The traffic magneto

I swear to you, this 1957, titled as a 1958, shell of a trailer attracts more traffic than Ben Franklin's key and kite could attract lightning. Six am on the Baltimore beltway and we are crawling all the way to the Port. Good thing I was planning on going to the Port and having breakfast before hand, for It took an hour to go where it usually takes twenty minutes.

The last trailer I dropped off didn't want to get on the boat. Maybe they ran out of room on the boat. Maybe the Longshoreman were to load it, but the 9:15 break, or the 11:30- 1:00 lunch, or the 2:30 break started and they forgot to come back for it. A new boat assignment sticker is on her so maybe the next cruise will be hers.

The Long Long Recovery

Can you say traffic? I certainly can. Monday I went to Scitaute Massachusetts. Google Maps said 14 hours 31minutes round trip. In small print it said "14 hours 56 minutes with traffic conditions." They were wrong in that estimate, very wrong. In small print it should have said " 18 hours 54 minutes." I left my house at 1 am and by 4:30 am I had crossed the George Washington bridge over the Hudson and was 18 miles into Connecticut. For those unfamiliar with I95 between Baltimore and Boston, that is very good time. I mean exceptionally good time.

But all good things must come to an end and to a screeching end it came. A tanker fire closed the highway down completely in both directions. It was trucks and more trucks with a few cars thrown in as far as I could see in front of me.

The continuous line of vehicles behind me were seeing the same. We all had to merge down to one lane and then off the highway. For three mile, two towns, and an hour and forty five minutes we made our way East and finally back onto the highway. Smooth sailing again until I hit Boston. Well, actually it was 30 miles short of Boston. I though Baltimore or Washington had bad rush hours. OMG!!!! Once again we crawled along.

This is why I was on the road while most people were sleeping. A 1957 Overlander titled as a 1958. I love those sweeping wheel wells. This trailer was bought by a client and he wanted it brought to the Port of Baltimore. The interior is one big blank slate. Nothing there except the water heater and the bath tub. There is also a self contained toilet. I suspect this trailer has been the project of a few owners over the years. The gut job looks to be many years old. To my surprise, there is very little floor rot.

So I hooked on and headed for home. That is the Atlantic Ocean you see there. Soon she will be sailing across that very same Ocean. I wanted to make a mad dash for home. I needed badly to get West of the George Washington bridge before the New York City rush hour began.

No such luck. 10 miles three hours.

$21 dollars to cross this bridge out of Gotham. They only clipped me $9 going the other way. From here on out the drive was fairly smooth. Four cups of coffee and four pee breaks later I was home. I slept like a baby for eleven hours straight.

Shopping spree

It was a beautiful Fall day today here in Maryland. A perfect day to go shopping for trailers. I make it sound glamorous, but it really was not.

In Maryland one knows they are in Western Maryland when they pass through Sidling Hill. Though it is a few ridges away from the actual Eastern Continental Divide, I always look at this pass as the door way to the West. Everything is a little different on the other side.

It is a totally different world where seeing the first snow over on this side or a Black Bear crossing the highway is common place. I never seem to have my camera out at the time the wild life crosses the road.

Things are usually different when you pass this sign too. Last year a very well liked club member passed on. He owned a number of rigs and I was going out to see if I might be interested in them. Rumor had it there was a factory built 1963 catering trailer along with a 1981 34 footer and Bill's trade mark Overlander. Bill always camped in a 1975 Overlander. The 63 was what I was most interested in.

I could tell right away the food service window was not a factory job. The factory would never leave a window in the opening and the steel piano hinge was a dead give away. The trailer also just did not look 1963 to me.

Serial number 249055 sure did not sound 1963 to me. That serial number reads twenty four feet, 1959, #055 off the line.

I am not going to comment on who sold it originally. Jacksonville is just few miles down the road from West Virginia.

The front window frame is gone.A sheet of plexiglass has been siliconed in the opening. Oddly enough I dealt with this very same issue a couple of months ago. Hope my source has a second window for sale. WBCCI number 16377. That number was issued when the club was strong and had a lot of members. Today if you removed the 10,000 from the number you would be stretching the club count. Times sure have changed.

