VAL Digest V2 #7

VAL Digest Wednesday, September 15 2004 Volume 02 : Number 007




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Topics in Today's Digest:

Re: [VAL] Paint for ABS Plastic?
[VAL] Test
Re: [VAL] Test
Re: [VAL] Test
[VAL] Have I dropped off the list again?
Re: [VAL] Test
Re: [VAL] Have I dropped off the list again?
Re: [VAL] Test
[VAL] Introduction and (surprise) a question!
[VAL] Stripper for aluminum paint? RemovAll Removes All!
Re: [VAL] Introduction and (surprise) a question!

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Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 11:11:36 -0400
From: gillguy@msn.com
Subject: Re: [VAL] Paint for ABS Plastic?

Tom
Since you made the decision to use real paint (you have to mix) and spray it
yourself. Bulldog makes a real good adhesive flexible primer for plastic's.
Get some of it, I think the smallest quantity/size you can get is a quart.
As for the topcoat, PPG is real good, but expensive. Western also makes some
fairly good paint at a cheap price. Get the two stage, base coat/clearcoat
poly.
Base coat sprays easy, like a flat paint. If you get a run or sag just sand it
out then you can still clear coat it with no problems, just be careful to not
run the clear. But even if you do, once it dries you can sand it out and buff
it back out like it was never there.

Bobby
----- Original Message -----
Wrom: VFVWRKJVZCMHVIBGDADRZFSQHYUCDDJBLVLMHAALPTCXLYRWT


I need to paint my ABS plastic air conditioner shroud, and am trying to
determine what kind of paint to use. The task is too big for spray can
paint which is too bad because I have seen a suitable product at the home
improvement stores.
Since I will be using a spray gun, can anyone advise me on what to ask for
at a paint & body supply store?

Thanks,
Tom

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Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 13:43:56 -0700
From: Glyn Judson 
Subject: [VAL] Test

All,

I'm not getting any emails from the list. Have I been dropped or is it
just a quiet day?

Glyn

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Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 15:04:26 -0600
From: "Stan Truitt" 
Subject: Re: [VAL] Test

hey glyn
sounds like your having val withdrawal symptoms.
i got yours

see ya
harry
66 safari
- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Glyn Judson" 
To: 
Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2004 2:43 PM
Subject: [VAL] Test


> All,
>
> I'm not getting any emails from the list. Have I been dropped or is
it
> just a quiet day?
>
> Glyn
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> When replying to a message. please delete all unnecessary original text
>
> To unsubscribe or change to a digest format, please go to
> http://www.tompatterson.com/VAC/VAList/listoffice.html

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 16:16:45 -0500
From: "J. Anderson" 
Subject: Re: [VAL] Test

Your message came through. It's just been pretty quiet.

John

Glyn Judson wrote:

> All,
>
> I'm not getting any emails from the list. Have I been dropped or is it
>just a quiet day?

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Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 14:20:57 -0700
From: Glyn Judson 
Subject: [VAL] Have I dropped off the list again?

Tom,

Have I managed to drop myself from the List again? If so what should I
do to hop back on? 

As always, thanks for providing this great resource.

Glyn 

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Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 16:44:08 -0500
From: "Dan Childress" 
Subject: Re: [VAL] Test

Must be a slow day.
Dan
14148
- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Glyn Judson" 
To: 
Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2004 3:43 PM
Subject: [VAL] Test


> All,
>
> I'm not getting any emails from the list. Have I been dropped or is
it
> just a quiet day?
>
> Glyn
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> When replying to a message. please delete all unnecessary original text
>
> To unsubscribe or change to a digest format, please go to
> http://www.tompatterson.com/VAC/VAList/listoffice.html

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 16:56:55 -0500
From: "Tom Patterson" 
Subject: Re: [VAL] Have I dropped off the list again?

Hi Glyn,

You wouldn't be sending if you were dropped from the list again, so that is 
not a problem.

Note the wording at the bottom of each message. Just go to the List Office 
and sign up all over again if you do get dropped because of something like a 
full mailbox.

- -Tom

- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Glyn Judson" 
To: 
Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2004 4:20 PM
Subject: [VAL] Have I dropped off the list again?


> Tom,
>
> Have I managed to drop myself from the List again? If so what should I
> do to hop back on?
>
> As always, thanks for providing this great resource.
>
> Glyn

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Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 17:26:20 -0700
From: Glyn Judson 
Subject: Re: [VAL] Test

Dan and all,

I guess that's all it was, just another slow day.

Thanks for the primer Tom.

