Making progress after a long winter's nap

Well, after hibernating all winter, we are getting back on track with the Shasta.

The original wheel tubs were very rusted and bent.  When these are installed, they go under the subfloor and the finished floor, then the whole shebang is covered with the bench seats which are screwed down to the floor.  As you can tell, this would be seriously unfun to have to replace in the future, so we decided to have new ones made out of stainless steel.  We went to a local sheet metal shop (Falmouth sheet metal) and they came out great!


Dave, my hubby, has been very busy!  He has been replacing any of the framing that is rotted or has an (ahem) smell.  Also, to give extra strength to the roof, he has cut thin strips of plywood and has sandwiched the framing in between to give it more rigidity without a lot of extra weight.

The metal frame of the trailer is exposed, so he spent all day yesterday knocking off any loose rust with a power drill and a wire brush attachment.  It looks much better.  I'll be cleaning the metal frame with a wax and tar remover and then we will prime with Rustoleum rusted metal primer and finish it with black Rustoleum paint.

Ok, lest you think that I spent the day at the beach while my poor hubby worked, I was working on removing rust from the exterior lights (I only spent half the day at the beach).  I started by using some "at home" solutions that I found on the web.... Vinegar, followed by a paste of baking soda and water, aluminum foil, dance by the light of a full moon.  Then I went to Autozone and got this...

Worked great.  But you know what works even better?  A sandblaster!  Our wonderful neighbor offered to take these to work (and anything else that I need de-rusted) and he'd sandblast 'em.  So, I'll be sending these and the door handles and the license plate holder and the.... you get the idea.  He even said that the wheels would fit in the sandblast booth.  So that frees me up for my next project - I'll be polishing the aluminum.  We bought some Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish which I will break out next weekend.

We are having new roof panels fabricated by Falmouth sheet metal also.

Here are some fun inspiration photos I found online: