Our Vintage 1966 Safari Airstream Trailer Blog

Christmas gifts for the Airstream Fan!

2011-12-14T19:10:00.000-08:00

I put a list together of great gift ideas for Airstream enthusiasts on Squidoo! Here's a scale model of a vintage Bambi on the list!

Top 10 Christmas Gifts for Airstreamers and Airstream Trailer Fans

Click to see the Airstream Christmas Gift List

Everyone knows the wonderful Airstream travel trailers. There are a dedicated enthusiastic group of people who adore their Airstreams.

Vintage Airstreams are wonderful for restoration and nostalgic road trips. The brand new sleek, well appointed luxury Airstream trailers are a joy to behold.

Any one of these gifts below will be perfect for the Airstreamer you know and love!

We got our 1966 Airstream Safari Camper Trailer home!

2011-09-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

We couldn't name our vintage airstream camper trailer til we got her, but Rachel got home on Saturday supper time! For some reason the biblical names were sticking, Rebecca, Hanna et al.

A luxurious strawberry waffle breakfast in Guelph at Cora's, and we were off to the village of Arkell. Here's a quick picture of her at first sight in the POs driveway before the 2 hour drive home. Our 1966 Vintage Airstream Camper had been chained up and locked for safely and security! The POs knew we really wanted her and would be upset if she was gone when we got there.

We stopped in to meet Chris (a fellow Airstream forum member) just north of Durham about half way home. We had an awesome 3 hours taking airstream trailers. His shiny handsome Airstream Excella, Spencer, is undergoing major restoration and is more than half done now! We learned about sealing, polishing, wiring, frame-off restos, overall construction of vintage airstream trailers, frame separation (Rachel had a little), black water galvanized holding frame corrosion etc! Chris was so helpful and very complementary about our new Girl.

The actual drive how with our vintage airstream camper was uneventful, bearings had been greased, no cracks in the tires, though we did a quick run to Canadian tire before pickup for an emergency tire inflation kit, just in case.

We taped down any airstream compartment doors (and all were present on arrival except one near the water heater that was missing before!) and the back bumper flap was taped open so we could put a magnetic cheater light set on as we assumed none of Rachel's lights would work. We took all the duct and electrical tape and lights etc off the vintage trailer when we got back home. We didn't want the adhesive staining or going gooey and impossible to remove from the aluminum skin.

Nathan said it felt like we weren't even towing anything. The vintage airstream was so light and with no stone guard for the front window, he could see straight through, and see any traffic behind. Here's our vintage airstream camper behind the truck

Naming our Airstream Trailer

2011-09-11T10:39:00.000-07:00

Well, t-13 days now til we get our dear airstream trailer and counting, and we just spent over an hour looking of baby names for her. Do normal people do that?

We looked up Greek, Celtic, Norse, Roman gods and goddesses, greek and latin words for silver, shiny etc. We learned a few things, but as hubby says, we may have to wait til we get her before we can name her with something that suits.

On the shortlist is Venus, the shining planet and roman Goddess of Love Beauty and Fertility.

Top joke name for now is Pandora what are we going to open up when we start the restoration? I don't think we could call her that anyway (boxes or otherwise) or I could only think of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4.

And did you know speculum was latin for Mirror? And we learned all sorts of other useless stuff! I suggest you try the baby name lists too, they are interesting to say the least! Maybe we should try pet names next....

Vintage Airstream Trailer Serial Number & Airstream Dealer & Approved Sealer Information

2011-08-23T21:47:00.000-07:00

So the Vintage Airstream Safari's serial number is J-0226117. J means the trailer was built at the Ohio Airstream plant. 0 means it is a Land Yacht. 22 refers to the Model number or length of trailer in feet. 6 means the trailer was built in 1966. And 117 is the real number of our Vintage Airstream honey!

I am am excited to restore the trailer and it looks like waterproofing, replacing seals, gaskets and maybe removing the interior is first up. I looked up Airstream RV Dealers in Ontario for possible parts/materials and there are two. One in London and one in Ottawa.

CAN-AM RV CENTRE
6068 Colonel Talbot Rd, PO Box 370
London
ON, N6P 1R1
CANADA
Telephone: (519)652-3284
Website: www.CanAmRV.ca
Sales, Service, & Parts

LEISURE MART & RV CANADA CORP
2098 Prince of Wales Dr
Ottawa
ON, K2E 7E5
CANADA
Telephone: 613-226-8228
Website: www.rvcan.ca
Sales, Service, & Parts

I think we may be ordering some heavy duty Airstream approved sealers (parbond and Vulkem), gaskets and adhesives in the near future as normal household silicone will not cut it for sealing aluminum skin on airstream trailers.