Glyn

> From: "Dan Childress" 
> Reply-To: valist@tompatterson.com
> Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 16:44:08 -0500
> To: 
> Subject: Re: [VAL] Test
> 
> Must be a slow day.
> Dan
> 14148
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Glyn Judson" 
> To: 
> Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2004 3:43 PM
> Subject: [VAL] Test
> 
> 
>> All,
>> 
>> I'm not getting any emails from the list. Have I been dropped or is
> it
>> just a quiet day?
>> 
>> Glyn
>> 
>> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>> When replying to a message. please delete all unnecessary original text
>> 
>> To unsubscribe or change to a digest format, please go to
>> http://www.tompatterson.com/VAC/VAList/listoffice.html
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> When replying to a message. please delete all unnecessary original text
> 
> To unsubscribe or change to a digest format, please go to
> http://www.tompatterson.com/VAC/VAList/listoffice.html

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 22:23:46 -0400 (EDT)
From: BC 
Subject: [VAL] Introduction and (surprise) a question!

Dear Vintage Airstreamers,

I just joined the list this evening. By way of introduction...

My girlfriend and I started trailering around the mid seventies
towing a "Brand X" 13' trailer (not a pop-up) behind her new 1974
FIAT X-1/9 sports car, and later with her new 1976 VW Rabbit. In
1977 my parents traded in their 1960's Airstream (that they had
purchased used from a 'hippy couple' who had been living in it
full time) for a shiny new 1977 31' footer w/ center bath
(I31B7Jxxxx). (No it's not an Excella. They wanted one of those,
but...)

After a few years my girlfriend and I stopped trailering for
various reasons but my parents put many miles on the Airstream,
going cross country every winter from New Hampshire to California
to boondock in the high desert. One of the modifications my
father made to his second 'burb was the installation of a fresh
water tank with a pump, plumbed to a spigot outside of the vehicle
right under the rear bumper. This arrangement would allow him to go
into town to fetch water and then pump it into the trailer back at
the campsite.

Unfortunately my father has not felt up to traveling for several
years now and the Airstream has been sitting by his garage,
moldering for at least 5 years, probably longer. He has
encouraged me to take the trailer, but I can see that it already
needs a lot of work from just sitting. There are mouse droppings
all over the floor and on the couch, and the walls appeared to be
stained, probably with mold. The clearcoat is peeling and the
plastic covers on the A/C are so bleached, they look like they
would shatter if you just tapped them. I also do not know if it
has developed any leaks.

It will probably be another 5 years before I can reach a point in
my personal affairs where I can seriously begin to turn my
attention to working on it. But what I would like to do ASAP is
arrest any further deterioration until then. Since my father has
a large lot, I am planning on having a concrete pad poured for the
the trailer (it is currently sitting on dirt) and will be looking
into the cost of a metal prefab building to put on that pad. The
goal is to get the trailer out of the weather, to be able to run a
dehumidifier inside the trailer, and have a clean and dry area
with electricity for working on the trailer as time permits.

My question is what would be your recommendations on the size of
the pad and building. I tried looking up the trailer's dimensions
on the web but had no luck. I can't find the owner's manual and
the service manual does not provide specifications as to size and
weight. In just casually thinking about this I would guesstimate
that I should allow about two feet of clear space on either side
of the trailer, and give myself a several extra feet in length to
allow for tools and storage in the back of the building. I should
probably also allow at least 2-3 feet above the trailer for
working on the roof.

If anybody has gone down this road I'd appreciate hearing about
what has worked for you and what you would do differently if you
had to do it again.

Thanks in advance for any advice and suggestions.

...BC
- -- 
+---------------------[ Bill.Costa@Alumni.UNH.edu ]---+
| Bill Costa |
| 54 College Road -- CIS CTR WORK: +1-603-862-3056 | No good deed...
| University of New Hampshire HOME: +1-603-435-8526 | goes unpunished.
| Durham, NH 03824-3566 USA |
| |
+-----------------[ http://pubpages.unh.edu/~wfc/ ]---+

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Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 23:36:23 -0400
From: John Sellers 
Subject: [VAL] Stripper for aluminum paint? RemovAll Removes All!

Gang,

Too soon old, too late smart.
--old saying

Two weeks ago I posted a plaintive email to the VAList saying that the
PO had put aluminum paint on our trailer, and the only way that we had
found to remove it was paint stripper scrubbed off with steel wool.

I've gotten older and smarter in the last couple of weeks.

Upon the advice from several on the list, I ordered a gallon of RemovAll
220 from Down to Earth Products ( www.dtep.com ). Incidentally, their
customer service was outstanding--they shipped the next day despite
having to work out a shipping address problem over the phone.

