This afternoon I had a really good conversation with the gentleman who owns a vintage trailer restoration shop in Bend. He seemed enthusiastic to be able to help me and he wanted me to email him photo’s of the trailer, which would give him some idea of what I had. I like what he said about taking the trailer to Les Schwab first and having new tires and wheel bearings put on, this way you know that you are starting with a good rolling trailer. He then starts pulling all the trim off and takes the windows out. He then sends the windows in to be polished and reconditioned and with all that out of the way he can remove the outer skin. I told him about the damaged front and rear panels and he said no problem that the skin could be replaced. He said from there he looks at everything, wiring, plumbing, wood etc and replaces as needed. He really seemed to understand what I wanted done, not a museum piece, but a fantastic trailer that looks amazing and can be used. When I sent him the photo's, I also sent him the address to my blog, so that might be just enough to scare him away, but I hope not.
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| Staring to polish the side of the Traveleze |
Today was a warm one with my car reading 101 on my drive home for lunch. I think it might have just been the hot asphalt it had been sitting on all morning, but none the less it was hot. I wanted go home for two rasons, one was to check the chickens and make sure they were dealing with the heat ok (all was fine). I also, checked the coop and I had one pointy egg, so the Cornish hen had been busy. Second reason, was to eat, so after a quick sandwich I headed back to work. It was looking like we might get an afternoon thunderstorm, so I decided to take the truck back to work. The truck was already dirty and if we wee going to get a little rain and hail I'd rather the truck take the beating.
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| The top half of the trailer starting to shine agian. |
I finished up work around 5:30pm following a Business After Hours and headed home. I wanted to get home to work on the trailer and perhaps try out the buffer that I had barrowed from Tracy. When I got home it was 87 and the clouds were definitely blowing in with lots of lightening in the distance. It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to be working on a large metal object, if a lightning storm passed through the area, so I wanted to hurry and get to work.
I change quickly and went to let the chickens out. They were their usual eager little bunch and they flew the coop, the minute I opened the door. Once free, they quickly went about their business of rummaging through the garden.
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| Starting to polish the roof. |
I got the buffer out and a host of polishing compounds to see which would work best and ultimately plain old chrome polish did the trick. I buffed lightly and immediately stirred up a huge black film of tarnish. I ran over the entire side quickly and then took the hose to the trailer, but the tarnish would not come off with just water. I used some soapy water and that seemed to work ok. Then I tried Orvis, which is a professional window washing soap (my Mom swears by it), and it's also a cow and horse shampoo, go figure. Orvis really removed the tarnish and left the metal bright and shiny.
I went over the side a few more times with the buffer. Each time I would look for blemishes, or bits of leftover paint and if I found some take an SOS soap pad, scrubbed them off and then rebuff. I was interested to see how the roof on the front of the trailer would clean up. So, using a soap pad again, I started scrubbing the remaning paint residue off and then with some chrome polish on the buffer I lightly ran over the surface a few times. It immediately began to shine just like the side. I had been a little worried about the steel wool from the soap pad scratching, but it hasn’t so far and the metal looks great. I know buffing at this point in the restoration is a bit premature and I’m not going for a finished polish. I was however, anxious to see if the trailer was going to shine up like I had wanted and from what I could see it was.
As I was polishing up the roof I could see that the trim along the edge needed some attention. It was still covered in paint and caulking, so I got out the paint stripper and brushed on some of the gel with a tooth brush. The old paint and caulking came off quickly and with steel wool, I was able to buff the trim to a high shine.
It’s amazing how by August 17th the days are already getting so much shorter. The sun sets about 8:05 and by 9pm it is pretty much dark. I started packing up the buffer and the plethora of cleaning rags and products that I had hauled out and in no time I had everything put away. I could have easily spent several more hour out working on the trailer, but I figured I had better call it a night.
When I was all done I had to stand back at look at the trailer, shining in the fading light.
It’s really a great little trailer.
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