Down to the basics

Well the Aero is no more, long live the Aero. The frame is stripped down to just the basics, and during the long weekend, I went up to do some further cleaning of it. I still need to do a bunch of cutting to a few bits of metal. At the back there is a flange that the old sani-house housing is attached to. This needs to be cut and ground off. At the front, there is the flange that forms the curve that was the bottom of the front of the trailer. I think I will cut off the top bit of this, though I might not need to. I could get away with building around it potentially.

As for the rest of the frame, the rust was bad in a few spots, where the floor had been rotten right through as water was getting in to the old trailer. I did a little bit of deep grinding in those spots, but most of the grinding was actually not needed. I cut off and ground down the old bolts, and cut off the tips of the old aluminum rivets holding the metal of the shell to the frame. When that was all done, out came the steel brush attachment for the drill. A lot of work later I had the loose rust and dirt off the metal.

A coat of rust paint later and the trailer is actually looking pretty darn good. There is a bit of work needed on the the axles such as a bit of cleaning and a coat of rust paint. ( I also need to go up and count the bolts on them. Didn't know they had a set number of bolts per axle weight. Go figure).

So progress was made, but mostly in the painting and cleaning parts. I also now have good measurements in order to try and figure out just how I want to lay the structure out. I had a thought that I might do a deck at the back and a enclosed porch at the front, but I need to decide how that puts the weight balance for the structure, and whether or not roll shutters would be sufficient to allow me to tow it without causing problems with a front deck.

Stripping the Aero : Part Two

Well it has been quite a while since I posted the first bit. Since then the Aero has totally been stripped down and the frame is awaiting this weekend when I shall tackle some of the rust on it. Two days after my last post, I lost my dad. So I was a bit less then eager to do things creative.  However I have delayed too long on this.

Emptying it

The start of the trash

The first problem with stripping the Aero was where to start. It was rotten, pretty much to the core, and very very dated. I could have lived and updated the dated side, but since I kept falling through the floor, it pretty much all had to go. Ripping the guts out took time, but thankfully the vast majority of it was thin wood. It was easy to get outside the unit and burned well once it was out. Only things that were actual garbage were hauled to the dump. 

I lost track of the number of bags of insulation that I hauled out. Thinking back, I pray none of it was asbestos as I was in pretty closed quarters there and it was an old trailer. The stove went to neighbors who might use it, and the fridge I took away to the dump.  I didn't trust it with the amount of rust on the coils. The furnace and hot water tank I left for the guy since he tends to be a hoarder and I had other plans.

The biggest pain was the tub. Clearly it was put in place before everything got sealed up as I had to cut it in two to get it out the door! All the while trying to not hit the water damaged sections of floor that were there. Eventually I took a saws-all to the door and cut it out along with some of the metal there. It made a large enough hole.

Then I had to tackle the metal of the frame. Everything here was riveted together, right through the metal of these framing members and to the metal on the outside. Not a bad way to build a structure I suppose, but no doubt a few of these had started to leak over the years. In the end I wound up taking a prybar to them and popping the frame members away from the side with brute force.

But in the end I decided to stop doing this and instead tackle the roof. I think I was interested in getting the last of the burnables out of the structure before we had another fire to get rid of the wood. They would pry away okay, and I was left with the bare metal sheathing, which I took a saws-all to and peeled back like opening a can. I only gave myself a light cut when I slipped in holding a piece. Silly me wearing a t-shirt for that part.

Then it was a matter of cutting the thicker metal of the frame. A pain on the blades, and I wound uup removing the windows first, but I had to cut them out. Which led to shattered glass on several of them. Dump material for sure. Eventually I got it down to the deck. That is when I wound up finally moving it to our cabin for the last bit of stripping. 

Windows cut out. More trash to the dump.

Some frame members did not want to come off so easily. Had to cut them.

As you can see in the bottom image above, the decking was layers of plywood, over some wooden frames. These had insulation in between it and a sheet of metal. This wood was rotten, wet and gross in parts. I stuck my foot through the entire deck in more then one part. It was still a pain to remove it all, and I had even more insulation to run to the dump. 

I got it down to the core though in the end. There is some surface rust from being out of doors for all these years, but I think I can salvage it. I just wish I knew what the axles are rated at! That I need to check this weekend if I can find the info on them. The entire chassis has a plaque on it, but this is not at all helpful, being a common manufacturer still and it does not have the weight range on it.