New floor and closing up the back

Meanwhile, I tore out the old floor and we put in yellow and white checkerboard tiles.  That floor was NASTY.  Black goo adhesive and probably asbestos to boot.  Yuck. I found that the easiest way to get the black crap off was to wet towels and let it soak for a bit, then scrape.  Then repeat. Again. And again.  Gross.

 

When we were putting in the floor, we noticed that the closet on the right was crooked - very crooked!  It kind of makes the floor look crooked.  Oh well!

 



We went ahead and got new skin for the back end.  The old skin was pretty well shot, and when we put the back end back together, it ended up being a little wider ( ! ) than it was before.  The edges of the old skin were bent and torn, so we found a metal guy in Houston who put the crimp pattern in the metal for us. If you're in Houston, go to Arcs and Sparks!  They're awesome.

 

I just noticed that I'm not in any of the pictures where actual work is being done.  I really did bust my butt on this project!  I stripped all the paint, sanded and re-shellacked the interior, removed the old floor and scrubbed all the black crap off it...I just don't like to be photographed!  Plus, I'm sort of the shutterbug of the family.

Stripping off the exterior paint and getting rid of ROT

I finished stripping off the paint, and here's what it looked like:

 

Rot!  We found the usual rot on the back and front ends of the trailer, so we tore into it and Marc began rebuilding.

What is this trailer?

When we got home from Phoenix, we worked like gangbusters for about 2-3 months. The previous owner told us that the trailer was a '53 Westerner.  I'm sure that's what he was told, too.  It does look like one.

When I stripped the paint off the outside of the trailer, I found a faint outline of a reclining cowboy and the word "Siesta." We figured out that the original emblem must have looked like this:

You can barely see the outline, but it definitely says Siesta!

Picking up the trailer

Well, I guess I should start from the beginning.  I found my trailer in the spring of 2012 on Ebay.  I know, I know...don't buy a trailer on Fleabay.  I couldn't help myself.  I was in LOVE.  So, I paid the asking price and we made a plan to drive from Houston to Phoenix over Spring Break to pick it up. 

Here's what he looked like when we first saw him:

We took a detour  to the Grand Canyon on the way home.  Looking back, that was probably not the smartest thing to do with a trailer that we hadn't fully inspected yet!  Thank God we made it home.