More Work. Nothing Done...

Here we are again. I have done a ton of work on the trailer lately but nothing really done. I really want to keep up on the blog regardless. If I fall too far behind it takes forever to update this thing. Resizing pictures, uploading pics, writing stupid and poorly written comments... It all takes time. Enough complaining. Let's get to it then...

Where to start? I removed the curbside rear skin to see the horror. And really it wasn't that bad. I was surprised...

The back lower corner has a bit of rot. Nothing horrible or nothing that can't be fixed...

There is some more rot in the wheel well area...

All of this is getting replaced of course.

I removed the wheels and had the tires removed from the rims at a local shop so I could pay the rims some attention. As you can see from the picture above it is still wearing the Chrysler caps the PO had put on it. One was destroyed when it went flying off on the highway during the initial recovery. I had assumed that both wheels were the same. Not so. One was a older rim and one a slightly newer replacement according to my local shop. I don't know why but I didn't care. I needed to find a spare so maybe I could find a match to one of the two wheels. More on that later...

The hubs/drums look decent. Just need a cleaning...

When we towed it home I noticed a scraping noise in the wheels. I thought maybe the brakes were too tight or something. No. I pulled off the drums and found the brake tension adjuster (?) and spring were riding free inside the hubs. This was actually on both sides. I don't know if they had just adjusted them all the way out (to free up the brakes) and that caused them to come off? I don't know. I honestly don't know much about brakes. I will have to fix it if we plan to use the brake system...

I am also ordering new bearings, races, and seals which normally wouldn't be horrible but some of the numbers on the parts I have don't match up to some of the parts like eTrailer.com. Trying to figure out if I can get all the parts from just one place. Frustrating.

Another frustration is the fact that I can't seem to get 1/8 birch plywood anywhere in the Madison, WI area. Everyplace tells me they have to order it but the supplier is out of stock. One place in McFarland told me they could have 4'X8' sheets by the end of next week. Then I get the call today that he was wrong and I can't get it until June. WTF?!? I called 5 places the day I ordered. Looks like I have to make more calls to track this stuff down. I really didn't think it was going to be this hard. I really need it to have it on hand when I reach this part of the restoration. That won't be June. Again... frustrating.

Back to the resto...
I started sanding down the frame and coupler area to get it ready for primer and paint...

I started doing the bumper also. There was 3 or four layers of paint on both the coupler and bumper. I had to do paint stripper twice...

Then I realized that the skin was getting in my way. I was going to pull this anyway so it isn't the biggest deal to do this. Here it is pulled. I see the street side corner had a nasty leak and there is quite of rot on that side. You can see the first coat of primer on the coupler also...

One of my side projects was to clean up the door trim. On some parts there was a thick layer of gritty oxidation. I quickly wets anded the parts with 600 grit to get rid of most of the grit. Then I shined it up a bit with the Mother's Polish by hand. Here is the shot of the main door hinge...

I also pulled the fridge vent access door. This was REALLY oxidized on the inside. I'm not sure if this was from hot exhaust air from the refrigerator or what? It took me a while to cut through the scale. It didn't turn out to bad...

Another side project is to figure out the door lock situation. We had a broken outside handle on our trailer. One of the VSTF members named "Flyingham" donated a outside lock assembly so I could fix what I have. I also ran across and bid on a  L-66 on eBay. I think I ended up getting a decent deal on it. The auction ended and I was surprised I had won. So here is the lineup. The top one is the donated half from Ham. Next is our original lock. Other than the broken handle, I never really though this looked that bad. Wow. Put it next to the  eBay lock and it looks like crap...

Here is the locks taken apart and given a vinegar bath to remove rust on some of the pieces...

All of the parts out of the pool, cleaned up with steel wool. I should be able to make at least one really decent lock out of all these parts...

But... I haven't done it yet. So many things...so little time. I have more info but I'm tired so I will save it for later...

Stay tuned for more.

I Win...

