Frame and Floor

Got the frame painted with a product called Chassis Saver. Just needed to wire brush the rust and then coat. The Chassis Saver encapsulates the rust. Below is the coated frame.


Chassis Saver coated frame



This is the underside of the deck with some of the wood replaced

 This is the underside of the deck afer the first coating of a water based roof and foundation coating

I lucked out and picked up the flooring from the Habitat for Humanity surplus material store. Marmoleum and it only cost me $70.00. Should work well for our color scheme of WSU Crimson and Gray.

Deckless

"Deckless"

Got the deck off this afternoon. I think I'll just clean it up and use POR-15 on the frame under the deck and paint the exposed portion to match the trailer.

Final Teardown

Today I spent about 4 hours finishing the tear down. I ended up using a reciprocating saw to cut the 3 bolts on each side since there was no way I could get them loose. I also used the saw to cut some of the nails that were holding the sides to the frame. I used temporary bracing so that the walls didn't fall over once I took the roof off.

Here are a couple of shots:



Notice how the trailer was framed for a window at the back. I've seen pictures of Devilles' with the window installed there.





Temporary bracing - didn't want the walls to come tumbling down!



This angle sure makes the trailer seem short....



The original flooring - This will be replaced with Marmoleum

Some of the siding. I learned the hard way to reinforce the door opening so that it doesn't buckle when I move it.

In the beginning....

The Plan:

Although the trailer was not in bad shape and usable after some clean-up we decided to embark on a "small" rebuild.

Our plan is to rebuild the Deville with a WSU (Washington State University) theme. We will use it for tail-gating while watching the Cougars play football or our son row crew for WSU.

The Before Pictures:

'59 Deville Purchased in July 2011



I'm debating on reproducing the sticker and putting it back on after new paint.
Check out the license plate from 1963 - I'll be sure to reuse that!



UGH! Here's what happens when the vent leaks....

and what happens when a window leaks....



Cleaned up and some wood temporarly replaced




Hard to tell, but if you look closely at the ceiling you can see the birch is warped from the roof being caved in


We did take the Deville on one trip before we put it away for the winter. This was taken at Priest Lake, ID.



First time out August 2011


Now on to the "de-construction":

I will try and save as much exterior siding as possible, but the roof was in sorry shape, probably from one too many Northwest winter snowfalls.

I started by removing all the window brows, the windows, the door, the lights and the drip rails. I found that some of the philips screws were hard to get a grip on because they were caked with 53 years of dirt. If I tapped the screwdriver into the philips slot before trying to remove the screws it worked a lot better.