Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Doug / Bill

I noticed that the tailights openings are covered with tape. the price of the tailight housings for these trailers are rare and the cost is high. you could make them out of 1 gallon paint can lids and put whatever lens you decide you want. very easy to do [just rember to ground out the housing]. on every trailer i have built i have never had a light problem because i ground every light

Mike

I am working on the lights, removing the rust, and have covered the light openings with the tape to keep out the rain. I like the idea of using a paint can lid.

Bill...Mike has also mentioned that he replaced his lenses with late 50's Ford ones....something to keep in mind. Doug

My friend Jean who I camp with has the same trailer. It had a lot of rot in the front end and that part was re-built by Bob Ross in Romoland, CA.
She had him strip of the paint but is now tempted to return it to the original color scheme.
You can see some pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenskill/sets/72157601416561943/
At all the rallies, women in particular love the very compact look of the interior of the trailer, esp the little lights in the kitchen area

About it looking like the Dalton, I met a guy with a Dexter and all the parts were very much like my Kenskill. Turns out they were made in Sun Valley CA about a block from each other. I suspected a brother-in-low operation or midnight trailer supply.

Bill
does your trailer have a small cardinal emblem or decal on the side of the trailer if it does could you take some pictures for me

Thanks Mike

Mike; Cardinals are still being made. Wonder how much the emblem has changed?

good question i will have to look into that, people are still making the original style decals, i do not know about the badges


Mike

My friends trailer had everything stripped off so there are no logos. Some of them show up at vintage trailer rallies. I will keep an eye out for one and get a good picture. There is a small rally next month in Ojai and one may show up. There are always a few at the Pismo Beach rally in May.

FYI: the small Cardinals like yours were made by Adams Trailer Co in El Monte, CA.
Cardinal Industries was Indiana and made the very large trailers.
They were two separate companies.

The information and photos etc I have came from Juergen Eichenmueller.
You can find some his stuff here:http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZtrailer-dealerQQhtZ-1

Order some CD that looks interesting and ask him to add any Cardinal information. He used to do that for free. There was not a lot of Cardinal stuff when I ordered mine but he may have added more since then.

EDIT: You may find some help here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vintagecardinal/

I think that Bill removed the taillights from the body and is working on them.

I went down today and we got a lot of the front end torn apart. The plan here is to replace whatever rotten material there was, but the big damage is from jack knifing doing the damage. I was really surprised that there wasn't much rotten wood in it. Some of the staining on the interior appears to have been from items being tipped over and dumped during travel! The front is opened up from the bottom to above the front window...both sides are opened up about 2' back of the front. Front and 2 front side windows are removed for cleaning/maintenance and polish.

I don't have pics, but all this hub bub about how to build etc... backing etc....most would really be in shock on some of these older trailers and how they were put together. Large voids in the wall for insulation...but just a thin mat of glass, no serious insulation... No glue anywhere that we've found yet...mostly nails and a few staples and not exactly the best of wood materials. Thing is...it's 53 years old and still hanging in there!

The lower front and rear has damage which will need repair...but it's mostly impact damage...not rot....Great find Bill!

doug hodder wrote:I don't have pics, but all this hub bub about how to build etc... backing etc....most would really be in shock on some of these older trailers and how they were put together. Large voids in the wall for insulation...but just a thin mat of glass, no serious insulation... No glue anywhere that we've found yet...mostly nails and a few staples and not exactly the best of wood materials. Thing is...it's 53 years old and still hanging in there!

I don't know how many times I've tried to tell different ones on this board that very same thing just be told I don't know what I'm talking about. Thanks Doug for bringing that up.

I agree Gage.....I just need to get some pics to document it all.....kinda funny....CPES/epoxy/gorilla glue/ thinned urethane/ pocket screws/ glass etc.........yada yada yada....it just doesn't matter. A good look at some screw type nails and crappy materials would really surprise you all. All these techniques pretty much work. A teardown on a nearly 60 year old trailer will give many a new outlook on how it "ought" to be built....Doug

Doug

i have to agree there is not much holding these trailers together, but when you combine all the items they used when they built these trailers they hold up really well. look at mine i pulled the trailer almost 200 miles and half of the trailer suffered dry rot only after the tear down did i find out how bad the trailer really was. As for glue i am happy that they did not use any glue, all the pieces came apart real easy. I put the trailer back together using the same stuff they used 50 years ago, except for the foam insulation. should hold up for another 50 years.


mike

Last weekend I went down to Bills. He had the stove/oven all apart, some bead blasting on the burners and detail work and it should be up and running. We also tore apart the ice box on it. It was just a galvanized sheet metal box with about 1/2" of glass insulation wrapped around it and stuffed into a cardboard box. An outer rim of wood, shot full of staples and nails.

I blasted the box and trim pieces, the interior was flaking huge chunks of paint and it was pretty rusted up. Now to do some sanding and then a prime with an epoxy based primer. According to the paint guys, it will work well on the galv. On the ice tray shelf, there is a nice little decal that I'm trying to not screw up. I shot the decal with a clear coat, so I can mask it off and then paint the remainder of the shelf, hopefully without losing it. Too bad they put it on crooked originally.... Just a little detail that needed to be saved. Minty green to match the stove on the door. Doug