The skin on this old girl is remarkably smooth and scratch free. There have been some odd patches installed when who ever converted her to a concession rig.

The step is gone and has been braced up with some 2 x4s. The entire floor has seen much better times. Only about 60% of the original fixtures are still present inside. This is okay for I intend to make the food service window more professionally done and the interior will be a blank slate for her next owner. I feel since the hole was cut and her pervious owner changed her use, I will just improve on the change and make this into a real vending rig. I could probably fix the cut out, but it will never look perfect. Vending trailers are very hot right now.

Great window placement on the street side. The skin looks to be in poor shape, but it is just lots of dirt and mold on the surface. You can see a number of those homespun patches on this side. The forward patch is a Herh roof vent put over the original furnace vents.

That is one low down license plate holder. I have never noticed them to be placed so low on the body.

Here you can see that food service window with the original window still in it. Kind of odd configuration if you ask me, but as I have come to learn, people do very odd things sometimes.

This is looking toward the rear. The very nice Princess stove still remains as well as the double sink. Who ever converted her over put plywood right across the entire countertop sealing the fixtures in. No toilet or shower remains in the rear.

Looking forward. Bill used this rig for storage and a work shop where he worked on old tubed radios.

There is the inside of the food service window. Anyone looking for a 1981 34 footer? That is for sale too. So, I am very happy with my purchase. She will need major work to her. Needing to be rebuilt from the rubber up. I feel confident that someone out there will want to make this trailer their new business venture.

Another deal I worked out was salvage rights to this trailer. At one point this was a 1964 Overlander. Tom said that this trailer has given parts to eleven others trailers. Some times a trailer needs to be sacrificed to save others. I was not the first to go at the hulk. I might add that this photo was taken after I had gone at her with the sawzall.

I cut out the complete door and hatch with frame from this side.

A few items I salvaged.

A complete door with the internal jamb frame. Now if someone was going to put a second door into a 1964 Sovereign, they have what is needed.

More hatches, two complete Herh roof vents with motors and lifters, Bowen water heater cover, and two complete windows with screens and cranks. When I left, there was virtually nothing left on that trailer to use.

I headed back East again. Up, through, and over Sidling Hill again.

Back out onto the Piedmont again.

At one point I needed a pit stop. I took an exit and made a right and another right to "just see where the road took me". It took me to the C&O Cannel. Sandwiched between the cannel and I70 was this graveyard. The youngest grave was from 1828.

1828 was before much of the West was made into States.

1828 must have been a very bad year, for three of the tomb stones had that year on them.

One never knows where a right and another right might take you. No wonder Wally made that suggestion often.

New client up to bat.

A new trailer and new client has rolled into the work zone next to the shop. I am looking very forward to the job this Tradewind needs.

Her name is Lu Lu and many of you know her as Linda and Reagie's 1961 tradewind. Lu Lu is a avery well traveled trailer. Her owners attend just about every Washington DC Unit rally and many regional events not related to the WBCCI.

Coming back from a rally Lu Lu had a little blow out that resulted in damage to the skin. This is actually not the first time this has happened.

The belly skin behind the wheel wheel has been replaced in the past because of a previous blow out. We have come up with a very creative way to patch all this damage to the skin. The wheel well will never look original with out replacing the entire side, but the route we are going to take to fix it will look very nice and create a visual detail. Wish I could explain more, but you will see all this soon enough.

Some rotten floor and front end separation was repaired by a very well know shop. They some how forgot to measure there self drilling screws. I wonder if they actually used elevator bolts to secure the floor properly. No worries, the main goal is to make the belly skins all new again. I can fix that issue easily.

From what I see they used nothing but screws to hold the new floor down. I keep forgetting that doing it correctly takes more time and is generally harder to do well.

Looks like we have a leak to deal with too. They were supposed to have used their fancy machine to find the leak. Bet I can find it by just "being the water" by "feeling the leak"

So far I am encouraged by what I see. Linda was told she has frame issues. Frame issues are what has brought her in. I have only found very minor issues. Unfortunately I have not looked at her rear yet. Stay tuned for that soon.

