We decided to have the water heater replaced as the original (while it worked) was very old and a new one was not very expensive. Colin and his crew, however, had some fabrication to do to make the exterior look good:

I have never liked seeing the beautiful lines of an Airstream broken up by a large white air conditioner on the roof. Colin came up with a nice solution; place the air conditioner where the furnace was (we are replacing it with two catalytic hesters) and build a drawer that slides the air conditioner out at the camp site.

No going back now:

From the inside:

Gaucho is in. Note that Colin extended the gaucho from 47″ to 56″ (which is almost queen size) as the original was a bit cramped:

Floor is in and looking good!:

Along with the beautifully refinished cabinets:

Rear of trailer (bath and toilet area). Note that GSM repainted the tub and toilet basin:

GSM did a really nice job of adding a Fantastic Fan into the trailer (the old fan worked but was loud and the new fan moves considerably more air volume)

The new Zolatone paint has been applied and what a difference:

Colin asked me a while back about adding a couple of neat features to the trailer while we had the belly skin removed. One was to add a receiver to the rear so that we could add a bike rack on the back of the trailer. The other was to add a receiver and a gas outlet to the curbside so that a gas stove could be attached on the outside. Was pretty reasonable as far as cost went and I gave the go-ahead. Colin sent some pictures today of each.

Rear receiver:

Grill receiver:

Attended the Florida State Rally in Sarasota Florida (went 2/23 & 2/24) – my first Airstream Rally; unfortunately we did not have our trailer (restoration still being finished by GSM). I was very impressed by the sheer numbers of Airstream trailers and motorhomes that were there (about 500) – it was a sea of aluminum. Not that many 50′2 & 60’s vintage units but the ones that were there were generally very nice.

One thing that really stood out to both my family and I was how unbelievably friendly everybody there was; really made us feel at home.

Bob and Bonny Herman showed off their beautiful 1964 Globetrotter:

One of the nicest trailer / tow vehicles combinations I was was this one of a 1962 Globetrotter and 1955 GMC Pickup tow vehicle owned by Hunt and Susan Jones:

I also loved this Caddy and trailer:

Not a good trailer for a family and not vintage but the new BaseCamp is one of the coolest trailers I have seen:

Colin sent some new pictures today.

The front custom storage box is almost done. We decided to do this because the cost of replacing the panel that the box is covering is close to the cost of building a custom box infront of it and we gain some storage space for chairs, toys, etc.

Colin sent some new pictures today – the end caps are in and some of the interior panels as well.

End caps going in:

Looking good: