How to polish your vintage aluminum trailer.

Step 1.  Open your checkbook and hire someone else to do it for you.  Since I don’t have an extra $4,000 lying around, and I find myself with an extra couple of days worth of time, I’m once again tackling it myself.

It’s actually not bad, since it’s been polished three times prior to this.  It’s been two years on the last polish, and while it looks pretty good, it does look better with a quick polish.  You can see where I quit (from exhaustion) just aft of the rear wheel, where the swirl marks end.

Since 10:30 this morning I’ve done the entire street side, front below the windows, and the curb side to here.  Have yet to do the back panels and the front cap.  I’m not touching anything above the drip rail or below the side rub rail.

Tomorrow I’ll finish up the side and back-end, then I have to rub those areas down with a towel sprinkled with flour, the best thing I’ve found to get the polish residue off, and then hand polish with Nuvite “Nu-Shine” final glaze.  Those two steps get rid of 90% of the swirl marks, and I can live with that.  It doesn’t have to perfect to be fun.

“Shouldn’t” you be working on the truck, now that it’s all fixed?”, you ask?

The answer to that is that I’ve exhausted my limited diagnostic skills, even with the new scan tool I bought.  I’ve replaced the MAF sensor, the plug wires, the fuel pump, the 02 sensors, cleaned the plugs, replaced 4 of them, and it still runs ragged, fussed, fuddled and worried myself sick, with no real improvement.  I give up.

This morning I drove it in to Kalamazoo to my friend Ron Penny’s shop, “Woodward’s Garage”, and left it there for them to fix whatever boneheaded thing I’ve overlooked or screwed up.  Actually, it didn’t run too badly, but following me Kim said it was occasionally puffing black smoke from the right hand side, and it was missing.  Which explains why I can actually watch the needle on the gas gauge going down…

So, it’s been left overnight in Intensive Care, while the trailer goes into rehab here in the driveway.  The Big Brown Truck delivered a shiny new bumper and the hood corner rubbers today, so when Ron is finished making it run, I can put that stuff back on.

Time for a beer.

Call me, “The Stitch”.

Everybody needs a nickname, even if you have give yourself one, right?  Since I spent today getting ready, then laying out, cutting, and then sewing the leather for the interior panels in the Diamond T, I guess “The Stitch” is legit.

I dug the four hides I have left out of the box they’re stored in down in the basement, and happily, they still smell like leather, not a basement.  They’ve been rolled up around a cardboard fabric tube, so they weren’t too badly wrinkled, and they’re still supple.  So, I was good to go.  I had all the aluminum panels cut and fitted inside the cab for the headliner, rear and side panels, so it was a simple thing to cut out the leather to cover them.  I decided to make my own windlace to match, and used more leather for that, covering nylon rope from the hardware store.  I think it looks great.

I’ve got the main headliner panel covered and in the truck, the rest of the panels will get covered and installed tomorrow.  Here’s a peek at the work so far…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only sewing was the windlace and the panels above the doors, which transition from the side of the cab to the headliner.  Lacking an English wheel, I can’t make that deep compound curve, so it was easy to make separate pieces.  Once they’re all installed, it’ll look like the cab was supposed to trimmed out, not just pained steel.  It’ll be quieter, and cooler too, since the cab is all insulated with “McCool-Mat” insulation.  I should rent a vender space at the NSRA Nats and give Les Noyze some competition…

Lazy days work.

I feel lazy.  I slept in, sat around drinking coffee, talked to a friend on the phone, and then wasted about an hour on Facebook.  By that time, it was almost 10:30.  Where does the time go?

In an effort to not totally blow the day off, I went back to the ’47 Spartan, ripped out the smelly old carpet, cleaned all the junk out and swept it out.   All the trash and carpet went on the burn-pile, and the junk went into the Herby Curby.  It looks much better, I even hung the skirts on it.  One of the roof vents had blown off, so I set it back in place, and weighted all three down with some cement patio blocks. 

There, all set for winter, while we decide what to do with it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a little lunch and rest, it was out to the shop to lay out the running board trim on the Diamond T.  Drilled and tapped all the holes in the trim, and drilled all the mounting holes in the running boards to attach them.  I got the trim for the right side sanded and polished, which is a time-consuming and dirty job, but the end result looks pretty good.  I still have the three for the left side to do, and all the hood trim, but I got a good start at it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, that’s not a bad job for a lazy day.  Now, off to the shower to get the black stuff of my face and hands so we can go to dinner!

Cool McCool’s Garage on the road.

Here’s how we roll, with the Cool McCool’s Garage Mobile World Headquarters.  On our recent trip to the Smokies and Blue Ridge Parkway, a late start on Thursday afternoon (somebody has to work around here!), meant we couldn’t drive to Ashville NC in one day.  So, we planned a stop around Dayton Ohio as a good afternoons drive.  I’d looked up a couple of Wal-Mart stores on line, called and asked if it was OK to park overnight in their lots. 

Yes indeed it was, so we made it here, and set up “camp”.  I did feel a little wierd setting in a lawn chair outside the trailer with a Gin and Tonic, so we stayed inside for the evening.   I’m not a big fan of shopping at Wally World, but they do have a nice camp store, and the campground is level and well-lit.  It wasn’t too busy, we slept pretty well, and got a good start on the rest of the drive the next morning.  Sadly, I couldn’t find a light pole with a power outlet at the base, so we couldn’t toast our bagels for breakfast, but I did buy orange juice and couple other things I’d forgotten to get. 

Leaving the next morning, the car ran AWFUL.  Missing, stumbling, bucking and coughing,  I thought we must be out of gas.  There was a gas station just about half a mile down the road, we limped and filled up, which turned out to not be the problem, as it only took 8 gallons.  By then, it was running a little better, so we set out.  All day long, it would occasionally stumble and miss, I wondered if it had been some bad gas we got, or maybe a bad injector, plug wire or spark plug.  It ran fine at wide open throttle, where it spent a LOT of time, hauling the trailer up steep grades as we got into the mountains, so it was a perplexing issue, but we were rolling, so I figured we were OK.  We were able to keep up with semi’s, big diesel dually’s pulling giant 5th wheels and traffic in general going up steep grades with passing lanes, so it wasn’t bad, but it was a little worrisome, hundreds of miles from home.

We got to our  campground just outside of Ashville early in the afternoon, despite a monumental 2 hour-long traffic jam about 30 miles out, which turned out to have been a terrible accident, leaving a semi tractor and trailer wadded up into the side of a mountain, burned to the ground.  Pretty grisly, we were glad we weren’t there when it happened.

“Mama Gerties Hideaway” however, turned out to be beautiful, and despite the steep grade (the address, “Uphill Road” should have been a clue), was great.  We ended up staying two more days, and doing day trips from there.  The place was right up the side of a mountain, 30 sites, with another 20 under construction even further up the hill.  We almost got stuck pulling the trailer onto our site, I stopped just as the car got onto the gravel, but we made it.  The hill was so steep that standing about 20 feet down from the camper, one could see the entire underside, as if it were up on a lift, and the camper next to us looked down onto the roof.  The sites are terraced up the mountain, hence the flat rock retaining walls between sites.  

The next morning we went to the Biltmore Estate, a spectacle of conspicuous consumption if ever there was one.  It’s hard to wrap ones head around the idea that the place was built as a summer retreat for one wealthy guy, and that the estate included almost 70,000 acres.  The grounds immediately around the mansion (castle?), thousands of acres, were landscaped by the guy who designed central park.  To the credit of the owner, he did much for the area, not only as an employer, but as far as re-foresting the clear-cut hillsides around, reclaiming over-worked and depleted farm land, and many charitable works.  Still, it was staggeringly extravagant

The grounds were amazingly pretty, the dam at right was built on a small stream, after extensive excavation, with ponds and water features upstream.  The scale of the project, which included its own rail spur, a village for workers and employees to live, was hard to imagine.  But, it made a visit for us.  Thank-you, Mr. Vanderbilt!

That afternoon, still worried about the car not running right, and prospect of a week of mountain driving ahead, I found an Advance Auto store near the campground, and spent $150 on plugs, wires, a new fuel filter, and some other stuff. Back at the campground, I discovered that there is no way to get to the little 4.8L LS engines coils, plug wires, plugs, or injectors.  The 331 Hemi valve covers I used to hide all that technology are neat, but the left one can’t come off without first removing the master cylinder and power brake booster.  That wasn’t going to happen that far away from home with the few tools I’d brought, nor was the fuel filter going to come off easily.  Scratching my head, and for want of anything else to do, I pulled off the upper portion of the engine cover, which hides the intake manifold and its wiring, and discovered the fuel evap recovery system solenoid at the front of the intake was unplugged. I plugged it’s wiring harness back in and…BINGO!  The car stopped missing, stumbling and hesitating.  I must have disturbed this while looking for a vacuum source for the new heater and A/C unit before we left, causing the problem.  I kept the parts I’d bought, figuring that now that we’re home, I can take some time and replace all this stuff, and figure a way to access things in an emergency on the road.

Aside from the reservation at the campground from Hell, and subsequent car trouble upon leaving (which, I believe now to be an act of the Lord of Darkness, or at least some devilish influence by one of his Imps), the rest of the trip was spectacular, and happily, uneventful.  I’ll say right now that one of the highlights of the trip was the visit to Chateau Morrisette, on the Blue Ridge Parkway, followed closely by the Friday night show at the Rex Theater in Galax.  Driving the Blue Ridge is spectacular, and while we had some foggy mornings, the trip overall was fantastic.  Rather than bore you with more details, I’ll let some of the pictures speak for themselves.   Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, there you have it.  11 days, just shy of 3,000 miles, a couple minor problems, lots of wine, and even more fun, another Cool McCool’s vacation is in the books.  The fun’s not over yet, there’s a trip to Las Vegas coming right up, the garage is cleaned up, there’s money in the Hot Rod Fund again, and we’re about to tackle the ’48 Diamond T, and put a new interior in the ’48 Pontiac convert.  We won’t say what that’ll be, but “Blackwatch” should be a hint. Stay tuned!

 

Deliverance: the campground.

Kim said she didn’t feel comfortable pulling the trailer on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and even though we were only on it for two miles, and only to get to our campground, her fears were not unfounded.

We both thought we smelled the distinctive almond-like aroma of anti-freeze a couple of times on the drive from Asheville this morning, but no visible leaks, and it wasn’t hot. We got off our exit at Fancy Gap, VA, and followed the directions a short distance to the “Fancy Gap Campground”. (Note to you, faithfull reader, DO NOT let me pick a place to stay on the road).

From the road, the place, high on a windy ridge, looked deserted, a large “For Sale” sign on the building should have been an obvious clue, but I went to the office.

I was greeted by a girl who looked like she may have been the sister of the banjo playing boy from Deliverance. She stared blankly at me when I said I’d called to make a reservation, and was clearly confused trying to figure out how many nights Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday would be. After several minutes at a calendar counting, and re-counting, she was then lost trying to figure how much 3 times $31.50 would be.

“$94.50″, I said, which drew a suspicious glare.

Several more minutes struggling with a calculator, she said, “That’ll be $94.50 for three nights.”

Agreeing, but hesitant, I signed the credit card slip, and we drove up over the ridge to the campground, where we were met with what looked like an abandoned old Winnebago, partially covered with a tattered blue poly tarp. It was partially sunken into the red clay, and surrounded by piles of junk.

On down a few sites was a rusty, grey primered mid 80′s Dodge van, which also looked like a permanent fixture. Or a meth lab.

We both agreed we were creeped out enough to not want to stay there, and I went back up to the “office”, which was also the kennel for a snarling pit bull (“Doan’chew worry, she won’t bite”, Deliverance girl assured me), to unwind the deal and refund my credit card.

“Ah cain’t do that, ah don’t know how, and the owner ain’t here ’till Satu-day”, said Deliverance girl.

By that time, I figured it was worth $94.50 NOT to have to stay ther and we headed back up the Parkway to find a KOA listed as close-by.

We got less than mile, and the car made an odd high pitched whistle, and began to miss badly. We were headed up a rather steep grade, and before I could say, “This can’t be good.”, we came to a halt.

It seemed to idle fine, but wouldn’t pull itself, and the anti-freeze smell was back in a big way. I shut it off, and it restsrted,and still idled OK, so I figured it couldn’t terminal.

When I opened the hood, the problem was immediately evident. The lower radiator hose had been rubbing on the lower control arm, and had a tiny hole in it. The engine had gotten hot enough, briefly, to confuse whatever sensors deal with heat, and it quit.

As I was rummaging around my emergency kit and tools for something to temporarily patch the hose, a good Samaritan, “Dave”‘ a newly retired surgical perfusion tech (the guy who runs the heart lung machines for your cardiac surgeries), and a devout gear-head and hot-rodder, stopped to see if we needed help.

Did we ever! I had a roll of what was purported to be radiator hose repair tape, which we wrapped the injured hose with, and he started to lead us to a garage where we hoped to replace the hose. We got about 4 miles when the tape (predictably) let go and we once again lost all the coolant.

I pulled off in front a distressed looking mobile-home, and a rustic looking gent came out to see what was the trouble.

As I was telling him, he turned and said, “I got a floor jack and tools, let’s got that hose off!”

He returned with the same, I jacked the car up and pulled the hose.

With directions to an “Advance Auto” store just a few miles up the road, my new best friend “Dave” and I set out, leaving Kim and Ari with the rustic looking guy with tools, the car propped up on cement blocks. He very graciously drove me 8 miles to the nearest “Advanced Auto” store, where I bought a new flex hose and some coolant.

Half an hour later, we were back, Kim, Ari and the car were still there, and I got the new, better fitting, hose installed, the radiator filled with more coolant, and we were good to go.

With many thanks to both the fellows who helped us, and a few bucks for the guy with jack, we were off.

The KOA turns out to be a gem, I will no longer claim they are all by the freeway, next to a railroad yard, and under the flight path of a major airport. We got their LAST site, went to Galax for some great pit style bar-b-que and a beer, and are looking forward to a great day tommorow!

On the road again…

Here at Cool McCool’s Garage, we’re always trying to keep things current, and stay “fresh”. That’s why from time to time, we like to do some “on site” reporting.

Today, we are coming to you from Swannanoa NC, at “Mama Gertie’s Hideaway” campground, so startlingly steep we need ropes to keep from sliding down the hill. It’s a beautiful site though, and now that we’re getting used to the incline, we’ve decided to stay a couple more days. It certainly is nicer than the Wall-mart parking lot we stayed in the first night on the road.

Our staff, accustomed to “flatland” driving, has had a little trouble acclimating, but has done well, considering the fog and rain complicating matters. Yesterday’s wait on the Blue Ridge Parkway for a wrecker to winch the wadded up remains of a rented Toyota up a cliff, crumpled luggage stacked up beside the road as the wreckage was recovered caused only a few moments of distress, and we pressed on in the fog.

Our mobile office and support vehicle, the ’51 Tin Woody, developed a disconcerting miss, that had the entire team here worried(although we didn’t slow down), that turned out to be an unplugged vacuume port sensor, disturbed no doubt during the recent addition of the heat/defrost/air conditioner. Happily, the hundreds of Dollars worth of parts bought to throw at the problem can be returned to Advance Auto. What, me, worried?
Tomorrow, more white knuckle driving and waterfall viewing is on the schedule, so stay tuned.. .

It’s been awhile…

You, faithful reader, may have noticed that it’s been awhile since there’s been an update here at “Cool McCool’s Garage”, and you’re right.  It HAS been awhile, almost a month.  There’s been lots of activity here, lot’s of new stuff, some of the old is gone, and there’s been some well deserved R & R.   We’re feeling a little guilty about not keeping up, so we’ll try to catch up with  a little recap of the past few weeks activities…

The second weekend of August found the staff of “Cool McCool’s Garage” at the third “Relix Riot” at the Gilmore Car Museum right in our own back yard.  In addition to seeing all our friends, some of the coolest traditional hot rods and customs in the mid-west, we were surprized and thrilled to have the ’51 Pontiac Tin Woody chosen as “Coolest Surf Wagon”.  It’s not a “judged” show, the awards are chosen by the guys in the Relix car club on the basis of what they think is cool.  That they picked our work-horse wagon, hauling the Spartan, really means a lot.  Plus, a totally cool vintage board, complete with shark-bit marks, was the trophy, a great addition to the shop wall!  It really means a lot, thanks guys.

Here’s a little snap-shot of some of the other great cars there this year…

The weather was perfect, the cars are first-rate.  There’s huge competition for attendance at the show, as the Woodward Cruise is the same weekend, but to have the chance to hang with our friends from the Relix, camping on the grounds, seeing over 300 seriously cool hot rods at the Gilmore sure beats being stuck in traffic on Woodward, paying $50 to park, don’t you think?

