Whale Tail Removed - Too Much - Creased, Stretched and Dented

We tried to save the original end cap panels.  Really tried.
The big dent is too big.  Too deep.  Too creased.












Permanently creased, the dented aluminum panels of the street-side end cap are again removed for replacement patterns.

Okay, here's the thing. I am not the handy one in the family. So as well as learning lots - my job is to document the process. So if anyone has any suggestions for how to improve this vintage Airstream blog, please do share with me using the comments feature below. Seriously, I'd like to think that I am not the only one reading this....

Big Dent - Big New Plans

When we bought our Airstream, the beautiful whale tail was dented - two of the end cap panels were dented.  Sadly deeply dented. And while not likely, I was truly wanting our dents to be removed, to be another vintage Airstream success story.

Colin Hyde Trailer Restorations has been successful removing dents, with deeper dents improved by 90% or more, so my decision was easy to make to save the panels.  The street-side end panels were removed.

Using their very best effort, and finessing the aluminum back into shape, the panels were attached with clecos back to our Airstream whale tale.  The panels are were dented, creased, and stretched.  The English wheel was not successful in removing the dent and the polished panels would be forever scarred.

So we made another easy decision that new panels will need to be fabricated and installed.

One Dent. Two Dent.

This dent was very obvious to me from the photos before we said "yes mine!"

The roadside lower panel that I did not see from the photos. Colin said this one can be almost erased when the interior skin is removed.

Sitting on the Coke Cans

Sheets of cardboard, and a printout to full size, and a stick of wood - now I can finally sit in my bathroom. The toolbox was too low for the toliet, but adding a 12 pack of Coke Zero made the height just right. I spent a couple hours checking out the fit.

Nested together, the 2 stainless steel bowls made a good mock-up for the sink that will be added to the wet bath.

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

Aluminum Anniversary

This entire journey started for us with a conversation over dinner at our Flying Mango restaurant. We were savoring our brisket (Scott) and ribs (Kathy) and talking about our 19 years of married life. Little did we know that this would be our Aluminum Anniversary! Aluminum may not be on the jewelers list of anniversary celebrations, but it will always be on ours. We were talking again about vintage Airstreams.

Years earlier, when we started vacationing again we wanted to spend time out West - exploring nature, spending time outdoors, and trout fishing including our then new hobby fly fishing. And we wanted to be mobile, not stuck to a strict and constricting schedule of a hotel iterneary. Having spent my childhood first in tacky (literally) motel rooms, and then the luxury of a trailer, I knew travel-trailer is the way to go! In spite of having the best time with our very great group of friends - a tent-camping trip early in our early-dating-years was soggy and therefore not sucessful for good sleeping. So we rented some=other-brand motorhome for a few years, then found an Airstream dealership who leased Airstreams! Wow!! So for 3 years we had access to different Airstreams 19' bambi, 16' bambi, and 19' CCD Bambi. We loved Airstreams!

Not finding the vintage Airstream that met our list of "wants" - we purchased a newer Airstream to keep traveling. Joining the WBCCI was a good decision, and we have the best times with our WBCCI friends! We had a network of people traveling the country looking for vintage Airstreams!

Back to our Aluminum Anniversary dinner - we were talking about our list of wants and decided to contact Colin Hyde of Colin Hyde Trailer Restorations to see what trailers he might have available. Colin, with Tim Shepard and Rob Baker - they who are the VAP - have been a wealth of information on all things aluminum.

Below is an excerpt of the the best anniversary gift-email a gal could ever get:

Kathy and I are listeners to The VAP and have a newer Airstream trailer now and will keep that trailer. For our second Airstream, we would like help to determine the model and year of the vintage trailer of our dreams. You could use this discussion on the VAP program but we do not need to be on the program.

...you had a list of trailers waiting for restoration and wanted to check if you got this far in your new adventure with restoration of Airstream trailers.

Looking for something before 1957 but could still use help as we have not been able to see that many vintage trailers. We were at International 2009...open house ...trailers between 50 to 57 were few. Last weekend our Iowa Unit had their 50^th year anniversary and we were able to see 1955 Flying Cloud owned by BarryIowa on Airstream Forums. Unbelievable trailer find and was just ticket for us but is already gone to a good home….

Thought about this some, if [sic all vintage trailers] need everything...wish list would be something like the following:

13 panel 1950 to 1957 before midyear change to 7 panel

Whale tail

No wet bath

Tandem axles

About the size of a Flying Cloud 21’ to Overlander 26’ size.

I know that all of the items above may not be possible but is a starting point.

We can tow 7300 lb with current vehicle.

Scott

I'm in Love - First Look at Byam's 1955 Flying Cloud.

We've always wanted an Airstream.
After leasing an Airstream for 60 days over a 3 year period.
We did not find a vintage Airstream, so we purchase our 2008 Signature Series CCD 25 foot Airstream.

Then we met Barry and his 1955 Whale Tail Flying Cloud!
And at nearly the same time we found the trailer of our dreams.
This is Byam's Trailer and our story of restoration.

Here is our first look at our 1955 Whale Tail Flying Cloud!
Byam's 1955 Flying Cloud.