When I get an idea in my head, watch out! I set the weekend of October 25th to be "demo days"! The weather was to be perfect and I had no other distractions to keep me from my project. That Saturday, I did a major marathon. With no idea of really what to do or how to do it, I started with 2 simple things - check out my electrical and propane systems. I figured if the RR caught fire or exploded then it would save me all that time on further restoration.
The original electric plug, which was dangling out the bottom of the floorboards, looked like something from the dinosaur age. I removed the male plug and went to my favorite Ace Hardware for advice. The sales guy had never seen a plug like mine. So I decided to omit it and splice on a new plug that I could hook up to a standard extention cord. I took home a new 15 amp. plug and hooked it up to the RR's fat black electric cable. I plugged it in, flipped the 2 tiny breakers located in one of the cupboards and to my amazement, I had light! There are 4 small light fixtures in the RR which hold 40 watt bulbs. No electric refrigerator, no DVD player, no AC - just 4 small lights. My gosh, those were they days of the true back woods campers! I usually "dry camp", but it is just good to know that the electrical system works if I ever need it.
Next came the propane test ... a bit scarier. I've never seen a "small" propane explosion. I grabbed the propane tank from my BBQ and hooked it up to the RR's regulator. I held a lighter to the 3 burner stovetop and I had flames. Nice, clean, even blue flames! In my opinion, I could have stopped the project right now since I knew I could make a cup of coffee. What else did I really need? The 2 cute little propane wall wall fixtures also worked well. I wouldn't have to drink my coffee in the dark!
With a new surge of confidence, I decided to start pulling the windows and trim pieces from the trailer. I have learned that most water leaks are from the seams around the windows and roof gutters. So they all would need to be pulled, cleaned up and reinstalled with fresh butyl putty tape (a kind of sticky putty stripping that is the choice of vintage trailer professionals!). This shouldn't be too hard, right? Just tedious. They sealed these old trailers up like they were military tanks going into battle. Out came all the windows. Off came all the miscellaneous trim pieces and gutter moldings. All the exterior tail lights were removed. Everything was photographed and labled with masking tape. How would I ever remember what goes where? My digital camera got more use in 1 day than in the previous 2 years. About 8 hours later, exhausted and filthy dirty, I reached a good stopping point. The RR was stark naked! Just an aluminum shell with gaping holes on all 4 sides!! Boy, it felt good to get something accomplished. Even if I still had no idea what I was doing!
The original electric plug, which was dangling out the bottom of the floorboards, looked like something from the dinosaur age. I removed the male plug and went to my favorite Ace Hardware for advice. The sales guy had never seen a plug like mine. So I decided to omit it and splice on a new plug that I could hook up to a standard extention cord. I took home a new 15 amp. plug and hooked it up to the RR's fat black electric cable. I plugged it in, flipped the 2 tiny breakers located in one of the cupboards and to my amazement, I had light! There are 4 small light fixtures in the RR which hold 40 watt bulbs. No electric refrigerator, no DVD player, no AC - just 4 small lights. My gosh, those were they days of the true back woods campers! I usually "dry camp", but it is just good to know that the electrical system works if I ever need it.
Next came the propane test ... a bit scarier. I've never seen a "small" propane explosion. I grabbed the propane tank from my BBQ and hooked it up to the RR's regulator. I held a lighter to the 3 burner stovetop and I had flames. Nice, clean, even blue flames! In my opinion, I could have stopped the project right now since I knew I could make a cup of coffee. What else did I really need? The 2 cute little propane wall wall fixtures also worked well. I wouldn't have to drink my coffee in the dark!
With a new surge of confidence, I decided to start pulling the windows and trim pieces from the trailer. I have learned that most water leaks are from the seams around the windows and roof gutters. So they all would need to be pulled, cleaned up and reinstalled with fresh butyl putty tape (a kind of sticky putty stripping that is the choice of vintage trailer professionals!). This shouldn't be too hard, right? Just tedious. They sealed these old trailers up like they were military tanks going into battle. Out came all the windows. Off came all the miscellaneous trim pieces and gutter moldings. All the exterior tail lights were removed. Everything was photographed and labled with masking tape. How would I ever remember what goes where? My digital camera got more use in 1 day than in the previous 2 years. About 8 hours later, exhausted and filthy dirty, I reached a good stopping point. The RR was stark naked! Just an aluminum shell with gaping holes on all 4 sides!! Boy, it felt good to get something accomplished. Even if I still had no idea what I was doing!
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