Cleaned Up

Decided to work on the shady side late this afternoon and prepped to get that skin off next week. Took out most of the screws for the J-rail, took the window drip covers off, and got most of the odd ball screws out. Reorganized inside and cleaned up a bit- makes it much easier to get around, and less nails to step on.

Aug. 30- tearing up the inside

Had a quiet morning, and still have thunderstorms in the forecast (although we have yet to have one pass through in a month), so I decided to play on the inside.  We went to Camper World this weekend to look at possibilities, and my wife has her heart set on a toilet (that sounded weird). We had a closet that housed the furnace and some storage, but it would be too tight.  We will have to reconfigure, but first place to start was to get it out of there.  Of course I couldn't stop there, so I started to tear out some of the walls.  In part, I wanted to see how much rot I would have to repair (so far, not bad) but also will need to start rewiring soon.  45 minutes later and one shirt soaked in sweat, we have progress.

Aug. 18th- strip,strip, strip

Happy happy, Joy joy- still stripping paint.  Bought some Airplane strip Rustoleum at Auto Zone yesterday- not near as good as the blue stuff- takes many more coats.  Trying to work a couple hours in the morning while it's cool.  Finished at noon toady and 106 degrees- the trailer is too hot to even touch- the stripper dries in 5 minutes so have to work fast.  I'm about 3/4 of the way complete- hopefully monsoons are over in the next week or so- ready to have some fun for a change.

6:30pm- Finally a storm!  I was starting to think I was stalling on the outside for nothing.  Getting a good rain and wind storm- glad I left a few screws in the body and trim.  I hope to finish the outside by this weekend.

Aug. 14th

Just another fun day of stripping paint- started on the right side.  Will post pictures later.  Slow process, but it really is cleaning up nice.  Will have to do some investigation on polishing it.  There are some scratches and dent, but gives it character for 50 years old.  Our good friends, Jeff and Shelly just scored on a 12'  1970 Roadrunner- it's in great shape and ready to roll (their car said otherwise), but has so many neat features- might want to redesign our interior a bit after seeing theirs.  Can't wait to get our first adventure underway.

August 12- more paint strip

I am learning patience in an odd way.  I stripped the left side today over the course of many hours.  Love the airplane stripper, but I learned to do it in coats.  One layer at at a time..Daniel-san.  It does come down to bare aluminum, but it took 3-4 coats to accomplish.  Expecting storms tonight, but might start on the dry rot soon if I run out of other things to do (work permitting). We have reservaions to go camping Labor Day- we'll see.  (PS- bottom left panel will get rebuilt due to numerous vent cuttings- there is a place close by, but not sure if they can replicate it)

August 11- stripping some more paint

I went to Oriley's Auto Parts (Checker) yesterday and found some "Airplane paint stripper"- this is what everyone is telling me is "your last resort". It's made by Mar-Hyde called Tal Strip II- thick, blue and potent. This will take the paint off of anything. It really did an amazing job of even taking off some underlying oil based paint. Kim has been helping me- our goal is to do a quarter panel a night. we did the back yesterday and a little side today.  Great stuff, but burns like hell if you get a drop on you. We are going to try to bring it back to polished aluminum, but discovering a few dents we didn't see and some rust on the roof. We'll see.  Here are some before and after pics. 

Aug. 10th- stripping the roof

Had a cloudy morning, and was playing around on the "repairing yesterday's trailers" website looking at rehabbing the roof, so I thought I get started a bit. There are several coatings on the roof. Looks like every time there was a leak, the solution was to smear something heavier than the last coat to cover it. My ultimate goal is to bring the whole thing back to the aluminum finish and polish it, but there is a lot of goop to get off first. Started with a scrapper and that seemed to get some of the tar coat off- at least the parts that had cracks in it. Also tried Jasco on the "snow seal" finish. That got some of it, but turned into a gooey mess. I probably got 3' by 8' somewhat cleaned up, but will still have to take a heavier stripper to get it all off. Might go to the local auto store and try some airplane stripper- that is getting good results on the sites I am watching. Getting hot up there, so will continue later today. At best, I cleaned most of the good of the trim screws, so I can remove them and the tin and try cleaning while on the ground- might have a bit more leverage. The roof is 5 panels instead of one big piece, so might not be original.

Tearing out the cabinets