Here is something to think about if you are restoring your trailer yourself. In the case of this 1964 Chinook trailer, the owner had rebuilt the trailer himself (and did a really nice job of it!) but was intimidated by installing new aluminum skin. He asked us if we would do that step for him. Smart move, aluminum is expensive and done wrong can result in a disappointing result or even a lot of scrap aluminum. We were happy to help. He brought us the trailer looking like it does above, and took home a trailer almost finished for a fraction of what it would cost for us to do the restoration.
We installed the new skin in a combination of Colonial White and polished, installed
new J moldings and awning rail, and we did re-
A note about having us install the new skin... While we are happy to do so, the construction of the trailer has to be done right or we won't do it. If the structure is not properly built, I can't attach the new skin with any hopes that it won't soon leak, nor would I be willing to accept any responsibility in case the trailer should come apart later down the road. Also, the trailer has to be built square, all the curves side to side have to match etc... I can't install aluminum over odd shapes!
While I wouldn't be able to walk you through a whole restoration, if you are going to restore your trailer up to this point as a DIY project, please contact us beforehand so we can give some pointers to prevent a problem later when it is time for us to install the new skin.
You may notice in this case the trailer was wrapped with Tyvek house wrap. There is much controversy on restorations wether or not to do this. Some say a vapor barrier is good, others say it is not. In my opinion I do not feel it is necessary, but I don't believe it hurts anything. Done right, the aluminum should be air and water tight, and I don't believe myself that it can stop condensation from forming in the walls, the two arguments in favor of wrapping.
