Progress at last, now if it would just stop raining

Well, finally have removed the skin from all four sides. The bad news is I will have to replace the floor and subfloor in back, and install new skin on the front and the back. The original owner did a "fix" at one point that included replacing the drip rail with flashing and eliminating the overlap on the edges. Enter WATER! The good news is that none of the windows lead and the rest of the trailer under seems to be in pretty good shape. Still it's a major rebuild at least for me.




I scored a 3 speed with reverse Fantastic Fan for half the retail price. First part of reconstructing was putting in new oak (with aluminum to further reinforce) framing in the ceiling to make it VERY solid, and then installing the fan. Plenty of butyl tape, vulkem, and pocket screws. A big confidence builder that I can do this.







Also scribed curved portions of the corners for the back and front frame.

And then it started raining....and it still is.

Popular posts from this blog

DOORS!!!!

Image
Been working on some more of the final touches in preparation for painting.  The door and screen door on my old trailer were really a mess, but I'd been putting off doing anything about them out of some weird psychological blockage that if I took off the door and couldn't fix it I wouldn't be able to camp again.  So I had suffered with an exterior door which only closed with a gentle nudge at one corner and a screen door that took so much fighting to open and close that it had been nearly torn apart.  So when our July 4th camping trip fell through (not happy about that) I decided to put the time to good use and tackle the doors.   Long story short so far it's been pretty straight forward.  Taking apart the doors was easy.  I used the old ones as templates and got to work.  The aluminum trim was shot so I took them down to the local sheet metal shop to get new ones fabricated.  They will be ready sometime next week. I built out the frame and ...
Read more

Reupholstering Dinette Seats

Image
I consider myself fortunate to have retained the original dinette bench seats complete with springs.  These are very comfortable both to sit on and sleep on but the original vinyl after 56 years was showing it's age.   Time for a facelift.  Estimates for a custom upholstery job...ran upwards of $700 for both seats--so DIY was definitely in order.  Readers of this blog know I had been considering up-cycling vinyl saved from convention signs.  I even went so far as to pick out sheets of vinyl.  Several factors kept me from proceeding. Not much experience sewing vinyl and a home sewing machine.   Fear that the pattern would have detracted from the overall look Concern that the ink on the vinyl might bleed upon interaction wtih sunscreen. So I decided instead to go with Sunbrella fabric (found for $13/yd with free shipping, job required 5 yards) for it's durability, water resistance, UV protection.  For my seats I'm using Glacie...
Read more

Really any color I want?!!

Image
I have been a little obsessed lately with paint.  Now that the doors are "almost" done (still need to hang it) I am turning my attention to the most obvious undone aspect of my restoration....exterior paint.  There are many options here...most of which have their own sub options. The first decision was DIY or send it out or a combination. Send it Out Maaco $500-800 depending on the amount of prep required. Higher End Resto/Paint shop $2-3K or more Combination Do the prep myself-- send it out/hire Hire the prep out -- paint it myself Either of these probably comes out to costing around the price of Maaco DIY-- great resources and discussions at these forums Rolled On    or the Vintage Shasta Trailer Forum(VSTF) Rattle Cans --believe it, some very nice paint jobs have been done with rattle cans, this link is to a video by a VSTF member $50 paint job--  with Rustoleum or equivalent Alkyd Enamel   roller method http://www.freewebs.com/kc8...
Read more