Exterior Updates

I finally had decent enough weather to drag the trailer out and take the updated pictures.

You will see from the pictures that I have some more work to do. I need to get new propane tanks and hook that system up. Need to make and mount new wings. Also need to do the final wiring for the exterior lights.

Ultimately, I am happy with the overall look of the exterior. The new paint looks pretty decent but a bit flat in spots. I will probably buff or wax the whole thing at some point. New decals look pretty good too.

No more rambling talk. More pictures. We will go with the old standby of before and afters...

Curbside window...

AC unit removed and replaced with a Airflyte window...

Bathroom Closet window...

Kitchen window...

Street side dinette window...

Front window. I added the decal above the window. The trailer didn't originally have one but I like how it looks so I went with it...

Entrance door. Biggest change is removing the hasp and added the deadbolt...

Interior of the entrance door and screen door...

Replaced that crusty latch with a new one...

Repainted step. I used skateboard grip tape that I had left over from another project. Cut it into Mid Century style stars to make it a bit more interesting to look at.

Taillights with new lenses from VTS.

Bargman Trail Light with new lens from VTS. Also has a new plate holder...

New marker lights...

Metal badge...

Reproduction green factory badge that I pushed VTS to produce...

Repainted MHMA badge...

Water fill...

I'm not sure I am digging the Mercury caps I found. They are ok. They don't fit all that well because they are well used. I'm still looking for another set that won't cost a fortune.

I think that is about it for now. I'm not sure if there will be much more progress before the crappy weather comes and stops progress all together...but stay tuned.

Small Update...

Here is a bit of an update. Not a great one but still progress on this impossibly long journey. The attention turned to the outside.

Skins were re installed. Sanded and cleaned to remove oxidation.

The red you see is spot putty to fill dents and creases.

I then installed the door trim....

I also made patch panels to fix the cracked skin caused by the sagging door. There were probably other ways to solve this problem but this is my solution...

Because we are using a Airflyte rear window instead of 16 SC rear window the dimensions were different. The new window is wider and a bit shorter in height. Cutting the aluminum for the width was very easy however the shorter height left a bit of a gap in aluminum skin. I made a patch panel to take up the gap. I didn't really want to cut it straight. It seemed too boring. I made it angle down to mimic the "V" in skin. The oval will hold the dealership badge.

All of this looks a bit weird now but will look more blended once painted.

I also wetsanded the "Z" stripe to prepare for polishing. Before...

After...

Taped and polished...

And done...

I cleaned the trailer again and again. Taped off the windows, doors, and "Z" stripe. Sprayed the whole thing with self etching primer...

And that is about it for now. I will have to take some more pictures soon as I have made much more progress.

On a side note...we have been collecting items for the trailer also. Items that will fit with our love for vintage. We see it for very cheap. We buy it. Sometimes we have gone a bit overboard so that we will have enough and can pick through and choose the stuff we want and pass on the extra. Here is our vintage melamine dish collection all laid out to sort through...

This haul netted a few complete sets with some extra serving bowls and platters. Maybe I will show some of the place settings at some point.

This is kind of a lame post but as I said. I will take some more pics to bring us up to speed with the restoration. Stay tuned.

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...