~The Adventure Continues

So I made it home, managed to get it licensed (after being inspected), and parked it.

The end of that summer (2008) is when I realized the problem with the roof, but knew I would not get to it before the rainy season, so I tarped it.

I also realized my door handle (lock) did not work. Sure, it opened & closed, but I had no keys for it and the cylinder was toast. I was also pretty sure it was missing an internal item. In order to solve this problem, I added a 'lock' to my door. (see pic) Oh, yeah. It looked crappy right there so I added some new aluminum to cover a bunch of ugly screw holes.
Luckily, after doing much research this summer, I now have a fully functioning Bargman handle! Thanks to the first Ebay dude who was nice enough to take picks of his 'identical to mine, but cannot afford' Bargman lock and show me what the innards look like. Thanks to my local locksmith who supplied me with the interior lock lever. Vintage Trailer Supply who supplied me with missing interior part that the locksmith did not have on his old Bargman handle, and the Ebay dude who just happened to actually have an original Bargman lock cylinder, with keys! I call these finds all *PURE LUCK*

So back to last year. I decided to start pulling off the panel wood on each end of the trailer. Luckily it was just the paneling that had water damage. Looks like a good re-sealing job is in order, plus this year I also purchased a Drip Cap for both ends. I got a brand new one for the single window from Vintage Trailer Supply but I'm going to have to paint it as it was white! (?). For the other window I could have ordered 2 more drip caps and made them into 1 big one, but I didn't want to go that route. I luckily found a trailer 'junk yard' that is somewhat local to me that I found a nice big drip cap at. I must go back there soon and find more stuff!

I also was lucky enough to find a front window awning. It came off a trailer that a lady was going to get rid of. (it was a dump!) She let me scavenge parts off of it. The awning is too big right now and have to make it smaller, but at least I have it. In addition to the awning, I got 2 tables. A small one and a big one. The small one is a permanent hinged table that is held up with a hinged bracket. The Larger table I'm going to turn into a outdoor dinette table that will hook onto the side of the trailer. This way we can keep the other Dinette table in the trailer.

Speaking of tables, here is the Formica that I ordered for my counter-tops, back-splash and all of the tables. It's called Aqua Boomerang & I ordered it from Lowes. Not sure what the brand is, but I totally dig it! I consider it a 'must have'. The currrent Formica to me is not 'damaged', but it's just a bit bleah and just seems un-clean. It's a cream color with gold & silver flecks. yes, it's original, but I want more fabulous look, and this Formica fits!


Next Blog...

Mice, mold, mildew and dry rot. Ohh my!

~My Yellowstone

So I guess I should explain what this blog is all about.

Jumping to the point of purchasing my vintage camper (I'll go back to when I started the search later, but for now...)

I started to post pictures of my trailer restoration on Flickr, but decided I wanted to write about my restoration adventures also.

This is the first blog site I came across and since it was through Google I was happy.
I have a gmail account so I didn't have to, again, put in all of my personal information on yet another web site (Yippee!) so here goes...

Here's a couple pictures of my Yellowstone Camper.
These pictures were actually taken by the lady I bought it from.

I've had this trailer parked in front of my house for a year now. I've started the restoration process, but it's been a slow start.

In the beginning I had posted a 'Want' ad on Craigslist, basically asking someone to sell me their "canned ham" camping trailer. I said a little fixing up would be OK, but I didn't want anything that was a 'Pit'.

This lady had contacted me about her trailer that she no longer wanted. She had purchased it originally to use as a "Pool House/Shower Room" and had already done some work to the trailer. She boasted about putting a Kool Seal coating on the roof, stripped all of the house paint off the exterior, and had started to fix the floor entrance and paint the interior.

Okay, so I like the "Silver" look, although I want to add the Aqua stripe back onto it. (It's the original paint job, like the one below). I haven't decided If I want to add the White back on though.
KoolSeal:
Since starting my renovations,
I have discovered that the roof originally had a layer of what looked like *burlap and tar underneath the 'KoolSeal' layer which had bubbled up horribly, due to moisture.

This is a 'popped' Bubble.

*burlap and tar
This was an old mans home for a long period of time, and apparently an old 'trick' to sealing a roof is to use a cold tar with a product similar to burlap. Makes sense, but is seriously messy to clean up!

This has all been stripped off now, but more on that later.

This is what I refer to as Kilz Hell.

If you look closely, you can see water damaged paneling below the window. Both 'end' windows had this damage, so I am replacing the panels to fix that problem.

I cannot possibly replace all of the wood paneling, so I am replacing some panels and keeping some painted.

The cabinets will definitely be stripped.

Here is how they "fixed" the floor.

More on this later.

Much more...

Much, much muuuuchhhh more!

So I had driven all the way up to Issaquah to look at the trailer, although I was pretty sure I had wanted it before even getting there. The seller and I had already decided on a price and it looked perfect from the pics. After getting the paperwork sorted out and a trip to the DOL, I was on my way. back to my home on the Peninsula (just North of Tacoma).

I drove it home, even though the hitch ball on my Nissan was slightly too big, and now I have found out that the bearings are in need of some serious repair (or replaced?) that my husbands department though.

Now thinking about it, I should have had it towed, but I made it just fine.

to be continued....