Vintage is wildly popular over seas

I had to go to the Port of Baltimore and drop off another trailer. Her destination is South Hampton England. I went way up to Northern Michigan to retrieve her back in May. She has been sitting in the storage lot since then. An ironic thing is the name of the boat she is going on is called the Michigan Highway.

For some odd reason my TWIC Escort "forgot" that the Union run Port office closes at 11:30 for lunch. I had no choice but to keep the clock rolling until 1:oo when they all returned to admit my paper work. Kind of odd how he forgot, but I still had to pay him for his time. With so much time to kill there was nothing left to do but check out the classic cars lined up at the terminal.

Just receintly was the Hersey and Carlisle Auto Shows. I take it there is some kind of auction or for sale area there. All these cars had stickers from one of those two shows.

Oddly enough every car you see here was bought by the same buyer.

Every one of them is being shipped to Sweden.

Some one in Sweden has a real love for vintage American cars. This is a real good representation of 50's and 60's classics.

A little muscle thrown into the mix.

There must have been 50 all together in this group.

Now that would look so sweet towing my Overlander.

Or really any trailer for that matter. Sorry most of these are so washed out. It was VERY sunny and I was hiding my camera in my palm as I took all of these. I should have adjusted the ISO, but then the cameras on the light poles might have noticed me taking pictures.

Surf City here come the Shark...

Be careful you don't impale yourself Dave. Wouldn't want you to hurt yourself. I know you are rather forgetful and would not want any accidents. After working the Port twenty years it easy to forget hours of operation and where you are walking....

Stay close to the fifties cars that are all rounded over.

Or stay close to the Airstream.

I will refrain from comment as to what this old girls next life will be. Let's just say Wally intended his product to travel. That is why it is called a "travel trailer."

You are probably wondering what she is. This is a front kitchen Safari. A 1955 that is titled as a 54.

She is rather complete inside even though all the wood work was painted at some point.

A little dent up front and a very soft floor inside. This one is off on her big adventure across the pond. Her owner has big plans for her.

I just cannot imagine what it must cost to fill that beast up in the UK. A 345 Classic gets what, about 7 mpg? Gasoline over there is well over $5.00 a gallon. At least this one looks like it could actually drive. The last time I was here there was another Airstream motorhome that looked so broke down it. I bet she had to be dragged onto the boat.

Hope you enjoyed another adventure to the Port. I am not to sure you are going to be seeing too many more. I have some transport obligations I plan to follow through on, but after those I do not think I will be taking any more trailers to this destination. My business is to restore these wonderful trailers. I need to focus my energy there, not helping export American Icons. I would feel so much better putting a restored trailer on the boat, knowing someone was dedicated to the project. Unfortunately many of these classic trailers are being converted to vending vehicles. The interiors and their complete history is thrown away to make room for the fish and chips fryer. I am fully aware that someone will step right in and fill my void, but a man needs to have his beliefs and he needs to stand behind them.

Falling for the flu

Things might seem a bit slow around here, but many little projects have been getting done that just have not warranted photos or explanation. I mean, do you really want to see axle swaps and more window work? How interesting is it to see a fantastic fan going in or a catalytic heater? I thought I would save you the boredom of seeing all that.

One thing that has gone on though is that I was visited by the N1H1(not confirmed but it was so bad only media hype could provide this kind of severity) flu. I was literally laid up for fourteen days. Somewhere in the middle of the entire illness I recovered a trailer. Yes, I went with a raging fever and recovered a trailer. Common, it was only a twelve hour day and I drank lots of hot fluids.

I went up to New Jersey and picked up this 1977 rear bedroom Argosy. Now if you want to see a time capsule, you need to see this Argosy. I would say this rig is 110% original and all in working order. It needs a little cleaning, a new paint job, and new axles, but she is very mint. Well, not mint, more like burnt orange. I had obligated to go fetch it right before I took ill. Even though I was very sick, I felt I needed to get it done. I was able to rewire the pig tail plug and get everything working except the electric brakes. I also learned that an Argosy uses a very non vintage 2 5/16" ball. A couple of trips to U haul and we were on the road. I took the trailer to her new owner and seeing her expression when I backed into her drive way made the entire trip so worth while. To see a mature woman skipping, clapping, and giggling as you are backing her trailer in makes it so worth the minor inconvenience of having the flu. Sure I got paid to do the job, but seeing Mary skipping like a little girl was the best payment I have ever received. So many look at these things as "just trailer" or a source of income. For Mary, it was the start of a whole new way of life and she was so glad to have it brought to her. I was very glad I pushed myself to do the move. I am also so glad an old girl has found someone to love her again. Good luck Mary, see you up the road....

