Moving along…
It is funny that just when you feel like you are really making great progress everything looks like this…
We feel a great sense of accomplishment even if every piece of the camper is spread over 4 garage spaces.
The Vent was a little difficult to remove as it was painted with this silver slush that is hard as a rock and painted over the whole top. The only place that didn’t have it was the hole Frank found in the top.
I WOULD LIKE TO ADD A WARNING HERE
WE TOOK THE TOP OFF AND SET IT OUTSIDE ON TOP OF THE GARBAGE CANS TO KEEP ITS CURVE AND THE WIND PICKED IT UP AND SLAMMED IT TO THE GROUND!
LUCKILY, IT DOESN’T LOOK LIKE IT GOT ANY MORE DAMAGED THAT IT ALREADY WAS. IT WASN’T EVEN WINDY OUT.
The top sides came off next.
At this point, there is only one small piece of skin on the back of the camper.
It is a good idea not to take too much apart at one time. As is the case for the curbing that sits on the framing and follows the curves on both sides of the camper. If you leave some on, you have a place to match the new with the old. I learned that and so much more from watching videos on
http://www.cannedhamtrailers.com/ .
(See Larry? , i was listening!)
His videos are very detailed and i can’t thank him enough for giving me the courage to try to restore this camper.
Check out his video tutorials! They are very informative!
The curbing is made up of 3 strips of 1/4 inch plywood. The thin strips are wrapped around and then glued and nailed or screwed into the framing. We will be taking off small parts of the curbing at a time so we can match the new curbing to the old so the depth stays the same. It is extremely important to make the framing and curbing the exact same measurements as the original material so that the skins fit when you put it all back together.
Samantha screamed today when she was trying to remove the big closet. She said she saw a huge spider that she described as about the size of her fist! He crawled back into the box that sits over the wheel wells and she couldn’t get to it. So he lives another day, I just hope he doesn’t crawl out and into my house!
Frank replaced the wood around the wheel well today on one side and it looks great now.
He is replacing the wood on the frame to the right of the new wood you see there. He had to cut the two carriage bolts that hold the camper to the trailer. I found new ones that are stainless steel so they won’t rust.
and the scraping continues, 4 squares at a time…