Canceled due to hopelessness, lack of money & skill

[robertaw]

This build journal is for my 1966 Aristocrat Land Liner. It's not a TD it's a tad bigger than a TTT but it IS vintage.

I bought her in June 2009 for $400 and this what she looked like at that time. The seller advertised the "palmetto camo" paint job like it was a plus.



It was also advertised to have "new carpet" which even if it was true we would be ripping out.



I figured worst case scenario we had a decent tandem axle trailer. The wheels and bearings were replaced 3 years ago and it has a newly welded on hitch.

The previous owner had a thing for spray foam and used it to make numerous "repairs" both inside and outside the trailer. This is one of the roof vents we removed.



We started ripping out the parts that were clearly rotten and quickly reached the "what have we gotten ourselves into?" point.

Three fumigations and several bon fires later it was completely gutted.

I'll skip the part about the fridge being too big to come out the door and getting the coils punctured creating a toxic ammonia cloud in our yard for a week...

So here we today with the roof completely sealed with new framing and new vents installed, the rear third of the floor and side framing replaced, and a cheap temporary car port on order to try to keep things dry.

[S. Heisley]

It looks like you're doing a good job on her. Someday, she'll be a thing of wonder! (But right now, she's a thing of wondering what you got yourself into! ) You'll get there, Roberta. Thanks for sharing your build. It will be fun to watch the progress.

[robertaw]

Got my temporary car port the other day. It was easy to set up and is exactly what it was advertised to be. Unfortunately I can't guess-timate measurements very well so it's not quite tall enough.

We are going to buy six 5 gallon buckets and fill them half way with concrete to add some height. Only about 12" more is needed.

Once we get the trailer in there and determine the fit is okay I will order the $85 wall kit for it. The walls won't touch the ground since we are adding height but should be enough to keep things dry while we are working on it.

[robertaw]

Just when you thought things couldn't get any more ghetto...

Here it is folks...A HOA's worst nightmare.

A gutted, windowless, palmetto/camo/graffitti painted, aluminumly challenged, vintage beauty crammed under a cheap canopy being held up by six bright orange Home Depot buckets of cement!

Well, that's not exactly true...the trailer is actually holding up the canopy and the six orange buckets are just for effect at this point.

I LOVE this trailer and one day she is going to be a knock-out! In the meantime I'm sure glad we live back in the woods...

[laoutdoorsman]

those were my thoughts when you had posted about the carport...didnt thinkk it was tall enough, for mine....i hadnt put 2 and 2 together yet and realized what you were building....

[lauriandgary]

Hey Mike & Roberta,

Here's what I did to increase the height of my canopy:



I used a 2" section of PVC pipe secured in the concrete and put the leg thru it. I put a cover on the bucket to prevent rain water from filling the bucket. I also used coated wire as anchors from the top frame to the buckets.

Oh, good job on the rebuild. Just keep telling yourself that you're doing the right thing and it will be worth it.

Go to the www under my signature for more pics.

[robertaw]

Here's what I did to increase the height of my canopy:



I used a 2" section of PVC pipe secured in the concrete and put the leg thru it. I put a cover on the bucket to prevent rain water from filling the bucket. I also used coated wire as anchors from the top frame to the buckets.

Great idea! Plus the white buckets look alot nicer than my orange ones.

[grizz]

You guys do make me smile humbly, when I see the sort of ptojects you take on, and the results.

Well done so far and keep it going.
I did nothing ot my TD today, but did manage to buy a friend a 4x8 foot "Conway Corniche L" Camping trailer for £120 from a bootfair ad.

He has been looking for a "Trailer Tent" for about a year now, but most tend to be somewhat overpriced.

[robertaw]

You guys do make me smile humbly, when I see the sort of ptojects you take on, and the results.

Thanks. I can't promise great results on mine. This is our first hardcore rebuild.

We did make some decent progress today with the arrival of fall in Florida. Got the rear floor framed and topped with 3/4" plywood and then 3/4" OSB. It makes our floor at total of 2 1/2" thick but that's how it was originally and has lasted nearly 50 years so...

[robertaw]

We have a name - she will be painted orange, yellow, and red and be called "Sunset".

We've gotten a huge amount of work done in the past week on our rebuild. I have pictures on my blog but can't get my picture shrinker to work so I can post them here also.

We got the rear angle from hell put back together and the street side framing done and skin on. We only have a few more boards to put in before the curb side skin.

Next step will be floor between the wheel wells which will take about 5 minutes since it only invovles laying another piece of plywood on top of what is there.

That will leave only the floor and framing in the front to be done before the fun parts start. YAY Finally

[S. Heisley]

What a lot of work! You've really got to be able to see the dream in your head to be able to tear something like that apart and put it back together. It's like rebuilding a whole house! More power to ya, Roberta!

[robertaw]

Thanks Sharon!

It's not back together all the way yet but honestly further than I ever thought it would be.

We are rookies and went about this rebuild all backwards but no regrets... we have learned lots. This one will have the vintage cool exterior but the inside designed to meet our needs.

Our next trailer (yep..gonna do it again! ) will be approached differently and hopefully kept more original.

[aggie79]

Roberta,

That is one cool trailer.

You've taken on a pretty big project. I really like the work you've done so far!

Tom

[robertaw]

Made some progress on the Sunset TOW this weekend. BTW, for those of you who don't know - T.O.W is an acronym for Tenement on Wheels which was our trailer's original handle. (Affectionately named for Cousin's Eddie's RV in Christmas Vacation)

Anyway, Sunset TOW has a bit of a weight problem compared to most on this forum. But she maintains that she is just "large framed". That's her story and she's sticking to it!

We have now got the new framing complete on the rear street side corner. She is all skinned back up and her first piece of exterior trim has been puttied and replaced.



We have started the framing for the full time rear bed and one of the bathroom walls. We started this mainly to add stability while we work on other areas of the trailer.

With a couple of temporary roof supports in place we removed the door from it's rotten framing. This was easier said than done. After the struggle the door is resting peacefully against a tree and the trailer is looking unreasonably mangled.





We will be ripping out all of the front floor and building from the metal up just as we did in the rear section.



On a side note, I'm still working on getting all the windows and drip caps cleaned up. I have all the jalouise windows working smooth as silk now but still have some reassembly, sanding, and polishing to do. Here they all are in various stages of restore.



Our goal is to be campable by April. Labor-wise it wouldn't be a problem but the $$ for project materials is slim. We'll see...

[lauriandgary]

Progress, its a good thing.



Good job on polishing the windows & trim.