Part 9: Running out of things to disassemble

It's been a busy six months since the last post, and much has happened. I replaced all of the skirts and sills and reframed a goodly portion of the curb side. I ditched the generic whitewood I'd ripped for this previously (most of which I ended up recycling as bracing), and bought a load of poplar instead. Much, much stiffer, nice stuff. In the name of overkill I even cut the wheel openings from solid slabs of 8/4 poplar, rather than the random nailed-together chunks of 3/4" fir the factory used. Kreg screwed together, it adds a huge amount of rigidity to the whole wall.

 

There was some sidewall damage from a stress crack in the skin near the door- that's a false back in the tall cabinet that a PO put in to conceal the damage, yuck. You can see where I've cut back the floor to give access to replace the rotten sills (all of them). I left the cabinets in as along as possible in order to provide support to the walls while cutting out the rot.

I was wedged in a 12'x23' unit, which doesn't leave much room to maneuver with all of the necessary tools, lumber, skins, etc., let alone shellacking out of the sun. Perfect timing- the same weekend I'd planned to finish removing the first of the cabinets, while worrying about where the heck I was going to put it, I got a call from the storage complex owner. The unit right next to mine had just became available. Rather than try to wrangle the rolled up roof skin, etc., around the trailer and into the new unit, it was easier just to move the trailer over.

Almost exactly one year in, I thought I'd be further along than this. It definitely would have been quicker and easier to disassemble the walls flat on the floor and rebuild from scratch, but the very tight space made that impossible. I don't want to know how many nails I've needed to cut with my oscillating tool.

Took a break and refinished the Fantastic Fan. They do the job, but man, does all that putty and clear plastic look out of place in a vintage trailer.

I shot it with Krylon Fusion for Plastic in Nickle Shimmer, closest to the aluminum color I was after. I'll probably make an aluminum bezel rather than use the provided plastic one, but that can wait for another day. Big improvement in any case.

Last of the cabinets out, wheel tubs removed, and ready to make my pattern for the new floor. I screwed leftover 2x2s into the vertical framing and did my cross-bracing on top to leave the interior clear, seems plenty sturdy. Interestingly, while removing the tall cabinet, I found a 1957 penny sandwiched between the front corner framing and the floor. Given that the cabinet is wedged between the floor and ceiling, it was undoubtedly there from the factory, possibly placed deliberately.

I did have an interesting surprise when I got the last kitchen cabinet out. I would have liked to have kept the original laminate, but the tabletop was very badly degraded, apparently sun damage. I was a bit surprised, since I've never seen Wilsonart or Formica sun damage remotely like that. It was also a pattern that I'd never seen before, and I'm reasonably familiar with most vintage patterns.

Mystery solved- it's not a laminate countertop at all, but prefinished Masonite. Except for right around the sink, there's no other plywood, etc., to back it up- just the 1/4" Masonite sitting on the frame. As unsuitable as it would seem to be for the task, I'm surprised it held up as well as it did. I'll be redoing this in Wilsonart yellow glacier, likely over 1/2" ply.

Pattern for the new floor complete. I'd needed to cut away some sections to replace the sills, so I needed something fairly stiff to bridge the gaps. I got a deal on cheap door skins, screwed them down in the corners for accuracy, and screwed overlapping skins over the top with construction adhesive. In the morning I pulled the screws and was left with a nice, rigid, accurate pattern to work with. 

Old 1/2" ply and 1/4" celotex floor ripped out, new 3/4" MDO floor biscuit joined (yeah, I know, overkill on all counts) and ready to cut to the template. It'll go in as one piece. Made a last-minute decision to replace the two joists down the middle, no rot or damage but full of enough nails (giant twisties, no less) that I don't want to hassle hitting them when I screw the new floor down.