Discovery and Disassembly



When we first bought Connie in October 2018, we knew there was some water damage. A ceiling panel had been placed over the vent area, but we could see the water damage peeking out. The first front and back wrap panels were overplayed with classic 70s fake wood paneling, nobody uses that stuff except to hide misdeeds. Most of the wood edges had some discoloration. But we naively thought, a few panels and we will be right as rain. Then we learned about lifting the skins and the thunderstorm hit. 




Since winter was approaching we stuck our heads in the snow and decided to enjoy our time camping with our trailer. A frame off restore in a snow bank did not sound appealing, or even possible. We loved every minute camping in Connie. I know a lot of people say they never use the stove, but in a colder climate, there is nothing like a fresh batch of blueberry muffins out of the oven with snow on the ground outside.

Summer of 2019 was a busy time, our son was getting married and moving across the country. Connie sat idle that summer and we did what we could removing the windows, light fixtures, and about a million screws.


October 2019, both Kirk and I took a week off and got to work. We took off the skins, pulled all the screws from the inside cabinets and removed the walls. We saved absolutely everything except the floor. We took 1500 pictures and made measurements. Even so, I wish we had taken even more photos. It was a great week, we had amazing weather all week, and in the end we had a chassis sitting in the driveway, a basement full of cabinets, and a garage stuffed with trailer walls and skins.

Street side dinette cover.

Connie with her windows and front skin removed.

Water tank and old wiring.

Leaky, goopy vent.

Street side framing. Many pieces for one radius.

Ceiling rafters. The key sheet fell off (rot).

Mouse house and rot.

Original flooring.

 
Gas line
 
Radius gapping
 



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