Little Green Airstream
The green renovation of a vintage travel trailer
My next step was to address a problem with the frame of my Airstream. A couple of years ago when I’d first bought the trailer, I gave it a good cleaning and did a basic inventory of items that needed repair. One of the things I’d noticed was that the A-frame (consisting of the A-shaped steel members at the front of the trailer and the coupler that accepts...
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I returned to North Carolina for a third time to help my family with a project, and was excited that by the end of my two week stay, my new Airstream cushions would finally be finished! I knew that before I made arrangements for their final pickup, I needed to touch base with the upholsterer to check on progress, review final pricing, and make a progress payment to...
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My next move was to prepare the Airstream for a 5-to-6 hour drive upstate to professional restorer Colin Hyde. Colin had already placed an order for me for two new axles, and we’d discussed my bringing the trailer to him in early March to check out the systems & appliances and install my anti-sway hitch, among other things. But for the moment, my Trade Wind wasn’t technically “street...
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Once I’d found fabric and an upholsterer to make the new cushions for my vintage Airstream, I needed to place an order for the cushion filling. The original cushions had been stuffed with polyurethane foam, which was still a relatively new material in 1969, the year my trailer was manufactured. Polyurethane foam was (and is) inexpensive to produce. When it hit the market in the late ’50’s, it...
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