Taking it all the way down to the Frame....

Well I knew this baby would need some TLC and after taking some of the siding off I realized that 20 years of sitting in the Blackberry bushes and in rain country, had taken it's toll. The frame in at least 30% of the trailer had dry rot to the point that when I touched the wood it would just crumble in my hands...and then I looked under the trailer and realized the floor was toast...so I decided to take the floor off and start from scratch.

Also you might be able to see that this whole frame is being held together by staples and that's it....many of the pieces of the frame aren't even attached to the wood, in some cases they are 1/2 inch away...so once I get the floor put in I'll be able to put new wood in the frame. I'll use wood glue and a staple gun to reattach the frame. I will also add some more framing to re-enforce it and make it stronger than it was before. It's amazing how little framing is in this trailer and yet it's all original from 1955. The floor was just rotted out and had to use a reciprocating saw to cut the bolts off as they rusted like everything else in this trailer. So now it's onto getting the back third of the trailer framed and a new floor in it. Then I can get the new birch put in the back so I can button it up before I head to the front to do the same thing as the back. Next time I hope to show you the new floor and have it all re-framed. Take care...

Adam

Bringing back a 1955 San Gabriel.....

October 2, 2012

     Brought her home and got a chance to see what I was getting myself into.....my brother-in-law Jim and I went and picked her up and in the process I got stung by a wasp.....which after opening the door was bound to happen as there were hundreds of them. Jim couldn't get the words out quick enough to duck and bang one got me in the cheek. Damn little thing nailed me before I had a chance to move. After Jim picked himself  up off the ground from laughing his ass off we could get back to getting this hooked up for her drive to my place. So needless to say I had the spray the hell out of the inside so I could access the inside of the trailer. I knew this might be a complete restore and after letting it seat for a few days I was right. This had been sitting on this farm for years and years. It was badly water damaged.

As you can see I will need to start from the ground floor and bring her back to her original self.  The guru of old trailers as far as information is man named Juergen Eichermueller from Germany. I got in contact with him and he sent me a CD with information on this and the other trailer I bought a 1954 Rainbow ....That's for a later blog.....for now were going to start and concentrate on the 1955 San Gabriel. named after the San Gabriel Mountains in Los Angeles. This is a little 13 footer and has that classic Can Ham look. The wheel wells are one way to know what you might have as these were only seen on these and I know the Jewell also.

You can see from the above pictures the dry rot was extensive. And yet I'm thrilled to be able to restore from the ground up. Over at www.cannedhamtrailers.com/ he literally walks you through step by step on the best way to replace and restore the trailer. I have my own ideas on what I want to do. But hopefully you'll check back and see the progress of the restore.

Adam