I scored!

Today was my birthday and it was an awesome day! My daughter and I went to a bunch of antique/consignment stores and what do I find but this......



Yep, a 1950's Walter of Wabash formica table!!!! Gold sparkles no less! What an awesome find and a steal ! The legs slide out to support the sides.



and i also got a rivet gun kit. Gosh I love new tools

Now if the weather would just cooperate!

 Before this last set of storms we actually had a  few nice days where I got a few things done. First was drilling out all the rivet remnants.  When I initially removed the skin I just drilled the head and snapped it off.  I thought that it was fast and efficient (it was!) but I didn't factor in the time needed to remove these remainders! Ah well, good thing I recently discovered Pandora Radio.  It's a cool app that you can type in an artist or song/genre  and it creates a station with similar music. Pretty cool.

  Next was stripping the refrigerator access doors.  These had tones of paint and goo. Go ahead and click on it and make it  larger....  I dare you!  The keys, alas, are long gone so I'll be replacing them with new ones from VTS.    

First time this door has been open in a really really long time . Probably Carter was President!

 Something serendipitous happened though!  As I was slathering on the Citrastrip,  I was eyeing the black residue on the skins. Now I have previously tried physically removing it by scraping and used nasty chemicals like adhesive remover.   Nothing budged it.    I wonder......

Along the lines of "well, it won't hurt"  I gave it a quick swab with the brush.    The stuff started to dissolve in SECONDS, nanoseconds even!!!! I little scrub with a 3m green scrubby and a swipe with some paper towels and it was gone!  Yippee!

 I did a couple of panels, but even though Citrastrip is pretty friendly, the fumes were getting toxic in an enclosed trailer.  I'll do more removal when I can crank the windows open and run a fan.


I know some of you are probably  thinking I'm nuttier than a squirrel turd for even bothering,  but I'm planning on sealing everything with Tempro from the inside and I'd rather give it a good surface to adhere to! Yes, I'm planning on sealing each and every rivet.....

 I'm really excited though.  I thought it was going to take a bipartisan act of Congress to get that stuff  off!

And I have plenty to go!

Now if the weather would just cooperate!

She's still standing, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!

TubeChop - Elton John - I'm Still Standing (00:23)

We made it thru, at least 2 feet of snow, its difficult to tell due to the wind, our back deck had close to 4 feet as it blew off the roof.

The wind actually did us a favor and kept most of the snow off the airstream.

How she looked this morning, good thing I ordered the axles with the higher angle!



Middle of the night

  Felt like we dodged a bullet! We are all shoveled out now, i actually was surprised by how little snow accumulated on Moonraker.  Peter cleared about a foot off last night and that first picture was how we found her this morning. Maybe the wind coupled with aerodynamic shape????

Unlike our cars. 

 Thanks everyone for the well wishes!  

Yikes! Blizzard warning.....

I got this note from Colin about the upcoming storm!

 Shelly, make sure you exercise the roof rake! Without interior skins & bulkheads, the roof can cave in due to snow load. One of my clients had this happen to him after extensive chassis & floor work. He managed to push it out pretty well, but the reminder is there every time he looks at the trailer.
Colin


SAY WHATTTT???????   

The forecast is for up to three feet of snow!  So guess what I did this afternoon?  

I decided I needed a little extra insurance! We will still have to shovel the roof but this should help. My fingers however are frozen  

I'll be awake for much of the night, I'm prepared to hold up the roof myself if necessary!

We left something behind....

Turns out that we forgot the pieces of aluminum that were behind the tub,   They were on my list and everything but ....

 I wonder if I should suspect some ulterior motive? Hmmmmm

This ransom note just arrived in my inbox!

She's home! She's home!

I was really worried that the pickup would be called off because of high winds, the previous few days winds were averaging 24 miles mph and gusting up to 46 mph!!!!!

But the forecast was good! 





We started out Saturday morning in the pitch dark! 4:45 am is way to early for a night owl like me. Luckily, my husband drove and I dozed , a few snow showers and in the single digits. Brrrrrrr

We were trying to catch the 8:25 am ferry and made it on with a few minutes to spare! My BIL met us there with his Suburban because we are still minus a tow vehicle. The plan was I would ride with him and my husband would follow behind us on the four hour ride home ..just in case....

Arrived at Colin Hyde's Trailer Restoration shortly before nine, she was waiting for us out front. Colin was there and I delivered the the requisite bribe, errr... cookies that is .



We actually managed to hookup, set up the temporary lights and be off in under an hour which was amazing. Everything was really well organized with all my parts and old aluminum all ready to go in the trailer. Thanks Colin!

Here Colin and my BIL are discussing the hitch, I had to change out the ball from my sisters' 2 inch ball to a 2 5/16, it's amazing how much extra heft the 5/16th adds. The temporary lights were zip tied onto the bumper as the duct tape didn't want to stick in the cold and I didn't want to mar the new paint job on the bumper.





Moonraker flown the coop! Farewell to CHTR at least for the time being!



The view in my mirror!



Safe and sound on the ferry.

Thank goodness we didn't have to ride the ferry in high winds! Did I ever mention I hate ferries? It's kinda like a fear of flying thing. Actually I'm okay with flying, ferries not so much, go figure...

Notice the license plate in the back window? We did this legally!





Here's another reason to hate ferries... $36.70 one way for a 10 minute ride!



The ride home was surprisingly uneventful. We stopped a few times to test the temperature of the trailer hubs. The only issue we had was "the two Peter's" (my husband and my twins husband are both named Peter) put the temporary towing lights on backwards. Good thing my husband drove home right behind us, he called and said we were signalling a left turn than going right LOL Ah well.....

Here she is being backed up the driveway, and snugged into her temporary spot until the snow is gone. My BIL was so awesome he did it in one try. Although he was mumbling something about really liking the stability of the twin axle ...and that maybe he pulled the trigger too fast on his single axle Tradewind! hahaha

She's ready to go!

Colin just sent me these!

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She's ready to go







The tub is color matched to my aqua melamine vintage dishes! I'm hoping she comes with a tub of Colin's secret polish. I volunteered to be a test subject!