MAGNETIC ORGANIZER FOR THE AIRSTREAM INTERSTATE

It's still a shirt-soaking inferno in southeast Texas, so we are still doing DIY projects instead of taking weekend trips.  While northern folk bemoan the coming winter, we exult over our impending freedom from the crushing heat of summer (93 degrees as I write this and as we head into the final week of September).  The cold fronts are coming, the cold fronts are coming...

Get out the RVs.  Finally.  

One of the users on the Air Forums WDYGFYTT thread inspired me to finally figure out the construction of the magnetic organizer that I have wanted to install behind the driver's seat in our mid-bath model Airstream Interstate.  In one or two other Air Forums threads, we had previously bemoaned the lack of magnet-friendly surfaces in the Interstate, and I finally got around to doing something about it.  Here's the project build sequence, with two caveats.

This is the sheet metal product I used, but I offer this suggestion:  Get a sheet of slightly heavier gauge steel if you want your magnets to have better staying power.  The product spec tab says this is 30 gauge (0.32 mm), and it was all that was available in our local store.  The smaller sheets sold by Home Depot cite 28 gauge (0.40 mm), and that might be better for both rigidity and magnet holding power, supposing you can find it in larger sizes.   Gauge chart here. 

The side wall of the Interstate is curved, so I did my usual thing in templating with butcher paper. 

Pushing the pencil into the seam.  If you do this, it will likely make a template that is about a quarter of an inch wider than what you really need.  We had to trim ours down.  

Tracing from the paper template onto the sheet metal.  That familiar Sprinter T1N body curve.  

We made the cut using sheet metal shears (masking tape added for scratch prevention), but there are probably other ways to do it.  You must be careful with sheet metal this thin, because it is very easy to put unsightly bends, dents, and kinks in it.  Again, I think a slightly heavier gauge would be better for the project.   

And there is the money shot, installed with 6 stainless steel screws (corners and middle on each side).  I have not yet optimized the magnetic array on it yet, but you get the idea from the way I've staged it here.  What was formerly unused space now has a purpose.  Most importantly, it doesn't look home-made.  I intentionally designed it such that the top edge of the metal is in a line with the top edge of the aluminum facing on the wet bath door (the aluminum and the galvanized steel don't look appreciably different).  That way it almost looks as if it wraps around the corner of the wet bath, as if Airstream had originally installed it that way.  

This is where I plan to keep my magnetic do-done list - right behind the driver's seat (see this post for creation instructions).  When I turn around to grab the seat belt, there's the list staring right back at me.  It, too, is held on using magnets.

The other caveat I will add is that the larger the surface area of any given magnet or magnetic device, the better I've found they perform in a moving vehicle. Counter-intuitively, those magnetic spice tins (which I will use for spare fuses and other small odds 'n' ends) that you see in the photo above, the spice tins with their bottom-covering sheet magnets, hold much more securely than their stronger but smaller neodymium counterparts.

You can see in that close-up photo above that the screws we used to attach this fitted sheet metal piece are reminiscent of Airstream's rivets.  Once again, stylistic consistency is one of the keys to having any given DIY project turn out well.