Off Comes the Veneer!!

October 29,  2009

I found the fastest and easiest way to remove the veneer was to grind the heads off the nails with a disk grinder, pull veneer off the walls and then to pull the nails out of the studs.

After all the veneer was removed, I took all the insulation out to reveal the wiring  and plumbing. When I reached the point of replacing the insulation I would use 3/4 " Styrofoam insulation.

As you can see from the photo below the framing and studs below the windows had a lot of water damage. As a result of the damage from leaking around the windows, which is common on these Shastas, I will need to replace any damaged wood. The vertical studs were replaced with pine and the wood framing that the studs were attached to were replaced with treated pine. 

BEFORE

My son, Darin, who is a metal fabricator made
short work of providing me with new fenders for
the tire wells.  Thank Goodness for sons with skills!

READY TO ASSEMBLE

AFTER

Beginning the work on Sweetpea

Compose

 We backed the trailer into the shop and began to get excited about beginning the work to restore our little Sweet Pea on October 19th 2009.

 I decided to do an off frame restoration, due to rust on the frame and bumper. This way I could sandblast frame, prime, and paint. I will go back under trailer with a new floor.

 Fender wells were very badly rusted through. Fortunately, my son is a sheet metal worker and quickly made new fender wells for me.









I began to remove  everything from inside of trailer. I stored the cabinets so that I would have pattern when I began to rebuild. Water had damaged the veneer on the walls, cabinets, and built-ins.

While taking everything out of trailer, I took a lot of pictures and notes, knowing that I would need this information when I began to put things back. I could have saved some of the veneer, but decided to replace all the veneer with 1/4 inch pre-finished Birch veneer. The original veneer was 1/8 inch. I also would rebuild all cabinet frames out of solid hard birch.