Trailer Talk Tuesday: Don't Stop Believing Edition

You know you'll be singing this song ALL DAY.

So, you know things aren't going like you planned when you're wasting time looking up inspirational quotes with the search phrase "Don't quit."  Apparently, it seems like there are a lot of us potential quitters on the web and lots of impossibly positive people cheering us on.

Alrighty, then!

Jolene is in no state to take anybody's man, but I'm pressing on, moving forward, looking up and finishing what I started.  Whew!  These people will wear you out!

We really only have time to work on the camper on the weekends, so, that is slowing down the process a little bit.  For some reason, my family thinks they need clean clothes, food and a passably clean house to live in.  Completely unreasonable.  So, instead of the camper being ready to paint, we are still making progress in stripping the paint off and getting rid of the eternabond tape, plus we're starting to remove the silicone caulking around windows, etc. in order to re-caulk.  That will probably involve removing all the windows.  Yeah.


This is me:

via GIPHY

Fortunately, in all of this, Mr. Blue Jeans & Turquoise has remained completely optimistic.

We own a heat exchanger/cooling system parts and repair business and our JOB is repairing old broken down parts, replacing what needs replacing and making things new again.  This little camper project is totally in our wheelhouse and I normally don't get frustrated with projects like this, but I WANT TO PAINT!!  So, without further ado, here is where we've been this week.

Rocking the paint clothes

After using the Citri-Strip paint remover, we've been using the drill and a brush or wheel attachment to get the rest of the paint off.  Most of the white paint came off easily and the blue paint is just taking a little more effort.  Eventually the camper will look like this on all sides and the roof:

Clean galvanized metal!

Once the Mr. gets the Eternabond tape off the J-strips on the seams, it looks like the picture above and I come back and brush off any paint left behind.

This is silicone caulk with a little Citri-Strip left on it, which will sand right off.  With the wire wheel attachment I can get most of the silicone off, but in order to caulk correctly, we will need to remove the windows and get all that cleaned up.  From everything I've read, ALL the silicone needs to come off because RV caulk won't stick to it.  Some people are in the Silicone Is Okay camp and others says it's the devil's own goop.  We're planning on using butyl tape between the skin and the windows and then caulking again when we get the windows screwed back in.  That's the plan for now.  

We definitely will have to take the back window down because the Eternabond tape was hiding this:

We haven't gotten the rest of the tape off yet, so, I don't really know why these two edges couldn't be flush.  Hopefully, it will be an easy fix.  

Besides looking up inspirational quotes while I'm wasting time in the pick-up line at Little Sister's school, I peruse the listings on littlevintagetrailer.com.  They are a clearing house for people selling vintage trailers and have some really lovely campers for sale that have been completely done.  

Check out this 1964 Shasta Compact for sale!

Has the original Shasta wings!

original Birch paneling

renovated to keep that vintage feel

While Jolene is going to be a (mostly) renovated camper rather than a restored one, I still like seeing the owners who have kept the original details!  

Well, that's it for this week.  I don't know about your facebook feed, but Dolly has been EVERYWHERE on mine.  This video popped up several times and I thought it was just stunning.  Enjoy!