Mini rally at Prado

Had 11 vintage trailers show up on Fathers Day weekend this year. We hosted the rally this time around. Will post more pics later.

Stripping the paint

Went out at 6:00 a.m. to apply paint stripper and peel off all of the old paint using plastic scrapers. It works really well. We finished it up with wet Scotch pads to get the remaining bits of paint. After this we'll use an etching primer, repair minor dents and then paint her.

Finishing the front panel

Chris Burkhardt a.k.a., The Canned Ham Man in Riverside, CA sold us the aluminum panel for the front of the trailer. He measured and crimped to match what we had including the sides. It went on easier than I thought it would. We added wood strips to the front of the trailer to add some stability as there wasn't much in the front then we put in some insulation and covered it with plastic to protect against water.
We had some bad wood on the sides so we used fiberglass resin to build up what was missing, strengthen what was already there and give us something to attach the panel to. It works great and protects the wood from future water damage.We could have removed the bad wood altogether and replaced it but using the fiberglass was less invasive and easier to do. 

Applying the fiberglass resin. 

Re-installing the front window. 

Bad wood on the sides, literally falling apart after we took the original panel off. 

Applying fiberglass cloth to strengthen the sides. 

Added more wood to reinforce the framing and added insulation. 

Finished installing the panel and applying butyl tape around the window casing. 

Happily applying spray adhesive for the insulation. Maybe sniffed too much of the fumes? 

Replacing front panel

We purchased a new aluminum panel for the front of the trailer and this is the removal of the old panel.