Diving In!

With a 22x30 garage and all of those tools ( and skills) you are light years ahead of where many of us began. Someone here should be able to help ID it. Sometimes you'll find a date on the back of a mirror, or as in my case a tag on the original cushions. Post pics as you go. Have fun!

Is the pic not showing up for you? It is for me...but I find posting pics on forums to be cumbersome and inconsistent.

Re-reading things I’m afraid I come across as bragging, but I’m really just blessed. Grew up with an electrician and a mechanic for grandfathers, a father who only paid someone to do something when the law required it, and a vocation that has required a lot of handyman skills and a willingness to do odd jobs. Spare money goes into tools to save money down the road (and my wife has come to see that it does), and Providence has allowed me a nice place to do projects.

I’ve got a lot to learn when it comes to campers, but I’m confident I can learn. And with a good community to help the process along I hopefully won’t get bogged down in the middle somewhere.

Jim

It does look like a Cardinal from the front. Do you have any photos of the sides? Might be easier to tell what it is and the age. Congrats on a nice find!

I had put in a link to a gallery in my profile info, but apparently that doesn't show up, or maybe didn't work. So I'll drop some more pics here:

Here's the left (street) side:


The paint job looks "Cardinal" but google doesn't show me any cardinals with that kind of paint scheme, that don't have the bird tail at the back. (Or whatever you call it)

Here's the right rear:



The paint is better against the building, but broken up by the door and the cable roll. The tail lights appear to be plastic, not glass. The Reg sticker says it hasn't been renewed since '78. The PO said he thinks it's been sitting for longer than that...no idea where the title is, the trailer became his mom's after his grandfather passed, and she never did anything with it. He inherited the property a few years ago when his mom passed away and so inherited the trailer. Maybe I can sweet talk the ladies at the county courthouse (read DMV) into running the trailer plate.

Here's the right front:




The worst looking damage from the outside is here; and possibly a patch panel, or maybe an access panel to work on the hood vent???

CA DOH Tag:


I've searched and searched online for something that might decode the numbers on this tag, but I haven't come up with anything yet.

Here's the Kitchen:


And a closer shot of the stove...not great but the best I've got ATM:



And a pic of the fridge:



And I'll finish with a pic of the back/dinette:


Tony the Tiger isn't doing so great. He and his mouse friends are about to be evicted.
Also, I am really  not a fan of the coral color. I'd take green or brown, or even yellow over that. Blue would have been too much to hope for.

Not pictured; the middle ceiling panel is falling in around the vent hole. It's completely shot and will need replaced. The kitchen drawers appear to be made of a fiber board (masonite I'm guessing) and they're fairly falling apart from water damage. BUT, this part of the country averages about 12" of rain a year...not quite a desert, but pretty dry, so I'm hopeful the damage won't be too bad outside of the front right where the door and damage is, and the middle of the ceiling.

Thanks for the warm welcome and any info you can provide on a year (that is a determining factor in getting an antique title issued by the state of Kansas)

Jim

Thanks! Any idea on year?

I'm not very familiar with the brake system on this trailer, though I am familiar with drum brakes...very familiar...and appreciate the concept. I'm not sure how well it would work in practice. I'm sure that the wheel cylinders will need replaced (possibly the shoes too), and I expect to have to rebuild the master if I keep the system. But I trust my life and my wife and kids lives to my ability to rebuild a brake system every time we go for a ride in my truck.

Does anyone know; do these units brake smoothly? Or is it a push-jerk, push-jerk scenario?

My game plan at the moment is to get it up in the air and verify that the frame is at least passable, grease the bearings, put wheels with good tires on and haul it the seven miles home.
Get it into the shop (hoping it will clear the standard garage door height), and inspect the frame for damage. If the frame is repairable I will take note of that before breaking out the welder. (My wife needs a new van and her only reservation on this project is that I don't go spending money to fix a trailer and take from her van funds...I don't blame her)

IF the frame checks out I'll go to pulling the skins while I make my kids (12, 10, & 8) clean it out on the inside. Inspect the skins to see what they really need. If they're passable we're golden. The only real expenses I'm concerned about in this build would be replacing the frame or the skins...a section we might get away with. A whole re-skin is going to seriously derail a restoration budget...maybe not impossibly...but it will add a lot of time.

If the skins are decent (and I think for the most part they are, but you never really know) I'll start with repairing the trailer frame.

Then I'll start in on replacing water damaged wall/floor timber. QUESTION: I've read of people NOT using treated lumber, but I haven't read why. Is it a weight issue? Is there something undesirable about the performance, or the chemicals used? Seems to me that treated skirts would be a good idea (not the whole thing...that would definitely cause a weight issue).

Once the water damage is taken care of I do want to rework the floor plan.
The dinette is too small for anyone but a hobbit to sleep in. My eight year old I think would be cramped, though I haven't tried to get him to lay on the mouse poop! I'm considering pulling it out and replacing it with a built in futon/jack-knife bed; the armrests of which would double as night stands with USB charge ports, etc. and provide structural support to the walls. Keep the upper cabinets currently above the dinette.

Keep the kitchen up front, along with the overhead cabinets. Replace the ugly coral colored units for something more appealing. (White, Black, Blue, Green, Yellow, Brown...pretty much anything but coral or pink)

Relocate the fridge underneath the stove so it's up-front. Rewire and re-plumb as we do this.

Rework the closet either A) Into a micro all-in-one bathroom. (I really don't know if that's feasible at all until I can clean out the trailer and get some hard measurements, but it's on my wife's wish list) or B) Into a desk/work station. (I often write while on camping trips and a table surface will be useful if the dinette turns into a couch/bed). Plumbing/wiring for associated changes here.

Rework the rear bed area into another futon/jack knife bed area. This would provide comfortable seating for up to six (My father, my boys, and my nephews could take shelter from a storm on our annual camping trip...and it seems like there's always at least one). Wire in reading lights and phone chargers, etc. into a street-side headboard.

I was told that there was a bunk above the rear windows once upon a time. If that turns out to be feasible I would then have the tiniest camper to sleep five ever, but that would be perfect. If not I would have a camper that slept four but could accommodate more people in bad weather. Wire in a reading light and charger in said bunk.

With the associated floor plan in place, replace the overhead panel and vent, wiring in new lighting fixtures along the way. 

Lay new flooring.

Install software (seats, mattresses, etc.)

Re-skin the trailer.
Replace bearings.
Replace/Rebuild brake system.


Enjoy!

This is my overall plan, and typing it out helped me process through it all. If you read all of it...am I missing something? If you saw it was too long and skimmed over it, good for you! You probably have a life! lol!

Somewhere in that process I've got to rewire the marker lights...probably right before re-skinning. The tail lights too.

Thanks for providing me space to process all of this!

Jim

Somewhere in there I need to leak test the propane system and the plumbing, before everything ends up back together. See? My brain is still chewing on it all.

As the old GI Joe commercials used to say, “Knowing is half the battle!”

I don’t even have physical possession of the trailer yet, but I’m spending my lunch breaks and evening down time reading (and getting into your videos) to bone up on the topic.

I wondered about corrosive reaction after I asked the question about treated wood but initially I figured it was the weight differential that would make the difference. Truck beds (usually white oak) are always finished against weathering on the surface, but left untreated underneath so the wood can breathe. I expected the same but I really don’t have experience working with aluminum.

I will look into the book.

Jim