I realised yesterday when reading this awesome and comprehensive thread on sealing Airstreams on Airforums that it was going to be me caulking the Safari, as I am the more precise workman out of the two of us! No biggie, I think it'll be more work getting the old materials off first, then cleaning the surfaces properly.

A month today we get her in our clutches. Still no name yet!

22 Foot Twin Safari Land Yacht.....of our very own

2011-08-21T05:44:00.000-07:00

We drove down Highway 6 to Guelph in clear sunny weather yesterday with a quick stop at Timmies in Hepworth for sustenance. We took a look at the aluminum beauty and think the outside was in amazing shape, in our inexperienced opinions.

The Safari 22 airstream trailer had hardly any dings or dents, we thought the trailer body would look older or more used than it did on the outside. It almost looked new, especially from the back. The actual carriage is 19 feet long but the 22 comes from the extra 3 feet for the tongue.

There was a couple of small shallow surface scratches on the road side back corner about 4 feet off the ground, and one small 2" ruck on the left side of the tongue. I can't wait to see her all polished up.

The previous owners had the airstream rv 11 years, and bought it near London, from the 2nd owner and he had it out in a field. The trailer is under trees now. I think still had the top coat. Property is sold Sept 30th and they are going to live in the boat they've built.

The owners took out stove and kitchen when they got the airstream trailer as it was "not working" and full of mice! We think a smaller nice custom galley would work for us anyway, no stove just a cook-top, fridge, sink. The Suburban furnace is gone, no big loss, as it was a recalled item anyway.

All the windows, doors, covers are there and work, one window near the door (on right of out from outside) leaks if they open it so they leave it closed. It's been a weekend trailer camper in one location for 10 years and they seemed to know it intimately, nice folks.

They showed us the area of punky wood by the door, floor was painted plywood and looked and sounded good overall. Didn't find any rot elsewhere, 'cept there was an area on the bathroom floor that looked more rippled too right near the shower, so am sure it will need to be redone. No signs of stains on ceiling or around windows.

Inside the compartments was great even the fridge vent one. Chimney goes out through the old fridge vent, they said the cover was fibreglass and cracked so they don't have it anymore.

The roof vents are seized, just in the last year or two, not sure if taking apart and cleaning the workings might help with that. They were intact otherwise.

End wall of bathroom was nice looking wood, otherwise it was wide open in there with the original bench across from where the galley was.

It looked like surface rust on chassis, back part near bumper had like an aluminum wrap around the frame and one small area of the aluminum layer looked corroded, but the metal showing underneath was solid just surface rust from what we could see.

We'd read about the trailer doesn't bounce, the axle rubber is dried and solidified and it seemed to be bouncy enough. We are still prepared to replace if we have to. No cracks in the tires which are older, all hold air even the spare, original chrome hubcaps on the tires too.

So no matter what the airstream needs inside, we thought as these don't come up often in Ontario and the great shell condition, lovely size for us that it may be beginners luck. We may not see any airstreams as nice for some time, so we went ahead. I think if something else "better" comes up we could get our money back if we don't mess with the trailer too much, but after reading and researching, this looks perfect for us, the style we like and a great size and beautiful too!

After we said we'd go ahead, they told us they'd had a ton of emails (about 15) and 4 people telling them call them as soon as you can if they (us) don't want it. They were happy to wait for us to come as we were the first reply. We trust them not to sell the airstream out from under us, we weren't sure til we got there and met them. Both groups have had it happen before where you go with the money, it’s all agreed and they sold it to someone else who skipped the queue, so I feel reassured. They wrote up an official receipt for the deposit with serial number etc and we feel pretty happy, and lucky.

We have been browsing the original owners manual they gave us and feel like new airstream owners now! Serial number is J-0226117

We are excited to begin the "can of worms" adventure. We pick her up on around 24th Sept and I will be posting lots of pics then! I am looking forward to any comments or insights on a project like this if you have them ;-)

I-phone pic sorry for the quality. Along the road side of the Airstream, the door does close right up, it was not shut properly there and they had keys etc for all the doors/compartments.

1966 Safari 22 Vintage Airstream trailer in Guelph - Kijiji Treasure

2011-08-20T20:11:00.000-07:00

On the weekend we have plans to see what is billed as a 1966 Safari 22 Project, it is just over 2 hours away in Guelph. I think we are first in line as we replied less than 5 minutes after it was listed!

"this is a project trailer...much of the furniture has been removed. There is a closet and one pull out couch/ double bed. The aluminum inside and out and the glass is in good condition. most systems are missing, has electrical wiring, holding tank and hot water tank(not sure if it works). Bathroom is intact but tired. We have the original owners manual and the ownership (it is currently licenced)."