Sounds like you're getting ready to sell the trailer??

Jeff 

> Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2014 20:58:38 -0700
> From: camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM
> Subject: Westrailia update
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> 
> My little camping trailer, a repainted model consisting of a fiberglass
> body atop a steel frame model which was made in 1972 by the Ladybug
> Trailer Co. in San Juan Capistrano (and about which I can find nothing
> other than a few corporate filings on the California Secretary of
> State's website), this little trailer suffered a fairly major breakdown
> on my last camping trip. Busted the tongue right off the frame.
> 
> My occasional blog mentions the breakdown:
> 
> <http://thatjacksblog.blogspot.com/>
> 
> My son kindly drove his 4WD Jeep up to the site to help paste the
> trailer back together so I could tow it back home when I left. He took
> most everything I didn't need back with him so I could and drive back
> with an empty trailer.
> 
> The splint he & I applied to the busted tongue worked, the trailer made
> its way back home, and he made me an offer: for his 26th birthday, I buy
> him a $100 Harbor Freight wire welder, and he'd put the trailer's frame
> back together.
> 
> Deal.
> 
> Bought him the welder and some steel bits from Bend Steel Co.; he
> provided the welding mask and better-quality wire (the stuff that ships
> with the welder is rubbish); and he used the trailer frame to learn how
> to use the welder.
> 
> He modified the frame to make it miles stronger than it was (once the
> body was off the flimsiness of the original frame was evident). Adding a
> 2'' x 3'' steel 11-gauge box channel spine from the hitch to the rear
> crossmember strengthens a frame remarkably. Several other bonds were
> broken, he strenthened them with 11 gauge bar stock. Had fun. The thing
> will outlast me.
> 
> I brought it back home last night, and today I put on a new wiring
> harness for the lights: I replaced the crappy Harbor Freight stud-mount
> lights fitted with incandescent bulbs in amazingly crappy sockets that I
> got ten years ago with far better Harbor Freight stud-mount lights with
> LED lamps that should last far longer.
> 
> This evening, he and I set the body atop the rebuilt frame, drilled new
> mounting holes, bolted the body down, and Hey Presto! the Westrailia is
> ready to rock.
> 
> Nice to have son who is handy, and will help the old man. A confluence
> of his birthday and Fathers Day.
> 
> So, Cosette, the cat, and I are going camping starting Friday and won't
> be back until Thursday. It's special spot I know at the base of Pine
> Mountain, Deschutes County, Oregon, with nary a soul within miles. No
> water, no accomodations. But beauty, quiet, and long, long days.
> 
> --
> Jack "Rocket j Squirrel" Elliott
> 1984 Westfalia, auto trans,
> Bend, Ore.