[VAC] Project Photos

[soule <soule@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

OK folks, here's my first attempt to share photos of Phase One of the
Gwen and Lincoln Airstream project.  For some reason that I don't
pretend to understand, these photos appear much darker on Photopoint
than they did when I uploaded them.

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=1621998&a=13860256

We want to say "thanks" to all of you on the VAC list who have helped us
through this project, which consumed nearly all our evenings and
weekends in June and July.  We will be making our inaugural journey to
the Top of Georgia rally and hope to see some of you there.

When we first bought the aluminum beauty, we thought that we would only
be replacing the carpet and doing a major cleaning.  On closer
inspection, we decided that the interior was worn to the point that it
would require major repairs and we realized that we just did not care
for the 1970's dark vinyl interior.   Although we did not attempt to
re-create an original interior, we did try to keep to the spirit of the
Airstream marque by using light weight materials and efficiently using
space.  We knew that we wanted the warmth of real wood and chose birch
for the interior because of its light color and beautiful highlights.
The floor plan is designed for just the two of us, although we can sleep
a third if one of our children wants to visit.  Gwen combed local fabric
stores and the internet for the materials she used to sew the curtains
and cushion covers.

The floor was in reasonable shape and once the interior was stripped to
the walls, we sealed it with penetrating epoxy.  We painted the
way-too-yellow sink in the bathroom with white epoxy paint.
Mechanically, the air conditioner, refrigerator (Norcold replacement)
and water pump were in good shape.  The water heater and furnace were
dead and had to be replaced.  We decided that we were never going to
bake, so we replaced the Magic Chef with a two-burner cooktop and gained
some valuable storage space.  The humming Univolt exited and a silent
Intelipower took its place.   We have not weighed the remodeled coach,
but I don't think that we increased the original weight by more than
100-200 pounds.

This was fun!

Lincoln Soule
1977 Tradewind 25'