I took Tuesday and Wednesday off this week and managed to complete the interior teardown. All of the skins are off and the insulation is on its way to the dump. We are ready to remove the shell and may get started on that next week.
Removing the old Armstrong AC was a bit of a pain, but not quite as difficult as the tub. I took a ton of photos of the AC wiring and connections, but I'm beginning to think reinstalling the Armstrong may be more trouble than its worth. I'm came away from that part of the project pretty impressed with the workmanship that went into the old AC install. These were not simple bolt on additions. Remarkably, it is in very good condition. I'm sure I will go back-and-forth on that decision several times over the winter.
Norm
Looks Good Norm !!! at this rate you will be Flying along.. It sure helps to have a hand , I have done most of my restoration myself so far ,I do get some help from the 6 year old ... I am almost ready to reinstall the upper skin ( aka.. taco ) I rolled mine into a burrito and have been walking over it for what seems months ....I will be so glad when it is back up ,I took it down myself but I am going to get some help to put it up.... I did not do a shell off as I did not have the room, if I was to do it again it would be a shell off.... Its great to get the smell out of these things after 50 years , it took along time but its gone ... are you doing restore indoors ??? how did the frame look?? anyways keep up the good work .. stain ...
Great work. Sounds like you are doing it, but you can not take too many pictures. Its amazing how things that are so obvious now become inexplicable later.
Looks Good Norm !!! at this rate you will be Flying along.. It sure helps to have a hand , I have done most of my restoration myself so far ,I do get some help from the 6 year old ... I am almost ready to reinstall the upper skin ( aka.. taco ) I rolled mine into a burrito and have been walking over it for what seems months ....I will be so glad when it is back up ,I took it down myself but I am going to get some help to put it up.... I did not do a shell off as I did not have the room, if I was to do it again it would be a shell off.... Its great to get the smell out of these things after 50 years , it took along time but its gone ... are you doing restore indoors ??? how did the frame look?? anyways keep up the good work .. stain ...
Stain, thanks. Glad to here you have made so much progress on your 59'. Post some pics when you get a chance. I'd love to see your progress. We were planning to work on mine in a friend's shop, but that space is no longer available, so we are going to have to do the work where she sits now. The timing is unfortunate, but we will make do.
Diesel, I've been taking tons of photos and trying to label every screw that comes out, but there have been more than a few times when I found myself surrounded by a pile of screws and forgot exactly where they came from or what order I took them out. I also took some video of the trailer at a few points to give a wider perspective than a photograph allows. This morning, I took video of the entire perimeter of the c-channel so I can remember where all the various brackets need to go. I'm sure I will still be scratching my head a lot when trying to put it back together.
I bagged and labeled all of my hardware, but did not end up re-using much of it. I replaced all of those annoying slotted screws with phillips and square drive screws that are much easier to install and remove.
This week marks the start of the heavy lifting. Ryan started Monday by taking detailed measurements of the entire trailer. He also created a couple of templates for the front and rear curved sections. Although we hope to be able to use the old floor as a template, the amount of rot and termite damage now showing after taking out the interior has us thinking there will not be much floor left after the shell comes off. You can see one of the worst areas in the last photo. That is from just under the stove vents (both high-and low) and has taken on a lot of water.
In addition to mapping out the location of all the brackets, bolts, etc., Ryan also found the centerline of the trailer and mapped out the exact location of the wheel wells. This turned up an interesting discrepancy in that the wheel wells are offset by about a half inch as you can see in the photo of the flooring (one is a half-inch forward of the other).
Just one of those things I'm glad we figured out before we get to the point of putting it back together. After creating the templates and taking down all the measurements, Ryan started drilling rivets yesterday and I finished up this afternoon during a break in the rain. Time to start building our cross bracing.
When I did mine I thought maybe I had used a Canadian tape measure on one side and an American on the other. Nope, they were were not the same no matter which tape measure I used. In fact, mine were off by about an inch and a quarter. I notice you have a lot of the original VAT (vinyl ASBESTOS tile). Take care when you take it off, especially cutting through it with the Sawzall.
