What did I get myself into? Holiday Rambler Restoration!

[Tyler Conger]

Hello all! 

I recently picked up this wonderful 1970'ish (DOM says 6/1970) 30' Holiday Rambler off Craigslist for free. This trailer had water damage like no other. There are holes in the roof, besides the uncovered vents that is, holes in the underbelly, and the floor felt like foam wherever you walked. And it was generally just a travesty all around. BUT on the bright side the trailer features Holiday's Aluma-Frame so I think I may just be able to do something with it, i hope. Ideally I'd like to sell it and make a little profit or at least pay for the materials I put into it. I'm a little underwater (;p) on this project and need all the help I can get, so let's get started.

No title came with the trailer and the owner of the property said the trailer was there when he bought the property 2 years ago. I didn't get a BOS at the time but I could probably get one now if I really needed it. According to my knowledge, the only way to receive title for this would be through a bonded title? I'm in college now and I'd rather not put any more money into this than I need to. I'm hoping to sell it without the title. Is this possible/realistic? 

Now, onto the restoration process. As you can see from the album linked below, I've pretty much gutted the entire inside. Before I put it up on Craigslist I'd like to seal up the roof,insulate and plywood the roof (already have materials for this) and maybe put some flooring down. I'm thinking this would be sufficient to sell it for around $1,000. Am I crazy lol? 

For the roof I'm thinking I'd cut up some of the aluminum from the heating duct and patch it over the holes with some EternaBond tape. Would this work? Is there a cheaper/better way to do it? I also have some metal sheds that I could cut up instead of the duct metal. I'd do this for both the floor holes and roof holes,as well as the holes on the sides.

I'd like to insulate the floor but I'm not sure how. I have quite a bit of unfaced batts that I'd like to use if possible. One idea I had would be to buy some rigid foam boards and place the unfaced batts ontop of those. But this would be quite costly and I'm not even sure if it'd be a good idea. Are there any good ways to use up my unfaced batts? 

As you can see in the pics, I have some pressure treated 2x6s that I'd like to use for the floor joists. I was thinking I'd spread these out every 2ft and secure them into the trailer frame. Good idea? Would this weaken the frame? How else could I do this?

On top of these I'd put some 1/2in OSB. Is 1/2in enough or should I go 3/4in? After this I'd put in some cabinets and counter tops I have laying around and clean the inside as best I could. 

Now at this point I'd hopefully find some lucky soul to take this off my hands. However, if I wanted to go farther in the restoration process myself, I think the next thing would be to restore the interior walls. I'd really like to leave the original panels on and either paint or put some linoleum or something on top of them. This is way down the line but I'm interested to hear everybody's thoughts on this and if you think I should go ahead and do this before I try and sell it as It may not cost a lot. 

A couple of things: 

I don't mind putting in a lot of time for this project. It's fun and I like it. But I really don't have a lot of cash laying around to put into it. All of the materials I've mentioned so far, besides the plywood floors, I already found for free on CL. 

When I was replacing the tires I learned the hard way about Left-hand threaded bolts and am now in need of a replacement. I still need to get the original (half) bolt out. Would appreciate any suggestions here as well.

Well if this isn't the longest intro post ever I'll be a little disappointed. But in all seriousness, if you made it this far thank you so much for your time and I really appreciate any of the help you guys can throw my way. 

Tyler

Link to photos:

http://imgur.com/a/QkSEy

[Tyler Conger]

Hey Pat! Thanks for your input. I'd really love to fix this thing up nice if I could, but I just don't have the time/money for that kind of a project. I mean, I do have college starting up in a week haha. I think you guys are right, I should just try and cut my losses now. Only a few questions remain then: 

Should I take out the interior side panels/insulation or leave them in? 

Any other work I could do to help it sell?

How much should I realistically expect to sell this for?

I'd prefer not to demo it to the frame. In 2 weeks I have to either pay another $60 for storage or move it to my street and try and demo it their/in my backyard which seems like a very tall order considering my current living circumstances. 

Thanks again for your advice.

[Rich Thomas]

Hi Tyler, if money is the motivation for this trailer may I suggest the following: Strip all the aluminum off from it and haul it to a recycler and sell it as scrap or post it for sale as a lot of folks are looking for used aluminum to repair there siding. Take the wood and burn it, it has no value at all. Scrap the wiring as it can be re used or sold for scrap like the aluminum. What you have left will be the frame. go to a lumber seller buy some treated 2x6 decking and re deck the trailer. You can then get a title for that and sell it or use it. I know this is counter to what you would think from an GORV member but some times a toad is just a toad and, you would have more time and money invested in it than you will ever get out of it. good luck on what ever you choose to do.

[Tyler Conger]

Hey Rich, thank you for your advice. It may not be what I wanted to hear but it's certainly what I needed. How much do you think I could get for all the scrap? What about if I sold it as is? I live in the suburbs so I can't really do much burning which means I've been taking everything to the dump. My dad has a nice 12' dump trailer which helps with this. Please see my other reply for my other questions.

Thanks again for your help.

[Rich Thomas]

I really don't know what scrap aluminum is selling for these days but I would guess it must be decent as there are a lot of old trailers around my area missing their siding. It seams if you leave an old one alone for very long you will find it striped in short order. As far as the trailer frame, there is a market for them as you can make a nice utility trailer out of them and get them titled for home made. My guess as far as trying to sell it as is with out a title it would be a hard sale. I think you could get a few hundred out of the striped frame and more if you convert it to a usable utility trailer but any additional investment will off set your profit. I hope this is of some help to you and by all means; if you have the time and resources restoration is a rewarding experience just not a practical one in your current situation.; meaning collage. ( I put two boys through collage and I know what a commitment that is ) any way you go about it Good Luck with it.

[Rick Faunce]

Scrap aluminum siding right now is at .30-.40 a lb. I would bet you don,t have much more than a hundred lbs. there when it is all said and done. 50.00 at best. Is it really worth it?

Aluminum Extrusions

	$0.38-.48*/LB
Aluminum cans	$0.25-.35*/LB
Aluminum Siding	$0.30-.40*/LB