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