1959 Tradewind restoration interior

With the wiring done, I finally get to start putting the interior skins back 

The old skins were in decent shape, but had three layers of paint on them. I found the most effective way to strip the paint was to brush paint stripper on, then wait about five minutes. After the stripper has set a few minutes, I used a wire brush on an angle grinder to get through most of the paint. It makes a mess, but seems to be the quickest. I was able to reuse most of the insulation from the 2003 Airstream. 

This is the left lower side

This shows the right side and back

This is the kitchen back splash, which will not be painted. It is a panel from the outside of the 2003, and had the clearcoat on it. I think it will be a great backsplash for the kitchen. The top section of the interior skin was the biggest. It was 8 and  1/2 feet wide by about 14 feet long. We had to bend it over to get it through the door. Holding it up was a struggle, until Shelly told me to build a prop to hold up the skin. That went a lot easier. Once we got a few Clecos in, the rest went much easier.

Even before being painted, it looks better than before.

The before picture

It was a riveting good time!

Cleaning years off the window trim pieces 

After several thousand rivets, we are still finding holes that need another one. The pneumatic rivet gun helps. Now, on to paint. We had planned on using Zolatone, despite the expense, and hassle of spraying it. What we hadn't planned on was everyone's reaction when we asked for it at the automotive stores. What is Zolatone? No, we don't have anything like that. Maybe you could try so and so. Well so and so hasn't heard of it either. We knew it was over $100 a gallon, and we were told it would take at least 3 gallons of primer and 3 more of Zolatone. We finally called someone who could order it, but we had to wait until Monday. While looking at Lowe's for flooring, we found a gallon of rustoleum for under $30, and it was in stock. So, I am up for a challenge, and always ready to try to save money. Rustoleum it is. I rolled on the primer coat, and it left a nice textured look, which increased with the color coat.

So far so good. I wanted the splattered paint look of Zolatone, so I experimented with spray paint cans. Googling splatter paint does no good. Apparently normal people do not want their spray paint to splatter. There are however, tips on preventing splatter. After about six nozzles, I finally got the right size hole to splatter the paint. I had to hold the can about two feet away from the wall, which wastes some of the paint, but I got the look I was after. I used black, silver and blue splatter.

A small section

 Here you can see the texture of the base coat

 The splatter helps hide the imperfections.

I am happy with the look. Now, all we lack is finishing. The next step will be hooking up lights and batteries. In the meantime, we are having an axle party. Our daughter and son in law's 1971 Tradewind needs new axles, as well as our 1973 Overlander. So we ordered four axles, and we get to put them on today. Axle party!