Our love for Airstream has a really long history. We've been one of their admirers for several years, but due to too many concerns, we were reluctant to buy one for many years. One day, though, we decided we just had to put that fear to rest. After all, we only live once, and everyone's dreams should come true. So we threw down our barriers and went for it with determination.
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Last updated 24. 2. 2023
Choosing an Airstream caravan on the European market is no easy task. It’s probably not too surprising, since the history of these motorhomes is closely tied to the United States. So after a few weeks of searching in Europe, we slowly started looking elsewhere. We searched directly on the American classifieds and waited for this beauty to smile at us one day.
And it did. We started to negotiate about buying it and to tune how to get it to the Czech Republic. It wasn’t easy, but thanks to friends and acquaintances, after a couple of weeks we finally managed to do it. We then spent long days enjoying its beauty and started to gradually work out how to get it back into shape.
The renovation work on the Airstream was one big joy for us. It didn’t take too long and in a few weeks we were done. Since the Airstream is a treasure of our time, we couldn’t underestimate anything and consulted all our steps in advance with leading experts who had experience in renovating these caravans in the past. It is true that there are not many of them in the Czech Republic, but fortunately we managed to find some of them.
And what did we actually do together with them? What did we have to look out for? Well, there was a lot. We had a brand new chassis, brakes, turn signals and we also renovated the interior cladding. We completely redid the kitchen and living area. We changed the wiring, lighting and sockets, and all the glass was replaced.
It was also a necessity of the day to register the Airstream with the authorities, which of course we did. You know, the bureaucracy is so tedious nowadays, so we had to devote several days to it. Running here, running there. Annoying, but if we wanted to achieve our goal, we had to go through it.
Of course, during the whole renovation, we didn’t forget about the necessary protection, because, as we know, Airstreams are made of aluminium metal, so we need to think about that. So of course, goggles, gloves and a respirator to protect our respiratory tract were a must.
All of our work then began with a careful sanding of the Airstream trailer. The sanding was done in two stages, first with 400 and 600 grit sandpaper. In terms of the chosen technique, we opted for cross-sanding, so we moved the sander first from top to bottom and then from left to right.
We always tried to sand the desired square, which made the whole sanding process a little easier. We also changed the sandpaper regularly. We used up a lot of these during our work, so we also recommend that you stock up on several of them in case of similar issues, as they can be easily and relatively quickly used.
The polishing phase was next, which threw our little darling into a real pickle. We therefore used the much-praised Dewolt polisher, which has about 3,500 rpm. The first polishing phase relied on an orange disc with green paste, which we applied by holding it against the disc for about two to three seconds. The second polishing stage was then through the yellow disc with yellow paste.
Finally, of course, we polished off our beautiful Airstream with MetalPolish, which we applied to the entire layer of our Airstream.
Airstream Caravan Renovation - Sanding and Polishing (Part 1)
Airstream Caravan Renovation - Windows, Doors, Sprayers (Part 2)
Airstream motorhome renovation - sheet metal, wiring, interior lights (part 3)