So, given that the walls were aluminum, but full of unsightly holes and overlaps with sharp edges and covered with a yucky residue, what were we going to do? That was the BIG QUESTION which occupied many sleepless nights. We looked at vinyl at the fabric store – could we spray adhesive it on? Could we buy sheet aluminum? (The craftier Airstream renovators seemed to do that.) What about that fake tin ceiling stuff? How would that look? Maybe we could strip and sand the walls and paint them? What about buying a real wood veneer? (Found a great website selling it.) Everything had negatives. The vinyl would show all the bumps, aluminum is expensive and any mistake would cause catastrophic remorse, sanding didn’t seems like a great idea, the curves would distort the patterns in the fake tin ceiling stuff, and real wood veneer would be sure to crack at the slightest pressure on an uneven surface. What to do, what to do? (You think like this in the middle of the night – when most major decisions are made.)
The answer for us was luan, a wonderful product introduced to me by Max’s Dad – another Max. I’d used it before to mouseproof cottage cabinets, so it was always a big hit with me. It’s actually a laminated wood that is thinner and smoother than plywood. (Sometimes it is spelled lauan.) It’s about 1/8 inch thick, so bends fairly easily – a big issue with the curvy Airstream. And, it can be easily painted. I am a huge fan of high gloss oil based paint which would give it a smooth, hard, washable surface. (I know I’m supposed to love latex, but I just can’t. It’s always so gloppy and the gloss is so dull.)
We decided a two-tone look – upper pale green (it looks yellow in the photo, but it is really a nice soft green) and lower pale blue (shades of the powder blue carpeting!). Knowing that we could not fashion pieces from measurements because of the curves, we made templates using craft paper and freezer paper, putting seams at places that seemed reasonable. They did have significant arcs where the corner curves are. Then we placed the templates on sheets of luan – really cheap stuff – (and a shout-out to the nice gentleman in the parking lot at Lowes who helped me load a couple sheets into my Ford Escape which wasn’t really large enough for them!) and cut them out with a Skil Saw. The system I finally used was to prime them before cutting them, then cut them and then paint them (2 coats) with a good sanding between each coats. There is still a grain visible, but overall it is a great look. Here is photo showing the middle of the project.
You can see the pieces of luan cut out and ready to install. We found that it was a 2 person job to bend the luan. The one on the left of the picture cracked when Max tried to put it in place. We tried to strengthen the cracked place by gluing a piece behind it, but then it just cracked along the edge of the support. So, we had to do a whole new one. We had to push them in just a little, brace them (a paint bucket works well), then leave them overnight, then a little more, etc., until finally we were able to push them into the curve and secure them with screws.
After we got the luan in place, (and it does snug behind the cabinets nicely), we used aluminum threshold from Lowes for a divider trim. Max attached it with tech screws - it already is pre-drilled. It cuts easily with a hacksaw for the curves where it meets the window trim.This is the "master bedroom" portion of the Airstream, showing the walls of the storage area under the bed still aluminum. (I later painted the floor white!)
And to the right is the "great room" section of the Airstream.
The "interior" walls, were painted in place. Behind the dinette we removed the old fabric (the U-shaped trim piece can be pulled off with gentle persuasion - it just has tiny nails in the bottom of the U holding it in place) and where there was vinyl we sanded it and painted over it (discovered it was better to skip the primer on this). Thus, see the bathroom sink area below.
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