Drop it!

Seems they really wanted to keep this trailer low, not only is the axle on top of the springs, but it also has an elbow bend in there raising it even higher. I think at the very least I am going to relocate the axle to below the springs. This should gain me about 6" clearance which will be much needed in some of those rougher campsites.

Let the face-lift begin!

Started removing the aluminum skin. Slow going as there are lots of narrow, but long, staples that aren't even spaced at regular intervals. Some are easy to pull, some are wedged in so tight it is hard to get them out while minimizing damage to the surrounding skin. Going camping this weekend (in our tent) so I don't think I'll get much more work completed for the next couple weeks.

Air conditioning?

I also went ahead and removed the old fridge & stove vents, side molding, and fresh water hatch. I can't believe how many screws were holding this thing together! Even though I won't be reinstalling the stove, or a fridge I'll still be cleaning up the vents and or replacing them with new just to cover the holes. Wouldn't mind a fridge, but at this point they are way out of my budget.

You! Outta da pool!

Well after a short delay and cleaning up my shop to make room for the trailer I decided not to move it in yet after all. Three reasons behind this change of heart. 1) I'm not ready to buy a new rim/tire to replace the one that blew, 2) Realized that during teardown this poor thing can't get much worse, and 3) Moving it into my shop right now will limit my space for repairing the framing as I remove it from the trailer.

For these reasons I went ahead and started removing the door and windows.

United we stand...

... divided we fall. Removing the ceiling "material" left no support for these roof trusses that had completely rotted away from the wall. As bad as it is I was impressed with how good the aluminum siding looks from the inside.

BTW, I don't think I mentioned it earlier, but in addition to removing the walls and ceiling, I removed all the old fiberglass insulation that was between the studs. Some wasn't in that bad a shape, but figure it wasn't worth saving to attempt to fit back in like a crazy jigsaw puzzle later.

Somewhere around this point I decided that this restoration was going to have to go all the way. i.e. remove windows, siding, structural framing, and floor to sand and paint trailer frame and fix structural framing completely and properly.

Very roomy...

Seems nice and roomy now looking at the floor towards where the bunks used to be.

Floor it!

Can't tell if that's just a bad amateur repair job on the floor at the back or if the manufacturer just didn't tile that far under the dinette. You can also see my shredded wheel well on the right, and what it's supposed to look like on the left.

Raise the roof!

Those blue jack-posts you can see in this pic are actually holding up what's left of roof trusses that are completely rotted away on one side.