The why behind this project is finances, the goal is fast temporary housing on a budget. My friend came to me with a trailer she got for 100 bucks and I need to try and help her make it inhabitable, but the damn mold is making it hard to concentrate. Can anybody help in setting me up with a plan of attack/ideas on how to execute?

Here's what we're looking at:


Roof seems to be sheet metal coated with mastic/roofing tar and then painted

Post is limiting me on pics I can add so I'll continue in subsequent posts

 

I know the floor's gotta come up, and at least parts of the wall frame.

Good portion of rotten bits

 

I don't know where to start with this thing. Should we take it to an exhaust shop/welder and try to get the frame inspected? Start with the floor or the walls? The sub-floor/floor pan has some holes in it and I don't even know what that material is. Seems like aluminum panels and I don't know if I could just swap it out for sheet metal (I assume it's just for protection of the wood floor frame)

We've got 3 months and some change before she's gotta leave her present home. Got circular, jig, sliding miter saws, drills.. I've done some woodworking, and despite my not reflecting much confidence here I'm not concerned about ability to deliver on quality of needed labor, I just need a game plan and would love some pointers.

Thanks in advance to anybody who gives this a look.

 

I know this was posted a while ago - what'd you end up doing?

When I was a teenager I got a 40 foot 1950s travel trailer for free. It also smelled moldy/mildewy. These things always spring leaks eventually and intruding water rots away the framing and causes mold issues. The only way to truly fix this is gut the interior, rebuild the floor and framing, and build the walls out again. And of course - fix the leaks that caused this in the first place. Easier said than done! I didn't have the money then, and I wouldn't take it on now.

Does it need to be road worthy? I'd hesitate before sinking any money into this thing. It may become more of a burden than a boon. But she got it for a good price, and it's mostly gutted already.

 

Hey there my friend. This job's been delayed by Georgia's winter weather, but we intend to work on it as soon as the rain stops. I think it'll be serviceable, and it's still seen as a potentially good investment considering that lumber accounts for the bulk of needed materials. I've developed a bit of a fondness for making minimalistic furniture that takes advantage of nooks and crannies, too, so it sounds pretty fun for me.
One of the hurdles we've encountered, and a pretty big one at that, is the unique hardware used on this trailer.

Screws requiring an ⏳ hourglass shaped bit which I now know to be a "clutch insert bit." Nobody had them locally, or knew of them save for Napa. We were able to obtain a good number of 5/32" clutch bits made by Irwin and an Amazon brand known as Vega.
The Vega bits are almost a full size smaller, and they have a pointed tip vs. the flat tip of the Irwin brand bit.
I thought this would be an issue, but being that many fasteners are corroded the properly sized and shaped Irwin brand bit doesn't fit all with ease, so I'm pleased to have the smaller ones, and in fair quantity should we wind up using a drill for extraction.

We don't intend to reuse the old fasteners as they're corroded and I view this bit shape as being structurally weak (besides having much less surface area than the modern torx type construction screws.)

Despite the rain I did get outside with a can of WD40 "special" Penetrating Oil and selected six fasteners to attempt removal on. Success, and with no difficulty! Loosened all six of the selected nasty fasteners by hand. They go mostly through wood, so now I'm anticipating things will go smoothly.

When stuff clears up (or my body decides to grow exponentially more useful hair) I intend to either take off all of the metal body panels and fully reframe this thing with treated lumber OR, if requested, just unfasten specific sections and get rid of the rotted stuff.

I'm still looking into methods of patching the metal that bares a striking resemblance to tin/metal roofing panels. I may replace sections or do cut-outs, layering on some fresh stuff and using mastic/roofing tar to seal it. I'm however not well-versed in using that goop, so if there's a tip or recommendation to be shared I'd welcome it.

As with all problems brought about with a panicked urgency, this will likely wind up being a slow process.
In consideration of the weather we're looking into finding a new home that would allow us to accommodate her for as long as is desired.

EDIT: It needs to be towable for now, til we find a good place to set it or decide to flip it, so yes to road-worthy. I know the tires look haggard. I think they'll suffice for low speeds, but I'll check em out closer before we make a freeway trip.

 

It has been a nice trailer. It'll be interesting to see what you get of it when the work progresses.

Regarding the tires, if there are no cracks reaching cord layer and no bulges on tread, they probably are fine. What ageing causes most times is a failure in cord, which makes a bulge to the tread or side. And you may still be driving 1k miles with it. Just keep a spare tire and jack with you. I've been using several tires until the end of life due to the cord failure, and never got a flat tire. But having the cord visible on the crack have got me flat tires.