Bringing the baby home and starting the restoration

As the only place to store the trailer was my driveway and with winter well under way here in Portland, the first priority was to cover up the windows, vents, obvious holes, etc to keep the inside dry. Plastic sheets and exterior painters tape got the job done.

Over the next few weeks, late November to mid December 2015,  the focus was on removing most of the interior cabinetry, appliances and fixtures. My plan was to divide the trailer into sections and not do the whole project at once so as not to get overwhelmed. Every part that came out of that trailer was marked, down to the screws, nuts and bolts no matter how rusty or damaged. Plenty of time later to throw stuff away or recycle but you never know what you may need wether to be reused or as a pattern for a new part.

Overall the interior shell was in good shape but very dirty. Once I had removed some of the cabinets spent many hours using a commercial degreaser and for very stubborn stains a handheld steam cleaner. Nasty.

The cabinets were in different stages of decay. The bottom cabinets and closet wall were either water damaged or dry rotted. The upper cabinets were dirty but in good shape although the thin plywood was very dry and brittle. 

The floor had been replaced in the center area with cheap plywood, almost all the rest of the floor (3/4 inch plywood) was completely rotten and so delaminated you could not step on it.

Started assessing the electrical systems. The 110 AC appeared intact although the shore power cord was unusable, the plug was not the standard 30-amp service type we use today. Also the cord had some nicks in it that had been taped over. No way was I going to try to plug that in, ever. The AC breaker box appeared functional, the cover to it was missing.  The 12V system was in bad shape and would have to be tested much later.

The plumbing...what plumbing? A few pieces of galvanized pipe totally corroded and connected to nothing and a few lengths of copper pipe still attached to the fixtures. The copper piping had numerous burst cracks in it. That was the extent of the plumbing. The shower and sink fixtures were still attached but did not look very promising.

Most of the window glass was good. A couple of the glass louvers on the passenger side had cracks in them but no missing pieces. All glass was very dirty and on the passenger side the louvers were coated with a heavy deposit of minerals. This side of the trailer must have been on the windward side I think, from observing how much silt and water stains there were as opposed to the passenger side of the trailer. The window hardware all worked! Hehr sure built some quality products.

This brought us up to Christmas...