Putting the end cap back in!

Okay, before you all get excited at the progress I'm making ...these are not MY endcaps.  As some of you know, I have a twin sister that is restoring a 1960 Tradewind .  She and her husband are at the point of putting their endcaps back in and we promised to help them.  Lets just say they OWE us.  And the beers don't count!     I know this post is long and not so many pretty pictures but stick with it - there's a cautionary tale at the end...No NO NO...don't skip to the end.  Stick with me folks!

First off the cast of characters:

Peter (my BIL) :  Peter is the Mr.  "I'm going to figure out the worst case scenario for everything and have a plan in place for everything that could go wrong, so that if it does, we will be able to fix it!"

Susan (my twin):  Mrs " Why did you do that? What did you just do?  I can't believe you just did that.  Do you realize what you just did?  Can we just get this DONE!" 

Peter (my husband):   Mr Stoic,  He doesn't say much and at one point abandoned us to go read a book cause we were spending too much time talking about how we were going to do something.

Me :  I'm perfect ........enuf said

  First of all, having both of our husbands' named Peter was a bit of a pickle.    Sometimes that works to my  my advantage, but in this case it didn't.  It was very confusing ....  I'd say something like "Peter, lower your edge" and they both would do it.  Sheesh. 

First attempt!

Following Colin Hyde's advice we clecoed the front window in (took literally five minutes and I thought piece of cake!     Then we tried to work the skin back into its old position by pushing and shoving at it....  or as my BIL put it "massaging it".  HA! It was massaging us a heck of a lot more and I've got the bruises to prove it!  The best we were able to get was 2 inches away from the original rivet holes on the center line.  No way, no how.

So we stood back and discussed it a bit.....and a bit more....
and finally decided that it looked like it would be a lot easier if the center line clecoes were in (see picture below) , and we just had to push the end cap out far enough to get the window clecoed.   So out comes the first clecos and we start over.

Airstream: 1

Us : Zilch


But we did learn from the attempt and decided to cut a piece of plywood to use as a brace so every time we pushed we didn't lose ground, so to speak..   I bet it took us an hour to get that center line of clecoes in.  We were pretty pleased though and certain we were headed in the right direction.   Over the next hour,  we realized that just because we had 90% of the clecoes in doesn't mean that the other 10 % are going to follow suit.

No sirree!   No matter how much we "massaged it"  we couldn't get it done.  We blamed it on having too much insulation in the walls,  but I don't think that was it.  Now imagine how we felt when we realized that we were going to have to take all of our beautiful &*%$# work out and start all over again.  We had planned to put both endcaps in the same day and here it was rounding up the end of day one, and we were no farther ahead then when we started!  This sucked.  Out came the clecoes...Third times the charm right???? (Or for those of you in the UK...Third times lucky!!)


Airstream: 2
Us : Zilch - and starting to feel like the Red Sox when Lackey's pitching......

We decided to start....after even MORE discussion... back with the front window .  I swear when I get home I'm not going to say a single word for a whole day.... I haven't talked this much since I was in middle school and the new hot guy moved into town!

We also cut two more pieces of wood and covered them with rags.   Basically we'd brace them against the floor using our feet as blocks and with a rubber mallet we pound down on them.  This forced the fiberglass to get closer to the wall.  Another hour and we got everything clecoed in except for a few on the left side on the center line. It was now 8:45 PM and the light was gone.  We called it quits and even though none of us said anything (for once!!!!!)  I'm sure we all thought that maybe it wasn't ever going to fit.   Ever heard the expression putting a square peg in a round hole? 

I had brought a chocolate truffle cake and beer with me to celebrate..... we ate and drank them anyway.  Chocolate and beer makes anything better!


Day Two

With lots of coffee on board we started early!  It took plenty of trying but eventually we discovered how we needed to position the boards to get the endcap to move in the right direction.    It really helped to have  my BIL who's over 6 feet to be able to see what the rivet holes were doing. Hopping up and down on a step stool after each blow gets old, fast.

Finally it was in!!!!!!!!

Airstream: 2
Us : 1  Finally on the board :)


But the other one had a palpable evil  presence in the corner.    Onward.

Actually,  this is where it gets interesting...And not in a good way.  

Hey Sis - if you are reading this its time to sit down!    And remember all's well that ends well!

Well, my sister took off to pick up their daughter at a friends house.   The rest of us figured we'd see how far we could get with the second endcap.  We all got in the trailer and picked up the endcap and held it up in place and my BIL started to feed the wires through,   and I saw him fall over to one side and I thought "HUH?"  And then I realized that it wasn't him.  THE TRAILER WAS MOVING!!!!   Yep,  we somehow neglected the fact that the trailer had a pivot point and by putting all that  weight in the rear we had triggered it.  The trailer started to roll backwards and of course fell off its leveling pads. I could see the front of the trailer starting to rise up in the air and all I could think was CRAP CRAP CRAP!  I ran up front and that brought the tongue down far enough that we stopped.  I wish I could say it was my excellent thinking that saved us,  but quite frankly I was thinking more along the lines of....  If we started to roll,  I'm jumping out the door and abandoning ship!  I've got a very good sense of self preservation I guess!


Regardless,  thanks to the chock on the other wheel, I don't think we would have gone very far, but boy did we feel STUPID.  Really all this happened in like 4 seconds, but it had that unreal "my life is flashing before my eyes" feeling. 

So we decided that come hell or high water,  we were going to have that trailer back in place like nothing ever happened before my sister got back. 
BIL ran to get his keys to the truck....
truck wouldn't start....
had a dead battery ...( of course it does)...
backed up our van up to jump start it with ....fastest jump start I've done in my life
backed up to the trailer.....
hooked up the battery to the electric jack....
got the  trailer pulled forward and lined up.... several tries
put the leveling blocks back.....
positioned the trailer back on them.
 leveled the trailer again.
Checked for damage...nothing..... PHEW!

I know some of you could do this with one hand behind your back, but my husband and I have never hitched anything and I don't think my BIL has done it a dozen times yet!  Just backing the trailer in a straight line is a challenge. 


I made my BIL promise  not to tell my sister (She can read about it in my blog!).   So Susie, DON"T BLAME PETER (your husband,  that is)  ....we were all so tired and we didn't want to confess how stupid we were.    And we still had another end cap to put it!!!!!   We had just enough time to look at each other and think "Did that really just happen?"....put a few clecoes in the window,  and my sister came home.   I  think she wondered a bit about how little we got done but now she's knows why!   And yes, as far as I know she's reading about it here with you. 

The last end cap took one try ....still not fun but 3 out of the 4 of us had adrenaline highs going on!  LOL About 3/4 of the way through my BIL started to whistle and we saw the light at the end of the tunnel.  One of the things that really helped was to leave the clecos on the vertical sides of the window undone.  Basically the order we used was:  cleco the top of the window and then start in the center of the end cap and work back and forth. a few clecoes to the rights then a few to the left.  Then finish with the sides of the window.

Airstream: 2
Us : 2   Final score haha 

So now you know the rest of the story!     And the moral of the story is three adults in the back of the trailer is not a good idea!

Can't believe I'm going to have to do this again on my trailer ...sigh