great time of it and I’m sure that when the time comes it will be hard to say goodbye to these little beasts.

Our next planned Airstream travel is not until after Christmas, although you never really know for sure. A trip opportunity may present itself in the near future, and the spare Airstream (the ’68 Caravel) could yet be outfitted for some adventure in southern Arizona this fall…