Hi All,
Figured it was time to update on progress this spring. I uncovered the trailer a couple weeks ago and moved it up by the house so it's easier to work on. My deadline is quickly approaching, so I needed to get started. The weather wasn't helping!
I worked on decals this winter and found a local shop to print them for me, and match them up to my original new ones. So far I've only done the stripe sun silhouettes and the small Solaris logos. I may decide to do the large ones in time, I have the artwork done, but as they say, it's only original once.
Not necessarily in order, but here's what I've accomplished so far this spring:
New Hehr window stickers. The old stickers had faded terribly and were no longer red. I know that really only takes a year or two, but a quick call to Hehr resulted in some fresh new stickers in the mail to me! Luckily they really haven't changed through the years. There is a minor difference when comparing side by side, but hardly worth mentioning. Before putting these stickers on, I put a layer of clear film over them to hopefully help prolong their redness. I cut them out just a little larger than the sticker, so we'll see:
Outside shower: For that first week, every day I'd pull out of the garage and see the outside shower door, and it bothered me. Even though I painted it white last year, it still wasn't correct. The original was flat and had an "Outside | Shower" decal on it. Since the lettering is molded in here, that's not possible. One day I randomly decided to take care of it with a little spray paint and a paint marker. Luckily I have an original decal to model after. I may add the line in later, TBD:
New side decal: As mentioned above, I replaced both side decals after I did the artwork this winter and had them printed. They are very close to the originals and I'm very pleased with the results. Because I did the artwork myself (the expensive part), printing them didn't cost me all that much. I kept these original style and had them done in metallic vinyl, which increased the cost quite a bit. Worth it, I think:
Birthday: Years ago, when planning my birthday party, my mom asked what I wanted for it. I said, I don't care as long as it can be in the trailer. So we uncovered it early and brought it home just for that party, about two months prior to when we'd normally get it out. My mom planned a monopoly themed party to go with it and turned the trailer into a jail. Those of you who have met her probably aren't surprised that she'd do this. Well this year, I decided I wanted to do the same thing. So with the trailer by the house, my mom gave me all the Monopoly themed party stuff she had saved all these years, and I recreated it. I probably should have gone out to find streamer and stuff to really recreate it to my level of detail, but I didn't. Either way, recreating my favorite birthday was totally worth it:
Side Solaris decal: Another decal I finished this winter. The original on the door side was just about destroyed when the previous owner hit it with a pressure washer. While I am all about authenticity, the main point of this trailer is to be a tribute. Sunline ran a batch of 2653s with these decals farther back (perhaps as they figured out how to build the new Advancer package trailers?), but most of them had it up front. So, using old pictures as a guide, I installed the new one where I wanted it and then removed the old one just today:
Also using that same decal, I reinstalled the spare tire on a new carrier and with a new cover. I placed the decal in the center of the cover, just like the factory position. I tried to re-apply the original decal on the new tire cover, but it wasn't working. Since Sunline tire covers never seemed to necessarily match with current production models, the original tire cover decal on this trailer was from 1995. Since the one I remember was a replacement for our dealer tire cover, which we ordered in 1998, this is correct for then and better matches the colors on the trailer:
Also to note:
- Tongue jack repaired. New fused link wired on, switch replaced, decal preserved, and cover painted. Should work well now.
- Awning fabric temporarily repaired. The fabric is torn at both ends. I taped it on both sides with white Gorilla tape to hopefully hold it to get me through my May trip. After that, I have a salvaged metal awning shield of this length that I'll paint white, and hopefully find someone to sew in a new cord on the fabric to make it work. Then I have the original, no longer available awning fabric color and the all weather protection of the metal shield. So glad I saved this from an RV park dumpster after a storm about 10 years ago. I had it in my dad's barn and it works out that this is a perfect use for it!
- Cleaned the carpet and furniture with a carpet cleaner. It looks really good! The worst of it is the chair, and it's mostly fading. The rest looks brand new, especially the carpet!
- Installed a new Bargman dual prong 7-way and 8 gauge battery cables. The original 7 way was very corroded and the harness wrap was split open in several places. It was kind of a pain to wire in without a central junction box (which later became standard), but it was still pretty easily doable. It was a good time to change the battery cables too, which were hard and had questionable battery connectors added over the years. Still on the fence about adding a battery cutoff switch...it would be nice to have, but it's not factory original, nor will I keep a battery on it all the time.
I think that's about it for now. Up next is replacing the LP gas detector inside...now that I've had it plugged in for a while, the detector is chirping with a fault. I had the gas/furnace on and it started after that, not during. I've since shut the gas off and pulled the fuse to prevent it from chirping, but I'll need to find a new detector. This won't be easy since they don't make the exact same one anymore, but hopefully I can find a new one that fits in the same hole.
Mom's do those kind of things and knowing yours, for sure she would to make your day special. I'm sure she cooked up a storm too...
