Painting our Dream Inn

So here is our plan: 

White on top, aqua on bottom with a silver z-stripe down the middle cause every great vintage trailer's gotta have a z-stripe right?

Fist Step: Self Etching Primer

After thoroughly scrubbing the trailer down and sanding any chipping areas (not many as most of the paint was just simply worn off), we then gave the trailer a quick scuff with dry scotch brite pads and then a quick wipe down with some paint prep cleaner that a friend who does this professionally gave us I think it was called lacquer and varnish cleaner or something like that.  Then we sprayed the trailer down with cans of self etching primer- concentrating on the areas where the aluminum was bare so that the primer would stick to the aluminum and bind to the new paint.

The Primer and Sealer that we used

Me looking oh so fashionable!

Primed and ready to go- we borrowed an air compressor from a friend for the next step

Second Step: Sealer

 Here we go- first use of a spray gun/compressor (not too bad for newbies I must say- only a few drips here and there).  We started on the roof and worked our way down, had to wait for a day that wasn't too windy so that we wouldn't get paint on our neighbors houses or cars.

Ok- ready to paint now ;-)

Third Step: White Topcoat Paint

Here is what we used, ended up paying way more than what we budgeted for but hopefully it's worth it in the end. Almost $800 total to prime/seal/paint the trailer- probably would have been a lot cheaper and easier to pay someone else to do it! But that would have taken all the fun out of it now ;-)

Here is what she looked like after painting the top half of the trailer white.

Fourth Step: Aqua Topcoat on the lower half

Next we masked off the top edge of our z-stripe and masked off all of the upper half of the trailer. Ready to spray the bottom half aqua color.     

Spray, spray, spray before it gets too warm to paint!

Tomorrow we're Painting the silver z-stripe! can't wait to see the finished product, will post pictures soon (hopefully).

Finished interior wood panel replacements, now Paint Prep- Never ending!

Well we've got some blog catching up to do. We've been working hard lately on the trailer, and we took a break to get married last month! Needless to say we haven't been keeping up very well on the blogging lately.  We've got just about all of the rotten damaged wood inside the trailer replaced with new birch panels and new pine wood framing where needed (and easily accessible).

Replacing rotten wood frame on back side wall

look at all this rotten wood we had to get rid of

Back wall internal frame after some clean up

We took out the original back side panel and laid it over our new birch paneling to trace the exact dimensions

Here is the new back side wall with new foam insulation, and paper moisture barrier

We also put in new locks for our side storage compartments

Now we have Keys to lock up the hatches

Next step- exterior paint.  (We decided to make her look good on the outside first)

Removed all the windows, gutter rails and rain gutter things, ceiling vent and exterior light fixtures (all getting polished- that will be another post all in itself what a job!)

                                    Look what we found when we removed the kitchen sink outlet!

Then we masked off all the windows with plastic and frog tape

My sweet hubby hard at work

Then we washed her down with a good de-greaser/ grime cutter and scrubbed her good with scotch brite pads

Notice the new wedding ring ;-)

Ceiling Rebuild

So here we go on the ceiling rebuild, and thank goodness this one wasn't as bad as the front wall once we got inside and looked at the real damage.  So an inside out repair it is indeed.

New ceiling under way- we just took out the damaged panel and all the insulation ect.; put up a few extra support beams, took out the roof vent for now, put up a piece of tyvek between the aluminum and the frame, then foam insulation, next is the moisture barrier paper, and then we'll put up a new birch panel, so far so good

Had to share this picture: look at all this nasty roof tar junk we had to chizle away at!

finished product with moisture barrier paper behind the birch panel

Alright, It's official I'm a blogger now-- Front Wall Rebuild

So the first big project we decided to tackle was the rebuild of our front wall. here goes, with much help and advice from all the friends at  http://repairingyesterdaystrailers.yuku.com/ here is what we've got

Lol- doesn't look like it's going to be a inside to outside rebuild anylonger! The wood was so rotten even in the corners that we decided to open the skin up and rebuild the entire frame of the front wall

 here is the new birch paneling before staining (notice our one set of lovely original aqua dinette cushions ;-)

New birch panel in place on the inside with this moisture barrier paper behind, new plywood frame placed into the corners and then I rebuilt the whole front wall frame. (Ah notice the new propane tanks and the crapy mount the RV store welded on - this may need replacing down the line I'd like to get those round vintage propane tank mounts)

Alright, we've got the frame rebuilt, put the foam board insulation in and now we're putting a waterproof breathable membrane (TyVek ) to try and prevent condensation problems on the inside of the aluminum

Today we started putting the skin back in place, not an easy task I should say

Here We Go

Ok thought I'd try out this blog thing since so many other blogs out there have been helpful to me in the restoration of our Mobile Scout.  We've got some Catching up to do though since we've now had her 3 months and put a bit of work in already.

This is our little Trailer on the first day we got her- straight to the car wash

This is definitely not a full rebuild project, just a facelift.   My boyfriend and I both have full-time jobs and we're working on the Scout when time allows, hopefully we'll be able to take her out for a trip at least by the end of summer.  Any comments or tips you all want to share on our restoration efforts are much appreciated, we need all the help we can get! 
We got the trailer off craigslist in San Jose CA, you should have seen the clean up that was needed, drug needles and 70's porn were among some of the little treasures we found inside our trailer, I know many of you out there have also found some pretty interesting things in yours ;-).


 After the clean out here is what she looked like upon first inspection.

Original appliances- ice box, and stove/oven

 This is the sleeping area (notice there is no bed frame...humm I guess we'll get to that someday).  Remnants of the original floor tiles.

 Water damage on the ceiling from leaking roof gutters

Here is the main water damage area, the entire front wall is all rotted and needs replacing for sure

 Here I am with the job site supervisor Salty Dog, as you can see there are no propane fixtures or tanks at this point either