Bruce almighty AKA Client #0005

I wanted to introduce you all to my newest client. His name is Bruce and he is one cool dude. He jumped into this hobby with both feet and no parachute. There is something about his spirit that impressed me, but, I knew as soon as he quoted Tennessee Williams; " There is a time for departure even when there's no certain place to go" I knew at that point we would be able to work very well together. Bruce turned the whole thing into one big adventure and an adventure he got.

The first thing Bruce did was buy a 1964 Sovereign of the Road. He wants to restore it and make a few custom touches not offered in 1964. He needed something to tow it, so he bought 1971 Travelall in Phoenix Arizona and then flew out to pick it up. Right between Phoenix and Baltimore is Southern California where a 1960 Tradewind parts trailer was waiting for him to pick up for the custom touches we were planning on the Sovereign. He towed the Tradewind all the way to me in Baltimore. This guy has salt and I am impressed with that kind of spirit.

Somewhere in the middle of Tennessee, the Tradewind lost the door and two pieces of glass blew out. Bruce patched it up and kept on trucking. Trucking at a maximum speed of 55 mph I might add. He found some baling wire and some plywood and covered the holes. The door is still M.I.A.

As you can see, the door left in a very violent way.

Not much meat for the rivets to go into there. Unlike the upper hinge, there was no plate behind the skin to hold the hinge on to. Most likely the handle was not tied off to the grab handle and when the door came open, it chose to fly away. It is still at large. Did I mention that?

This Tradewind has been ridden very hard and put up wet a number of times. To quote Uwe, at Area 63 Restorations who helped get Bruce rolling in California; "She has been hammered" The Wally Byam's Caravans sign, WBCCI numbers, and bumper mount spare tire mount lead me to believe this trailer went on a caravan at one time. I will have to do a little investigating into her history. We dropped the Tradewind in the yard and he followed me up to Kutztown, PA to fetch the 1964 Sovereign that started all of this.

The Sovereign was sitting rather fore lorn in a campground that had seen much better days. We knew the rubber was dead, so right after I pulled the wheels, Bruce ran out to get new rubber mounted. I stayed behind to pack bearings and get things ready to roll. The bearing contained some very liquid stuff that was grease a long time ago. First hub I pulled...

... second hub, third, and fourth... all four had broken adjustor springs. I got to go out and search for new springs. NAPA said "yeah, we got em'. Have them here by 10" "TEN?" "Yes Sir, Ten on Thursday" I then went off looking for Grimms Trailer in Lyons. Grimms could fix anything. Four springs from the springs bin, four bucks. I went back to the trailer and put the hubs back together. Right as I got the hubs put on, Bruce returned with the new tires. Things were falling right into place.

Next up we got everything secure and turned our attention to lights. At this point the smooth day came to a screeching halt. The sun was going down, none of the lights worked and neither did the very important electric brakes. I had temporary lights, but I was very uncomfortable letting Bruce take off with 31 feet of trailer pushing against his 1971 Travelall. I needed a Plan "E" and it needed to be a good one. I either had to spend the night, drive two and a half hours home and come back the next day, or find a place to run down the electrical glitch. I then realized that Grimms was the place to take it.

I followed Bruce and acted as his brake lights and turn signals. The old 64 looked sweet behind the Travelall. We took it slow and headed over to Grimms.

We unhitched her in the yard at Grimms and called it a day.

For a guy that has gone through so many set backs and change of plans, Bruce handled it very well. He was clowning around and rolling with the punches with the best of them. I headed for home and Bruce headed to a Hotel. I was just too far from home and it was too late in the day to correct this situation.

The next morning Grimms got Bruce fully working brakes and running light fairly quickly. Bruce made it home to Boston without any more issues. He is now going to do the grunt work of gutting her out so I can repair all the structural issues.