Well, not exactly. After drilling out many rivets with my new Makita (lost count how many) and the removal of electric switches, curtain hardware, window screen, and interior door trim (tricky one), the wall eventually comes out after you de-stick it from its siblings. The insulation wasn’t in as bad a shape as I thought it would be. Next section, I’ll take a picture before removing the “pink”, I was overly anxious to see the inside of the outside wall.
Author: elly
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And the walls come tumbling down
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My First Trip – VTJ09
I took the trailer to the Vintage Trailer Jam 2009 in Saratoga Springs (See my photos). It took 5 long hours to get her there and my truck transmission started acting up before I arrived. My knees were like jelly, so Brett kindly offered to back her into her designated spot (Thank God!). But I had her setup and level in no time. We had a great time learning about restoration costs and tools from Colin Hyde, Brett had a “riveting” talk, Rich gave a good talk on boondocking, and I enjoyed Eleanor’s essential kitchen items for the trailer (Also see Rich Luhr’s blog post about it). I was sorry to miss the backing up seminar – during which ironically, Brett was backing up my trailer for me.
Friday night I went into Troy and was fed a lovely supper by Corey and Noah and got to meet my new grandpup, Charlotte the lab mix.
Saturday was a red letter day. I jumped a 1920’s Ford truck with my 1998 F-150 (even with its own woes). Thanks to Mark and Jen for the picture.
And I finally got my trailer inspection done by Colin Saturday night. He answered all my questions about the timing and order of events and gave me many insights I would have had to discover the hard way. I was on cloud-nine until it was time to head home Sunday morning with a wacky transmission and 4500 lbs of aluminum in tow. I got home and had a victory supper with Craig, Marc, Carol, and Mom. Thanks to Carol and Marc for being my backup plan if the truck died and for the delicious roasted vegetable pasta salad. -
Screens while I wait
I started replacing the screens while I wait to go to the Vintage Trailer Jam 2009. I’m hoping to talk to infamous Colin Hyde of “Colin Hyde Trailer Restoration”.
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NYS Inspection
Ok, I finally got everything working enough to pass inspection. The last thing was the break-away switch, which was basically ornamentation.
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“Jerry-rigging” the backup lights
For the OCD or purists in the crowd, you may not want to read this post. It may even be illegal. As I mentioned before, the backup lights had no socket left to replace the bulb into and the canister in the mounting base was so rusted there was nothing to screw the lens onto. I searched the local auto and tractor stores and online sites with no luck finding a replacement. So in the spirit of my enterprising father, I used some things not meant for the job, including a tuna fish can. See the step-by-step process in my web album.
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Land Yacht vs real Yacht
Son Nathan is more of a captain than a streamer. He is starting an adventure of his own with his new 30 foot Tartan. His yacht is a 1975 versus my 1973 Land Yacht. Its amazing how much we have in common to talk about when it comes to these two vessels. I hope he takes more pics that I can share.
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Lights, action, camera
I’m still working on the back up lights dilemna, but I did get 10 marker lights replaced with new LED lights this weekend. There were many challenges with getting the old ones off and the new ones on due to rusted, broken screws and rivets and inexperience. The good news was that they all tested positive for voltage.
The LED lights are not as easy to mount as the old style ones, especially since I was going to do it with connectors or twisted wire caps, but there’s NO space behind the flush mounted ones. The lower ones have a mount, so four of them were done nicely, the rest were wired with electrical tape and heat shrink tubes. You can see the pictures from the 1970’s Airstream type marker lights installation if you’re interested.
