1962 Traveleze project

And the dog...

Roadtripper haven't I given you my spiel for newbies?? It appears that you're working from the inside out and that's not the right way. Here's what I post for all the new people who are starting work on their trailers:

When restoring or repairing a vintage trailer, you must start from the OUTSIDE and work your way in. You must leave the cabinets, closets and other interior items in place because they provide the structural integrity of the trailer. 

In order to safely and properly repair rot or water damage in a trailer you need to start with removing the skins and shoring up the frame while it is still supported by the interior. You also need to check the boards that hold the body to the frame which are called skirt board (this one is the bottom board of the trailer body) and the sill board (which is attached to the frame to nail or screw the body to) as these are likely to be rotted also. 

Here is a thread that tells you the names of the trailer frame parts: vintagetrailertalk.freeforums.net/thread/1093/vintage-trailer-framing

But before you even remove a piece of skin, paneling or anything else please, please check out these following two resources that are available from members of this forum who restore and repair vintage trailers for a living. They have been a complete life saver not just for me, but for many others. You have no idea of what can happen if a trailer is not repaired correctly, but one thing is you can be driving down the road and the entire body of the trailer will come off the frame like this one did:



The first resource is mobiltec. He makes videos and posts them on YouTube of his work sharing how to do everything on a trailer from start to finish. His website is: www.cannedhamtrailers.com and I recommend you watch this video first so you better understand why these things have to be repaired from the outside in: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDdpZgSD1JM . He does all these videos for free to help others who are interested in vintage trailers, but he does appreciate donations from his website if you feel he's been a help and are so inclined.

Next is a wonderful repair manual put together by another long time member that restores trailers, whose forum name is vikx. You can find the manual here : vintagetrailerrepairmanual.weebly.com
My husband doesn't do computers so this manual has become very important to him as we work to do a frame off restoration of our 57 Westerner Deluxe travel trailer.

You're going to find it's much easier to get all the rot when you work in the correct order.

Good on ya, Roadtripper!

Going to try and bring this up to date as I have some down time out of town. No guarantee on pictures. Just missing something there.
So far has been very enjoyable even though the time involved is mind boggling. And building stuff is really all I know how to do. I see posts where some do this completely in a few weeks... beyond me. Guess I do too much head scratching on how to do something a little better, stronger, cleaner?
I removed all the skins. Saved all but the top which will go on as one sheet. Found some wide and long and the .032 through a guy Steve at hv told me about.
Rebuilt all 4 corners, beefed up the studs and blocking in a few spots, re did some of the skirting and the rear 2' of floor, and total new roof. On the roof I made mostly new rafters (used poplar) and all new paneling (oak). Some is 1/8 and some 1/4 as was the old. The old wasn't too bad, was just luan with a fake oak paint job on it and after going that far just couldn't live with it. Keeping most of the cabinet framework but did almost all new oak face frames. Going to re use drawers and doors but re skin with new 1/8 oak. By the way our local small town supply has 1/8 and 1/4 oak and birch  ----very nice stuff--- in stock all the time at under 25 bucks a sheet.
Took out and re did all the windows and they are ready to go back in when the time comes.
still a lot to do but think I can have phase one ----clean, safe, strong with new 12 v and water soon. Then out for some fishing. 
Will try and get some pictures up, otherwise I guess use you're imagination. I know most of you have been through all this and can picture it. And thank you all for the tips so far....from my questions and from what I pick up browsing through.