From the Riot, we went directly to the state park at Gun Lake for two weeks.  This was a “working” vacation, as we, the staff here at “Cool McCool’s” had to all go back and forth to our day jobs.  That didn’t mean we didn’t have a great time.  Being there mid-week meant that we had 3 or 4 days of an almost deserted campground before it started to fill up for the Holiday (Labor Day) weekend crowd.  We did some “chill’n and grill’n”, enjoyed cocktail hour daily (sometimes starting at noon or before!).   We had the Chris Craft out, had some great moonlight rides, did some skiing and wake-surfing, and just idling around the lake-shore.  We were also treated to the company of our  friends Kirk and Donnell of “Crafty B” fame, joining us in there newly polished Airstream Land Yacht.  It was two weeks of fun, family and friends, and left little time for keeping up the web-site. 

Here are some pics of the two-week stay.  We’re sure you’ll see why we had no time, or inclination, to set down at the keyboard!

So, this gets us up to Labor Day, and the need to get back to the real world.  We’ve been working hard having fun, and in fact just spent this past weekend camping at the Fort Custer State Park in Augusta.  The Spartan is unpacked, and awaiting a thorough clean up before we head over to Milford for the Tin Can Tourist Fall Meet at Milford in two weeks.  Meanwhile, the Nats North is next weekend in Kalamazoo, and there’s big news about the Cool McCool’s Garage stable of cars to report, but we’ll save that for another days news. 

Meanwhile, the shop watch-dog Ari, is on duty, and there’s work to be done.  Stay tuned!

Undersirable trailer trash element invades Gilmore Car Museum.

Well, there goes the neighborhood.  First one old trailer moves in on Thursday afternoon, then another, and another, and another, untill by Saturday, 30 or so vintage campers crowded onto the Gilmore Museums display grounds.  Property values, thought to have hit rock bottom in Michigan, plummeted even further as more and more of the rolling relics of the TCT moved in.

Kim and I rolled in Thursday afternoon, and set up camp as close as we could get to the electric board.  The museum had some dying Ash trees removed recently, and the crews accidentally dug up the power cable while grinding the stumps, but they had it fixed in time for the Happy Campers arrival, although the “No A/C use please” rule is still in effect. 

By Saturday morning, roughly 30 campers rolled in to park on the nicely shaded grounds, put the awnings out, kick back, relax and show off their rigs.  The museum reports the biggest attendance day EVER, despite the 90+ degree temps, the crowds really seemed to enjoy trailers, campers and vintage motor coaches on display. 

Kim and I had planned on staying Saturday night as well, but the threat of strong storms sent us back home, 2 1/2 miles away.  By the time we got both awnings down, we decided we might as well just go home.  Of course, then it didn’t storm at all.

We met lots of new folks, and had hundreds of people go through the Spartan and Tini-Home.  We were honored to have been chosen “Best In Show”, and the ’51 Pontiac wagon received a “Top 50″ honor as well.  My personal favorite rig wasn’t a camper at all, but a ’64 Country Squire wagon pulling a mid 60′s Sanger flat bottom powered by an Ed Pink prepped, 6.71 blown, nitrous’d Ford Cammer.  I’d like to ski behind that!

Our next outing will be the “Relix Riot” at the Gilmore in two weeks.  Since the ’36 didn’t sell, we’ll still have a “traditional hot rod” to take…

Enjoy the pictures, and hopefully we’ll see you there next year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If we missed anybody, my apologies.  It’s a busy weekend, and I was awfully busy setting under the awning in front of a fan drinking Vodka & Tonics.  Seriously, I did try to say hello to everybody that pulled in, and managed to only severely piss-off one guy, who had an admittedly very bad day, breaking down on the way there, and being too far from the elec. board to plug-in by the time he got there.   Hey, you can’t please everybody.

 

 

Sisters on the fly.

What happens your wife gets her own trailer, a woody wagon, a fridge full of wine and cocktail fix’ns?  She takes her sister and goes camping without you, that’s what!

Kim and her sister Julie are headed out to South Haven to spend the weekend camping with their friend Cheryl, who stays the summer in an RV park there.  Kim packed up the Tini-Home last night, and she and Julie left after Kim got home from work today.  I spent the morning trying to get the gas gauge in the wagon to work, without success, but I did manage to not make anything else not work, and got the dash back together. 

The car got washed, the brake controller on the trailer was adjusted so the brakes don’t lock up and slide the tires (it was tricky to the controller set properly), and the girls are off to the shores of Lake Michigan.  I’m sure they’ll be the hit of the campground.  I told Kim to sell the trailer if anyone wants it badly enough, but I don’t think she’d part with it!

