Yesterday had no rain and we got several rain-free hours today, so I :
removed the next section of floor
inspected the frame, which was rusty but the welds look fine.
Did the standard wire brushing, with sand blasting where the brush can’t get.
and added two coats of Alumathane. Here’s after the first.
After the same adjustment with the pipe clamp I got the floor in place and attached. Forgot to take a picture. This completes the four flat floor sections.
I got the brakes wired up. 14-2 Marine wire with heat-shrink adhesive crimp connectors. Sorry for the poor quality pictures.
Right side.
Left side (leads come from the front to here- that the wires coming up. Then from here to the right side.
And the axle.
There are loops welded to the axle and the left side frame channel to support the wires. The second wire is an 18-2 (way too heavy, but the smallest gauge marine wire I could buy locally) for the thermostat. The electrical attachment studs and nuts are brass, so I kept them but used locking compound. I’m a big fan of locking compound but it didn’t exist in 1950. The cable clamp studs and nuts are mild steel. I replaced the nuts with stainless, and again used locking compound.
There was a stud but no separate clamp for the wires from the left side brake to the front, so that’s currently not supported. Next time I go to the hardware store I’ll get the proper wire clamp.
Note that I hadn’t attached the wall to the new floor yet. There’s the 2×2 at the base of the wall, which sits on the floor, which sits on another 2×2. When all the floor is in place I’m going to adjust the height at four locations with a laser level. I’m afraid of building in stresses if I lock the floor to the wall when it’s not level. I was preparing to install the new floor section and realized that the lower part of the wall was spreading outward by about half an inch on each side. Not good. I decided to put in two screws for each floor section, just a couple inches apart. At the rear end of the first section, the rear end of the second section, and where the wheel cutout begins at the third section. That should allow enough flexibility when I do the final assembly. If necessary I can pull the existing screws and put new ones in a different location.
As I move down I am tying the floor sections together in the center, with a four inch wide section of plywood. Same stuff as the floor. I also have some 2×4’s on jacks so the floor is stable enough to walk (carefully) around inside.
I got a nine foot pipe clamp. Since I don’t have a helper to hold the far end, I had to get creative. A couple temporary deck screws and some string did the trick.
And it was easy to crank the near side flush.
And the new floor is now in, and the supports for that floor section is back in place.
I don’t normally leave pile of junk in the driveway. That’s the last floor section and some associated detritus. I’m taking two floor sections at a time to the local dump.
I have one more day of good weather tomorrow, and the plan is for the next support and floor section to come out.
No big items today. I completed painting this frame section, including the inside of the wheel assemblies.
To be more specific- the upper part of the wheel assemblies. I can’t get to the lower part now. When the frame and body are together I’ll lift the frame up so I can really get underneath, and then I’ll check for spots that didn’t get painted. I don’t think there are any, but there might be. At that time I can do the lower inner part of the wheel assemblies. I also completed the wheels and the propane holder.
I think it looks a bit better now. This is an interesting assembly. It doesn’t look like it came from a factory. More like something a clever guy with a welding machine would make in his garage. Of course that opinion means nothing. For the one nut and two wing nuts I got new stainless, but the other threaded parts are welded assemblies and can’t be replaced. I also am working on the wiring for the brakes, but ran out of time.
We’ve had mostly rain for the last week. I was able to get the front floor section in and the 3rd-from-front out, but that’s about all.
But now we’ve got some sunny days. I got the frame cleaned up.
Note that this section has the axle, meaning a lot of extra nooks and crannies. 
Those also had to be cleaned. Also this time around I painted some bits up front that I couldn’t get to from inside, and the wheels.
There’s an interesting mount for propane tanks. This bolts onto the front of the frame. Kind of rusty, but it’s salvageable. I’m trying to keep as much of the original as feasible.
This little fingers pointing down from the top are just right to slip over the ring at the top of a tank. So I disassembled that and cleaned it.
The frame currently has two coats of paint, the wheels have two, and the propane tank holder has one. I’ll get frame and tank pictures tomorrow. I like the way the wheels look.
I mostly really like this Alumathane. But it’s “only” good for 250 degrees Farenheit. That’s way higher than most of the trailer bits will ever get, but brake drums could get hotter. So for that I got this stuff:
I’m not making any recommendations, but it’s supposed to “stop” rust and is good for 1000 degrees. Pretty sure it won’t get hotter than that. So now the brake drums look like this:
While waiting for a welder, I cleaned the rust off the front section of the frame.
Then today the welder came. Very professional. Of course there are limits to what he could do, but he fixed all the welds and added some reinforcement. It’s now far stronger than when it was new.
And I was able to get two coats of the Alumathane on. It’s curing now. 
Then I need a couple dry hours to get this floor section in and the next one out.
Today has been…. interesting. I got the first section of new flooring in.
And removed the next section of floor. Took those two floor pieces and some other debris to the dump. I started to prep the trailer frame, and found this:
I’m actually surprised I have been able tow things around as I have. I suspect that the house has been supporting the frame, rather than the other way around. At least I have good access with the floor out.
Now I need to find a local mobile welder who can fix this. I’m kind of stuck until this is fixed.
