Another Late Night Post...

Lets get right to it...

I got my hubs finished finally. I removed the races because one was nicked and I thought it would be best to just redo both sides. It cost more than I had planned but it is peace of mind. After removing the races I took a flap disk and wire wheel  to the hubs. They were looking rough. Here they are after the rust removal...

I primed and painted them with Rustoleum Professional Aluminum paint that I have been using for the frame and other parts. The paint won't last for ever but what the heck. It will stop them from rusting into oblivion. I installed the new races, packed the bearings, installed the grease seals and mounted the hubs. I will try to post the numbers and sources of the races, bearings, and seals at some point. This might help someone I guess. Here is my favorite picture...before and after...

I received my grease seals and outer bearings and races in the mail just yesterday. Unfortunately, the bearing supplier didn't ship me two sets like I ordered so I was only able to assemble and mount one side.

I also stripped and wire wheeled the three wheels. I primed and painted them with Rustoleum Metallic Silver. That is what I had on hand from other projects...

They don't look to bad. I think they will get repainted at some point. Probably the Cloudburst color we have picked for the body of the trailer. It may not matter too much as I plan on running full caps. I am still looking for some vintage caps that won't kill me budget wise. We are now $268 over budget so finding nice but affordable caps are is a challenge.

I also have been banging out the entrance door stuff. I assembled the Bargman L-66. If you are taking your lock apart remember to grease the parts. I put it 80% together before I realized I hadn't greased anything. I don't think it looks that bad...

I still think these things are junk. I don't like them at all especially for the money they command. If you are repairing and cleaning your lock here is the exploded view to help you out...

I finally finished the interior door panel. It didn't go that smooth. I did two coats with the shellac thinned with denatured alcohol on the advice of a VSTF member. It was looking a little on the light side color wise and I got cocky and applied the third coat full strength. That did not go well. I had to sand all of the finish off and start over. IT SUCKED! I did it all again but stuck with the thinned shellac this time. I think it looks pretty good... 

You can see that I have dry fit the door lock. It took a ton of working on this. My "guide plate" broke in my hands so I had to fabricate a fix. Did I mention these locks suck? Here is the plate I had to make...

It seems to work. I spent WAY too much time making it and making it fit.

I got rid of the stupid hasp the PO put on and got us a RV door lock from VTS. Here is the dry fit of the deadbolt. I think it seems to work pretty well and looks a lot better than a hasp...

Sorry the picture is crappy. It was getting late. I stopped there because the shelter is about 15 feet from the neighbors bedroom window and I don't want to be a crappy neighbor and be hammering and drilling at 10 at night. Stay tuned for more...

Today's Progress...

I spent a little time today at my second home...Menards. More money out the window. Today was VERY windy so I didn't get any painting done. Again. The wind was violent and consistent all day. Makes working in a shelter that once blew down very interesting. It seems that the new anchors are doing their job...

Today I got to work on the door. I rebuilt the frame and got it insulated. Sorry, no progress shots. Just the end result...

This is heavier than the original frame but it will eliminate the flex that the original frame had.

I cut the interior skin and got one coat of Bulls Eye Shellac on...

 So far it looks pretty good. I got to few more coats with sanding in between. Hope to get this door done soon.

That is all for now. Only so much you can get done in a day. Stay tuned for more.

Rain Rain Go Away...

Today was a horrible day weather wise. I really want to get the frame painted and a coat on the wheels but today was not a great day for that. Too windy, rainy and cold. Not painting weather. Tomorrow looks to be more of the same. Blah.

I tried to keep busy doing other things...

I wet sanded down the inside fridge vent panel. Here it is in progress...

You can see the scale on the left and the sanded on the right. I hate aluminum oxidation about as much as I hate rust.

Here is the LAST of our drip caps shined up. The last one being the door cap was knocked out today. I am very happy these are done. That is enough of doing those stupid things...

With the crappy weather I thought I would take some time to clean up the drip rails that I pulled off when I removed the lower skins. Here are the four I wire wheeled today...

There was a bunch of butyl tape both sticky and dry stuck on the back. The PO did a thick bead of silicone to seal the rails which also had to be removed. All of this will help later to make good seals when the time comes to put them back on. I gotta shoot some self etching primer on these. Maybe when the wind dies down.

I went to town on the wheel well trim with the wire wheel. These were loosing most of their paint and had very thick rust spots from the steel screws holding them on. There is a bit of electrolysis around the screw holes but nothing major. Before in the back and after in the front...

 Here is another shot...

Nothing that will blow your skirt up in this post but I gotta stay on top of this stuff. Just trying to keep this current so I don't have to back track too much. I have a few more days left on my vacation so I am racing to get the most I can done before I go back to work. Stay tuned...

Work...Color...Work...Patterns...Work...

Haven't had a blog post for a while.

I have been working hard on the trailer. Not much to show at the moment which is a bit frustrating. A few projects have been going on all at the same time. I have sanded, primed and started painting the trailer's frame from front to back. I have also wire wheeled the steel wheels and put on the first coat of primer. Sorry no pictures. I will cover that later.

