The old saying goes, “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” Nothing illustrates this principle better than the sad saga of our Airstream ceiling fan. When the fan malfunctioned, we first entrusted our Airstream to a local RV service center. It wasn’t an official Airstream dealership because the nearest such business is located far away from our hometown. This was a local place that specializes in RV storage and repairs. But still, we’re talking about a simple ceiling fan here. What could go wrong? Right?
After keeping the unit some three weeks, we got our baby back. Not only was the fan still in a state of disrepair, but the RV service guys damaged our roof! Apparently an employee walked on the aluminum portion of our Airstream’s roof end cap, which is a major no-no. Aluminum stretches, and once bent it does not return to its exact previous shape. This was kind of like taking your car to a place for an oil change, and having them destroy your engine.
The service guys offered to repair the damage, but quite frankly we didn’t trust them anymore. Sure, they might be able to fix the roof. But what else would they wreck in the process?
Thankfully, Kristy’s father Harry has the knowledge and skill to repair just about everything ever created by human hands. As you’ll see in the video, Harry has almost restored our Airstream to its original condition. The roof looks about as good as possible. The only way to repair this sort of damage 100% is to literally remove the aluminum roof panels (risking future leaks, etc.) and replace them with new panels — an expensive and time-consuming process. I think we can live with it now, as the indentation is scarcely noticeable. If you didn’t know about it, you’d never notice it.
As for the ceiling fan? We’ve made progress, but the fan still refuses to spin. Harry isolated the problem to a faulty switch. Note that the professional service guys never reached any such conclusion. In fact, they appeared to just replace one part, slap the pieces back together, and then surrender. Stay tuned, because unlike the “professionals,” we’re not giving up.
Special thanks to Harry for all of his help with our RV…and everything else he’s managed to fix!
How can I get an mp3 of your “starting Seemore” sound?
Mark, I’ll be happy to email you an MP3. I love that sound. 😎
I love you guys! You are adorable!I live f/t in my 31 foot Zepplin and love it. I am a sun chaser and travel with my 2 dogs from here to there and back again. Buy a house…never! You Honeymoon would be my dream! Now to find a man!
Hi Bri! Keep on chasing the sun. Once you find the right guy, fulltime a while with him. You will quickly learn if he is really the right guy! Our time together on the Airstream has really bright us closer — in every way imaginable, ha ha… Cheers and thanks for posting! 😀
I love this one, it cracks me up, I was laughing so hard i almost cried!
Thanks Laura! Maybe we’ll run this one on RV.net sometime soon. I could do an entire feature film on the saga of our Airstream roof! 😆
that would be good, hey tell your father in law that I have a couple dents he can come fix LOL 😆
He really can fix anything! I think that someday we may refresh our Airstream bathroom (new wallpaper, etc.). That would be blog-worthy…
AH HA!!! The mystery of the roof dent is solved!!! The RV repair place sure made a mess of your roof with the duct tape and residue!!!
Oh…and Harry I like the Glenn Campbell hairdo………LOL
Ray
Harry is the man! He did a great job fixing the dent. A lot of people said that you can’t suction repair Airstream dents, but we managed to do so…
Sean……check out this dent repair technique! I do not know if it will work on an Airstream…………but could it hurt???
http://www.flixxy.com/paintless-dent-car-repair.htm
Ray
Ray, that’s fascinating! Looks like it works by rapidly expanding and contracting the metal — brilliant idea! Our old dent is in pretty good shape at the moment, but I would be willing to give this a shot. If it works, I’ll post video. 🙂
A lot of people told me “you can’t suction out a dent of an Airstream because it’s made of aluminum, and aluminum stretches.”
But we suctioned the Airstream dent and it worked very well. Is it PERFECT? No, but it’s very good considering the circumstances.
Hmmmm, now I want to try the hot/cold technique on a car…