I notice you have a lot of the original VAT (vinyl ASBESTOS tile). Take care when you take it off, especially cutting through it with the Sawzall.
Yep, there are still a bunch of the VAT tiles. Fortunately they have been soaked throughly in water from all the leaks in this trailer, so they are not terribly prone to turning into dust. Still, we are being pretty careful when handling them and will certainly take precautions when it comes time to tear the floor off the frame.
Btw, the decision on the old AC has been made. When Ryan and I went to take the exterior unit off the roof it quickly became clear that the only way to get it down without hurting ourselves or the trailer, was to simply launch it overboard. I felt crappy destroying a working piece of equipment, but the only way to bring it down in any controlled fashion would have required either two more people (standing on our scaffold waiting for us to hand it over) or an overhead crane. It hit the ground hard and will never be used again. I still have some useable parts (the fan motor, electrical diagram and a couple other pieces) if anyone is interested (who knows, the compressor might even still work since it did when I last plugged it in).
Oh well, it was a pretty ugly wart on the top of the trailer. I'm planning to rough in for a new AC as part of the restoration, but will not install one until we have camped in it for a while.
Today was one of those days when everything just comes together. Although we were originally going to be doing the restoration in Ryan's shop this winter, they recently had to move out of the shop. So, work on the Captain is taking place where she sits. That turn of events brings some challenges inherent with Seattle weather. The rain arrived a couple of weeks ago and it is already getting pretty cold. Wind storms are probably not too far off. Today, however, we got a good break in the weather at the same time that Ryan, my dad, and I were all available to put in a few good hours on the trailer.
So at around 4:00 this afternoon, after installing some bracing, checking the perimeter of the trailer for any remaining hidden rivets, and slowly putting pressure on the bracing with the floor jack, the shell started to pull away from the frame.
We found several additional hidden rivets during this process that had to be sheared off with the help of a putty knife. As we dispatched each hidden rivet, the shell would pop up from the frame as if letting out a sigh of relief. Despite our best efforts, we somehow managed to miss at least one hidden under the refrigerator access door. That caused a little damage to the access door frame and the skin just under the door frame, but nothing too significant.
Before the day was over, we managed to get the shell off, the frame pulled out from under the trailer and the shell lowered back down to just an inch or so above the ground.
Lowering the shell was probably the trickiest part of the day's work. The ground underneath us was not perfectly level and the shell was up pretty high to get the frame out from underneath. As we brought it down, there were a few moments when the shell was a bit off kilter. A good strong wind and we would have been pretty screwed. It felt very good to get it down off the high sawhorses and eventually down to the ground.
Ryan secured the shell to the ground with six 2x4 stakes driven at least a foot into the ground and screwed to the the cross bracing inside the trailer. Tomorrow, he's picking up an industrial work tent to build over the frame and we should be ready to start stripping the frame by Friday.
Too bad Ryan is losing his shop space for you to use, but sounds like a work tent will do fine and keep the trailer close by. Hope our crummy weather can hold off a little while for you.
Looks Great. How did you find such a big lot in Seattle? I had to do a shell on with the 67 and it was a PIA.
Lee, a buddy of mine owns a vacant lot just two doors north of me in West Seattle. He is letting me store the trailer and do our restoration work there. Without that, we would have been in a real jam. I owe him and his family a bunch of camping trips in the Captain when we are done.
Steve, thanks. Even though the shop space was great, it is nice to have the trailer so close by. Ryan only lives about a mile north of us on the same street, so both of us can get back-and-forth to work on the trailer easier than going down to the shop. Keeps the families a little happier when we aren't so far off all the time.
Sandblasting is nasty business. Since my last post, we stripped the frame and built a tent over it to provide a halfway dry work space over the next few months. This morning I picked up 600 pounds of abrasive and we set about sandblasting the frame. After finishing the top, we flipped the frame over and hit the bottom. Nice fresh steel is now ready for repairs and modifications.
Norm
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