Shrek Ears???... You Tell Me!

Staying with my plan to tackle all the outside seams and fixtures that need new caulk and sealing I replaced the vent covers with snazzy, new silver vent covers. When I first showed off my '65 Tradewind to a local owner of the same year/model, he looked at my sad, black PVC vents and said "You know, you can get nice silver covers for those from Vintage Trailer Supply"! I have been thinking and dreaming about them for the past 1 year. I honestly thought that I would wait because there are a few more important things to replace on the unit. But with my shift in mindset this spring, deciding to get the roof in tip top shape, even the little things matter. So in my research online I was surprised to learn that the covers are under $9 each. So replacing the 3 that I need isn't a budget breaker. I will mention that one of my vent stacks was missing the cover completely and could allow water to come in (which may be why my shower drain always has water in the drain line, now that I think of it). The other two just had a horrendous amount of caulk around the base and they really looked pretty bad. They looked a bit "Frankenstein-ish" with all the caulk in bumpy, hap hazard way. As I do with most my projects, my research includes going out to the hive minds of the forums I belong to. I also gave a real shout out to another owner of same year/model who live in VT and have totally renovated their trailer. They are super supportive and provide excellent details when I have more questions. I am not a person who likes surprises. In one of the more general string of comments when I was looking for a visual (I am also a very visual person) a fellow AS renovator warned me of "Shrek Ears" and said he just had to learn to live with it because he liked the covers over the original black PVC popping out. At the back are 2 vents, one on either side and depending on how tall you are, I guess they can look like Shrek ears...you tell me!

Not sure what I am talking about, here are some of the basic steps I took for replacement.

One person offered that he added screen mesh to the underside of the vents to keep bugs out. I don't know if this is a big deal or not considering they are just vent stacks but I don't want to skip this step and find out later that I should have done this prior to install. So I purchased a small roll of aluminum wire screen and just cut a piece to shape the top where the vent is open below the cap. I know the vent stack will overlap and sit inside this opening so I didn't even bother securing it to the underside of the vent.

First vent to work on, the one with the missing cover. The metal base plate is already removed and I am scrapping away all the old caulk, best I can.

Two of the vents had half rounds as lids so I had to saw them off. Then I had to remove the caulk, drill out the rivets of the original oval metal base and clean up the area from any old caulk. I had to work with a razor blade and my other special tools to get off all the gunk.

 I cut 3 circles the diameter of the vents and cut a cross shape in the center so I could put this over the vent stack. This is an adhesive, waterproof tape used in repairing gutters. I decided to leave the rubber gaskets around each pipe even though they are starting to deteriorate. I was going to remove them and just caulk but I think they help keep the pipe in the center of the hole and will protect the pipe from vibration during transit. Everything I am reading about two parts against one another mentions the need for a rubber gasket, so I am keeping this in place and adding this aluminum sticky collar to help shed any water should it get under the base.

 I trimmed down each circle 1/2" so that I could caulk this edge and find the holes for my screws.

 Here is the Vulkem caulk around the base and outer edge of the rubber gasket.

 Here is the aluminum circle secured on top of the Vulkem and pressed down flat all the way around to form a tight seal.

 I used Vulkem again around the edge of the aluminum circle and made sure to hit the bottom of each "V" up the pipe stand and also placed and extra blob where each screw is going.

Looking down, it looks wrinkled but is actually very flat. I was much better by the third one.

Vulkem oozed out the screw holes.

 Vulkem around the base and around each screw, just in case. I did use stainless steel screws as that is also been etched in my brain as the fastener of choice for obvious reasons. I have small set screws on my windows that all need to be replaced as they are not stainless and leave a distinct rust ring for each screw, it is very noticeable.

 Looking from the top down on it. I am short and once the cover was on, even standing at the very top of my ladder, I had to take a picture to see it I had good coverage of caulk. Because of all the seams that this one touches, I had to spin my new cover around so that my screws would not hit any existing rivets. I used a pencil to mark on the outside, little arrows to show where my screw holes would be lined up.

 New cover, looking good, I think!

 A possible Shrek ear toward the back, hmmm.

 The third one, I got better and quicker on this last one!

 Looking down the roof at the two that are in line on the street side.

 From the ground they are actually kind of small even though the new covers are larger than the original black PVC pipe. I think the silver looks better and these covers do have a more retro, vintage look.

Before shot - Can you see the black PVC vent pipes here? They are just 2 black dots on the aluminum profile.

 This one looks pretty good, too and now that it has a proper cap.

 An addition to my collection of "original parts not using, keeping for now".

So Shrek ears or not, I am smiling just like him for a job completed and a good project for me to test the waters and gain some skills learning how to attach things to aluminum. I think because my rear vents are not in line with each other, I don't really see the Shrek ears thing happening but it will be stuck forever in my head and you can be sure that I will be checking out other Airstreams for their Shrek ears, at least I don't see a Frankenstein mess. And now I bet you will be as well because it is a hard visual to loose once it gets in your head. On to the next project with this trailer renovation!