[A/S] Looked at Excella

[Don Slack <supergdad@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Hunter and the group

I went to Tablerock Lake today and looked at the 34' 
Excella that I mentioned in a previous post.  The
markings on it are Airstream Classic, Airstream
Excella  and Classic 10 00.  It is in very good
condition, my former boss's wife was a High School
Home Ec. teacher and both of them kept it very good
except for a few concerns that I have.  It has not
been pulled much, most of the time it has been on  2
acre lot at the lake with boards under the wheels and 
steel boxes under the jack pads.

I have 3 concerns:

1.  The clear coat is peeling on body above the awning
line.  I know this is common on 93 models, is there a
temporary fix using a spray on finish, or just
continue to Walbernize it 2 or 3 times a year?

2.  The 6 Marathon tires are 7 or 8 years old, very
little tread wear and little visible checking.  Would
you trust them on trips?

3.  The oak cabinets over the dinette have a face
frame problem I have never seen before.  The vertical
stiles join to the horizontal rails with dowels and
glue.  I have built oak kitchen cabinets the same way
and never had a problem.  There are 4 vertical stiles,
the left and right end stiles are also fastened to
other cabinets.  They are holding position fine.  The
top horizontal rail seems to be tight against the
ceiling the way it should be.  The problem is that the
two stiles, left and right of center have pulled down
from the rail about 1/8 inch or more.  The dowels
show, and appears that either there was no glue or
little glue used on the joints.

I am wondering  if I could remove the dinette table,
place large wood board on the floor to spread the
load, put a 2x4 upright on my hydraulic jack, and
another 2x4 across under the bottom rail of upper
cabinet, the close the joint gap with pressure from
the jack..  While holding them in place maybe glue and
clamp some wood blocks on the back side to strengthen
the joint.  I would try to run some screws in from the
back side, if I couldn't do that I could set some
finish nails in from the front with my nail gun.

Any ideas, advice?  Has anyone seen this cabinet
problem before?

Except for these 3 concerns the coach looks good.

Don