To ALL NEWBIES (new to trailer restoration)
Aug 20, 2013 18:06:09 GMT -8
vintagebruce, hyphen, and 24 more like this
Post by mobiltec on Aug 20, 2013 18:06:09 GMT -8
Hi Folks,
My name is Larry and I restore vintage trailers. If you have already found your dream trailer and are getting ready to start work on it, I just wanted you to know that you will probably find more water damage than you ever thought was possible once you open it up. Especially if it's a Shasta or an Aristocrat. I have a few other things I want to share with you before you begin tearing apart your trailer so it doesn't end up in the local dump.
Home Depot does not carry a lot of the stuff you need. Actually, Ace Hardware has more of what you need than Home Depot does.
If you are missing parts you will have a hard time finding them and when you do you will faint when you hear the price.
Before you start in, PLEASE read as much of this new forum as you can and look at all the photos and ask questions here. Everyone here seems to just love answering the same old questions time after time after time. Which brings me to my website. I have put up hundreds of videos on You Tube just so you won't have to ask most of the questions. The videos are free of advertising and they will take you all the way through your project. Go spend some time watching the videos before you do anything to your new vintage trailer. It will save you time, money and headaches. You can find the videos listed in the order the projects were done on my website. www.cannedhamtrailers.com
Now... If you have NOT found your trailer yet..... PLEASE do yourself a HUGE favor and do every thing I just posted BEFORE you go out and pay way too much money for a rotten piece of junk that may not even make it to your house safely much less the dump. This "hobby" has exploded in the last year or so and unscrupulous people are selling pure junk just because it is old and it rolls. Well maybe it will roll. Might not do it safely though.
Things to watch out for that you will see in ads on Craigs List and EBAY...
First off never buy a trailer you can not go look at and poke around in. So you might as well forget about Ebay right now.
Next, when you DO go look at a trailer for sale, take an ice pick with you. Tell the owner you wish to check the framing for rot with it. Only stick the ice pick in corners under stuff so the poke can't be seen. Like in cabinets and under the seats and bed. Front and rear windows and walls almost always have rot under them and the rot goes down a lot further than what you see just under the windows. Once you stick that ice pick into a corner and it goes in easily, you know you have rot and now you have baraining power. That will cut the price down at least in half right there. Maybe more. You tell the seller "Now this means a total frame-up restoral." Now that may not really be so but it's a great way to get the price down. After all, it may just be that one corner but usually all four corners are rotted. There are people here who can show you photos of a trailer that has fallen off the frame and right down to the street because the bottom of the walls were so rotted that the bolts no longer held the walls to the frame. One speed bump or pot hole and it's over.
If the ad says something like "Already gutted for you to make it any way you want. Had to quit project due to moving" or something of that nature, STAY AWAY! As you will see in my videos, you don't "Gut" a trailer to restore it. Most of them are built from the inside out which means you have to take them apart from the outside in. YES! It's a hell of a lot of work.... But it is very rewarding when done right. What most likely happened is this seller knew nothing about restoring a trailer, bought one, found out it was rotten to the core because he started tearing all the paneling out from the inside (which is wrong) and then turned around and lied in the ad telling you that he has to move or his wife is making him sell it or the landlord told him he can't work on it there or some such nonsense and is trying to lay it off on YOU and recover his bad investment. It's only a bad investment because he has now ruined the trailer. So never buy a gutted trailer.
Trailers are not houses... They are built completely different than houses. The walls do not sit on top of the floor. The walls are bolted to the sides. The framing to the front, top and rear is added AFTER you put the paneling on. You will see that in the videos. The framing in the side walls is turned sideways compared to house framing. Trailers have wheels and move which houses don't. So just because you remodeled a house once doesn't mean that this project will be cake.
Make sure that you buy a trailer that your vehicle will tow safely. This means that if your vehicle owners manual says it will handle towing up to 5500 pounds, you should not purchase anything that will weigh over HALF the stated towing capacity and you must consider that you will be adding a lot of weight in bedding, water, propane and other stuff you plan on taking with you. You have to remember that just because it will tow the weight, it may not do it easily up hill and you may not be able to stop it going down hill. Going over half the stated capacity is very hard on your drive line too. Rear end and transmission will suffer big time unless you are always on flat ground.
All I'm really saying is do your homework before you buy. And if you have already bought and came here because you are lost and feel overwhelmed, you came to the right place. Everyone here is very eager to help you. That's because we want to see you suffer the way we did LOL... No not really. We do see that a lot though. Sometimes people don't start looking for help until they have half the trailer torn apart and that is the wrong time to be asking questions. Ask now, save later.
Good luck and I am sure that some people here will disagree with me on some things. That happens when you communicate with other people about anything. But you can listen to all who are here and then make up your own mind which way is the proper way for you. There are all kinds of ways to skin a cat. My way, his way, Schweet's way, Vikx's way, the right way, the wrong way and a few more ways that we may not have even considered yet. This is a learning process that never seems to end. But you will get hooked if you are successful and you will have a beautiful trailer to go camping in when finished. And you did it all yourself. What a great feeling.
I don't know all the answers. None of us do. But we have all been through just about anything you can run across, so someone always comes up with an answer to your immediate problem. Welcome to the wonderful world of vintage trailers and the biggest scavenger hunt of your life. Remember that we are all here to help each other out. It's also a great place to show off our work.
