Every time I looked at the Airstream, I wanted to immediately take the old, rusty a/c off.  I resisted doing it last fall (so there wasn’t a gaping hole all winter), but even though it’s now Spring and raining quite a bit, I just couldn’t hold myself back any longer.

Someone installed the a/c that was up there with about a million tiny screws (vs. rivets)  and a WHOLE lot of goo.  The installation included two aluminum “L” rails running the length of the a/c unit.  I’m not sure what they were for (condensation?), but to me they were just more garbage to remove.  I waited till the hottest part of the day and peeled back as much goo from where I could tell the screws were, and then unscrewed as many as I could.  I think I got pretty lucky, ’cause there were only about 4 that didn’t back out.  Those four I grabbed with a vice grip from below to turn, and once they were backed out enough, I grabbed them from above.

I probably should have waited and gotten some help from a friend to bring the a/c down, but I was on a rampage, so I just laid some old sleeping bags on the Airstream skin to avoid scratching anything, and then slid the unit over and down the rails of my ladder.  That thing was heavy.  I texted my dad a pic to show him how strong I am.

So what was left was a gaping hole and a lot of nasty goo (from the looks of it, silicone, latex, vulkem, and butyl tape).  I waited till the hottest part of the next day and scraped as much off as I could with a dull chisel (to avoid scratches).  Then I used Goof Off, a scotch brite sponge, a rough rag, and a brass wire brush on the end of my drill to remove a sufficient amount of what was left.  I didn’t go to town getting it spic ‘n’ span because I still don’t know what I’m going to do up there to finish things off (bubble sky light?  gunner’s touret?  sunbathing deck?), so I’ll wait until then to make things pretty.

Once the skin was cleaned up, E and I buck riveted all the screw holes closed.  I put a dab of TremPro 635 on each hole before setting the rivet, so I’m pretty confident that everything is water tight.

There were a couple screw holes that were actually “double drilled” (two holes right on top of each other, but simply putting two rivets right on top of each other seemed to do the trick (luckily you can’t really see this stuff from the ground).

Now I just have to decide what to do with the hole that’s left.  There’s a tiny chance that I’ll put a new, smaller a/c back on the roof, but I really like the clean look not having the a/c on the roof, and I’m considering installing a split on the tongue.  For camping this summer (in our friend’s yards), I’m actually just going to put a window unit in the access opening where the water heater used to be.

Oddly enough, the highly rated, *almost* EnergyStar (missed the mark by .1 points –so essentially EnergyStar rated without the upcharge) window unit I found is EXACTLY the same size as the hole that already existed for the old water heater.  How lucky is that?  I will be making a sliding system from heavy duty computer-rack sliding rails so the unit can simply slide out when we reach our destination, and then back in when we’re ready to go!  I’m not sure yet if this will be just an auxiliary unit to cool the bedroom and complement a “whole trailer” unit or if it will work (in tandem with some fans and perhaps even some ducting) to cool the whole Airstream.