I win. I have finally defeated what was quickly becoming my nemesis. The front window. What a pain that was. A ton of parts to sand and polish. All of these parts start to look alike and confusion sets in. Rivets that were set, drilled out, and reset because of not paying attention. A lot of time was put into this beast. I do want to thank Molly for her help with setting the rivets.

It can be done. You can redo these things but you must be armed with determination, patience, and a whole arsenal of cuss words. Sorry for the crummy pictures in our dark basement but here it is...

Back to my real job for a bit...Stay tuned for more.
 

A Little Bit Of Everything...

Ahhh... Where do I begin?

There has been a lot of things in progress but nothing completed. Just a bunch of started projects. I thought I would dump a bit here as to not get too far behind on the blog. Lets get to it...

Late last year I started to strip the floor of the original tiles that were covered with cheap linoleum. This project has been a pain. Of course it was stopped shortly before putting up the shelter and never picked back up because the weather quickly went to crap Wisconsin weather mode. I did find some rot near the main door when I removed the flooring. I also removed the front dinette benches and realized that the dinette structure was holding the wall near the door in place. Now that the bench structure is gone the wall moves freely. This means there is considerably more rot in the wall that will have to be addressed later. Here is the damage to the plywood floor and the wood directly under the threshold...

You can also see in that picture that there is no door trim. Now that the trailer is under wraps I can freely open it up. I pulled off the door, the door trim, and the drip cap above the door. Now that the trim and drip cap were removed I was able to look closer at the crack in the aluminum above the door. I found two other cracks that were hidden by the door trim...

I of course will have to address these also. The list grows longer...

Now with the door off the hinges I am able to really look at better. Here is the patient on the operating table...

The PO said that they "rebuilt" the door at one point. Well, given how much water was apparently running down the door I was expecting very bad things. I pulled the Bargman L-66 lock and drilled out the hasp. I HATE hasps. This is getting replaced with a deadbolt. Cleaning up the holes left by the rivets is going to take a bit of creative work. Anyway, I bit the bullet and cracked it open...

Just as I expected. The bottom is completely gone. I took apart the entire thing to clean the parts and build a new frame...

Mud Daubers were living in other parts of the trailer but apparently they were also subletting to some wasps...

I need to get my hands on some lumber and insulation to rebuild the door...someday soon.

I started cleaning up the door trim. There was quite a bit of oxidation on these pieces so they needed to be dealt with. I did a quick wet sand with 600 grit paper. Cleaned up the residue from the sanding with some mineral spirits and started to polish. I wanted to knock this out quickly so I opted to do this by hand with Mothers Polish. I don't care if it shines like a mirror and the thin aluminum dictated the hand polish. The bench buffer doesn't do that well with that thin stock. It's too aggressive. Here is the aluminum door trim cleaned up a bit...

It doesn't look too bad but you can see in this picture that the trim has been pretty abused over the years...

It is what it is. It won't be perfect and the polish brings out the defects. With the oxidation removed it does extend the life of the piece which is a good thing.

Next. I removed the front corner fixed windows. I told you this was a little bit of everything. I really don't have any progress pictures of this. The windows were REALLY chock full of silicone. These windows are notorious for leaking. I guess the PO combated this with applications of silicone. There were some very hard clumps that tell me they did this more than once. These windows really are a poor design. Here are one of the problems with these things. You can see that over the years the Heer Standard Glass Seal has shrunk. The PO pumped silicone in there to attempt to fix the problem...

I also started to remove the rear bed so I could continue to remove the flooring. No pictures of that. I did run into a snag when trying to remove the nightstand. It was secured from the outside before the skin was applied.  Time to remove the panel. The screws holding on the drip rail were horribly rusted so it made the process incredibly slow. After struggling with screw after screw you sit and see this...

A long line of screws ready to give you a headache. Finally I was able to power though and remove the rear panel...

I started removing the rock wool to get a better idea of what damage that stupid AC unit had done. Here is some of the worst...