I have also been busy buying parts and material left and right. We are hemorrhaging money. So much so that we are now $115 over budget. The sad part is we still have stuff to buy. Not good. Not good at all. It will all be worth it in the long run. Right? Anyone want to buy a kidney?

Because I don't actually have any projects completed I thought I would share the new interior scheme. Our laminate has seen better days we thought we would go with some new stuff. This spurred the whole change in the interior design. Here is the lineup...

First up: Paint. We picked Sherwin Williams Industrial paint for the exterior. "A" is a off white called "Marshmallow". The bottom color will be the "B" which is known as "Cloudburst".

"C" is our Pionite laminate called "Surfin USA".

"D" and "E" is marine vinyl for the seating made by Morbern.

"F" is our curtain material the "Daddy-O" in butter cream.

"G" is our flooring choice from Armstrong also known as "Butter Cream".

Lastly "H" is our awning from Marti is the Sunbrella pattern called "Easton Lagoon".

First I will say that the picture really doesn't represent the colors very well. They look much better and closer together in person. Just trust me on that. Yeah this is sort of a bush league post but I don't much to show for as much work as I have done lately. So... back to work.

Email me if you are interested in that kidney.

Parts Round Up...

Jefferson Swap...

I realized 20 minutes into owning this trailer that we would defiantly need a spare tire for this trailer. The problem is there wasn't one with the trailer. Hence the crap we had to deal with when we had our first blow out. I wanted to keep the style of steel wheel like it had originally. I realized that after getting the tires removed from the wheels that one was original to the trailer and one was a replacement. My local shop said I should look for the newer version to match the replacement and use the original for a spare. Where would I find a used steel 15" wheel with a 5 on 4 1/2" bolt pattern and a 3 3/4 backspace? Good question. Jefferson Swap Meet maybe?

I haven't been to Jefferson Swap Meet in quite awhile. Usually the weather sucks when we have gone in the past. This year it was pretty nice and warm. My Dad went with me on the mission to find the rim and a set of hubcaps. Only about 3 or 4 rows in I saw a vendor just setting up set the sea foam green wheel down in front of me. I grabbed my tape measure and everything looked good. $20 dollars was all the vendor wanted. Not a bad deal. Here is the "new" sea foam green wheel on the right with our other two...

I need to find someone to media blast this things so I can paint them up. Something like powder coat would be the best option for a finish but that is at a minimum over $100. Too pricy for our budget. I will have to stick with paint.

There were actually a few vintage trailers that vendors where using at the show. I ran into a kind old man (If I remember right he said he was in his 80's) and his son that had a 1963 Shasta 16 SC that he had owned for a few years. He gave me a tour and we talked a bit about his trailer. It was in the typical shape for a Shasta of that age. Water damage and that sort of thing. It was pretty much all original. One thing that was different was that he had the front gaucho instead of the more typical dinette. He did add more modern 12v lights in a few spots inside. The only big downside is that he had cut the wheel wells larger so he could fit a different size wheel and tire on it. It wasn't the best feature on a trailer this age but it could be fixed by someone with skill. The SC had the optional heater in it and stated that is why he bought the trailer. He said he sold the canvas bunk that was almost brand new and sold off the Shasta script badge. My Dad popped the question if it had wings when he bought it. "Yeah, I sold those for scrap a few years ago" he said. Dad and I let out a groan and I told him that those things go for around $200 now a days. He tried to keep a poker face when he asked if that was the case. You could tell he was rethinking that decision again.

He also mentioned a story about the trailer having a spare tire carrier on the back and loosing that on a trip and not realizing it until he got home. That must have been interesting for someone following him. He said that he may be leaving the parts business soon and would no longer have a need for the Shasta. I gave him some contact info and told him if he wanted to sell it that I could probably find a buyer for him. Not sure what he would want to sell it for but I might be a decent deal for someone.

Ultimately I did not find any hubcaps. There were plenty to choose from at the swap. The problem is that they are usually branded by the car manufacturer. I am looking for something more generic. My choices were to do a full size generic cap or find some baby moons and maybe do a beauty ring also. I found a vendor selling new made baby moon caps that fit the Ford style rims but they suck. The new caps are made in Taiwan and not what I would say a quality product. They are very thin and the chrome seems thin also. The vendor was selling them in sets of 4. First off I don't need a full set for $65 bucks. At the most I need 3. The cap on the top of the stack was nice and shiny. If you picked it up and turned it over it had rust on it already. The next one on the stack had small scratches in the chrome and more rust. The third had a tiny dent in the face. That was all I needed to see. $65 bucks for brand new scratched rusty caps? I don't think so. I think most vendors online sell the same thin crappy caps. Of course there was a guy at the swap selling full 15" Moon style caps but when I decided to go back to see if he still had them they were gone. So the hunt is still on for some hubcaps of decent quality.

Sorry for the lack of pictures in this post but there isn't much to show. Maybe more next week...