[VACList] AS Body Repairs

["Ned P. Digh" <npdigh@xxxxxxxx>]

David, I am not an expert at this, but perhaps I can add to your self 
confidence.  Due to the press of traffic and a failing alternator, I broke 
our rules on night driving and backing only with a ground guide, I backed 
into a road sign.  I was in a rush to get to a particular RV Park, near an 
alternator repair shop.  The right rear of the the trailer had a significant 
inverted V in the area of the right tail light.  Fortunately the tail light 
popped out intact,but the impact left a sizable hole through the wall into 
the rear bedroom.  After my getting parked and dealing with my shame 
and sorrow, I got out the duct tape and covered the hole.  After dealing 
with the alternator problem, a Walmart tail light was attached to the 
right rear, I later added one on the left to match.  Now for the part 
which may help you.  The damage included the V Channel (horizontal 
band) and significant bending and wrinkling of the aluminum on the 
exterior and interior.  I began to imagine what could I put over this to 
camouflage it, but came up with no solutions.  Fortunately I was 
enrolled in an auto body repair class at a near Voc Tech,  a Grandson 
and I had been working on an antique truck project.  The instructor said 
that he had never worked on an Airstream before, but to bring the trailer 
to the last class.  He told me to clear away all the interior so the 
damaged area would be accessible from both inside and outside.  Tell 
you the truth, I thought my AS would never look presentable, but after 3 
hours of pushing pulling and lightly hammering (tapping) on the 
aluminum (outside high spots and inside low spots) with a soft face 
hammer and a standard molly,it began to look promising.   The first 
challenge was the C Channel, by pushing from the inside, we were able 
to get it back into the original shape and curavature.  The movement of 
the C Channel corrected a lot of the aluminum skin problems and the 
remainder were to be dealt with the hammer and molly, as noted above.  
All sorts of suggestions were made by class members, from super 
imposing a sheet of aluminum over the area to stick on a large decal.  I 
elected to continue repairing the damage at home with the hammer and 
molly technique.  By installing sheet metal pieces inside, with lots of 
clear type caulk/adhesive, I was able to reinforce the skin, the C 
Channel, and pull this reinforcement and the outer skin together with 
stainless steel machine bolts.  The result is a line of 6 SS bolt heads 
along the only tear line (approx 6 inches long), visible from the exterior.  
My trailer still has some minor wrinkles on that area, but does look 
presentable and oddly enough no one has yet asked "what happened 
here?".  The most difficult was taking out the interior panels, this was a 
bear, due to the pressure of the V creating additional stress on the 
overlaying panels.  My guess is that you will have one or more C 
Channels bent inward and some of the exterior skin and interior panels 
pushed in.  Don't despair, it can be fixed and luckly it is on top and 
probably not very visible.  My apology for the length of this, but I know 
from experience, that damage to a prized vintage AS is serious business. 
 Good luck.  Ned Digh