I got the first floor panel out. I had to cut it into three pieces, but it wasn’t that difficult. 
And I had a realization. I’ve been thinking of cleaning the rust off the frame and painting while I’m on a creeper underneath. How silly! It’s about 100 times easier to do it now, while the floor is open. The rust isn’t as bad as I expected.
Definitely rusty, but only fairly light surface rust. That must be because (according to the previous owner, who I believe was the second) it was parked and not moved. So I cleaned the rust off. Mostly I used a 4.5 inch grinder with a wire brush, but I have a small sandblaster and used that where the power brush didn’t reach well. At this point I looked at the welds, and all look good. Decent quality and no visible cracks. And the first coat of Alumathane is on.
Tomorrow I’ll get the second coat on. Not sure if the weather will allow me to replace the floor. I might have to wait. I need an hour or so of dry weather, and tomorrow is supposed to be wet.
I’ve been working on separating the trailer body from the frame. The frame is connected to the trailer in two ways. There something like a half dozen carriage bolts from the 2×2’s at the bottom of the left and right walls down through angles that are part of the frame. Those are easy to remove once you remove the side panels. They’re mostly too rusty to unscrew, but easy to cut off with a Dremel.
There are also three 2×3’s that run the length of the underbody. This is at the back looking forward.
The one in the center just sits on the frame. The left and right are bolted to the frame with more carriage bolts. Like this:
Another dozen or so of them. Also needs a Dremel, but this done prone under the trailer.
There was some plumbing that came from the toilet and went around the frame. That had to be removed. Mild steel plumbing fixtures that have been exposed to the elements for 65 years- that’s not coming apart easily. Here’s what the bathroom looked like (I’ve already removed the shower head, toilet, and shower curtain and rod.
I wonder why they put a fuse box in a 24×45 bathroom, about 2 feet from a shower? Seems like a possible problem there. But the walls were NASTY. Some kind of paneling with a coating on hardboard/Masonite. Then they were painted pink many years ago, and that was peeling pretty badly. And put on with several hundred slotted screws. All painted over, so hard to remove. So I got that all off. I then cut out the drain.
And it now looks like this:
And that picture answers one question I’ve had. I have wondered whether the bathroom was a modification, or original. Since that part of the rear wall is un-varnished, it’s original. If it weren’t done at the factory that back wall would be more the same color as the other interior walls.
I want to use the center longitudinal beam as a template to make the replacement beams, so I had a bunch of large wood screws to remove. They were all slotted and very hard to get out. Fortunately I don’t care about the floor. So I chiseled a recess
And then I can grab with locking pliers, and they come out easy.
So once all the carriage bolts were removed, the frame and body are now separate:
I’m working on the side 2×2’s. Those are connected via carriage bolts from above. Removing those requires pulling the lower side panels. Now here’s something interesting. Look at the small added piece of aluminum on the right side above the wheel well.
I’ve always wondered why. Look what’s behind it!
Looks like the panel was a bit too small, and they added a piece. Stuck that on so there was some metal behind the gap, which is marginally better than not, but stilll pretty shoddy. I’m still deciding what to do there. Obviously some pretty badly rotted wood here.
Today I got all the new supports in place and functioning. The trailer is now sitting on them. The tongue jack is in the air by about a quarter inch:
and the other jacks that were supporting it are also free. Like this:
By about an eighth of an inch. It looks like this:
Yes, I know there’s a larger overhang in the back. But there’s minimal weight there, and that part is angled up. I don’t see a need to add a support behind the rear door. I’ll let it sit overnight, then check whether those temporary supports are touching. I wouldn’t be astonished if it settles by up to a quarter inch, but it should be no more than that. Assuming all is stable I can remove all the bolts that hold the body to the frame. Then remove the wheels and let the frame down.
That’s all for today, but a big step.
I’ve been thinking for the last two days about how to get the body of the trailer separate from the frame and supported in a way that will let me replace the floor. This is what I’ve decided on.
I bought a decent floor jack designed for cars. With that I jacked up the frame with trailer stabilization jacks, and supported it on all four corners. Each looks more-or-less like this:
Note that this is NOT SAFE. I would be taking my life in my hands if I went under it while it was supported like this. The frame and body are still connected, and the tires are still on. The left wheel is just up in the air, and it’s easy to lift the right one up. If something happens and these jacks collapsed or fell over sideways, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BAD WOULD HAPPEN.
Lifting the right wheel doesn’t cause any movement on the jacks. That’s important because later I will have to remove both wheels. I don’t want to lift high enough to get the frame separation I need otherwise.
I build eight supports. There’s a solid 3.5 x 3.5 column of wood, braced solidly with outriggers. You can see one of them in the picture above. I’m putting a 2×4 alongside the existing 2×2 and preloading it with of those jacks. Like this:
Now I can drill a couple holes and bolt those together. If I do that for all eight supports, the trailer will be well and SAFELY supported. I’m guessing the full-up trailer will be around 4,000 pounds. Maybe a bit higher. Dry and empty and with no batteries it should be slightly less. Without the frame it should be under 3,000. Any one of those supports with two 3/8’s bolts should be able to carry that much weight with a little spare strength. I’ll never go underneath the trailer unless it’s supported on at least six.