Pretty New Paint Job!

After many hours of hard work, it was finally time to give the Wicked Wahine a new coat of paint.  It took us days to prep her, having to scrape off old silicone that was placed around every window, drip rail, screw, you name it, it had silicone, and this stuff is a "BEAR" to get off!  She first received several coats of primer...then the white gloss paint.  I waited a week and hand painted the coral accents.  She looks pretty sweet...  I couldn't decide what kind of stripes to add, so I didn't!  Today we dropped her off at an artist's home, to paint some tiki/Hawaiian accents to the rear and driver's side panels.  Can't wait to see what she comes up with!  When that's complete, we're having a new air conditioner installed on the roof...after all, we live in the Sacramento Valley, where it's hot, hot hot and no fun camping in 100 degree heat!  I like vintage, but I like my comfort alot more!

When I Think of Tiki Trailer, I Think Of....

Finding a Treasure at the Local Antique Collective

Something that I would never have imagined finding in an antique collective, but did, was an Aristocrat exterior emblem that I spotted in one of the locked showcases.  I really couldn't believe my eyes!  These old plastic emblems from the 60's and 70's are notorious for drying up and cracking.  I paid top dollar, but figure I will copy it into a vinyl decal and maybe keep the original in my house on display!

Replacing Damaged Cabinet

The Wicked Wahine has a wicked hole in the aluminum skins on the passenger side towards the rear of the trailer.  The hole goes from the outer skins through the back of the storage cabinet above the dinette and punched through the bottom of the cabinet.  Our theory is the trailer backed into a tree branch that made this major damage.  Previous owners placed a vent cover over the hole...but the cabinet on one side was unusable and looked bad underneath with this big gaping hole.  Steve spent a good 6 hours tearing the cabinet out, using old wood to make a template for the new.  More time consuming than we thought, but isn't it always? 

Damaged wood pulled out

Here's the damaged piece that was torn out

New piece of birch fitted in!

The Before Photo

Tearing Out the Dry Rot...Not for the Faint of Heart!

For those who are interested in how we restore rotten wood, I'll be documenting the process in my blog also.  This process is hard, tedious work, so if you're not sure you are up to it, don't do it!  I'm in no way an expert, but my hubby and I have owned and worked on about 8 trailers, so we've got the experience.  This is our 4th Aristocrat trailer, and each had dry rot in the front, rear and corners of the trailer.  This is why it's important to seal your trailer about every 5 years, around the windows, roof and drip rails.  We've learned that silicone is corrosive to aluminum, so all we use is the putty for sealing trailers and roof seal.  Silicone is ok around the glass of your windows.  And it's horrible to get off of the aluminum later.  If your trailer is sturdy enough to use without replacing the rotten wood framing, you may want to forego this process.  BUT, if you soft squishy floors or the wood is soft around your windows, you may want to strengthen your trailer structure, so it doesn't start coming apart on you (I've heard about trailers so rotted that the sides sucked in and out while being towed).  We started with removing the drip rails.  Underneath the rails, you'll see old putty.  Scrape it off, preferably with a plastic putty scraper, to not damage the aluminum.  We then removed the window...removing screws, then running our putty knife under the edges to release the old putty.  Very carefully, pull out window and put it in a safe place.  Then comes the more difficult part...pulling out long staples that hold the skins to the framing.  We use a pointed scraper as a wedge and a pair of needle nose pliers.  You hammer the point of the putty knife to pull up a little bit the staple, then use the pliers to pull it out...often they are rusted and break off.  Holding the putty knife against the staple when you are pulling up seems to help.  This is a long and tedious process.  Once you have all of the staples out, the skins come off.  WEAR HEAVY LEATHER GLOVES or you will cut yourself.  You most likely will need someone to help you to do this.  Often, several sheets of aluminum are fitting together.  For this project, we took two pieces off at once and left them connected.  An important tip is to NOT remove too much of the skins at once, or you may have difficulty buttoning them all up together after you are done replacing the wood.  We will repair the front section first, then will peel back only part way the sides to start repair on wood rot on the sides.  People who completely remove skins on front, sides and back all at once usually get overwhelmed and have difficulty putting it all back together and fitting right unless they are a construction pro.  You have to use the same dimensions of wood as the original, or the skins will not fit back together correctly and you will end up shaving off wood to make it fit.  We use a Dremel electric tool with a cutting blade to cut out the rotted pieces.  WEAR EYE SAFETY GLASSES AND GLOVES...  Here's a few photos of where we started yesterday...

Someone sprayed sealer foam here to fill up a gaping hole...a temporary fix at best

Here Steve uses a Dremel and cutting attachment to cut away rotten wood. 

We'll replace the old insulation with newer which is more efficient at keeping cold weather out.

We cut out the really rotted wood and

pieced in new wood, securing with pieces of aluminum flashing and attached with a staple gun.

This really sturdied the front up.

The front sides will be tackled next, after the front is all repaired and replaced.  This will require

removing the side front windows. 

Dry rot isn't too bad around side windows and top, but there's alot of rot along the bottom sides of the trailer.  The floor is sturdy.

Getting Artsy!

I found this beautiful painting at an estate sale last week for $12...hibiscus flowers from an artist located in Hawaii...probably from around the 70's?  I then found another one of her paintings, for only $14.  What a shame that she put all this work into her beautiful artwork and then I come along and snatch them up for a song.  These will go beautifully in the Wicked Wahine...

These paintings are from the same artist and very nicely done.  I can't believe how inexpensive they were.

It's Cold Outside But We Gotta Make Some Headway!

It's President's weekend in 2012, and very gringey outside...but I put on my wool sweater and proceeded to do more painting.  Sometimes when you make the decision to go bold and paint the interior of your vintage travel trailer with a fresh color, you might think "is this too much"?  I had those thoughts today.  I decided that even though there will be alot of tropical green in the Wicked Wahine, the floor will be bamboo and the ceiling will be a light natural seagrass color, which will offset some of the green walls and cupboards.  When I get my tiki lounge decor in, it will detract the eye away from all the green paint, so I decided, what the heck, I'm gonna do it.  I pulled all the hardware from the cabinets and cleaned them up and painted them a flat black.  This is really a different concept for me, as other trailers, I have painted hardware gold or bronze.  But there is black in the curtain fabric and I actually think it will look kinda cool.  We'll see when all is said and done.  I believe that when ladies such as myself create a special decor for their cool little hideaway, it's very personal, just like decorating your house or decided what type of clothes to wear.  It's fun anyway to use your creativity and create something different.  Here's a few pics of what I accomplished in a few hours....