Down and Dirty...Real Dirty

Well, nothing brings you down to earth like a little dirt under your fingernails. And in your eyes. Your lungs. Your bra.

This weekend we finally got going on a little demo.

It took awhile, because life intervened, as it does. It was pretty exciting to finally lay hands on and take stuff apart. Before we lifted a screwdriver, I got out the camera, and began documenting all of the detail I knew would be tricky once we got the skin and the interior apart. I took meticulous notes, because if there's one thing I know about myself, it's that my memory will be about half as good as I think it is once this thing is lying in pieces in the barn.

Then we started at the front and began the disassembly. Unscrew. Unscrew.
Unscrew, unscrew, unscrew.

This first weekend was pretty much a shakedown to figure out how fast we cold go, and to reverse engineer the trailer. The goals were to get as many screws out as possible, and to get as much loose hardware and secondary structures out of the inside in the front and back where the reconstruction will be happening. As we unscrewed things from the exterior, I marked the holes in the skin so that we would know what hole is what when the skin was off and in pieces. This will help if we need to use the old skin as a template for any replacement aluminum. Again, one hole will look like a thousand others once we pull the puzzle pieces apart.

The most useful documentation on a teardown I've found is this great photo essay of a 1957 17' exterior restoration done by Craig McCormick on his website. Just like a house restoration, my plan is to strip off the skin, and repair the structure from the outside starting with the interior skin and working back out. While the skin is off we'll be upgrading the electrical and water systems, installing a new heat pump/AC combo unit, and beefing up the insulation. I know the platform is solid, and the floor is in good condition, even in the areas with water damage, so it will be all about the walls.

The whole skin will be coming off in the weeks to come, and my brother, who is a sheet metal contractor came by to look at the skin and help us figure out what will need to be replaced, and what can be repaired and straightened.

Here's a little list of what happened both outside and in:



Removed from Outside

• propane tanks
• front jalousie window assembly
• front side windows (one had to be smashed by hubby, see above)
• door and screen
• all specialty plates, lights and hardware
• dripcaps from all front windows and doors
• edge caps and channel molding that holds awning from both sides front and back
• about a bizillion little rusty screws

Removed from the Inside

• front banquette seating
• all lighting
• rear couch
• all msc. hardware like curtain rods, etc.
• 40 years worth of dust and debris including: a woman's shoe circa 1965 (in the floor near the watertank) , a jar of grease from 1968, a mouse carcass, wire, rope, scary rusty cans, old rattan plate holders, rolls of dark brown paper towels that didn't start that way, alot of dirt.
  

I didn't have the heart to tackle the marine toilet, but that comes next.
I can hardly wait for that one.
Believe me.

But hey, it was fun.

Next time: More demo.