[A/S] The saga,

[Wyomike <mikeylikesit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Howdy again folks,

Well, I'm still at it.  Making our '74 31' Sovereign into our own home. 
I got the screen door back in shape with a strap screwed over the break
and it closes well enough and unless you are looking at it with a
critical eye, one would never notice it.  I have been on the roof and
with care, it can be crawled around on safely.  The old sealer around
ALL the through roof fittings will need resealed, but here in country
where 5 inches of rain is considered a "wet" year, leaks are not a major
concern.  My loud buzzing Univolt has no switches and if I run the
in-house stereo (speakers in the walls) with any of the 12 volt lights
or equipment, the buzzing is amplified through the radio, so we listen
to the boom box running on the 110 V. (does that number date me?) We
can't stand it when the CD's stop playing, so mostly, we just run the
extension cord through the door and don't plug the trailer in.  I have
sent a check to the Vintage Airstream Club and am waiting for some kind
of number that will allow me to access their archives in hopes of
finding a good wiring diagram so I can see which wire to put a switch
on.
 As we have proceeded to check out our new (future) home, we were
delighted to find that the air conditioner works good.  Instant cold and
a hurricane force fan.  We were equally dismayed to find that after
sitting for all these years, the black water tank is full!  I know, we
should have checked first, but didn't.   I mean, we checked to see that
the valve opened and closed, but it's dark down there and we never shone
a light down and indeed, only gave it cursory attention, till I started
checking out the water system and noticed that the pump cycled real slow
when there were no faucets open.  It took a week of soaking with WD40
and prying and pulling and turning, to get the faucets to work at all. 
They were pretty well frozen up.  Anyway, I found that the automatic
toilet filler was working when I checked to see why the pump wouldn't
shut off.  Good thing I looked there because another minute or so and I
would have discovered it in a puddle on the floor.  So that's what had
me to look closer -- down there.  Now, before we continue with our
renovation work, I'll have to unblock it and haul it to a dump station
and probably use a high pressure cleaning stick to break up the sludge. 
Since Lake Havasu City is serviced almost exclusively by septic tanks
(yes! one for every home.  20 some thousand of them and more going in
every day.  The remedy is in the works) there are not many dump stations
around.  Will probably have to go to one of the state parks.  Oh well,
an excuse to go "camping" for a night or two.  The nearest park is in
town. 
Speaking of wiring diagrams, my first experience with fixing something
that was broke could have been more successful had I had one.  I
replaced the outside door latch which was broken.  The one I got was a
little larger than the one that was there, so I had to drill a couple of
new holes.  On the last hole, the power went off.  Flipping the breaker
in the cabinet in the bedroom restored the AC power, but It took some
wall pounding to get the DC to come back.  Of course the only way to get
to the problem spot was to take out all of the cabinets in the kitchen
and drill out some rivets in the wall next to the thru hull exterior AC
power outlet.  This, I discovered after taking out the said electrical
box and discovering that I couldn't get my hands between the walls to
feel for the wire I obviously drilled through.  I was only a few inches
short of being able to reach it.  I wasn't ready to take the kitchen
cabinets out yet, but it was on the list so I moved it up and did that. 
The trim material that covered the screws and rivets in the pillars was
too brittle to get out without breaking it up, and there were places
where I just couldn't get a screw driver or a drill, so I ended up
cutting a bit of wood out to get the shelf and drawers out.  I don't
think these components were meant to be removed by meddlers like me. 
But anyway, while I was doing this, I must have jolted something because
all of a sudden, I had lights and fans and a water pump.  I still
haven't opened up the wall yet.  To make matters worse, when I went to
rivet in the new door latch, I found that even tho I got the expensive
rotating head rivet tool, it wouldn't get in close enough to the edge of
the latch to allow me to rivet it so I had to use sheet metal screws. 
Grrrrrr!
Well, as usual I have taken the long way of getting around to asking for
some advise, but here it is.  My rebuilding/customzing has left me with
a yard full of parts.  The railing and parts from the front couch/bed,
the kitchen cabinets, the cabinet unit from over the refrigerator, and
soon, a few more cabinets.  I believe that for someone wanting to
restore or fix broken original pieces in an older Airstream, these parts
must have some value.  I would like to offer them for sale, but they are
not things that are easily shipped.  What I am trying to do is establish
their value and then locate someone who might want to purchase them. 
Any suggestions?  I know I can utilize classified ads to advertise them,
but how to determine their worth?  (I should have bid on those windows
on Ebay, but I was afraid I would win them and then be faced with
learning about replacing those nice round faced rivets that hold the
windows in!)

Hunter, you may want to edit this down a bit.  I just can't write any
other way, and a lot of this may not interest others or be pertinent to
my query.  It's probably a good thing that the non text parts of emails
are deleted, or I'd be sending pictures.  

Warmest regards to all.  I love coming home from work and seeing that
long list of postings in my Email.

Wyomike