I made it to the rally.  The highlights for me were listening to Richie Sterns of the Horseflies, Bubba George, and Evil City String Bands with Craig, and taking a lovely ride along the lake trail with my sister and Marc.  The open house was also a blast, fun trailers and friendly folks.

Fletch and Denise were great hosts!

More photos

I was hoping to have the front section completely gutted before the NE Tin Can Tourist Rally that’s happening this weekend in Sampson State Park, but I’m still happy with my progress.  I really can’t do much more until I disable the rest of the trailer.  So here is my latest shot.

[Click picture for larger view.]

I have developed my own labeling system that includes location and over/under lapping and imprinted with a sharpie and photo documentation.  I hope it still makes sense next summer.

I did find an old mouse nest in the front section full of decon.  The rest hasn’t been too interesting.

[Click picture for larger view]

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.

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.

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”.

Ok, I finally got everything working enough to pass inspection.  The last thing was the break-away switch, which was basically ornamentation.

  

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.