You may have seen our sneak peak where we unveiled that we just purchased a new to us 1987 Avion 32S. We have dove right in getting to our punch list. The weather here in upstate NY still is not great (3rd wk in April and still in the 40s-50s). Thankfully for us (but not on the pocketbook) we have secured an additional RV garage bay 3 doors down from our 1973 (which is coming on for sale soon!)
The biggest “change” we have done so far in the last 12 days is the total switch out of the original cabinet hardware throughout the trailer which was a combination of off white porcelain and brass tone pulls and updating it with a new look that to us seems to go with the quintessential look of our all aluminum trailer. Before doing this switch out, I wiped down every cabinet inside and out applied Howard’s Restor-A-Finish to every piece of woodwork, doors, cabinet and closet fronts, then followed up with Howard’s Feed N’ Wax which not only makes the wood “pop” but also protects it with a non sticky wax finish. (I have placed a video from the Howard company in some additional details below)
See what you think!
You will notice that we found we HAD to re-purpose the original oval ended backplates because there was no way we could circumvent the fade and marks that they made. So Kevin had the awesome idea of spray painting them the hammered pewter finish we have used before. Below is after Kevin had by hand soaking in paint stripper, then stripper neutralizer, then green scrubbied them and finished with a steel toothbrush, then sprayed on primer. Here is our parking lot “clothes line”!
So we used the Rustoleum Hammered Aluminum (light version) to give it “the Pewter Palace look” and then installed the new brushed stainless modern handles for a clean updated look (Thanks to daughter Sarah for her #1 vote on the handles!). The handles were found at Lowes in stock, in store just under $7 each- great quality!
Below you can see why we could not go with just the handles, but needed the backing plate. By the way, this is also before I applied the Feed N’ Wax.
The finished job in the kitchen! We are so very thrilled with the way it looks and functions! We like the traditional “hammered pewter” with the modern sleek brushed aluminum handles- a melding of old world…and new!
IN CASE YOU ARE INTERESTED IN READING MORE….
Other things we have finished on our punch list between April 14 (delivery day) to 26th, 2020.
All draperies, pillow covers removed and dry cleaned. Although they were not really dirty and former owner thankfully was a non-smoker- we just figured easier to start with a fresh baseline. The curtains had been custom made just 2 years ago. There is a lot of curtaining and I am not sure I will keep it all. In fact, I know i will be moving the beige kitchen curtains to the rear bedroom because of the pattern and color schemes of our current bedding and German decor. Plus some of the curtain valances really needed pressing too to just look perfect! 40LBS of curtains, bedding, pillow covers came with our trailer…yikes that is a lot of weight!
All cabinetry doors and wood walls have been treated and fed with Howard’s Restor-A-Finish (cherry in kitchen, Maple-Pine elsewhere). Wow…what a difference- the woodwork quality in Avion’s is second to none! Then everything was treated with a coating of Howard’s Feed N’ Wax. Check out their video!
Mattresses refreshed: the mattresses have been Febreez’d, and set out in the sunshine during 4 sunny days (not every day was warm…but they were sunny! The zippered mattress covers machine washed and came out great! The mattresses had been custom made. Due to the rear twin bed configuration, the twin beds are curved at the foot on one side to align with the curve of the rear of the Avion (Airstreams do the same thing). The mattresses are an excellent coil quality, soft pillow top and only 2 yrs old from MattressInsider.com (tags still on) -so we are keeping them.
Mirrors all cleaned. Some of the mirrors are glass, others (living room and bathroom) are highly polished stainless steel which is great because they are much lighter and will not break…ever!
Breathable Beds are important: Kevin drilled some additional vent holes in the tops of the bed’s wooden platform/storage covers. We also took the fiber vent pads from our old Avion (also from MattressInsider.com) and trimmed them to fit the “new curve”!
Dining table rehab: we took off the hardware for drop down to bed dinette table. Used same hammered aluminum spray paint to cover over rusty areas, and reinstalled table. Looks great now!
Wiped down and cleaned all interior walls and ceiling: For this cleaning I have found the best results are from either using a Mr. Clean Eraser sponge with (green) Fabuloso cleaner, diluted per their instructions or for stubborn areas I use GoJo textured hand cleaning wipes. These things are truly amazing and we use them on a lot of projects-besides being great hand cleaner wipes when working with grease, paint, etc. etc.
Window projects to date: Kevin has lubricated all the window cranks, removed interior window screens and ewe have begun repainting frames with black satin Rustoleum spray paint. Washed all the interiors of windows.
The wonderful hallway double cedar closet wardrobe has been refreshed with Colton’s Cedar Spray (all natural and not a strong scent) to bring back its great qualities to repel moths and keep clothing fresh. Neat thing we found was that Avion was so quality in their thinking that there are tabs that pull down a wooden cover with rubber gasket that goes over each clothing bar when traveling, thereby preventing the proverbial clothing hangers landing on the floor and clothes in a jumbled mess!
Original 1987 pull down shades get a bath: I have decided to retain the original pull down fabric shades that are in the kitchen/dinette area, over the sofa and in the bedroom. I HAVE removed the chic “mauve and pink” woven decorative trim though! Ha ha! I will need to replace some trim with something more to my decor in the kitchen and living room though because when these were originally made the trim was sewn and glued in place and the glue is so embedded and aged golden that it must be covered over. The bedroom ones were far easier, those I was able to just cut off the original fabric scalloped tier to leave simply just a very decent off-white linen woven-look shade which will look just fine. All of them got the “hot tub” treatment in our apartment bath tub with a hefty amount of Oxi-wash and Tide. Check out that dirty water! In defense of former owner, he had heavy black out curtains made and I suspect never really used these in the past 8 years he owned the trailer.
Well, that should do it for our aching backs, but so worth it for the first 12 days of ownership. We are really pleased with how things are going. Now that it stays light longer we have been able to get over the RV “carriage barn” after I finish working each day (remotely of course due to Covid-19 Pandemic) and the past two weekends.
Our goal is to have the interior completely knocked out and finished by end of next weekend so we can move all of our gear out of the 1973 and get her up for sale! Then we will start on our 32S exterior punch list so stay tuned!
Bye for now, be well, stay healthy and safe!
Kevin & Luisa Sherman
ThePewterPalace-Our Love Affair with Avions 
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