Once the shell was off it took another two weekends to pull the flooring, belly pan, water tanks and other stuff off of the frame. I parked the frame down next to the shell to try to keep all the mess confined to one area of the yard. This has worked with mixed success. There are many parts and pieces laying around.
The frame was pretty beat up. It is nearly 40 years old so I’m not sure what I expected. It was bent in a couple of areas and rotten through in a few more. My original plan was to repair what I had with new steel.
I borrowed a flux core wire feed welder from a friend and purchased some new steel from a local steel yard. I cut away what I thought was bad and started patching in new.
I took off the axles (they are shot) and flipped the trailer using the gantry and my three kids. I ordered new Dexter axles. I was getting pretty close to completing my repairs when I had a friend drop by. I had put an ad in the local Craigslist to sell an extra RV toilet I had that came with the Airstream. Stefan came by to purchase the toilet for an Airstream he was rebuilding. He has done several of these and I was interested in his take on the condition of the trailer. He said I was trying to fix something that shouldn’t be fixed and suggested I just build a new trailer from scratch.
So I did. It will cost me more but the added insurance of having a new frame is worth the cost. I kept the tongue and rewelded it back onto the new frame, but other than that, it is all new.
I used the old frame and several measurements I took as a guide. I built the new one right on top of the old one. Then I lifted the new on up and cut the old one away into smaller pieces and dragged it out from under it.
Scott's Stuff 