Re: [VAL] 13 panel vs 7 panel ends

["Fred Coldwell" <agrijeep@xxxxxxxxx>]

Marg:

    Airstream's 13 panel end cap was assembled from sheet aluminum cut 
into pie shaped wedges that were riveted together with one dimensional 
lengthwise curves.  Other trailer manufacturers could use this same 
process to build trailers that looked similar to Airstreams.

    The 7 panel end cap pieces, and beginning in 1964 the even larger 5 
panel end cap pieces, were "stretched-formed" by hydraulic machines to 
bend larger aluminum wedges in two directions to form a large section 
having a compound curve.  This process may have provided some additional 
rigidity and strength to the assembled end caps, but more importantly 
produced a look that other manufacturers using shears and riveted flat 
stock panels could not duplicate.

    This served to distinguish Airstreams from other aluminum trailers 
in the marketplace and provided an additional selling point.  It also 
reduced the the number of rivets, hence labor cost and time, required to 
assemble end caps.

    With the one known 1960 exception, every Airstream built from 1958 
to 1963 should have 7 end cap panels, and those built from 1964 to the 
present should have only 5 end cap panels.

    The retired worker told us only a very few of the earliest 1954 Ohio 
built Airstreams with the 13 panel SLOPED rear end had a second bend 
just under the rear window to provide a greater slope for the lower half 
of the rear end.  He quickly tired of this difficult task and, to make 
construction easier, he cut the rear end metal lengthwise to produce a 
constant rear end slope instead of a "dog-legged" dual slope rear end. 
He then adjusted the buck to fit the single slope rear end.

    So, there may be a very few early 1954 Ohio built trailers with a 
two step, or dog-legged, 13 panel rear end.   This was a factory 
feature, not a later field fix.  So, if anyone finds such a trailer, if 
not leaking leave the dog-legged rear end alone and don't have it 
"repaired" to look "normal".

Fred Coldwell
VAC Archive Historian