The cross brace was so brittle and rotted it crumbled in my hand. This cross piece must have collected the water that was shedding down the back of the trailer and spread it across the plywood panel under it. As you can see in this photo the panel is completely gone directly under that point...

I removed the two panels right above in the last photo. I was able to see that at one point the street side of the trailer had a leak in the corner. This is indicated by the color and the delamination of the plywood strip. It isn't the worst I have seen out there but it's never a welcome site...

The curb side edge looks a lot better...

You can see that it isn't dark colored and the nails have little rust on them. I hope I find more in good shape like this but I'm guessing no.

Sooo... That is a little bit of everything.

Stay tuned for more...

Screen Door Rehab...

Having a job is great when you need to pay a few bills but it doesn't facilitate a lot of trailer restoration. Soooo... It has been slow going. I have off a few days in the next month so perhaps it will speed up around here. Lets get to it...

Here is the screen door still mounted in the trailer. At first glance it doesn't look too shabby but looks can be deceiving...

The door was pulled not long after getting the trailer and stripped of all the crap. There was broken plastic bits, leather straps, and odd brackets screwed into it...

I'm not sure what happened here. I'm not sure if they pulled it or if the wind ripped it off. It was removed at one point and put back on with more holes. Hopefully this doesn't cause problems down the road when I have to reinstall it...

I did a quick wet sand and tried to even out the surface. The frame was pretty scratched and banged up. When you polish that it just points out the flaws. The frame did need the attention. The surface was gritty which means that it is starting to oxidize. Let it go and it will start to pit. Most of the scratches came out. The dents remain. There is no way to fix that on a frame like this. All of the extra holes will get some attention also. The door frame got a polish which was a huge pain. I struggled to get it done on the 6" buffer and a bit of polishing with the drill. After I also wanted to add some pieces to the door to add some stiffness and dress it up a bit. The door had a too much flex in it. This may work. It may not. I used flat stock aluminum from Menards that I trimmed to size. I put three cross pieces near the slider and one on each end. I drilled a few "speed holes" in the 3 near the slider just for some style. It is a hot rod trick thing that I really dig. I think it looks cool on aluminum. After I polished them up very quickly and I then riveted it to the frame. I then installed new aluminum screen and splines. Sorry, I really don't have pictures of this process but here is the end result...

And here are the cross pieces with the holes drilled in...

There was a bracket here that was removed and filled the holes with stainless screws and finish washers...

Here are my favorites...before and afters...

I added a chrome dished cabinet knob on the inside. There was a hole there anyway so what the heck. You can see that I filled a few smaller holes here and there with aluminum pop rivets. It looks a lot better than a empty hole...

I am sure that the polish will make this a scratch and fingerprint magnet for a while until the finish dulls. I am fairly happy with the way it turned out. It is JUST a screen door. This may seem silly to post piece after piece when I get them done. However, in this case the trailer as a whole may be measured by the sum of it's parts. Ok, that was lame but it is true. I hope that the attention to detail will pay off in the end. More to come...

Shelter Sweet Shelter...

Some work to make more work...

I finally had time and decent weather to get the shelter put back up. It was a pain but it will facilitate the work that needs to get done later. The broken pieces were replaced and the tarp patched. I anchored the shelter with a much better system to replace the previously broken anchors. Here it is back inside the shelter...

I even installed 3 shop lights to give some general overhead lighting. I will use other work lights that I can move around in and around the trailer when I need it. These lights will allow me to work past sun down...

The shelter is large but you can see that it is a bit tight on the sides. I gave myself more room on the curbside for the door to swing. I will have to move the trailer to really work on the street side...

Here is the damage that occurred when the shelter was blown around. It is not the end of the world but I was excited to find a trailer that needed very little skin repair. This repair is in such a unfortunate location. It isn't a simple fix...

Hopefully the shelter will make the rest of the restoration easy and quicker than if we had not had it. I am crossing my fingers that the shelter stays up this time around. No more wind storms please. Stay tuned for more soon.