I applied RemovAll to one panel of the 'Stream and let it sit
overnight. The next morning it didn't look like it had done anything. 
I morosely scrubbed it off with soap and water. No paint appeared to
have come off, but the surface sure looked a lot cleaner than it had. 
About that time I noticed that the surface _felt_ like aluminum, too,
rather than paint.

It dawned on me that maybe what we _thought_ was aluminum paint was
really a rather crudely brushed-on clear coat over oxidized aluminum.

The one way to tell for sure was to see if the RemovAll-stripped panel
would polish with Nuvite. (The polish doesn't work on paint or clear
coat--it has have an aluminum surface to work right.) The surface
polished! So what we have been scrubbing off with steel wool wasn't
aluminum paint--it was a combination of clear coat and aluminum oxide. 
Obviously the next experiment to try was to strip a panel with one of
the old-fashioned strippers we had been using--but without the steel
wool--and see if the stripped surface would polish. It also polished.

So--my assumption that we were trying to remove aluminum paint was
faulty, and we have unnecessarily spent umpteen hours of scrubbing with
steel wool. We can strip the clear coat with stripper and polish off
the oxide with the compounding buffer. On the bright side (no pun
intended. . .) our labor has not been completely wasted. It takes three
or four passes with Nuvite F7 to polish the aluminum oxide off of a
stripped panel, while one or two passes nicely shines up one of the
steel-wooled panels. (I'm hoping we've dodged the bullet on rust stains
from the steel wool. None have shown up yet, even after a few rains.)

RemovAll is the slickest paint remover I've ever used! RemovAll 220 is
a peach-colored gel having practically no odor. It is essentially
innocuous to everything except paint--you don't need rubber gloves, etc.
to work with it. You brush it on the surface and let it sit several
hours or overnight. It's thick and sticky enough to stay put where you
brush it even on vertical surfaces. I have been washing it off with
soapy water and a soft scrub brush, and that's all there is to it. The
clear coat comes off with the RemovAll and what's left is a clean
(although in the case of our trailer, heavily oxidized) aluminum
surface. (Incidentally, RemovAll also de-bonds excess Vulkem squished
out of the seams.) 

If I had realized how much better our trailer would look with the cruddy
old clear coat removed--and how easy it would be to remove it with
RemovAll--I would have stripped it when we first got the trailer two
years ago!

Best,
John & Barb Sellers
WBCCI/VAC #1587
1960 Pacer
Dayton, Ohio

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Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 20:51:53 -0700 (PDT)
From: Uwe Salwender 
Subject: Re: [VAL] Introduction and (surprise) a question!

- --- BC  wrote:

> Dear Vintage Airstreamers,
> 
> I just joined the list this evening. By way of
> introduction...
> 
>> 
> My question is what would be your
> recommendations on the size of
> the pad and building. 

In just casually thinking about this I
> would guesstimate
> that I should allow about two feet of clear
> space on either side
> of the trailer, and give myself a several extra
> feet in length to
> allow for tools and storage in the back of the
> building. I should
> probably also allow at least 2-3 feet above the
> trailer for
> working on the roof.
> 
> If anybody has gone down this road I'd
> appreciate hearing about
> what has worked for you and what you would do
> differently if you
> had to do it again.
> 
> Thanks in advance for any advice and
> suggestions.
> 
> 
> ...BC
> -- 

I work on my 2 Airstreams in a designated space inside
my CA warehouse. The space is 12 feet high, with a
10ft x 10ft door.
The area around the Airstream is 3 feet on one side,
and 6 feet on the other. It's comfortable, but not
luxurious. The lenth is enough to park a 25 footer and
a Suburban, being able to close the door.
I don't think a somewhat larger metal building will
cost a lot more than a smaller one, at least not
proportionally more. I think it's worth going a bit
bigger, even if you don't include the tow vehicle's
space requirements. 
Go 40 feet in length, and perhaps 20feet in width.
This makes a nice size building to work on the
Airstream , plus allows for enough air space to keep
thing mold free and dry. You will need room for tools,
workbench and removed Airstream parts.
I think your idea is a good one, preserve the
Airstream, and gain a nice work and storage space.
I keep one af the trailers in my warehouse, the other
one is on a storage lot. The inside storage makes a
giant difference, in my experience. I can only imagine
how nice it would be someplace where it rained.
Good Luck with your decision!
Uwe Salwender
Orange CA

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End of VAL Digest V2 #7
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