Warning: This Post May Cause Physical Illness

I'm serious, if you are ever thinking of owning a vintage trailer, do not continue reading.

Here is what our little trailer looked like just a few weeks ago.

This weekend was the bulk of the demolition. The back and curb side walls were the most rotted. They came off with little more than a few taps with a hammer.

The kitchen and cabinets were by far the most solid part. Although, solid is pretty relative.

Here is a random shot you don't normally see. This is looking from the closet through the opening for the ice box and out the front door.

An indoor tornado?

Ever wonder how big of a pile a shasta makes on the floor? Here you go.

Demo is almost complete. In the next week we will pull off the floor and start refinishing the frame.

The Incredible Shrinking Trailer

At some point in the near future the trailer posts are going to switch from demo to construction. But, not today. Over Christmas break Sam and I have been peeling back layers of this very stinky onion. The aluminum skin has all been removed. After about a million rusty nails, screws, and staples we can see the full extend of the remaining wood. This project is less of a restoration and more of building our take on a 1965 Shasta Compact since the frame and windows will be the only things we are keeping.

 Up front I found some structural wiring.



On the streetside I found a dead weed that had grown a couple feet up into the body. I would expect boats to have less exposure to water than this poor trailer. Notice the leakage on the inside of the skin and this was the "good" side.  

 Gratuitous aluminum shot. The roof with all its roof sealant is off. It had layers of black roofing tar and white aluminum roof sealant. At this point I think the 1/4 inch insulation was providing structural support.



Now that the skin has been removed we have a pretty good picture of all the previous owner's home fixes for water damage. Here are the top three.

3. Expandable foam sprayed around the rear window to seal what appeared to be a rear window leak. After some investigation the leak wasn't from the rear window so the foam just pressed the existing sealant apart, creating a leak. The structure under the rear window was completely gone.

2. Black and white roofing sealant used around the vent in the kitchen. The trailer has been sitting in a dry area for a couple months. Funny, the only wet spot on the trailer was under the water proofing since the white type didn't really bond with the black stuff. The structure under the vent, around the door, and floor under the door was completely rotten.

1. Giant hole on the roof. Luckily it was covered with masking tape and coated with the roof sealant. Water ran in the hole in the roof, down the back wall, and rotted out the back wall.

The take home message for hillbillies looking to fix their trailers, don't use 2 inch drywall screws when the walls are only 1 inch thick and, roofing tar should not be used on things that aren't buildings.

Happy 2012

Wow, hard to believe that 2011 is finished. Looking back at the pictures, it was a busy year. Sam passed her 16 hour structural engineering licensure test in the spring and I passed my professional engineering test in the fall. We took trips to San Diego, Las Vegas, Golden, San Francisco, and Reno. We did some races, some went better than others. And we worked on more than a few house projects.

January 2011 started out very snowy.

February pretty much stayed the same. 

Sam had two friends diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011. In the spring she dyed her hair pink and shaved it off. We also got some Boulevard chocolate ale.

In April the garden started off strong, but it turned out a tough year for the garden.

We started over with the front yard.

By May everything was looking great. Come June and later things didn't look so good. 

We had some monster peas.

The annual tiki party was the first weekend in June. I smoked 5 pork butts on the new green egg. Turns out 50 people can not eat that much and we ate smoked pork for months.

By June the garden got sick, cause or causes are still unknown. The squirrels developed a taste for green tomatoes and we didn't get our first one until October.

We managed a few concerts in July, it was so hot. Even got Mark to come along to one, unbeknownist to him.



July and August were hot. Our running, outdoor time, and the garden interests wained.

In September Sam made a trip to the ER after a crash, which happened only a couple weeks before her big fall race. She attempted unsuccessfully to race that one in Texas. 

In September Tentill Blue played a reunion concert at the Roe Circle Country Club.

In September we also added a 1965 Shasta trailer to the stable. It has project written all over it.

In preparation for Thanksgiving at our house, Sam worked on the new front door. 

And got it completed.

We also managed to turn the furnace room into an official half bathroom.

For Thanksgiving we smoked a turkey on the green egg.

Made it back to Wisconsin for Christmas. Here is Sam practicing with our new tomato gun. 

All in all it was a successful year.

TRIPS

In January we went to San Diego for Sam's company Christmas party and took a couple days to see Palm Springs.

And dinosaurs.

In February we made it to Las Vegas for an old college roommate's wedding.

In June we traveled to San Francisco to see the Dispatch reunion and saw some friends and drank some beer along the way.

In August we spent a weekend in Golden, and consequently also drank some more beers.  

In November Sam and the girls headed to Las Vegas and I headed to Reno for the weekend.

 It definitely was a year where we headed west. Wonder where the next year will take us.

Not For the Squeamish: Part 2

I fear that until there is nothing left but a frame this may be a continuing series. As bad as these pictures look they just can't properly portray the conditions we are finding. I think the rule of thumb is 1) if the trailer looks good it has water damage, 2) if the trailer has water damage don't be optimistic on how much you are going to save. In light of recent events we are rebuilding from the frame up.

Everything worth doing is worth overdoing.

 The curb side tin has been pulled. Here is a good corner.

 The roof slopes from the back to the front. I shouldn't be surprised that more than a few of the 1x2s weren't actually connected.

As Jerad mentions, the pile of structure is getting larger underneath the walls. We need to get the sides templated before there is more pile than structure.

Not for the squeamish

We have finally made some honest-to-God progress on the trailer renovation.  Maybe progress isn't the right word.  Let's call this "discovery."  In case you missed John's previous posts, the trailer required some shoring since some of the wood framing had rotted out.  The first order of business was removing all loose items from the inside.  Then we started taking off exterior pieces and set the goal of removing the lower panel of skin on the back to see exactly how much rot we were dealing with.

The last picture with her skin still on.  Not too bad, right?

Here is how the entire back of the trailer is currently being supported - 2x4s and nails.  It's not pretty, but it's doing the job.  

The inside was easy.  We started on removing trim that secured the back panel.  I started getting a bad feeling when the screws were all so rusted we couldn't get them out with the drill because they'd strip out immediately.  While John was cutting screws off, I was working on the screws along the bottom edge and realized they were just spinning.  So I got down on my hands and knees and peered underneath the trailer for the first time.  I had two thoughts: 1) it's going to be easier to peel the skin off than I thought. 2) At this point, the skin might be structural.

First piece of skin is off!  And oh my...

John won the contest for who's side lost the biggest chunk of wood.  There is nothing left of the corner support.  There were no vertical supports in the back panel.  The 2x4s John installed are holding up the whole damn thing.  Did I mention the floor supports are also rotted?

The pictures don't do it justice.

This project just became much more complicated.  John left it up to the resident structural engineer (me) to come up with a light-weight solution that can be installed piece by piece since we can't take it apart without it completely coming apart.  Insulation will be interesting.  But the weight restriction is what will make things a challenge.  I'm open to suggestions.