Tag: 65 Comanche
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Game on
I had to paint the kitchenette with Kilz because it had gotten some mold spotting on it. What a drag to paint over all that gorgeous poplar and birch ply, but I couldn’t spend the time and money to rebuild it. I got it set and attached the street side wall, set the dinette seats,…
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Resurget Cineribus
The flag of Detroit, in addition to having about 7 flags worth of visual information on it, bears the city’s motto: “Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus.” The motto was given to the city by Gabriel Richards after the Great Fire of 1805 which wiped out the entire city in less than a day. The one building…
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A Series of Unfortunate Events
Things looked so hopeful at the end of that last post, didn’t they? (Cue ominous background music) It was fall and would soon be too coId to spread stain and work outside. The trailer was too tall to fit in the garage, so I had constructed a tarp cocoon to seal up the trailer for…
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Design & Build Pt. 4 – The Kitchenette
The kitchenette is a major structural element in the trailer. I built it out of three-quarter inch birch ply and poplar. It is cantilevered over the rear portion of the trailer a bit to allow for the bed to slide underneath it when extended. Although I still have some finishing to do on it…
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Design & Build Pt. 3 – Take a seat – designing and building the dinette
I started working on the dinette seats. Based on the drawings and photographs I made, and videos from dinettes in other vintage trailers, I constructed a lightweight frame and skinned it with paneling. I used a Kreg pocket hole jig to make the joints strong and compact. The corner trim piece for the dinette seat…
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Design & Build Pt. 2 – Totally floored
Kind of a mile stone last week, I finished building the floor, got the wheel wells installed, and laid down some linoleum. Now it’s time to start building cabinets. Since I busted out all of the original cabinets (I didn’t know they attach from the metal side – i.e. the outside) I am faced with…
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Design & Build Pt. 1 – There’s no place to go but up
I took the trailer apart all the way down to the frame and patched some rusty spots. Then I wire wheeled the whole thing, washed it with Simple Green, and prepped it for POR-15 paint. I used an aluminum spray paint for the silver spots. It took soooooo long and the weather was record high…
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Disassembly & Discovery Pt. 5 – There’s nothing left
My objective is to get down to the frame. Everything must go. Kelly came back for a second day of dissection and we got the roof off and the walls down. The “fix-it” job on the roof is truly atrocious. There was a piece of angle iron sistered in to support the sagging roof…
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Disassembly & Discovery Pt. 4 – Too late to turn back now
It’s been quite a week as far as trailer-centric things go. I watched mobiltec videos every day for hours and made notes. I scoured the Internet for a source for the missing window regulators and cranks. I ordered window seals from vintagetrailergaskets.com and a huge tarp from Tarps Direct. I got my girlfriend to agree…
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Design & Build Pt. 0 – I’ve been doing it all wrong
Wait… WHAT??!! I had been watching YouTube videos for a while to see what other people had done to fix up their trailers. I myself have rehabbed houses and customized cars. I was confident that I could do this. But as it turns out, trailers – for all of their similarities to cars and houses…