American Safari

Oh luscious bubble. Behold the twenty-two foot 1964 Airstream Safari in her spot outside the shop.
This particular model has more windows than usual, as well as an extra large one by the door.

This is an excellent shell to start with. Just the right size; tows easily and yet not too tiny.
The smaller models are very popular, and expensive. They're cute, and they tow even more easily,
but this one is ideal. A mobile cottage which can welcome a few guests with room to move about.
Towing her home with Darren, on flat terrain, I calculated 13 mpg, two miles less than my truck's normal 15 mpg.

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This is the state I found her in, in a backyard in Parker, Colorado, November 2007.
Naturally Bob was there checking it out with me (see inset).
These trailers had ungainly "domestic systems" which were not particularly well built.
Previous owners had added their two cents, with disasterous results.
My intention is to strip the interior and start from scratch, adding only what's needed
and taking advantage of smarter, simpler technology.

Real-life failed science fair projects: see gory details below.

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As you can see, this was not a happy camper. A cracked drain pipe in the shower stall leaked all
over the rear of the trailer, probably for years on end.
There was evidence that someone had tried to access the leak by cutting through the floor from underneath.
This just made holes in the floor and didn't fix the problem.

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The first step: gut the interior and take out the old floor. Tom and I ripped everything out in about 4 hours.
It's nice to find that the frame is in pretty good shape.
What looks like rust is mostly shreds of lovely 60's fiberglass insulation.
I will re-insulate from the floor-pan up and lay new plywood. The final flooring surface is still in question.

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The skin is in decent shape too and will be polished up after dealing with the interior.

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Last night Tom and I took out the heater/furnace. I tried to get it working, but it wasn't worth too
much investment in time as a woodstove will be installed anyway. This is the hole it left.
The heater vent is on ebay.

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This is the outdoor portion of the shop. In the background is the larger '78 airstream.

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Started the floor today.

The new floor starts with 2" foam insulation. Yes, I know I'm poisioning myself some.
But I'm making a very snug little cottage. There's one interior panel removed.
You can see the back side of the exterior shell. It's very shiney.
The original insulation was disgraceful. Very lightweight, but competely unacceptable.
Worse, it was applied with many large gaps left for the cold to get in.
It's like being under a blanet with a foot sticking out!

No thought was given to conserving heating fuel in 1964.

The walls are thin, and aluminum is very conductive,
so the skin and the ribs of the this thing let heat out and cold in.
There needs to be an insulating break. We'll see how that goes.

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Today I taped the perimeter of each "thermal cell" in the floor. Robb suggested this idea to keep the cold
steel frame from sucking all the heat out from under the floor.
Still there's serious problems trying for a real insulated situation here.
I opened the walls around the bow and inspected the the repair on the curb side.
I think I'll try for a patch from the inside. This will allow me to over-lap the skin, like a shingle, preventing
water from entering. Right now it leaks. Click image above to see video.

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	Okay, I had to bust a move and start the floor even though I didn't know what I was doing. My feng shui bubble, my silver supreme: she's a lot of work. The old floor is 9/16" ply which I can't seem to locate at the local lumber yards. So I went to 3/4", thinking that would be better anyway. A good solid feel under your feet, right? Adds about 100 pounds to my double-hulled All-American love-egg, but I can work with that. I just threw out a lot of weight in old interior junk, remember? Problem is, the ply has to get under this c-channel that runs around the perimeter at the bottom of the wall. Well there's not room for 3/4" plywood. It wasn't made for that. So I had to perform surgery on the plywood. I shaved away the edge, forming a ledge. Tom thinks this is too much work and I should try again to find 9/16" ply. Okay, maybe this is more work than necessary, and the added weight is not an improvement. The thinner floor was solid enough. It was fine. So, I'll look into the thinner ply once more and if I can get it tomorrow, Christmas Eve, fine. If not, I carve away at the 3/4". Anyway, I got one piece cut and laid it in place while listening to Bill Moyers interviewing reporters who were clarifying the mess in Iraq. Even outside the war, this administration has landed us in a disaster that threatens to bring US down. The 200+ year old dream is flickering. I am saddened by the inability of the average American to see through propaganda; so easily persuaded to cheer on their own demise. What does one do in a falling nation? My silver-lining orb, this polishable palace, it's going to take a little trip around this land of ours to scour the countryside for the best of the new new world: the sustainable things: individuals and communities living off grid, small organic farms, perma-culture operations, co-housing situations; the people thinking about what's coming next, after the fools have burned themselves out looking for the last drop. The irony that I will be burning 13 miles to the gallon while looking for the Holy Grail of sustainability is not lost on me. Hey, this is America. What am I supposed to do, hide under the covers? I think our relationship to technology went askew a few generations back. Who has maintained threads lost at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution? The Amish. Maybe I need a team of horses to pull this tinfoil potato. Please picture it. The point is I'm forming a plan here to tow this relic of the American Heyday out across the landscape to look for places that are thinking about what's going to be. So do I need a thicker floor do to that in style, or not?

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A boat builder friend of mine on the East coast says that before you finish a boat, you
hate the boat. That being the case I am likely nearing completion of this craft. It was a hard day, but I
got in another section. It's coming. It's coming.

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So, I had to stop progress on the '64 Safari and get to New York for family matters.

But here on the dreaded East coast I found this 1975 Argosy, a motorized airstream.
A nice strong Chevy 350 V8 drags this turnpike egg at speeds up to 55 mph. I've started working on the electrics already.
Click images for some movies.

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Phew, back in the civilized Wild West. Time to get back to the project at hand. The Safari.
I got some more floor screwed down over the last few days. Almost done.
I've learned a lot about this thing and how it's constructed.
Next one, I pop the shell right off. It's too hard fitting the floor together with it on. Still, it's looking good, no?

Here's the first clear coat on top of the green stain. Later it will likely be 3/4" oak strips, but this looks nice for now.

The rectangle in the back is a hole where the waste tank would be replaced. Floor will cover it. There is debate over the value
of this tank. It brings up the whole question of plumbing and whether one needs a toilet inside or not.
I am leaning toward a smaller self contained toilet which can be brought outside or stored under the bed.

Still, a waste tank for the kitchenette sink and "shower" in whatever form that manifests will be nice. So the tank will go in.

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Also vaguely interesting is this site here: www.nikmills.com