Demolition Day 1 and 2

10/27/2012

Best word to describe demolition day one is YIKES!  Despite a busy weekend, we had about two hours to do some demolition on the trailer while the kiddos were napping.  We decided to get the carpet and front section out.  Ohhhh my goodness.  Not sure what lived in the dinette seats, but it made a mess with all the nuts and stuffing.  We think we were relatively successful.  The front dinette is out and we were able to get the majority of the carpeting, another two layers of flooring, and the side cabinet out as well.  

As with other projects, there are always surprises.  This weekend we found a wasp nest and bird feathers in the heater vent.  Many holes in the wheel boxes and the floors.  Also a gas line right beside some questionable wiring.  On a good note, we found the original tile (not salvageable, but will help with ideas) and the original rounded curves on the front cabinetry.  Hopefully that is a sign of good to come.

Luckily, we have a free dump day coming up so we can get rid of all of this yucky stuff.  We plan to continue next weekend.

11/3/2012

We continued to remove the interior.  It was more of the same, some super scary and some exciting finds.  We removed the kitchen and the back bed.  In the kitchen we found the original birch frame (painted, but in good shape) that we plan to re-finish.  It was a really exciting find.  We also found some of the original birch panelling in the front cabinet.  Although it cannot be reused, it confirmed our desire to restore Ike with the birch paneling interior.

In the world of scary, the entire back right is rotted, nothing to salvage there.  We also found more yellow jackets.  Luckily it was cold and they were not aggressive.  We need to find the source before spring.  I have a feeling the source will be revealed as we remove the skins.  We also discovered the reason that the rear roof sags... there is nothing holding it up!  The support beam was just floating in the ceiling attached to nothing.  All problems that will be resolved when we put it back together.  

We are at a stopping point until we can remove the skins this spring.  We sealed up the gaping holes and inventoried the salvageable items.  We plan to work on some of the detail stuff this winter so we are ready to re-install.  We are also reading everything we can on the best way to tackle the restoration.  There is much to learn on the world wide web!  

Getting lots done!

Wow, so who knew that we would totally fail at keeping the blog updated?  We apologize for not being better.  Hopefully as we move forward, we will be better.  Even if this is not updated, we have been very busy getting Ike ready for his rebuild.  We are taking lots of pictures of everything we take apart so we can share our fun.  We are finally making some great progress and are looking forward to the fun of rebuilding the camper.

Ike's many colors

Late last year we took out the disgusting carpet and dismantled the interior, then came winter and very little got done because of the weather.  We managed to get the windows out without breaking them and then prepared to remove the aluminum skins.  It took almost 4 months to get the skins off.  In the process we figured out that Ike was painted 5 different colors over his lifetime... coral, black, green, aqua, and blue.  Poor thing, but just imagine all of those colors in the screws that you have to try to remove.  Not to mention the previous owners were in love with caulking and rubber roofing goop.  They must have used at least a case of caulking around the windows and along the seams.  We had to take a knife point and pick out the paint and caulking in every screw on the skins.  Many hours of tedious work, but we got the skins off at the end of June.




The wood frame behind the skins is awful.  The rot is bad in the known spots- windows, around the door, vent and corners.  We are not really sure how it stayed together driving it home.  From here things moved a little faster, we were able to get the roof off and drop the walls.  We are left with just the floor on the frame as of early September.  Sadly, we really cannot reuse much from the framing.  We kept the walls so that we can use them as a template to rebuild.

Getting the skins off, one piece at a time

As we enter the rebuild stage, we are very hopeful that we will get a lot done this winter.  Not the glamorous stuff, but the list is long.  Some of the stuff we plan to this winter includes:  scrubbing the aluminum window frames, repairing screens and missing glass in the windows, rebuilding the kitchen, rebuilding the door and screen door, scrubbing/ repainting the refrigerator, putting new laminate on the kitchen table, packing bearings and rebuilding the wall frames.  We are hoping to get some of this "fun" stuff done now so that next spring we can focus on the rebuild and putting Ike back together.

Front corner rot

Back corner rot

All skins off, roof left

Removing the rusted nails from the skin

As we tore apart Ike, we had to decide to keep and reuse or do new.  Most of interior will be new, but we plan to rebuild trying to maintain the 1955 lines using modern 2013 materials.  We found a great flooring company that allows you to design your own floor.  Super excited since only about 8 square feet of floor can actually matter for design.  The rest of the floor is under cabinets, beds, or tables.  It will allow us to bring in some fun colors and shapes.  We also found a really cool new design for the formica counters and tabletop.  It has a great retro feel, but is new.
  

   

New floor

Before

After

Meet Ike

"Ike" joined our family on October 20th, 2012.  Ike is a 1955 Shasta 1500 travel trailer in need of lots of love and restoration.  What started as a whimsical pre-sleep conversation after reading an article in Sunset Magazine, lead to a hunt online to find our new family member.  We found Ike on Craigslist and we were lucky enough to be the first responders to the ad.  (These projects are super popular and the Shasta brand is very desirable.)  At times we think that maybe we are a little insane, but the potential is awesome!  Not scared of the work, just what was (and still may be) living in the walls, cabinets and the table upholstery.  We plan to restore Ike to his full glory and spend many weekends together as a family in the great outdoors.  Love camping, but the idea of a bed and not a sleeping mat is very alluring.

Oh, so you may also be wondering why we named the trailer Ike.  1955 was a good year (so we have been told by family members that happened to be born that year), but the President was Dwight D Eisenhower or Ike.  We decided that it was a fun name for a vintage trailer that was an integral part of the historical times.  And 2012 if you are not aware is an election year and we get enough political calls to remind us so.  Maybe we had politics on the brain.  Either way, Ike it is!

We plan to take Ike down to the trailer frame and completely rebuild.  As with all projects, we will start with demolition!  We hope that maybe underneath the awesome 1970's paneling that we find some of the beautiful birch and curves of the 1955 Shasta line.  We are really excited to get started, unfortunately a lot of the fun will have to wait for spring.  I am sure we will find plenty to keep us busy until then.

The inside is covered in hideous paneling and the remnants of past visitors.  We also seem to have a lot of yellow jackets by the front windows.  Thinking there is a nest in the walls.  We had removed the table and seats before taking these pictures.  They both need considerable work.  But, there are some good finds too... we have the original hubcaps, refrigerator, vine lighting, and a wooden screen door.

Inside looking towards back

Inside looking towards front

Front