Day 4: Should we do something about that carpet?
Day 4: If there is one feature of this horse trailer that I am not particularly excited about it is the under-manger tack area. I would have ~almost! ~ spent an extra $1k to get a newer trailer just to avoid this historically back-spasm-inducing and super-frustrating storage area. It is an underlying dream as we work on this trailer to find an exciting way to reimagine this space. That said, while I was working on the front corner evalutating the damage under the silver panels, it occured to me that some of the rust I was seeing might be hidden under the carpet inside the tack storage area. The doors have little storage boxes attached on the inside and in the bottom of these there is a layer of carpet. Under the carpet I found a large amount of rust. This proved to be a bit of a red herring though. Convinced that the storage area was in at least as bad of shape, I proceeded to start tearing out the saddle racks and pulling up the carpet in the under-tack. The floors were in surprisingly good condition. Only small amounts of rust were found and those were limited to the front corners and some areas under the manger wall. The carpet itself came out easily enough. Howver, the glue and rubber backing were impressively resistant to many forms of cleaning. Heat guns only made the glue tacky but when it was soft enough, a putty knife could get most of the bulky part off and the remaining was light enought to come off while removing the paint. The orbital sander (powered by 80grit paper) did the best work in getting the floor down to bare metal. I broke up the process by using a wire wheel affixed to my cordless drill to get some corner areas. I was glad I had bought the respirator masks while I was working inside the tack area. I was often sitting inside of it with the doors propped open. It took the better part of Day 4 to get the tack area cleaned out. I got a little over 3/4 done.
While I was busy enjoying the carpet-removal project inside the trailer, G had finally convinced me that the roof needed to come off. I knew it needed to, not only was it going to be necessary to fix the crumbling rusty ares we discovered in the corners, it was the only way to really do a good job fixing the leaky and super-stubborn air vents. What I wasn't sure about was how we were going to ensure that it didn't get damaged. After many conversations about where to store it (garage, side of yard, on top of boat) we determined that we could simply remove it when we needed to and then place it back on the rack at night. We use a tie down strap and a few bungee cords to keep it on snugly in case of winds. We took good photos of all the wiring that we will have to redo to get the lights put back. Right away we saw that the frame of the roof was in dire need of repair. So, Yes G - you were right - it needed to come off. (everyone always likes hearing they are right)
Thankfully the fiberglass is in good condition - although super grey from old algae/ mold blooms. G got it cleaned up and then took the vents off to try to see if they were salvagable (we are still not sure about that). I bought a fiberglass repair kit and before we put it back on for good, a few needed patches will be made. It sure looked a heck of a lot better with just a good scrubbing!
While I was busy enjoying the carpet-removal project inside the trailer, G had finally convinced me that the roof needed to come off. I knew it needed to, not only was it going to be necessary to fix the crumbling rusty ares we discovered in the corners, it was the only way to really do a good job fixing the leaky and super-stubborn air vents. What I wasn't sure about was how we were going to ensure that it didn't get damaged. After many conversations about where to store it (garage, side of yard, on top of boat) we determined that we could simply remove it when we needed to and then place it back on the rack at night. We use a tie down strap and a few bungee cords to keep it on snugly in case of winds. We took good photos of all the wiring that we will have to redo to get the lights put back. Right away we saw that the frame of the roof was in dire need of repair. So, Yes G - you were right - it needed to come off. (everyone always likes hearing they are right)
Thankfully the fiberglass is in good condition - although super grey from old algae/ mold blooms. G got it cleaned up and then took the vents off to try to see if they were salvagable (we are still not sure about that). I bought a fiberglass repair kit and before we put it back on for good, a few needed patches will be made. It sure looked a heck of a lot better with just a good scrubbing!
