AirBNBstream

[mat_the_cat]

Other things have got in the way of this somewhat over the last few months, but life is a bit less hectic at the moment so progress has been made. First up was quite literally a shitty job.

Very few photos early on, as I didn't want to be handling my phone. But the toilet had been bodged to 'seal' to the black tank below, in a pretty poor way. This is the opening in the floor, with the tank underneath, threaded inlet visible.

What should connect into this is a corresponding threaded flange, which is then screwed to the floor to prevent strain being taken by the tank. Like this (did I mention that I love how spares are still available?)

The base of the toilet (basically a flanged tube with a ball valve at the top) is secured down with T bolts, which I'm temporarily using to clamp a piece of wood to, in order to twist it.

On the old part, the flange had been cut away leaving just the threaded part. This then fitted loosely inside the toilet base tube - I'm talking 5mm or so clearance kinda loosely, and the resulting gap filled with thick yellow grease. The toilet was then screwed directly to the floor with 4 wood screws, which had pulled through the ply.

After cleaning everything up, I could put the new flange in place. The ply had started to delaminate slightly around the hole, so I've used wood hardener to give it a bit more strength, also PU adhesive to bond it to the floor.

New gasket on top:

And the base of the toilet could be bolted up. But first I needed to overhaul the flush valve, which operates when you press the pedal.

Fairly straightforward; you can buy new but around £60 vs a few pence worth of O rings which I already had in stock.

Also, the seal at the bottom of the pan, which although still functioning, surely wouldn't last much longer.

New gasket and seal arrived...

...and were fitted, so that the toilet could be refitted.

The foot pedal also operates the ball valve with the flush. The ball is still smooth, and I've smeared it with silicone grease to lubricate the initial fry operation.

The ceramic pan (weight saving not on the design brief) was then clamped on top. 

Followed by a new seat, again easily available although at a cost. £70 for a loo seat!

It had better be comfortable! It's yet to be tested, but I'll spare you the photos of that...

[mat_the_cat]

It's not going to be a quick job, but today we've started the polishing process!

Probably around 2-3 hours work, and I've done the band extending to the edge of the door. This is just the first pass too, with coarse polishing compound. But it's exciting to make progress at last!

[mat_the_cat]

I'm not going to clog this up with loads of slightly different polishing in progress shots, but after most of the week on it, it is starting to get there.

I've read estimates of between 4-8 hours polishing per linear foot, and so far it looks as though we're at the longer end of that range. And it's 26 feet long!

As this is still just with the coarse polish, you can see the swirl marks up close. Hopefully with the next pass these will disappear. 

[mat_the_cat]

I've spent another couple of days on it now, and the door is now done, and the lower part of this side to the LH edge of the window. As a bit of a break to that, I've fitted a radio inside, as wiring was already present. I also wanted to replace the speakers, which had gone a bit crumbly. Radio in:

Unsurprisingly, this pre-dated the ISO connector, so one was duly added. I pinched the rear set of speakers from the LT to fit here, as I'm using this as an excuse to upgrade the ones in the van 😀 

And with the original panel back in place, you'd never know!

I might swap the head unit for something a little less flashy, or at least tone down the display colours. But it was a spare I had so will do for now. Sounds much improved!

Nor sure whether I mentioned, but my wife has christened the Airstream Dixie, as she was thinking of it anyway - then saw the previously unknown to us Dixie cup dispenser in the bathroom. So that seemed like a sign!

I don't tend to name vehicles, but it was agreed that Dixie needed a nameplate so we wondered about just getting a numberplate made up.

Didn't look right to my eyes, so I suggested an American-style plate. Obviously all states have their own variations, but found something fairly generic looking, with options to include a registration date and state name.

Eventually this arrived.

1968 is the date of the Airstream, and Meirionnydd is the area of Wales in which we live. Much polishing needed before I can fit it though...

Less positive news is the fact that the vacuum breaker on the toilet is leaking, so I've had to take that all out again. And one of the freshwater tanks was weeping slightly from the outlet, so I started to see whether it could be nipped up further. At which point the threads stripped, 70 litres of water started draining onto the floor, and I almost started weeping too. 2 steps forward, 1 step back.