To all the "oldies", feel free to chime in if you think of anything I have missed that might help a newbie out.
Larry
My name is Larry and I restore vintage trailers. If you have already found your dream trailer and are getting ready to start work on it, I just wanted you to know that you will probably find more water damage than you ever thought was possible once you open it up. Especially if it's a Shasta or an Aristocrat. I have a few other things I want to share with you before you begin tearing apart your trailer so it doesn't end up in the local dump.
Home Depot does not carry a lot of the stuff you need. Actually, Ace Hardware has more of what you need than Home Depot does.
If you are missing parts you will have a hard time finding them and when you do you will faint when you hear the price.
Before you start in, PLEASE read as much of this new forum as you can and look at all the photos and ask questions here. Everyone here seems to just love answering the same old questions time after time after time. Which brings me to my website. I have put up hundreds of videos on You Tube just so you won't have to ask most of the questions. The videos are free of advertising and they will take you all the way through your project. Go spend some time watching the videos before you do anything to your new vintage trailer. It will save you time, money and headaches. You can find the videos listed in the order the projects were done on my website. www.cannedhamtrailers.com
Now... If you have NOT found your trailer yet..... PLEASE do yourself a HUGE favor and do every thing I just posted BEFORE you go out and pay way too much money for a rotten piece of junk that may not even make it to your house safely much less the dump. This "hobby" has exploded in the last year or so and unscrupulous people are selling pure junk just because it is old and it rolls. Well maybe it will roll. Might not do it safely though.
Things to watch out for that you will see in ads on Craigs List and EBAY...
First off never buy a trailer you can not go look at and poke around in. So you might as well forget about Ebay right now.
Next, when you DO go look at a trailer for sale, take an ice pick with you. Tell the owner you wish to check the framing for rot with it. Only stick the ice pick in corners under stuff so the poke can't be seen. Like in cabinets and under the seats and bed. Front and rear windows and walls almost always have rot under them and the rot goes down a lot further than what you see just under the windows. Once you stick that ice pick into a corner and it goes in easily, you know you have rot and now you have baraining power. That will cut the price down at least in half right there. Maybe more. You tell the seller "Now this means a total frame-up restoral." Now that may not really be so but it's a great way to get the price down. After all, it may just be that one corner but usually all four corners are rotted. There are people here who can show you photos of a trailer that has fallen off the frame and right down to the street because the bottom of the walls were so rotted that the bolts no longer held the walls to the frame. One speed bump or pot hole and it's over.
If the ad says something like "Already gutted for you to make it any way you want. Had to quit project due to moving" or something of that nature, STAY AWAY! As you will see in my videos, you don't "Gut" a trailer to restore it. Most of them are built from the inside out which means you have to take them apart from the outside in. YES! It's a hell of a lot of work.... But it is very rewarding when done right. What most likely happened is this seller knew nothing about restoring a trailer, bought one, found out it was rotten to the core because he started tearing all the paneling out from the inside (which is wrong) and then turned around and lied in the ad telling you that he has to move or his wife is making him sell it or the landlord told him he can't work on it there or some such nonsense and is trying to lay it off on YOU and recover his bad investment. It's only a bad investment because he has now ruined the trailer. So never buy a gutted trailer.
Trailers are not houses... They are built completely different than houses. The walls do not sit on top of the floor. The walls are bolted to the sides. The framing to the front, top and rear is added AFTER you put the paneling on. You will see that in the videos. The framing in the side walls is turned sideways compared to house framing. Trailers have wheels and move which houses don't. So just because you remodeled a house once doesn't mean that this project will be cake.
Make sure that you buy a trailer that your vehicle will tow safely. This means that if your vehicle owners manual says it will handle towing up to 5500 pounds, you should not purchase anything that will weigh over HALF the stated towing capacity and you must consider that you will be adding a lot of weight in bedding, water, propane and other stuff you plan on taking with you. You have to remember that just because it will tow the weight, it may not do it easily up hill and you may not be able to stop it going down hill. Going over half the stated capacity is very hard on your drive line too. Rear end and transmission will suffer big time unless you are always on flat ground.
All I'm really saying is do your homework before you buy. And if you have already bought and came here because you are lost and feel overwhelmed, you came to the right place. Everyone here is very eager to help you. That's because we want to see you suffer the way we did LOL... No not really. We do see that a lot though. Sometimes people don't start looking for help until they have half the trailer torn apart and that is the wrong time to be asking questions. Ask now, save later.
Good luck and I am sure that some people here will disagree with me on some things. That happens when you communicate with other people about anything. But you can listen to all who are here and then make up your own mind which way is the proper way for you. There are all kinds of ways to skin a cat. My way, his way, Schweet's way, Vikx's way, the right way, the wrong way and a few more ways that we may not have even considered yet. This is a learning process that never seems to end. But you will get hooked if you are successful and you will have a beautiful trailer to go camping in when finished. And you did it all yourself. What a great feeling.
I don't know all the answers. None of us do. But we have all been through just about anything you can run across, so someone always comes up with an answer to your immediate problem. Welcome to the wonderful world of vintage trailers and the biggest scavenger hunt of your life. Remember that we are all here to help each other out. It's also a great place to show off our work.
To all the "oldies", feel free to chime in if you think of anything I have missed that might help a newbie out.
Larry
