Steps to Take When Restoring a Vintage Airstream Part 5

As you look around at your vintage Airstream you should really be able to see it coming alive. Soon you will be able to look at your vintage Airstream and take pride in that you have accomplished. Just a little further to go before you can take her out and show her off.

This is one area were I figure you may or may not have gotten screwed. The refrigerator is a complicated appliance in a vintage Airstream. If it is working, great clean it up and move on to something else. In some cases you may have acquired your Airstream with a working refrigerator, in other cases you may not have. So lets look at the possibility that your does not work.

Your best bet in a situation like this is to try and get the thing fixed. If you take your refrigerator in to be fix and they tell you that it can not be fixed, then this is where you are sort of screwed and really in a pickle. I am going to try and help you that I can.

First off you can get a manual on your make and model and try and fix it yourself. This can prove to be complicated, time consumer and in the end just a waste of money and time. So unless you really want to do this, I suggest saving this for a last ditch effort.

Next you can go out to some salvage yards that have old vintage Airstream parts and see if they have a refrigerator that is running and that will fit into you refrigerator space. This can be time consuming but may very well pay off.

Another thing you can do is look for some replica refrigerators that are new but made to look like the old vintage refrigerators. I personally do not know where to find those but check your local yellow pages and the internet and you are bound to find something.

The last thing you can do is purchase a new travel trailer refrigerator for your vintage Airstream. The problem with this is that it may not fit into your preexisting refrigerator space. This will leave you having to modify your cabinets to get it to fit. But you wanted to customize your Airstream anyway, so this gives you one area where you can customize.

So we have gotten the refrigerator taken care of, now we need to move on to the stove. I mean you do want to be able to cook right? The first thing you need to do is to check and see if you stove is working? Are there any gas leaks? If you find that your stove is working and has no leaks, then just clean it and you are good to go.

On the other hand if you stove has leaks, then repair the areas that are leaking. If it doesn’t work at all or if parts of the stove do not work, then run a search on the internet for vintage appliances and find the search result that is local for you. You want to personally take your stove into someone, not ship it off.

Everything now seems to be in working order and your vintage Airstream is really looking sharp on the inside. You still have just a little further to go. You need to really customize your Airstream to make it all yours.

Last things that need to be done are the furniture upholstery, curtains and maybe some era specific products for decoration. Now you can let your imagination go.

Oh don’t for get to take care of the floors also. Those that I had told you to just leave sanded, you can now finish them up. You can lay some era specific carpeting down or stain them. The choices are only as endless as your imagination.

Search around on line and at swap meets for various vintage stuff to help you customize your vintage Airstream.

Now before you take her out and show her off, you need to polish up the outside. This is a major part in the restoration process. Polishing your Airstream is the last step you take but it is a very important step. So get out there and polish that Airstream up.

As one last note- Look on with pride at what you have now accomplished. Your vintage Airstream is now fully restored.

Companies you find vintage stuff from:

ReproDepot Fabrics:

They have a decent selection of vintage fabrics that you can use to create vintage curtains and reupholster you furniture with.

Barkcloth Hawaii:

They offer a wide selection of reproduction vintage tropical prints that you can use to create vintage curtains and reupholster you furniture with.

http://www.barkclothhawaii.com/

Gary Manufacturing:
This is a great site for coming up with vintage fabrics for you shower curtains.

http://www.garymanufacturing.com/products/Shower_Curtains.html