Saturday 10 April 2010

exploration works begin on wally and stellas little bubble

I've started to get under the covers of Wally and Stellas little bubble to see what makes her tick.

Time just disappears so quickly.



When I first started working on these trailers I started to notice a little red mark under the rivet heads. I quickly realized that this was just mark for drilling the rivet holes. The workers at airstream seem to use it for marking out the interior fixings also.
Byam Hooks are dotted all around the inside of this trailer and are very handy. I have a small collection of them already, so I may even add a few more.

The front plate is aluminum not steel. The four steel bolts had all snapped along with the weld on the front cross member which was why she had front movement.

At some stage there had been a small fire under the front near side floor



Overall the chassis is solid but there are a couple of broken weld seems. I'm going to send a sample off to a lab and have the alloy identified


Here's a quick video to give you idea of the condition of the chassis -




Another rainy day in Gloucestershire. I have a number of parts that I need to replace including this roof vent. Someone has rigged up a very crude clear cover with is letting in a good bit of rain.


The original floor was screwed to the chassis and outriggers, not bolted like normal. Around the C channel the floor had blots all around and no screws.

2 comments:

  1. Sam
    She's clearly in appreciative & sensitive hands and I love the Amarillo accompanied video - Airstream wheel-tappers would be proud !
    Sorry, I have no spare vent cover but that's a fine view of the water tower - is that home or just a neighbourly guarantee of powerful shower ?
    Keep up the really nicely documented exploration & restoration
    Chris

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  2. Sam, I just read through your entire blog. Very very nice! It's good to see the Bubble is with someone who cares about her. Who knows what wonderful things you may find there.

    Dacia

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