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Disassembly and Discovery Pt. 3 – Tore up from the floor up

June 16, 2020 by marcnischan

Here We Go

The more crap I removed, the more rotten wood I found. From the years of the roof leaking, the whole rear end had been reduced to pulp. At some point, someone had cut out the roof and replaced it with galvanized steel and frosted it like a birthday cake with some sort of diabolical goo that had since hardened into a cracked silver crust. Inevitably, the vent and the roof leaked despite the coating and funneled water into the walls for years.

From looking at the holes for the lights, it is evident that the workers that manufactured this trailer were just punching through the skin with the claw end of a hammer.

Filed Under: 65 Comanche Tagged With: 65 Comanche, disassembly, documentation

Windows Pt. 1 – Removal and Cleaning

June 12, 2020 by marcnischan

Restoring the Windows

I haven’t been able to find much on the Internet in the way of information on Comanche trailers. I’ve found a few Pinterest photos but not much else. They were Made in Elkhart, Indiana and I have the original title that identified this trailer as a ’65. That’s about all I know.

Lots of trailers of this era have Hehr windows. Mine were made by LeVan Metal Sash Co. of Elkhart, Indiana. Guess how much info is on the Internet about them? That’s right, none 🙂

The first thing I did was to take out all of the window cranks and try to get the panes of glass to actuate. Then I removed them one at a time and cleaned them, stripped the paint, and finally polished them the best I could with Mother’s.

I called vintagetrailergaskets.com and they sent out a sample pack of seals they could recommend since the ones on my windows were unusual and probably no longer available. I was able to get pretty close on the “Y” seal that seals the vertical edge of the windows. For the other seals I settled on foam seals with an adhesive backing.

I have several broken rivets that will need to be replaced as well.

Filed Under: 65 Comanche Tagged With: 65 Comanche, disassembly, discovery, windows

Disassembly & Discovery Pt. 2 – Taking Pictures

June 12, 2020 by marcnischan

I wanted to salvage as much as I could (which was not much) so I thought I’d at least be able to re-use the floor-to-ceiling cabinet and the kitchen cabinet and may be the kitchen base cabinet. However, (and I learned why later) I was not able to remove them intact for two reasons: One, the clutch-head screws were almost all so badly rusted that I couldn’t get them out (or they were bafflingly inaccessable) and Two, even when I was able to get the screws out the cabinets seemed to still be screwed to the frame somehow.

In the end, I had to use a hammer and a sawsall to get them out so I could remove the paneling which was so rotten in most places that it practically fell off. I wore TWO masks through all of this.

I was watching videos on YouTube about trailers and trying to see what other people had done. One thing they all said was “take lots of pictures.” So I did.

I feel bad for the garbage men that had to pick up all of the crap I tore out of that trailer. I was amazed at the pile of rubble I left at the curb two weeks in a row.

Filed Under: 65 Comanche Tagged With: 65 Comanche, disassembly, discovery, gut

Disassembly & Discovery Pt. 1 – The Cleanout

June 12, 2020 by marcnischan

Wise Men Say Only Fools Rush In

I got the Comanche home and I couldn’t wait to start pulling out all of the nasty, moldy carpet and paneling. The cushions were moldy, the ceiling was falling in, the windows were boarded over, there were mirrors everywhere to reflect the meager lighting, and everything smelled like mold. With garbage day fast approaching I tried to get as far as I could as fast as I could.

The P.O. had added a permanent bunk above the gaucho bed, and lots of other things. He was very resourceful and had used car parts and refrigerator parts. Look at the stove pictures to see how he (quite ingeniously) used an automotive coil and spark plugs to make an ignitor for the stove.

To hide the water-damaged paneling, he had added carpet up to the beltline which just became a mold-farm. The furnace did not appear to be original because I could see that he’d fabricated parts of the vent tube from tailpipe, and nothing that was propane powered looked to be safe at all. So out it all went. Even the icebox was too gross to keep.

Filed Under: 65 Comanche Tagged With: 65 Comanche, disassembly, discovery, gut

The Find

June 10, 2020 by marcnischan

My COVID Camper

I have always wanted a vintage trailer and now that COVID has me at home all the time, I thought I’d finally have the time to work on one. I was periodically cruising Craig’s List and looking for other trailer sites and I stumbled up on a ’65 Comanche near me. It was in rough shape but I got it for $100. I picked up the wheels and had new tires put on them so I could pull it home.

I’m the second owner, and I purchased it from the original owner’s son. His father, a depression era child who saved everything, passed away last year and the son was cleaning out his home. The camper had become a “hunter’s trailer” and the owner had… embellished? several… upgrades? shall we say?

He had blacked out all the windows by painting over them and filled them with insulation. He boarded over them on the inside as well. The roof had been replaced with galvanized steel and probably leaked worse than before the “repair.”

To hide the water damage, the owner had carpeted the walls, which basically turned it into a mold farm. He had added a built in upper bunk in the rear and put in a largely home made furnace.

There were two layers of carpet on the floor and the roof vent leaked pretty badly. The roof paneling was rotten and beginning to fall in. I figured that I’d just gut the trailer and throw up some paneling and cupboards and make a rolling bunkhouse and maybe camp with the kids quickly.

I got to work cleaning it out, and then I started watching trailer restoration videos… and THEN i realized what I had gotten myself into :0

And so begins my journey to turn this shell into something I can safely tow and camp in… here we go!