Here they go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The “FREE” Spartan comes home.

If there’s no such thing as a free lunch, there’s also no such thing as a “free” vintage trailer, although, I’m not complaining.  Yesterday morning we headed up to Manton, MI, to fetch home the ’47 Spartan Manor that was given to us by the family of the guy who bought my ’00 Silverado pickup last fall.  We left with the ’76 GMC Dually packed with tools, the torch set, extra wheels and tires, ANOTHER pair of tires in case the (slightly questionable) pair of tires mounted on the aluminum Suzuki ‘Gran Vitara’ wheels didn’t make it, a pair of auxiliary magnetic base trailer lights, jacks, planks, 4×4 blocking, a box of shop towels, wheel bearing grease, high expectations and no small amount of dread.  We were ready for anything, and as is usually the case, if you’re ready for the worst, nothing happens. 

This trailer had been sitting in its former location since the late 70′s by a little creek serving as a vacation get-a-way for the Heighton family.  Prior to that, the same family had it on another parcel of land nearby since the early 60′s, and prior to THAT, by the same family, the great-grandfather of the fellow who graciously gave it to us (as opposed to it being scrapped), since it was new, at least as far as they know.  Pretty neat to know the history.

We got there around 3:30 in the afternoon, and worked for three hours pulling the original wheels (still wearing what I’m sure were the original tires), pulling the drums, cleaning and packing the wheel bearings, and getting it off the cement blocks it was resting on.  Cement blocks holding the roof vents down were tossed to the ground, and the rear, forward facing vent cover was removed to prevent it from making a unsceduled departure on the way home.  I’d bought a pair of magnetic base lights, which I duct-taped to the rear window sill inside, as Spartans are aluminum bodied.   The only glitch we had was that I’d bought the wrong adaptor plug for the 7 pin plug on the truck.  I picked up a 7 round, and needed a 7 flat pin.  I was in a hurry and didn’t look closely. 

While I changed wheels/tires and packed wheel bearings, Kim duct-taped the cracked and crazed front windows up, picked spiders out of my ears, provided moral support, took the photos,  and kept Ari under control.  We make a good team!

After a moments anguish about the plug adaptor error,  (Kim helped me not totally lose it!),  the two 4′ lengths of 5/16″ chain were attached to the tongue (safety chains), the hitch was dropped on the ball and locked down, and for the first time in almost 40 years, the trailer was moved from its resting place, leaving some scraps of copper tubing and a mummified turkey vulture that had crawled under it to die in peace decades ago.  If you think buzzards are creepy looking alive, you should see a totally desiccated, dust-covered mummified one!  The good find under the trailer were the original skirts, so that made up for the dead vulture…

Ultimately, it went as well as it could have.  The trailer only fell off the jack once, when the tongue slid off the (slightly rotten) block of wood it was perched on.  Didn’t hurt anything or anybody.  The trailer plug adaptor issue was solved by towing it to our place at Fife Lake, and going to the hardware store in the morning for the correct one.   Once plugged in, we had turn signals and brake lights, and all was well.   We didn’t bother with wiring up the brakes, as the truck has plenty of stopping power,  and I didn’t want to press my luck with a hurry up job re-wiring them.   

The Spartan followed along obediently, and, fun fact, the truck gets 12 mpg empty, and 12 mpg towing.  We stopped once for gas and a little road food, and continued on home with no problems at all.  The GMC is pretty comfortable to drive, although we discovered right away that I need to have the tires re-balanced.  It’s a little bouncy…   We got a couple of thumbs up along the way, and the trailer is now in the back yard while we ponder what to do with it, and what to sell to finance whatever we decide on! 

It should be a fun project, the body is almost perfect, far better than either of the two we’ve done before.  The floor is solid, the frame is free from cancer, the copper screens are intact and useable.  We sifted through the flotsam left behind and found a couple of cool things, the original strainers for the sink, the porch light housing, and some other bits.  Sadly, somebody in the past cut the beautiful aluminum counter top with its built in drip tray out to make room for a stove (we think), so that’s toast, but the aluminum counter top on the other side is intact, so we’ll do some creative cobbling and salvage the sinks. 

Following are some pictures of the weekends road trip.  Stay tuned for more as we decide what to do with this beast, it will be a really fun project.  We’re excited!